Want to know which bills your representatives in Congress have sponsored and cosponsored? Simply find their pages in this state-by-state listing and scroll down to see the bills they’re involved with. The new “Representatives” section of WashingtonWatch.com allows you to see more of what’s happening in Washington, D.C. In addition to looking over representation by [...]
Why not put politicians on probation when they first get to Washington? A WashingtonWatch.com user has put this interesting idea up as a petition. Newly elected officials seem to go native from the moment they arrive. So how about putting them on probation to let them know they’ll get an early exit if they don’t [...]
We’ve gone looking for the best assessment of the congressional election as it stands here in the morning on Tuesday, November 2nd. And RealClearPolitics has some maps and charts that illustrate what’s going on really well. Each of several maps, for the House, the Senate, and the state governors races show the state of play [...]
(So why do we gotta be so boring? . . .) It’s never been more clear that politics is entertainment. Take a look at this post on Gawker.com. It’s liberals being mad at conservatives for taking a jab at President Obama because he ordered spicy Dijon mustard for his burger. In other words, it’s about [...]
TPMMuckracker published a nice summary of the collapse of AIG on Friday. If you’re interested in Congress’ role in creating the disaster, here’s a key line: “In 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which further reduced the already weak regulation of derivatives like credit default swaps.” Back in October, in a post called [...]
It’s probably hard to keep all the recent government spending straight, so let’s briefly review: Late last summer, the Bush Administration started pushing the huge bailout bill, now known as TARP – the Troubled Asset Relief Program. It included about $3,000 per family in spending. And we’ve blogged the wazoo out of it here. While [...]
Here’s why you should vote, even if you think your favorite candidate is already destined to win or lose. And while a lot of people treat this as the end of the political season, it’s not. It’s the beginning of the policy season – the season when things actually happen. Your mental attitude may be [...]
These words from Thomas Friedman’s Saturday opinion piece on the presidential candidates certainly rang true: Watching them in the context of the meltdown of the financial system was like watching a game show where the two contestants were kept off-stage in a soundproof booth and brought out to address the audience without knowing the context. [...]
There were a lot of good reactions to yesterday’s post about candidates for federal office with responsibility for at least part of the financial crisis. We listed House members and Senators who either voted for, or didn’t object to, a law freeing up financial services firms to offer these wagers known as “financial derivatives” without [...]
In 2000, Congress passed a law barring states from regulating credit default swaps under their gambling and “bucket shop” laws. This set the stage for the market in “financial derivatives” that are a big part of what is causing the economic meltdown today. One hundred fifty-five of the Members of Congress who voted for this [...]