The White House has put out a truly disgraceful “myth and facts” post at it’s blog, about the debt ceiling deal, which flatly lies to the American people. From the White House website post: Myth: The joint committee — the so-called “super committee” — makes it easier for Congress to cut the programs we care about. [...]

Having basic functioning government in the United States is becoming harder and harder. Our 223 year old Constitutional system seems ever less able to handle the rise of strong political parties, nor the desecration of the traditional norms in the Senate with its absurd rules on debate. To run the massive apparatus which is the [...]

Any proposal put forward by the Super Congress created by the debt ceiling deal can’t be amended and must receive an up-or-down vote in both chambers of the Congress. This means whatever package this small group of members comes up with can’t be filibustered. If there was every any doubt that the main reason the [...]

Some people are worried about the potential Constitutional crisis if President Obama uses the 14th Amendment to declare the debt ceiling voting unconstitutional. The reality though is that we are already in the midst of a full blown Constitutional crisis that is will likely only get worse in the coming years. Whether or not you [...]

It appears that the bulk of the Gang of Six’s deficit reductions come from simply empowering the relevant Senate committees to decide on cuts at predetermined levels. The Senate committees would then write the pieces of legislation that get fast-tracked through Congress. It would be another move by the Senate to consolidate the actual task of legislation in the upper chamber.

It currently appears that the most likely resolution to the debt ceiling situation will be the use of the Mitch McConnell-Harry Reid back up plan. This plan will probably include some form of the Catfood Commission II. A bipartisan commission that would work in secret to come up with a package that would be fast [...]

The Senate is so broken that even a bipartisan agreement to limit the number of Senate confirmed appointees gets filibustered.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) developed the nickname “Dr. No” for his habit of placing holds on numerous bills and confirmations to delay them from moving forward. With his history of repeatedly using holds, filibusters and other procedural mechanisms there are probably few (if any) other Senators more responsible for recently slowing the work of the [...]

Even though judicial nominee Goodwin Liu received the support of a majority of senators today, he will not yet be confirmed to the bench because over 40 Republicans joined in a filibuster to stop his confirmation. This is a good time to remember that a mere six years ago, most Senate Republicans thought it unacceptable [...]

Over at the Huffington Post, in an attempt to defend Jim Messina, Robert Creamer reaches for the absolute biggest brush he can find to totally whitewash the actual history of the health care reform battle. From his blog post: Messina is sometimes criticized by progressives for his management of the health care battle. Progressives like [...]