Republicans

Republicans looking to take back the House say they hope a pool of fresh faces will be just what the voters ordered to cure their incumbent fatigue.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has been nurturing a program since the last election cycle to recruit and build a base for a crop of new congressional challengers. The recruits are not quite entry-level. Many are lawmakers at the state level, business leaders, veterans and lawyers.

But to mount a run for Congress, the "Young Guns" program gives those would be federal candidates a platform. And Republican leaders are counting on those candidates to help win them a majority....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Democrats failed on Tuesday to get enough votes to stop a republican filibuster against the DISCLOSE Act. That's the campaign finance reform bill pro-life groups oppose because they say it would place stringent limits on their ability to communicate to the public about legislation and elections.

Senate Republicans are filibustering the legislation and Democrats held a cloture vote this afternoon where they need 60 votes to be able to stop the filibuster and move towards a vote on the bill itself.

However, they were unable to peel off any Republicans to support the cloture vote and lost by a 57-41 margin....

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Business advocates are hoping Congress scraps a tax provision in the health care overhaul law that they say is overly burdensome to smaller companies.

So far, Senate and House Republicans have pushed for repeal of this specific provision of the health care bill. Even Democrats asked that the Internal Revenue Service move cautiously in enforcement of the provision.

Currently, businesses and other entities are required to report on Form 1099 any service-related transactions over $600 involving an unincorporated business, such as a solo proprietor, partnership and LLC...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, announced his opposition today to the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. His announcement makes it so every top Republican lawmaker now opposes Kagan.

“I voted against the president’s nomination of Elena Kagan to be Solicitor General and I will vote against her confirmation to the Supreme Court for the same reason," Alexander said today in a statement.

“President Obama won the election, and I am not surprised that he would nominate someone to the Supreme Court whose political and judicial philosophy is different from mine,” he continued...

(CNSNews.com) -- The Justice Department is not saying whether Solicitor General Elena Kagan has been taking the full federal salary of solicitor general since she “ceased” performing the full responsibilities of that position more than two months ago.

On July 13, all seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Kagan asking her to respond to certain questions for the record.  read more »

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll finds Republican voters are more excited about the upcoming November congressional elections than are Democrats. That enthusiasm gap has produced victories for pro-life candidates already in off-year elections and it could result in more victories and potentially retaking one or both houses of Congress.

The new national survey from the Public Policy Polling Institute, which leans Democratic, finds "enthusiasm gap is still out there and certainly a problem Democrats are going to have to contend with this fall."

The survey found 66% of Republicans 'very excited' about voting this fall to only 51% of Democrats, for a 15 point gap...

The Tea Party just got an official voice in Washington, thanks to a leading Republican representative who recently filed the necessary paperwork to create a Tea Party Caucus for the grassroots group.

Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) says her newly formed House Tea Party Caucus was approved Monday, so she plans to invite everyday Americans to talk to members about Tea Party issues. She filed the necessary paperwork last week and requested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) approve the caucus.

"The purpose is to listen," Bachmann reports. "Congress will not be driving the Tea Party. We are not a voice for the Tea Party, nor are we vouching for the Tea Party. We are simply listening because the main thing we've heard from people is that Congress is not listening to the people"....

Almost four months before the midterm election that could catapult Majority Leader John Boehner into the speakership, he's beginning to build up his personal image and launch a PR offensive to explain what he’d do if he ran the House.

At a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor at the St. Regis Hotel in downtown D.C., Boehner said the first three things he would do is repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul bill, block any attempts to pass cap-and-trade energy legislation and keep taxes low.

He also revealed he has three brothers who are unemployed, has no immediate plans to quit smoking and portrays himself as more of a straight talker who means what he says — something he’s pitching as a contrast to President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll from the respected Quinnipiac University polling institute finds Americans don't want to re-elect pro-abortion president Barack Obama in 2012. Instead, they prefer an unnamed Republican - referring to any of several pro-life candidates who may launch presidential bids against him.

The poll finds Obama's political honeymoon has clearly ended, likely thanks in part to his aggressive promotion of abortion and abortion funding.

Obama's job approval rating has dropped to a negative 44-48 percent, his worst net score ever in the college's presidential tracking polls...

An Obama administration effort to rein in states treading toward using new health care laws to fund abortions - and provide political cover for pro-life Democrats - reignited a politically explosive issue that Republicans and pro-life activists are eager to exploit in the lead-up to the fall midterm elections.

Seizing on a Health and Human Services Department announcement last week that states must comply with a White House executive order that prohibits most abortion coverage in government-backed insurance pools, anti-abortion groups and Republicans see more ammunition in their effort to rally pro-life voters to the polls.

"You cannot exchange 30 years of pro-life protections in the law for a piece of paper signed by the president of the United States," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Conference...