Tag: Capitol Hill

A big question in gun-control debate: What will Harry Reid do?

Your Health Matters

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Reid walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol after returning from a meeting with President Obama in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) – What will Harry Reid do? As President Barack Obama's gun-control package heads to the U.S. Congress, one of the big questions hanging over Capitol Hill is how Reid – a fellow Democrat and the Senate majority leader – will manage the most ambitious proposal for gun restrictions since the 1960s. In the political drama likely to play out over guns, Reid is hardly the gun-control advocate from central casting. Like many Republicans and several fellow Democrats from conservative states, Reid, 73, has often opposed limits on gun owners. …

,

AARP urges entitlement reform on broad issues, not deficit

Your Health Matters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, urged political leaders on Tuesday to pursue so-called entitlement reform as part of a wide-ranging discussion about healthcare costs and retirement security rather than as a narrower deal on deficit reduction. Laying out their agenda in the run-up to an intensive new fiscal debate on Capitol Hill, AARP executives portrayed the leading U.S. social spending programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – as necessary supports for what the group described as a declining middle class. …

, ,

Senate leader says Boehner should yield to public on tax hikes

Your Health Matters

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 – The top Republican in Congress should yield to public opinion and permit an increase in tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner “can’t ignore the American people forever,” Reid told a Capitol Hill news conference. He cited polls showing that most Americans favor raising taxes on the rich while extending tax cuts for the middle class as part of a possible deal to avert “the fiscal cliff,” automatic tax hikes and budget cuts set to begin in 2013. …