McClatchy Election News

A funny thing happened on the way to a predicted disaster: The Pentagon is learning to live with the automatic budget cuts its leaders had warned would threaten national security if they took effect.

The blossoming IRS scandal over the targeting of conservative groups is provoking new scrutiny and terse questions about the agency’s role in shaping and implementing the controversial new national health care law, with the biggest changes set to begin next year.

President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his administration’s use of drone strikes to kill terrorists as effective, lawful and “heavily constrained,” but he also appeared to be laying groundwork for an expansion of the controversial targeted killings.

First, there was the news that the Justice Department had secretly seized telephone records of reporters at the Associated Press. A week later, reports that the department had investigated a Fox News reporter as a potential criminal for doing his job.

When a key House of Representatives panel took up a bill this week that would require annual lease sales and streamline permitting in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, home state Rep. Don Young missed the session.

Anthony Foxx avoided the controversy of other Capitol Hill hearings Wednesday, receiving a mostly warm reception from senators who considered his nomination to become transportation secretary.

Internal Revenue Service officials are not fully cooperating with efforts to learn who is responsible for targeting conservative groups, lawmakers learned Wednesday during the third and most tense, dramatic hearing on the scandal.

The president and chief executive officer of a medical equipment company invoked the Fifth Amendment at Senate hearing Wednesday, declining to answer questions about aggressive marketing tactics used to sell scooters, sleep apnea machines and other home medical supplies to Medicare recipients who may not need or want them.

The Obama administration’s timeline for who knew what and when about the Internal Revenue Service scandal changed again Tuesday with revelations that the Treasury Department and White House officials had discussed how to stage-manage the release of the explosive information. The latest revelation came as acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller told Congress that he’s responsible for the secretly planted question answered by subordinate Lois Lerner that triggered the scandal that’s now gripping the nation’s capital.

The U.S. Senate this week has started to fine-tune the huge, new five-year farm bill, working through votes on a series of amendments that will include a proposal to eliminate federal subsidies for tobacco insurance.

Walk the aisles of any neighborhood grocery store today and you’re as likely to find tomatoes picked in Sinaloa, Mexico, as Central California or oranges from Sao Paulo, Brazil, as Bradenton, Fla.

The White House acknowledged Monday that senior aides to President Barack Obama knew a month ago that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups, expanding on previous administration statements about who in the White House knew about the inquiry and when they knew about it.

An elite group of federal employees is set to receive cash bonuses despite this year’s automatic budget cuts, according to a report that a Senate subcommittee issued Friday.

Republicans think the Internal Revenue Service controversy is the magic weapon for beating up Democrats, because nothing resonates with the American public like potential IRS abuse.

The honeymoon, if there ever was one, is over. Four months into his second term, President Barack Obama finds himself under siege from members of both parties and the media for a series of crises that has stalled his policy priorities and threatened to engulf the second half of his presidency.

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for giving extra scrutiny to conservative organizations that asked for tax-exempt status. But the scandal begs a broader question: Why are political organizations getting this government subsidy anyway?

In a one-two punch from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday, lawmakers introduced a sweeping revision to military sexual-assault law and the president summoned his uniformed service chiefs. The politically popular bill and the high-profile White House meeting underscore how recent cases and reports have rapidly turned combating military sexual assault into a bipartisan high priority.

After boycotting the same confirmation vote a week earlier, Republican senators agreed Thursday to show up for a committee vote on President Barack Obama’s pick to be the nation’s top air and water quality regulator.

Cars that steer themselves through bumper-to-bumper traffic will hit the market by the end of this year, and self-parking vehicles aren’t far behind. Fully autonomous models that don’t need human drivers at all are less than a decade from dealerships. But laws lag behind the rise of the robo-car. At a Senate hearing Wednesday, lawmakers grappled with the policy implications and risks.

Moving to quell a growing scandal, President Barack Obama on Wednesday fired the acting chief of the Internal Revenue Service and vowed to work closely with Congress in determining who ordered lower-level employees to target tea party groups and other conservative organizations.

President Barack Obama succumbed to days of withering criticism Wednesday, releasing dozens of emails in an effort to demonstrate that the White House did not try to cover up information about the September 2012 attacks on diplomatic facilities in Libya that killed four Americans.

In a rare display of bipartisanship on major legislation, the Senate passed a bill Wednesday to move forward on a variety of water infrastructure projects throughout the country.

California lawmakers will now help plant another farm bill, hoping it will bear fruit for the state’s frustrated growers.

The Internal Revenue Service asked “unnecessary, burdensome questions” of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, questions that unfairly delayed the applications, according to an investigative report obtained by McClatchy.

The IRS used inappropriate criteria to review applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups and other conservative organizations, according to a copy of the report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration obtained by McClatchy late Tuesday.

Republicans in the House of Representatives and President Barack Obama agree in general on what to do with student loan interest rates: Let them vary with the market.

Money has played a major role in the current drama to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, with millions of dollars spent in the past year trying to influence or kill various proposals that could affect a variety of special interests.

Rand Paul’s potential bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is off to a promising start in the crucial state of Iowa, thanks in part to the fact that his father is Ron Paul. The family name opens important doors to networks of potential volunteers and contributors. It draws people to take a close look at a man who’s only in his first Senate term. But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ultimately has to make it on his own. And that won’t be easy.

In February 2012, conservative activist Eric Wilson of Georgetown began claiming in news releases that the IRS was delaying his group's application for special tax status by asking personal questions.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is a genial man with a confounding job.

Sen. Rand Paul brought his national ambitions to Iowa on Friday, ripping potential Democratic rival Hillary Clinton while urging his own Republican Party to broaden its appeal as he campaigned like it was already 2016.

The Obama administration insisted Friday that it acted in good faith and not to protect itself when it eliminated references to al Qaida and an allied group in talking points about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Republican U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers is mulling a bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in 2014, but has some obstacles to consider: a competitive primary field, attacks on her record and a so-far meager campaign war chest.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. on Friday called for the White House to conduct a "transparent, government-wide review" after the IRS admitted that they scrutinized conservative groups during the 2012 election.

A U.S. senator wants the Air Force to prove it saved money by closing bases due to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. "Base closure commissions are supposed to take the politicians out of the process. I think they've replaced politicians with other politicians," said Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois.

Republican senators on Thursday boycotted a scheduled committee vote on President Barack Obama’s pick to be the nation’s top air and water quality regulator, saying the Environmental Protection Agency hadn’t adequately answered questions about her role as a deputy there.

The Senate will begin a historic debate Thursday that could overhaul the nation’s immigration system. Senators will get their first crack at modifying or killing legislation proposed by a bipartisan group of eight colleagues. The so-called Gang of Eight introduced the measure in hopes of offering a long-elusive solution to the immigration problems that have plagued the nation for decades. It’s the first real effort in six years. The road ahead is full of political peril.

Merced County officials lobbying Washington this week know, in theory, the secret of getting things done on Capitol Hill.

A bill that would authorize states to collect sales taxes for online purchases easily passed the Senate on Monday with bipartisan support, but it faces a tougher hurdle in the House of Representatives.

Dr. Charlotte Kennedy first became suspicious when she received a fax from a medical supply company asking her to authorize a back brace for a 92-year-old patient. She’d recently examined the patient, who never mentioned any back problems. In fact, the woman was an avid gardener. Kennedy had stumbled on a problem that cost Medicare – and taxpayers – $27 billion over the past four years.

Hispanic lawmakers and community leaders warned Republicans on Tuesday about the consequences of blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Thomas Perez to be labor secretary.

Wrapping up a trip to Central America Saturday, President Barack Obama sought to put the focus firmly back on his top priority: the economy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent harsh criticism of President Barack Obama over national security is a marked change from the South Carolina Republican’s previous repeated praise of Obama’s performance.

Liberal groups angered by President Barack Obama’s proposed Social Security cuts say they’ll take a page from conservatives’ campaign playbook and work to oust Democratic lawmakers who go along with the plan.

President Barack Obama’s choice to be the new secretary of commerce is a powerful Democratic fundraiser and hometown friend whose family’s role in a controversial bank failure might raise questions during her Senate confirmation.

President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that he’s still a force to be reckoned with, even as he faces a recalcitrant Congress, a stalled agenda, few options for containing civil war in Syria and new questions about U.S anti-terrorism efforts in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he’d redouble efforts on a failed first-term campaign promise to close the prison for terrorism suspects at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

President Barack Obama nominated Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx on Monday to be his next transportation secretary, choosing a rising star from his own party to follow a popular Republican skilled at working across the aisle.

Now, unfortunately for us but fortunately for them, Ray LaHood is now looking forward to spending more time with his wife Kathy and their family –- especially a whole gaggle of grandchildren. And so, today, I’m proud to announce my intent to nominate another impressive leader to carry on his great work at the Department of Transportation: the Mayor of Charlotte, my friend from North Carolina, Mr. Anthony Foxx.