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Peter Cohn

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., seen after Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on July 30, is looking ahead to his next act.

Departing GOP leader dominates Senate earmark rankings

By Peter Cohn and Ryan Kelly
Posted August 19, 2024 at 10:30am
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pulled two spending bills that had been slated for floor votes this week as the appropriations process slows to a crawl.

Appropriations derailed

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted July 22, 2024 at 3:27pm
Lt. T.K. Williams, Jr., of the Michigan State Police is seen along with a uniformed Secret Service officer and security officials on North Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Drive near the Fiserv Forum ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Sunday.

Amid tense election, Secret Service working with already boosted budget

By Peter Cohn
Posted July 14, 2024 at 5:46pm
Rep. James R. Comer’s earmark total jumped more than tenfold from less than $20 million in last year’s House bills.

Earmarks in House spending bills increase over last year’s versions

By Peter Cohn and Ryan Kelly
Posted July 5, 2024 at 5:00am
President Joe Biden speaks at Gateway Technical College’s iMet Center on May 8 in Sturtevant, Wis.

Editor’s Note: Stock market no panacea for Biden, Democrats

By Peter Cohn
Posted May 17, 2024 at 1:39pm
Senate Appropriations ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized the Biden administration for not notifying her of a weapons freeze to Israel.

Weapons freeze backlash

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted May 13, 2024 at 2:43pm
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at center on the House floor Thursday, is trying to find a path for Ukraine and Israel aid as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at right, threatens to oust him.

Johnson’s conundrum

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted April 15, 2024 at 2:51pm
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is pushing to pass final fiscal 2024 appropriations despite protests from his party's right flank.

Dueling claims on new spending package

By David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted March 4, 2024 at 5:13pm
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a war funding package that many in his conference have resisted.

War funding makes headway

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted February 12, 2024 at 4:50pm
President Joe Biden, right, and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., shake hands after the National Prayer Breakfast in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Thursday.

Supermajority bar for spending bills a real, and risky, prospect

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted February 5, 2024 at 2:55pm
Demonstrators attend the March on Washington for Gaza at Freedom Plaza to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war on Jan. 13.

New Israel supplemental readied in House, without offsets

By Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted February 3, 2024 at 2:16pm
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, was hospitalized for treatment of an infection, his office said.

Grassley hospitalized with infection, reported ‘in good spirits’

By Peter Cohn
Posted January 16, 2024 at 7:31pm
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is taking a hard line on fiscal 2024 spending limits that makes a topline deal elusive.

Crunch time for topline funding deal, supplemental

By Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley
Posted December 8, 2023 at 2:34pm
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is seen after the Senate luncheons in the Capitol on Nov. 28.

Top Senate appropriators detail full-year stopgap impacts

By Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted December 8, 2023 at 5:00am
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has some new ammunition in topline spending negotiations.

Backstop in debt limit law flips script on spending endgame

By Peter Cohn
Posted November 21, 2023 at 12:21pm
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the rebellious Freedom Caucus, helped derail fiscal 2024 spending bills amid a battle over funding levels.

Stormy talks ahead

By David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted November 17, 2023 at 3:22pm
President George Bush, seen here at the Jan. 30, 1992 State of the Union, with Vice President Dan Quayle, left and Speaker Tom Foley, faced off with appropriators on aid to Israel, resulting in a “laddered” approach to some federal spending.

A (very) brief history of ‘laddered’ stopgap appropriations

By Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted November 6, 2023 at 12:57pm
Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has three weeks to broker a stopgap funding measure before the government runs out of money.

New speaker’s agenda

By David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted October 27, 2023 at 2:04pm
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made an 11th-hour bipartisan push to avoid a government shutdown.

Bipartisan truce

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted October 2, 2023 at 4:06pm
Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., has introduced a bill that would guarantee pay for active-duty military, reservists and certain civilian employees, including at the Coast Guard.

Military pay, typically exempted during shutdowns, is at risk

By Peter Cohn
Posted September 25, 2023 at 6:30pm
Sen. Ron Johnson blocked consideration of a three-bill spending package on the floor.

Appropriations on the skids

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Paul M. Krawzak
Posted September 15, 2023 at 2:43pm
Earmarks in Senate spending bills would send the most dollars to Maine, home of Republican Sen. Susan Collins, left, and the most money per capita to Alaska, home of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Generational shift ushers in new era for Senate earmarks split

By Peter Cohn
Posted August 9, 2023 at 7:00am
Thanks to Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., his home state would take home the most per capita earmarked funds of any state in House spending bills.

Red states’ revenge evident in House earmarks distribution

By Peter Cohn
Posted August 4, 2023 at 10:30am
From left, Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pose for a picture to mark National Seersucker Day in the Capitol on June 8.

Big shoes filled as Senate appropriators spread earmarks wealth

By Herb Jackson and Peter Cohn
Posted August 2, 2023 at 10:49am
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., topped the list of House members with earmarks in fiscal 2024 appropriations bills, sponsoring $273.3 million worth of projects.

Republicans hoover up earmarks in House spending bills

By Peter Cohn and Herb Jackson
Posted July 24, 2023 at 12:15pm
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., left, and Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., talk during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee meeting on Jan. 31.

GOP holdouts on spending bills score dozens of earmarks

By Peter Cohn and David Lerman
Posted July 24, 2023 at 12:15pm
Automatic cuts are among the unexplored quirks of language in the debt ceiling law inspired by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

Automatic spending cuts would threaten infrastructure funding

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted July 7, 2023 at 5:00am
The chairman of the subcommittee that wrote it, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., is sponsoring $236.8 million worth of earmarks in the Energy-Water bill.

House, Senate majorities putting their stamps on earmarks

By Aidan Quigley and Peter Cohn
Posted July 3, 2023 at 11:21am
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and members of the House Freedom Caucus sought new concessions from GOP leadership after a rift over the debt limit deal.

Conservatives revolt

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley
Posted June 9, 2023 at 4:49pm
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Senate GOP appropriator, won a commitment to take up a supplemental spending bill as part of her consent to a debt limit deal with defense spending caps.

Implications of the debt limit deal

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Lindsey McPherson
Posted June 2, 2023 at 2:51pm
President Joe Biden will meet with the top four congressional leaders in their first formal talks on raising the debt limit.

Presidential engagement

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley
Posted May 5, 2023 at 12:05pm
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is trying to unite his party around a bill pairing a debt limit increase with spending constraints. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The politics of raising the debt limit

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Lindsey McPherson
Posted April 14, 2023 at 4:11pm
President George W. Bush speaks at Airlite Plastics trying to drum up support for his tax cut proposal May 12, 2003 in Omaha, Neb.

Congress will miss its budget deadline. That’s not unusual.

By Peter Cohn
Posted April 14, 2023 at 9:38am
White House budget director Shalanda Young defended the president’s fiscal 2024 budget before the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday.

GOP’s budget attack

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Paul M. Krawzak
Posted March 17, 2023 at 3:31pm
President Joe Biden has called for tax hikes on upper-income households to shore up Medicare and help reduce projected deficits.

Dissecting Biden’s budget

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley
Posted March 10, 2023 at 2:26pm
President Joe Biden speaks at the International Association of Fire Fighters legislative conference on Monday. Biden will release his budget beginning Thursday.

Biden previews Medicare drug price, tax increase proposals

By Peter Cohn
Posted March 7, 2023 at 10:10am
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, center, said the government may run out of cash to pay all its bills by early June unless the debt limit is increased.

Gloomy fiscal forecast

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted February 17, 2023 at 2:26pm
President Joe Biden will meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the White House on Wednesday.

White House budget set for early March delivery

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted January 31, 2023 at 2:34pm
GOP Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, who secured $287.5 million in earmarks, was among the lawmakers who voted against the omnibus spending measure.

GOP omnibus opponents bring home billions of earmarked dollars

By Peter Cohn and Herb Jackson
Posted December 23, 2022 at 6:59pm
Sen. Richard Shelby procured $1.2 billion in earmarks during the 117th Congress, including $10 million for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to create “an institute on public service and leadership.”

Once again, Shelby stands alone when it comes to earmarks

By Herb Jackson and Peter Cohn
Posted December 22, 2022 at 6:00am
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., may play a key role in determining the timing of an omnibus spending package.

Lame-duck fiscal agenda

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted November 17, 2022 at 12:46pm
President Joe Biden points to a wind turbine size comparison chart during a meeting at the White House in June.

Offshore energy battle looms over ‘must pass’ defense bill

By Peter Cohn
Posted November 3, 2022 at 5:00am
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, right, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik arrive for a news conference on the House Republicans’ “Commitment to America,” on Sept. 29.

Stopgap funding finale

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted October 3, 2022 at 1:13pm
Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., talks with reporters in the Capitol on Sept. 14.

Spending talks morass

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted September 16, 2022 at 12:17pm
Cartons of eggs are seen for sale in a Sprouts Farmers Market on Aug. 15 in Houston. Egg prices steadily climbed this year as inflation worsened.

OMB: Deficits, growth lower in the near term, inflation up

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted August 23, 2022 at 2:57pm
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., checks her watch as she leaves her hideaway office to go vote in the Capitol on Tuesday, August 2.

Democrats unite

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted August 5, 2022 at 12:56pm
Hawaii Democratic Sens. Mazie K. Hirono and Brian Schatz are carrying on the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s legacy of earmarking prowess.

Earmarks in Senate bills favor small states, retiring senators

By Peter Cohn
Posted August 3, 2022 at 5:29am
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, left, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attend a ceremony on June 8 to announce the renaming of Senate rooms in the Capitol after former Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Margaret Chase Smith.

Crunch time for the Democratic agenda

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted July 8, 2022 at 1:10pm
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, listens as and Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer speaks at a room-naming ceremony in the Capitol on June 8.

For chips and budget packages, Democrats face choices

By Peter Cohn
Posted July 6, 2022 at 10:52am
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, has a lot to smile about so far in this year's appropriations process.

House spending bills spread around $8 billion worth of earmarks

By Peter Cohn and Herb Jackson
Posted June 28, 2022 at 11:30am
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith conducts a hearing in May 2021.

Military budget set to swell

By Peter Cohn and John M. Donnelly
Posted June 24, 2022 at 1:34pm
Chairman Jack Reed, left, and ranking member Sen. James M. Inhofe are seen at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2021. Disputes in the panel over defense spending could stall appropriations.

Defense spending battle lines

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted June 17, 2022 at 1:48pm
The Capitol Dome in a recent reflection. Individual income tax collections as a share of the economy will be at their highest since 1913, the CBO says.

Unexplained tax revenue growth vexes budget scorekeepers 

By Peter Cohn
Posted June 1, 2022 at 6:30am
The Capitol dome reflects in the Lower Senate Park reflecting pool on May 15.

UFOs in budget projections

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted May 27, 2022 at 12:48pm
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Senate holdout on aid for Ukraine, pushing the measure to next week.

Senate fumbles on Ukraine aid

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted May 13, 2022 at 2:06pm
The Treasury Department, shown here in 2014, saw record-setting tax receipts in April, based on preliminary estimates.

Tax revenue boom fuels steep budget deficit decline

By Peter Cohn
Posted May 9, 2022 at 5:50pm
The Ukrainian flag is raised by demonstrators outside the Russian Embassy in Washington on Feb. 27. Additional aid to Ukraine is mired in a congressional funding fight.

Aid quandary for Congress

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted April 29, 2022 at 1:35pm
Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, discusses President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget at a House Budget Committee hearing on March 29, 2022.

Partisan fiscal clash resumes

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted April 1, 2022 at 12:49pm
President Joe Biden's budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 would raise spending by about 10 percent over the omnibus package he recently signed.

Top takeaways from Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget request

By Peter Cohn
Posted March 28, 2022 at 12:17pm
Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., was responsible for $548 million in earmarks in the omnibus spending bill signed by the president on Tuesday.

In the game of earmarks, Shelby has no peers

By Peter Cohn, Ryan Kelly and Herb Jackson
Posted March 16, 2022 at 5:00am
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have some key decisions to make on fiscal 2022 spending.

Countdown to a spending deal

By David Lerman and Peter Cohn
Posted March 4, 2022 at 1:28pm
Comedian Jon Stewart, left, and 9/11 responder John Feal advocated for expanding benefits for troops who were exposed to toxic burn pits on duty.

Sweeping new veterans benefits bill readied for House vote

By Peter Cohn
Posted March 3, 2022 at 9:15am
Mitt Romney is among senators looking to address expected Social Security shortfalls.

Social Security fixes could animate post-midterms agenda

By Peter Cohn
Posted February 22, 2022 at 6:30am
A worker uses an asphalt roller to pave Maryland Avenue Northeast in Capitol Hill on Oct. 4, 2021.

What’s happening with infrastructure spending?

By David Lerman, Jessica Wehrman, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted February 11, 2022 at 11:41am
House Budget Committee ranking Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, left, is seeking to become the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee next year.

Rep. Jason Smith opts out of Senate bid, will run for Ways and Means slot

By Peter Cohn
Posted February 9, 2022 at 1:54pm, Updated at 4:12pm
President Biden and his allies are figuring out if there is way to salvage pieces of "Build Back Better".

Getting something done

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted January 21, 2022 at 11:36am
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., wants to know more about child tax credits' impact on consumer prices.

Inflation report triggers partisan jockeying

By Peter Cohn
Posted January 12, 2022 at 5:33pm
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington. The Fed is expected to act to unwind borrowing used during the pandemic to keep interest rates low.

Higher interest rates likely to factor into fiscal policymaking

By Peter Cohn
Posted January 6, 2022 at 9:49pm
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. David E. Price, D-N.C., right, conduct a bill enrollment ceremony for the stopgap spending bill in the Capitol.

So much to do, so little time

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted December 3, 2021 at 12:22pm
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 27, 2018. The gross federal debt has grown to more than $28 trillion since then.

Economy, Fed paper over debt problem

By Peter Cohn
Posted October 18, 2021 at 10:30am
Democrats could turn up the heat on Republicans like Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy by adding disaster relief to their debt ceiling and stopgap funding bill. Cassidy is one of 46 Senate Republicans who pledged to vote against a debt ceiling increase. 

Ida could be catalyst for debt ceiling deal

By Peter Cohn
Posted September 7, 2021 at 10:30am
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., both standing, led the 22 lawmakers who negotiated the infrastructure bill.

Senate aims for weekend vote on infrastructure bill

By Jessica Wehrman, Joseph Morton and Peter Cohn
Posted August 5, 2021 at 10:55pm
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter A. DeFazio is No. 1 among earmarkers with $43.8 million.

Earmarks in House bills favor Democrats, but GOP not shy either

By Jennifer Shutt, Ryan Kelly and Peter Cohn
Posted August 4, 2021 at 5:44am
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says pension relief provisions are in play.

‘G-fees,’ pension smoothing on the table for infrastructure offsets

By Peter Cohn and Lauren Clason
Posted July 23, 2021 at 8:12pm
Former California Rep. Jerry Lewis, here during a 1999 interview in his Rayburn office, died Thursday at the age of 86.

Jerry Lewis, old-school appropriator who tried to shield powerful panel, dies

By Peter Cohn
Posted July 16, 2021 at 11:22am, Updated July 19, 2021 at 3:15pm
Georgia Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux is among several moderate Democrats who say the budget resolution needs to show the debt trajectory stabilizing before passing significant spending and tax legislation.

Biden plan gives moderate Democrats sticker shock

By Peter Cohn
Posted June 28, 2021 at 10:30am
Rep. Scott Peters says he's a 'no' on reconciliation if drug price negotiation language is in.

Onetime backer of drug pricing bill turns foe

By Peter Cohn
Posted June 28, 2021 at 8:01am
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., talks with reporters as he makes his way to the Senate floor last week.

Sanders budget plan would spend more, tax less than Biden

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted June 21, 2021 at 7:32pm
The release of President Joe Biden's budget proposal will start battles in Congress that GOP Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking member on Appropriations, said could last through Christmas.

Budget release starts a process that will run through summer

By Paul M. Krawzak and Peter Cohn
Posted May 28, 2021 at 10:33am
Texas Reps. Colin Allred and Beth Van Duyne are both seeking earmark dollars for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport totaling nearly $234 million.

Texas duo top list of House appropriations earmark requests

By Peter Cohn and Ryan Kelly
Posted May 11, 2021 at 4:40pm
Lawmakers are preparing for a busy appropriations season in the coming months.

Budget season preview

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted May 7, 2021 at 12:29pm
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., is among lawmakers who opposed the earmark process but has also requested funds for his district.

GOP’s earmark schism evident in ‘earmark’ disclosures

By Peter Cohn
Posted May 5, 2021 at 8:00am
The president’s tax proposals would hit Nancy Pelosi’s and Charles E. Schumer’s respective home states of California and New York especially hard.

Democrats’ constituents would bear the brunt of Biden’s taxes

By Peter Cohn
Posted May 3, 2021 at 10:30am
Progressives want Vice President Kamala Harris to ignore the Senate parliamentarian’s advice on the minimum wage, but in the meantime, they can watch the donations roll in off the impasse to try to grow their Democratic majorities, Cohn writes.

Why Democrats should learn to stop worrying and love reconciliation

By Peter Cohn
Posted March 1, 2021 at 10:31am
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., walks through the Senate subway in the Capitol after a vote on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021.

House Democrats tinker with $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted February 9, 2021 at 12:30pm
People watch Joe Biden deliver remarks that are displayed on a screen in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington on during the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 3, 2020.

Democrats plan a spending blowout, but hurdles remain

By Peter Cohn
Posted January 11, 2021 at 9:52am
Divided government appears likely next Congress, but lawmakers owe it to voters to seek common ground on a host of issues, Cohn writes.

Voters send centrist message to Washington

By Peter Cohn
Posted November 9, 2020 at 10:30am
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, could loom large in next year's policy direction if Democrats sweep in November.

What a ‘Biden-Warren’ policy agenda could look like

By Peter Cohn
Posted August 27, 2020 at 12:29pm
US President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending coronavirus economic relief during a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Trump forced through some COVID-19 relief. Now what?

By Jennifer Shutt, Peter Cohn and Evan Campbell
Posted August 11, 2020 at 12:57pm
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during the Kick Off to Caucus Gala in Las Vegas on Feb. 15, 2020.

What full Democratic control of Washington could mean in 2021

By Peter Cohn
Posted June 29, 2020 at 10:30am
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was speaker last time the government cut a stimulus check to every American.

Opportunity knocks for Congress during crisis

By Peter Cohn
Posted March 17, 2020 at 9:10am
From left, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announce a new infrastructure investment framework on Jan 29.

Trump economic growth forecast assumes productive election year

By Peter Cohn
Posted February 20, 2020 at 10:12am
From left, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, (not pictured) emerge from a meeting in the Capitol to announce a spending deal. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Year-end spending deal avoids government shutdown

By David Lerman, Evan Campbell and Peter Cohn
Posted December 17, 2019 at 1:31pm
Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin lost Juneau County by 771 votes in 2018 but was reelected to the Senate nonetheless. In presidential elections, however, no candidate since 1960 has won nationwide without winning the bellwether county. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Where the real battle for votes lies

By Peter Cohn
Posted December 12, 2019 at 6:30am
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a news conference in the Capitol in March. Warren is betting that a massive redistribution of wealth would win her the Democratic nomination and the presidency. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Elizabeth Warren has a plan: Here’s what it would cost

By Peter Cohn
Posted November 19, 2019 at 11:00am
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is sitting atop polls in Iowa and New Hampshire; if she wins both, Warren could be unstoppable. But a Warren presidency doesn’t mean she gets carte blanche to transform the U.S. economy. And that’s the silver lining for wavering Trump voters, Cohn writes. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Take campaign plans with a grain of salt

By Peter Cohn
Posted October 28, 2019 at 6:00am
Copies of President Donald Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2020 are prepared for distribution at the Government Publishing Office in Washington on Thursday, March 7, 2019. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

CQ Roll Call Analysis: Lower spending, deficits partially due to budget control law

By Peter Cohn and David Lerman
Posted August 12, 2019 at 10:24am
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,  announces at an Aug. 1, 2019 press conference that Senate Democrats will push to repeal a Treasury Department and IRS rule, which goes into effect Aug. 11, 2019. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)

Two tax battles await Congress in September

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Toula Vlahou
Posted August 5, 2019 at 3:28pm
UNITED STATES - JANUARY 23: Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., arrives in the Capitol for the Senate Democrats' policy lunch on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Tax law hits 2020 Democratic presidential contenders unevenly

By Peter Cohn
Posted May 10, 2019 at 10:20am
The Washington Monument can be seen as traffic travels over the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge April 13, 2015. The bridge is one of 61,000 bridges across America that the Department of Transportation said were structurally deficient and in need of repair. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Why Trump, Chuck and Nancy face huge hurdles in infrastructure spending plan

By David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Toula Vlahou
Posted May 6, 2019 at 12:51pm