As Republican control of the House comes to an end, even voters in their own party have little faith their congressional representatives will take advantage of these final weeks in the lame-duck session.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Democrats appeared likely to hold a 235-200 majority to start the next House, or a net gain of 40 seats, a handful more than it seemed like they had won in the immediate aftermath of the election. A lot of that has to do with the laborious and long vote count in California, where Democrats do better in the votes that are counted later in the process (there’s nothing new or unusual about this, by the way, so please look for conspiracies elsewhere). Earlier this week, engineer T.J. Cox (D) took the lead over Rep. David Valadao (R, CA-21), and as of this point Cox appears to be in the driver’s seat to win.
A Chinese scientist claims to have created the world’s first gene-edited twins, altering their genes to theoretically be resistant to HIV infection. Naturally, the news has sparked a moral debate about cloning and genetic modification. Few Americans would want to clone a loved one themselves and think the whole process overall needs government regulation.
As the lame duck Congress wrestles with the level of federal spending, most voters agree a government shutdown is bad economic medicine, but they also don’t think higher spending is the answer. Very few say they’ve actually been hurt by shutdowns in the past.
This is a tale of two young, outspoken women in media.
E-cigarettes let people get a hit of nicotine without burning tobacco.
Americans have record confidence in the value of their homes and are more convinced than they have been in years that it’s a good market for home sellers.
As the year is coming to an end, homeowners are more optimistic than ever that their home is worth more than they owe on it, and they expect that value to keep rising through 2019.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s block on granting asylum to the migrants heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border. While voters overall have a slightly more favorable opinion of the ACLU these days, Republicans and Democrats still remain sharply divided on how they view the group.
Mass migration "lit the flame" of the right-wing populism that is burning up the Old Continent, she said. Europe must "get a handle on it."
There's an old saying that Wall Street economists have predicted eight of the last two recessions. The bears in the economics profession keep getting paid a lot of money misreading the nation's economic weather vanes -- whether it was the power and durability of the Reagan expansion in the 1980s, the ferocious bull market of the late 1990s, the after-effects of the 9/11 attacks, or most recently the phenomenal revival of growth in President Donald Trump's first years in office.
Forty-four percent (44%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey for the week ending November 21.
Voters agree the migrant caravans approaching the U.S. southern border are a danger to the country and should be stopped at least temporarily.
After a Thanksgiving pause, the season of contention continues afresh with early voting for the final U.S. senate seat in Georgia beginning Monday for the state’s December 4 runoff election. But first, later today, the college football rivalry between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines kicks it all off.
Despite the frenzy over Black Friday deals, most Americans are staying home.
Some random observations on the 2018 offyear elections, for Thanksgiving weekend pondering:
1. We hear constantly, and in some respects accurately, that Americans are deeply divided politically. Another way to look at it: The differences between north and south, visible for two or three centuries, are vanishing. As Real Clear Politics analyst Sean Trende tweeted, "Southern suburbs are starting to vote like northern suburbs, northern rurals/small towns starting to vote like Southern rurals/small towns."
Many still see Thanksgiving as an important holiday, but it’s one they like to spend in the comfort of their own home.
The 633-word statement of President Donald Trump on the Saudi royals' role in the grisly murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi is a remarkable document, not only for its ice-cold candor.
Most voters think there are too many Americans incarcerated, but they’re less convinced that the federal government needs to loosen mandatory minimum sentences -- a proposal that's advancing in the U.S. Congress.
The package of criminal justice reform proposals endorsed by President Donald Trump is not "soft" on crime. It's tough on injustice. And it's about time.
