Stephen Dinan

Obama eases penalties for businesses hiring illegal immigrants

The Obama administration regularly cuts a break for businesses that violate immigration hiring rules, reducing their fines by an average of 40 percent from what they should be, according to an audit released Tuesday that suggests the government could be doing more to go after unscrupulous employers.

February 25, 2014

Tea party group settles on challenger to Boehner

After conducting a search and straw poll, a national tea party group has settled on a Republican primary challenger to House Speaker John A. Boehner, picking high school teacher J.D. Winteregg to carry the tea party banner in the intraparty battle.

February 25, 2014

Obama’s proposed IRS rules to limit tax-exempt status concern liberals, too

The Obama administration's proposed crackdown on tea party and other nonprofit groups that want to play a role in politics is quietly crumbling as opposition builds across the political spectrum to new IRS rules.

February 24, 2014

Supreme Court weighs EPA powers on clean air

A divided Supreme Court grappled Monday with just how much power Congress intended to give the EPA in the Clean Air Act, in a case that could determine how much of an end run President Obama can do around Capitol Hill as he seeks to impose his own solutions to climate change.

February 24, 2014

U.S. Chamber of Commerce pleads for increased immigration

Polls show most Americans prefer to see legal immigration kept steady or reduced, rather than increased, believing more immigration will lead to competition for jobs. But Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue said Americans shouldn't be worried.

February 24, 2014

Dingell leaving House after record career

Rep. John D. Dingell, the longest-serving congressman in history, announced Monday he’s so fed up with Washington politics that he’s retiring, ending a storied career that’s lasted nearly six decades.

February 24, 2014

Rare do-something Congress provides show of bipartisanship, but for how long?

Don't look now, but Congress is actually doing things. A flurry of bipartisanship has lawmakers on an early path to their most active year in nearly two decades.

February 23, 2014

Obama’s stimulus beginning to drag economy down

President Obama's stimulus may have boosted the economy when it passed in 2009, but it's now beginning to take a toll and will soon begin to leave the economy worse off than if it had never passed, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.

February 21, 2014

Americans want legal immigration cut in half, poll finds

Americans want to see illegal immigrant young adults given legal status, but they are far less forgiving to most others, and want to see a huge reduction in legal immigration as well, according to a new poll released last week by a group that wants to see an immigration crackdown.

February 21, 2014

Obama must take Bieber petition seriously

Deporting Justin Bieber has become the second most popular petition in the three-year history of President Obama's online petition program, tapping a depth of anger at the Canadian pop singer — and leaving the White House to ponder how to respond.

February 20, 2014

Taxpayer refunds up $190 this year

Taxpayers are getting an average of $190 more on their refunds this year, the IRS said Thursday.

February 20, 2014

For federal employees, office closed 25% of fiscal year, so far

Between snow days, official holidays and the government shutdown, federal employees have worked a normal business day less than 75 percent of the time since Oct. 1, marking a startlingly chaotic beginning to the fiscal year.

February 18, 2014

Minimum wage hike would kill a half-million jobs: CBO

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour will cost the U.S. economy a half-million jobs by 2016 but will substantially boost wages for most low-income workers, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday that adds a significant hurdle to Democrats' push for an increase.

February 18, 2014

Increasing anti-deportation protests show down side of immigration issue for Democrats

Immigrant rights activists, including some self-identified illegal immigrants, were arrested outside the White House on Monday as part of a protest against President Obama's deportation policies, signaling that even as Republicans take blame for halting legalization legislation, Democrats face political peril, too.

February 17, 2014