Paige Winfield Cunningham
Articles by Paige Winfield Cunningham
GOP tries to oust Akin after rape remarks
Top Republicans on Monday backed away from their Senate candidate in Missouri and party leaders threatened to revoke financial support if he doesn't withdraw from the race after his comments about rape and abortion, but Rep. W. Todd Akin insisted he is in to stay. Published August 20, 2012
Mass. Sen. Brown tries to straddle allegiance
Persuading Massachusetts voters to elect a Republican to a full U.S. Senate term isn't easy, and it has left Sen. Scott P. Brown blazing a lonely trail in Washington, where he's spent much of the year voting with Democrats — or bucking both parties altogether. Published August 19, 2012
Medicare now focal point of Obama-Romney debate
The Romney and Obama campaigns — both convinced that their man is more trustworthy with the future of Medicare — ramped up the debate this weekend, with operatives trading prickly barbs, the president dismissing Republican plans as "snake oil" and Paul Ryan bringing his 78-year-old mother into the fracas. Published August 19, 2012
Familiar faces win primaries: Mack in Fla., McMahon in Conn., and Thompson in Wis.
In the latest showdown between the two factions fighting for the soul of the GOP, both sides could claim victory in Tuesday's primaries, with tea party candidates winning races in Connecticut and Florida and "establishment" Republicans prevailing elsewhere in Florida and Wisconsin. Published August 14, 2012
Tea partyers flex muscle in three states with Tuesday primaries
Anti-establishment Republicans are gunning for the GOP nod in primaries for Senate seats in Connecticut, Florida and Wisconsin on Tuesday, in what is the last major test for tea partyers and their allies before November. Published August 13, 2012
McCaskill waits for GOP foe in Missouri
Three Republicans hungrily eyeing Claire McCaskill's Missouri Senate seat have spent the past few months trying to tarnish each other's conservative credentials while polishing their own — a tactic that's designed to appeal to Tuesday's primary voters but one that could hurt the party's chances against the vulnerable freshman Democrat in November. Published August 6, 2012
Lawmakers leaving with work undone
As lawmakers head to the exits for a monthlong summer vacation that begins Friday, Congress doesn't face any deadlines like last August's debt-ceiling drama. But members are still leaving behind a long checklist of work undone. Published August 1, 2012
Rep. McCarthy insists House is outperforming Senate, despite gridlock
The GOP-led House is currently holding up several major reform bills that sailed through the Senate earlier this year, but the third-highest-ranking Republican insisted Wednesday that out of the two chambers, his is the only one doing its job. Published August 1, 2012
As birth control mandate kicks in, legal fight continues
The health care law's contraceptive mandate officially kicks in Wednesday, meaning most businesses will have to make sure their insurance plans cover birth control — including those run by owners who personally believe birth control is immoral. Published July 31, 2012
Medicare scams spur new approach
Aiming to crack down on fraudulent health care claims that cost the government tens of billions of dollars each year, the Obama administration said Thursday it will begin mutually sharing claims information with private health insurers to try to spot fraud. Published July 26, 2012
House GOP members berate administration over Medicare bonuses
House Republicans berated the Obama administration Wednesday over a Medicare bonus program deemed wasteful by federal investigators, accusing top health officials of trying to pump extra money into the Medicare Advantage program ahead of the president's bid for re-election. Published July 25, 2012
CBO: Lower costs, fewer covered after court ruling on Obama health law
Last month's Supreme Court ruling that states can refuse to expand Medicaid under President Obama's health care law means 3 million fewer people will have health coverage — but will end up saving the federal government $84 billion because it will no longer have to pay for them, according to the latest estimate Tuesday from Congress' official scorekeeper. Published July 24, 2012
Rampage unlikely to prompt Hill action on gun-control laws
Lawmakers returning to Washington for the first time after last week's deadly movie-theater shooting mourned the victims, but there seemed little indication Congress is ready to take gun control off the back burner, where it's been sitting for more than a decade as Congress passed a handful of minor laws that mostly expanded access to firearms. Published July 23, 2012
Shootings renew fire at gun-law adequacy
As the country continued to mourn in the wake of last week's Colorado shooting — and President Obama planning to visit victims' families on Sunday — lawmakers reignited debates about whether stricter gun control laws would have prevented the movie theater massacre that left a dozen dead. Published July 22, 2012
House-passed bill ignores defense cuts
Passing annual spending bills was once a routine part of business on Capitol Hill, but the House only highlighted Congress' ongoing dysfunction when it passed a defense plan on Thursday that is certain to be blocked by Senate Democrats and ignores deep cuts to the Pentagon slated for next year. Published July 19, 2012
College joins Catholics on contraception challenge
Two federal judges have dismissed several challenges this week to President Obama’s contraception mandate, but the embattled requirement gained another legal opponent Wednesday when Wheaton College, one of the nation’s leading evangelical colleges, said it is going to court. Published July 18, 2012
Cheney huddles with GOP strategists
Republicans welcomed former Vice President Dick Cheney to Capitol Hill on Tuesday as they ramped up their battles with Democrats over next year's spending, with parties at odds over extending the Bush tax cuts and allowing dramatic spending reductions to kick in January. Published July 17, 2012
Both parties wield health care law to their advantage
Far from ending the debate over President Obama's health care law, last month's Supreme Court ruling has only stoked the partisan battle over the issue, with both parties taking to the airwaves and the Internet to try to frame the landmark decision ahead of November's elections. Published July 16, 2012
GOP gets Democrat support in bid to kill health law
The House voted Wednesday to repeal all of President Obama's health care law, acting where the Supreme Court declined to, in a vote that both sides said is doomed to fail in the Senate but was designed to lay the groundwork for voters to have a final say in November's elections. Published July 11, 2012
House votes to repeal Obama’s health care law
The House voted to repeal all of President Obama's health care overhaul on Wednesday in a display of political theater by Republicans who have vowed to keep it central in their efforts to win control of the White House and Senate this fall, as Democrats fiercely defended the law's most popular provisions, arguing that it's already protecting average Americans. Published July 11, 2012