When the Senate started talking about slapping a $4 billion-a-year tax on medical-device makers, some of us wondered whether the government would be taking a few pennies for every Band-Aid and tongue depressor. Not quite, it turns out.... MORE

Sen. John Kerry hasn’t been shy about supporting new taxes to pay for the health overhaul. But when it comes to the bill’s proposed tax on medical device makers, Kerry is striking a different tone.... MORE

Defense contractors regularly bring their wares to Capitol Hill so lawmakers and staff can kick the tires and treads. On Tuesday, Washington state and Kansas lawmakers took turns on flight simulators inside a special Boeing Co. trailer after firing off some shots warning the Pentagon not to pass over the [...]... MORE

SEC Chief Mary Schapiro expressed concerns today over an Obama administration proposal to regulate complex financial markets because it puts greater authority with the Treasury Department to serve as a tie-breaker when the SEC and the Community Futures Trading Commission can’t see eye to eye.... MORE

Republican Meg Whitman, the former eBay Inc. chief executive, will make her bid for the 2010 California governor’s race official today.... MORE

One in three Americans, 34%, say they are seeing and hearing “too much” of President Barack Obama, who has been criticized in recent days for risking overexposure by appearing on six television shows in two days, including five Sunday talk shows and “The Late Show with David Letterman” on Monday, [...]... MORE

Jonathan Cheng reports from Hong Kong. Sarah Palin makes a rare appearance on the other side of the Bering Strait tomorrow (12:30 a.m. EST) for what is being billed as her first international speaking engagement outside North America.... MORE

Disagreeing with former President Jimmy Carter, former President Bill Clinton said he does not believe racism is at the core of much of the opposition to President Barack Obama.... MORE

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank polished his rep as one of the more verbally limber members of the chamber in his appearance Monday night on the new “Jay Leno Show.”... MORE

A daily round-up of the day's political events.... MORE

Republicans got their first bit of good fund-raising news in August, posting their best fund-raising total since President Barack Obama entered the White House, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission and an analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.... MORE

Amy Schatz reports on the FCC and tech policy. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced proposed “net neutrality” rules today to a standing-room only crowd of telecom geeks, giddy consumer advocates (and glum industry lobbyists) at the Brookings Institution Monday morning.... MORE

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has an idea to improve the tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans proposed by Democratic Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana: exempt policies in states whose names begin with the letter “U.”... MORE

President Barack Obama makes his sixth appearance on “Late Night” as the show’s sole guest tonight. It’s Obama’s first appearance on the show as president -- the first-ever on Late Night by a sitting president.... MORE

Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently is a bit of speed demon on his bicycle.... MORE

With a tough loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the San Diego Chargers are now a middle-of-the-pack team in the National Football League. But the Chargers are leading the league in a different category: political fund-raising.... MORE

President Barack Obama and N.Y. Gov. David Paterson greeted each other cordially as Obama left Air Force One on a trip to the Hudson Valley Community College, outside of Albany. News had leaked over the weekend that the Obama White House is trying to muscle Paterson out of his re-election [...]... MORE

A daily round-up of the day's political events.... MORE

President Barack Obama declined to declare an end to the recession, saying he would defer to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. “I'll leave that up to the Fed chairman to pronounce whether it's officially over or not,” Obama said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “What's absolutely clear is [...]... MORE

President Barack Obama gave a polite but firm "no" to former CIA directors who asked him to stop the criminal probe into alleged abuses in the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program.... MORE

President Barack Obama on Sunday backed an investigation into community organizing group ACORN, after some of its employees were videotaped apparently offering tax advice to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.... MORE

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is the favored 2012 presidential nominee among social conservatives, according to a straw poll released this afternoon at the Values Voters Summit.... MORE

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the top economic adviser to Sen. John McCain during his presidential caqmpaign, delivered a memo to Republican senators that is certain to provide ammunition to fight the Baucus health overhaul plan.... MORE

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney painted President Barack Obama as an American apologist in remarks before a conservative audience this morning.... MORE

House Minority Leader John Boehner called on social conservatives at the Values Voter Summit this morning to do their part to end the Democratic majority in Congress next year, saying Democrats in Washington are bankrupting America and undermining national security.... MORE

Testy exchanges mark the latest maneuvering on climate change diplomacy.... MORE

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has tried to define himself as the fresh alternative to 71-year-old political veteran Jerry Brown, as the two are expected to vie for the state’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year. Political analysts say the 41-year-old mayor just got an aide in that quest: his first [...]... MORE

Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt has had a lot on his plate these days but he checked one matter off of his “to-do” list: resolving the issue of whether airlines are “customers” of the agency. The FAA chief said that when agency officials talk about customers, "We are talking [...]... MORE

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) praised the Federal Reserve’s planned policy to increase scrutiny of bank employees' pay -- and praised his committee, as well.... MORE

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in Washington for the Values Voter Summit, was promoting the Lone Star State today – and trashing his opponent in the Texas gubernatorial race, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.... MORE

Seven former Central Intelligence Agency directors lined up against Attorney General Eric Holder, who launched a criminal investigation into alleged abuses in the CIA’s interrogation program.... MORE

The Federal Reserve’s plan to give much more scrutiny to the compensation packages offered at thousands of U.S. banks met immediate criticism from some Republicans.... MORE

It's showtime at the White House. President Barack Obama aims to churn out five “exclusive” interviews in two hours today, according to White House press officials.... MORE

Conservative leaders are gathering this weekend in Washington, D.C., for the annual Values Voter Summit, but so far none has excited the crowd as much as former beauty queen turned marriage activist Carrie Prejean.... MORE

An appeals court ruling today makes it easier for outside political groups to influence elections.... MORE

A daily round-up of the day's political events.... MORE

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is trying to capitalize on a failed GOP effort to block funding for signs touting stimulus projects and the growing public sentiment against the $787 billion stimulus package.... MORE

Harold Hongju Koh was just sworn in Thursday as the State Department's chief lawyer. But according to his new boss, Koh's had plenty of time to think about the government's biggest international-law imbroglio.... MORE

In the latest fallout from the Acorn flap, the House voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to ban the community organizing group from receiving any federal grants.... MORE

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking at her weekly press conference Thursday, appeared teary-eyed when responding to a question about current political polarization in the U.S.... MORE