Kyle Bell

A political scientist would tell you that the first lesson to learn for a politician is to know their constituents. It seems basic, but it is a fundamental part of constructing a winning electoral strategy. If you don’t get this right, you have no chance of holding on to power, let alone passing meaningful reforms [...]

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The Sanctuary Movement: How Broken Immigration Policies Affect Cities is selling strong on Amazon.com. The latest sales figures on the site put it at #1 among books about immigration law and #2 among books about El Salvador history (the book is not about El Salvador, although it does reference a period of war where Salvadorans [...]

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Last week Republicans took control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2006. The reasons are more complicated than some would lead you to believe, but put simply, it was a mix of high unemployment, a huge money advantage for Republicans by corporate benefactors, dissatisfaction with Washington gridlock, and demographics in midterms [...]

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Democrats won a major victory on Thursday as the Senate passed Wall Street reform by a 59-39 vote. The bill would increase oversight of Wall Street banks and ends bailouts of those institutions. Only four Republicans joined fifty-five Democrats in passing the bill: Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and both Susan [...]

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The Republican Party voted in unison against a financial reform bill that would regulate Wall Street. The attempt by Senate Democrats to end debate on the bill failed by a vote of 57-42, owing to the fact that 60 votes are required to get anything done in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed newly [...]

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While this election cycle is almost certain to return fewer Democratic members to the House and Senate, Ohio is shaping up to be a state where Democrats have a good chance of picking up a seat currently held by a Republican. George Voinovich, a former governor, is retiring from the Senate this year. Open seats [...]

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The United States House of Representatives today voted to increase Pell Grants to college students in need of financial assistance and voted to reform how student loans were awarded. As part of the health care reconciliation bill, these reforms will take away federal money that previously went directly to banks to provide loans to students. [...]

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Democrats scored a major victory on Sunday night as the health care bill, which has been debated for over a year, has finally passed both chambers of Congress and is expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama shortly. The vote was 219 to 212 with zero Republicans voting in favor. It is [...]

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Almost all of the attention as of late has been on the Senate, but the House of Representatives could prove decisive in the battle to reform America’s ailing health care system. Both chambers have already passed separate versions of the bill with the Senate voting 60-40 and the House 220-215. The House passed their version [...]

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In the fall of 2008, the financial system collapsed in a way that forced the federal government to bailout major banks on Wall Street. The program, started under the Bush administration, was known as TARP. Congress authorized the Treasury Department to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to stabilize the system in the hope that [...]

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