This Week With the Washington Examiner

Can family breakdown in low-education America be reversed? Maybe - Harvard Professor Robert Putnam dissects the upper and lower-class family structures in his new book.

2016

The 2016 Republican race: Maybe early polls are telling us something- Polls might actually suggest where things will be 10 months from now.

Jeb Bush seeks inroads with younger voters - "He might be older when it comes to age. But the PAC is tech savvy â€" and he is as well."

What did Jeb Bush do to fight Obamacare? - Bush statements that even tangentially touched on the Affordable Care Act were few and far between.

Ted Cruz 2016 shows his softer side - Cruz sought to establish a personal connection with voters with his speech at Liberty University.

Ted Cruz is running for president, and he's running against corporate welfare like Ex-Im and ethanol - His homepage links to four policy areas where he cites his "proven record."

Cruz: The anti-Obamacare candidate? - Of all the potential candidates, Cruz has been the most identified with vowing to undo Obamacare.

We asked Clinton donors why they gave. Here's what they said -The Examiner asked foreign donors why they contributed to the Clinton Foundation.

 

Rand Paul touts better 'winnability' than Cruz - "Right now, I'm the only one that beats Hillary Clinton in certain purple states," the Kentucky senator said on Fox News Monday night. "There will be a lot of conservatives. Ted Cruz is a conservative, but it also goes to winnability."

Agriculture

Congress hesitant to move on curbing antibiotic use in livestock - "This is not a Congress that has a great scientific background or in many cases believes in it."

Bureaucratic Accountability, Corruption,  Incompetence and Waste

Secret Service chief on thin ice with Congress - "This is critical for me, [and] for the country. I'm going to give it everything I have." Clancy said.

Veterans Affairs against new whistleblower protections from retaliation - A Veterans Affairs official called a whistleblower protection bill in Congress "unworkable."

Federal officials paid twice for Los Angeles County wall they didn't authorize - County officials decided to change plans to build the wall without following "hazard mitigation" standards.

Government pays to house poor in luxury apartments with pools, wine cellars - Holders of the Section 8 federal vouchers can live in these complexes until they get a job.

Amtrak employees get lavish bonuses for only losing $214 million last year - The report acknowledged the possibility of a similar set of bonuses being approved for 2015.

FOIA reform is good, and more of it is better - Congress should pass this bill, but it should also consider more substantial reforms.

 

Climate Change

Senate Democrats seize on budget to try again on climate change- Dems see the GOP's reduction of climate funding as another chance to cast Republicans as out of touch.

Economics and Jobs

Jobless claims fall to 282,000 - First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell more than expected to 282,000 for the week ending March 21, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Jobless claims were 291,000 the week before, and have now been under 300,000 for three straight weeks.

Supreme Court grants unanimous win for common sense - In Omnicare v. Laborers District Council, each of the nine justices came to the same conclusion.

The survivor class: Coming to a job near you - Are employers going to have to create safe spaces for people who are unable to handle their own anxiety?

Consumer prices edge up in February - Consumer prices edged up in February, an early indication that U.S. inflation may be picking up after falling oil prices pushed it into negative territory over the past few months. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that its Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent in February.

Obama works overtime to raise the cost of doing business - Obama could choose to set the bar for "manager" at $42,000 per year, or even as high as $57,000.

Deja vu once again - It never fails. Every time an election result disappoints liberals, it turns out to be due to fear.

Thanks to rich right-wing businessmen, there's now an anti-corporate-welfare lobby attacking Ex-Im - Now, an anti-corporate welfare lobby is starting to grow.

Health Care

House approves Medicare payment fix - The House passed a bill permanently doing away with Medicare's flawed payment formula, after years of correcting it with temporary fixes. The measure easily passed the House 392-37 on Thursday. It now moves to the Senate, where lawmakers still face some divisions.

How do you define Obamacare success? - It's evident the health care law's advocates and opponents hold vastly different views on that question.

Obama to announce next steps after Obamacare - President Obama will mark his healthcare law's fifth birthday partly by talking about what it hasn't accomplished. In a speech Wednesday, the president will also talk about what he'd like to see happen next with health reform, White House officials said.

Obama announces next steps for Obamacare - President Obama will mark his healthcare law's fifth birthday partly by talking about what it hasn't done.

Who loses in the Medicare payment deal? - Everyone in the healthcare industry wants the flawed Medicare formula fixed, but no one wants to pay for it.

A chance to strengthen Medicare - Medicare is going broke, but this week we have a chance to start fixing it, Rep. Paul Ryan writes.

AARP opposes Medicare bill which reduces its profits - AARP is lobbying against many provisions in the Medicare bill, including the Medigap provision.

House unveils 'doc fix' bill - House leaders introduced legislation Tuesday to permanently replace a flawed and outdated Medicare payment formula that continually threatens to deeply cut payments to doctors. The legislation would also reauthorize funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program until the fall of 2016.

Dems clash with GOP on health spending in budgets - The defense could complicate the House GOP's efforts to pass its budget for the second consecutive year.

Immigration

Did you know Obama just took new executive action on immigration?- Obama intends to make it easier to bring more foreign guest workers to the United States.

Middle East

Senators: Obama 'disconnected from reality' on Mideast policy - Three leading Republican senators slammed President Obama on Thursday as being "disconnected from reality," saying his efforts to accommodate Iran for the sake of ongoing nuclear talks have brought the Middle East to the brink of widespread sectarian conflict.

Why Obama still calls Yemen a success - The White House is loath to walk back the flowery language of its handling of Yemen.

Bowe Bergdahl charged with desertion - Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is being charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, his attorney told the Washington Post Wednesday. Bergdahl was released to American military forces in Afghanistan last year after the government of Qatar brokered a deal.

U.S. jumps into fight for Tikrit - U.S. aircraft on Wednesday began providing air support for Iraqi forces fighting to retake Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from the Islamic State, putting them on the same side with Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

White House: U.S. has 'succeeded' in Yemen, as President Hadi flees country - A White House spokesman said American efforts in Yemen are a "template that has succeeded," even as President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to flee the country by boat. Press secretary Josh Earnest said that the U.S. still had Yemeni extremists in its crosshairs.

Obama learning lessons from Iraq pullout but still risks failure: Military expert - There are still too many risks in following a timeline-based withdrawal, a former military adviser said.

U.S. to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through 2015 - The White House announced Tuesday that President Obama would keep the remaining 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through the remainder of 2015. The Obama administration had originally planned to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 by the end of 2015

Obama, Ghani to begin a new chapter in U.S.-Afghan relations - "This is a different relationship than we had under ... Karzai. It's clearly more cooperative and better."

White House

Has the Obama administration really avoided 'conflict of interest' and lobbyists? - If the scandals haven't been as big as in the past, it may be because they're largely ignored by the media.

House moves against Obama White House's secrecy habit - The White House's lack of transparency has been a source of frustration for Republicans and Democrats.

Obama and the 2016 attention gap - The White House has entered its final struggle to maintain relevance amid a growing focus on the 2016 race.