Senate votes down earmark ban
(CNN) - The Senate voted Tuesday against taking up a measure that would have imposed a two-year ban on legislative earmarks, a practice that critics have called an example of wasteful spending.
Legislators voted 56 to 39 in favor of considering a ban, but the measure needed 67 votes to pass. The senators were actually voting on whether to end debate on another matter to consider the earmark ban, but its defeat signals that senators are apprehensive about approving a ban - at least for now.
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Romney to join Leno on late night TV
(CNN) - Mitt Romney will jump back into the public spotlight Wednesday night when he sits down with "Tonight Show" show host Jay Leno.
The late night talk show appearance by the former Massachusetts governor is his first with Leno since his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
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What to expect in the 'don't ask, don't tell' Senate hearings
Washington (CNN) - One of the most bitterly contested issues facing the soon-to-be adjourned Congress takes center stage this week when military leadership is called to testify about repealing the military prohibition on openly gay troops serving.
And the warning shots have already been fired.
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TRENDING: Palin must be stopped, says Scarborough
(CNN) – Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host and former conservative congressman from Florida, says its time for members of his party to get off the sidelines and express their true feelings about Sarah Palin.
"Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected," Scarborough writes in a column for Politico out Tuesday. "And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private."
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Source: Most service members surveyed don't care about DADT repeal
Washington (CNN) - A majority of U.S. service members surveyed do not care if the law banning openly gay and lesbian troops from serving is repealed, according to a source knowledgeable with the results of the Pentagon study. Members of Congress are to get an advance look at the study Tuesday.
The number opposing lifting the ban - known as "don't ask, don't tell" - fearing negative results "is very small when compared to those who say it will have positive or mixed results, or no effect at all," the source explained.
However, the source cautioned about taking the results as a true reflection of the entire force. The low number of respondents, just 28 percent of those who were sent the survey, means "the study only represents views, it doesn't mean everyone feels this way."
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Obama's debt commission report: 4 flash points
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Get ready for some heated rhetoric about how to contain the unsustainable national debt.
The spark will be lit by President Obama's bipartisan debt commission, which is set on Wednesday to vote on a final set of recommendations. That report will be an amended version of a plan put out three weeks ago by the panel's co-chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.
What you hear this week is just the start of a long national conversation. Next year, Obama and Congress will attempt to turn talk into policies.
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Obama, congressional leaders to tackle issues in 'Slurpee summit'
Washington (CNN) - President Obama will hold a meeting with congressional leaders from both parties on Tuesday, less than a month after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives during midterm elections.
The meeting, which is expected to last about an hour, is expected to address numerous topics, including whether Bush-era tax cuts should be extended beyond the end of this year as well as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
Obama has called for Congress to extend lower tax rates for most Americans before the end of the year, when tax cuts enacted in the Bush administration are set to expire.
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Senate to vote on food safety bill
(CNN) - The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a food safety bill that will give more power to the Food and Drug Administration in an effort to bolster the safety of the nation's food supply.
A version of the bill was passed by the House of Representatives in July of 2009 but has languished in the Senate, a fact that has angered some food safety advocates.
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High-level officials to discuss North Korea in Washington meeting
(CNN) - Government ministers from the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet in Washington in early December to discuss North Korea, South Korea's foreign affairs ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry did not provide further details about the date of the meeting.
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POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world. Click on the headlines for more.
WASHINGTON/POLITICAL
For the latest political news: www.CNNPolitics.com
CNN: Obama to tackle issues with bipartisan congressional leaders
President Barack Obama will hold a meeting with congressional leaders from both parties on Tuesday, less than a month after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives during midterm elections. The meeting which is expected to last about an hour is expected to address numerous topics, including whether Bush-era tax cuts should be extended beyond the end of this year as well as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
CNN Money: Senator introduces bill to extend jobless benefits
A Democrat-sponsored bill to extend unemployment benefits by one year was introduced in the Senate Monday, but it is likely to face stiff opposition from Republicans. The bill's sponsor, Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., said in a statement that the proposed legislation would reauthorize benefits for nearly 800,000 out-of-work Americans who are about to exhaust their benefits next week. It would also extend benefits for 2 million more Americans facing the same fate at the end of the year, he said.
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