Politics. On Point.

GOP Majority leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) posted the below photo on his Twitter account  showing House GOP members sitting across the table from a row of empty seats, depicting them waiting to have a meeting with Democrats.  The crafty photo is the latest attempt in the war of the House v Senate to point fingers, and place blame, for why this government can't get anything done. Cantor tweeted, “In divided government, the only way forward is to sit down at the table. The House awaits the Senate". That's what the Republicans said. Democrats, as you might imagine, have a different take.  Democratic representative Tim Kaine (D-VA), speaking yesterday on Richmond, Virginia's Jack Gravely Show stated that it was after Republicans decided to shut down the government, they decided to reach out to Democrats for a meeting.   This placard is placed on the White House web site, blaming Congress for shutting down the government. R...

Interesting 'pool' report today from Brian Hughes of the Washington Examiner as President Obama meets with members of his revamped, reorganized, and restructured Cabinet (we're waiting for the 2013 photograph).  The president aluded to what remains his top priorities going into his second presidential term. Hughes writes in: President Obama on Monday convened the first Cabinet meeting of his second term, highlighting some “familiar faces,” “new faces” and “familiar faces in new positions.” Pool was ushered in to the meeting at 1:08 p.m. and the president’s remarks at the top of the gathering lasted roughly four minutes. Sitting to the president’s right were Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan . To the president’s left were new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and (outgoing) Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood . Obama singled out Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Hagel, who were recently confirmed by the Senate. ...

Republicans are pushing their 'No Budget. No Pay' agenda. In an email that went out yesterday House Republicans state: "Today the House passed No Budget, No Pay legislation with bi-partisan support. The bill will require the House and Senate each to pass a budget, and Member pay will be withheld if they fail. The principle is simple: no budget, no pay. It's time for the Senate to act. It has been almost four years since the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a budget, while our national debt has skyrocketed by over $5 trillion." Watch their new video "Earning It", about Senate Democrats' failure to do their jobs and pass a budget, says the email. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chair, House Republican Conference encourages Americans to help them "keep the pressure on the Senate to follow the law and pass a budget".  She also asks her constituents to forward share the above video on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. She further wr...

As President Obama gets set to meet with Congressional members today regarding the fiscal sanity of the country, we get some pretty good color commentary from White House pool reporters. Just as President Obama spent his anniversary debating with presidential candidate Mitt Romney, we find that House speaker John Boehner is spending his birthday duling it out with President Obama. The president's remarks come from pool reporter, Amy Gardner of The Washington Post. PRESIDENT OBAMA:  "I want to welcome the Congressional leadership here and thank them for their time. I think we're all aware that we have some urgent business to do. We've got to make sure that taxes don't go up on middle class families, that our economy remains strong." "That's an agenda that Democrats and Republicans and independents, people all across the country share. So our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together work together find some common groun...