USA | Politics | DC Decoder

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this week is clearly a political event, both in the United States and in Israel, impacting the two countries’ unique relationship.

Rand Paul won a presidential straw poll of conservative activists for the third year in a row. But the bigger news may be Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s strong showing and Jeb Bush’s mediocre result.

With just minutes to spare, Congress and President Obama passed a one-week spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. It was a big setback for Speaker John Boehner, who lost 52 fellow Republicans on the bill he had pushed.

In remarks Thursday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Gov. Scott Walker suggested that his experience battling public-sector unions in Wisconsin prepared him to fight Islamic State terrorists.

Ted Strickland, a Democrat and former Ohio governor, announced Wednesday he's taking on GOP Sen. Rob Portman. That will be a marquee Senate race in a cycle with lots of opportunities for Democrats.

CPAC is the Super Bowl of conservative activism. Jeb Bush, a GOP establishment favorite, needs to broaden support among movement conservatives. 

Unless Congress acts, the Department of Homeland Security will run out of money Friday, despite assurances from Republicans that there would be no more shutdowns. A Q&A on what lies ahead.

In a typical exercise for election losers, Democrats have put out a soul-searching report on why they did so badly in 2014. What they need, a party task force finds, is a 'cohesive narrative' to convince voters they’re right.

State and local taxes will consume about 9.4 percent of middle-income earnings, compared with 5.4 percent of income for the high-earning 1 percent of families, according to a recent analysis.

Funding for DHS is scheduled to run out later this month. That deadline was set as part of an effort by Republicans to stand up to President Obama's use of executive action to ease US policies toward illegal immigrants.