John Murtha News

Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept the door open Tuesday to a proposal by several senior House Democrats to impose a graduated surtax on American taxpayers to finance the war in Afghanistan.

Amid reports that Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan , liberals are rallying around a plan to raise revenue for the surge.

Reps. Charles Rangel, John Larson and John Murtha are joining together to support a surtax on the Afghanistan war.

As President Obama nears a decision on a troop increase for the war in Afghanistan, he is facing increasingly vocal criticism from senior Congressional Democrats over the war's cost, the size of the United States troop commitment and the reliability of America's allies.

Northrop Grummana s Global Hawk program, run out of San Diego, could see a delay in funding for three of the sophisticated high-altitude spy drones depending on what emerges from a Pentagon spending proposal being negotiated in Congress.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said any new U.S. forces President Barack Obama sends to Afghanistan could move into the country swiftly, despite logistical hassles that force almost all major deliveries of troops and supplies to go by air.

As House Democrats try to avert political disaster by limiting their 2010 losses to about 16 seats, the norm for post-World War II presidents' first midterm elections, dealing with their members' ethics problems may be one of their toughest tasks.

The Pentagon should rewrite ethics rules for retired generals who work as advisers for the military while representing defense contractors, Arizona Sen.

Rep. Jeff Flake has drafted a resolution that would condemn defense appropriators for failing to protect the dignity of the House in the wake of a lobbying scandal involving the panel's earmarks.

Opinionline Archives Our view on defense earmarks: Campaign cash for contracts casts Congress in a bad light Public financing of elections purges the urge to reward donors.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., center, answers a reporter's question in Johnstown, Pa., May 29, 2009.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said Friday that he believes the Senate's version of a health care reform bill will include the "public option," which Republicans oppose.

A New York Congressman says the vote on the Appropriations Conference Bill could be delayed into December, in part over funding for the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter.

The money is supposed to fund development of a fiber-optic cable repair tool, one that could, at least theoretically, one day be useful to the Navy.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta is likely this week to announce his third bid against Rep.

National Democrats are a long way from those heady days in 2006 when U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, promised to "drain the swamp" of corruption on Capitol Hill if voters gave them control of Congress.

This country is in big trouble. 11/07/2009 8:17:04 AM PST by concerned about politics To: Gargantua Thanks for the heads up.. what is Dingell doing? It seems every time an opponent comes up he interrupts their time and uses it to discuss parliamentary procedure.

More than 100 fellow U.S. lawmakers are supporting U.S. Rep. Todd Platts' bid to become the federal government's top financial watchdog.

About the only consistent thing in this burg over 46 years of observation is that a whole lot of the politicians who run it never seem to learn from the past.

The health care overhaul working its way through Congress probably won't reach the president's desk until next year, Rep.