As high level federal vacancies continue to damage our government and economy, Barack Obama considers how best to push back against Senate confirmation obstruction. Several recess appointment options are available as the Senate stretches a five-week holiday break formally into its second session...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will soon surrender legal authority due to the Senate minority's confirmation obstruction. The Board will lose its required three-member quorum at the conclusion of the current session of Congress -- Jan. 3, 2012 at 12 p.m. When left with only...

Majority rule returned to the Senate floor late on October 6, 2011. Harry Reid's bold procedural pushback was not the fulsome "nuclear option" of initial reports and headlines. The Senate majority's unified, strategic and forceful stand against ever-increasing minority obstruction holds the potential, however,...

At this week's Jackson Hole Fed conference, Ben Bernanke will consider the merits of QE3 and other Fed policy tools to "promote a stronger economic recovery." It is reassuring to know that our independent Federal Reserve will exercise consistent, prudent leadership.

Rick Perry's characterization of possible future...

74 wrongs do not make a legal right. Since 1962, 74 debt ceiling bills have been passed by Congress and signed into law by eight different presidents. Each debt limiting act was unconstitutional.

Section 4 of the Constitution's 14th Amendment states: "The validity of the public debt of the...

Predatory paycheck loan sharks, bait-and-switch mortgage brokers, deceitful student loan originators and other nonbank financial fraudsters will laugh-out-loud on July 21, 2011. When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens its doors in less than a week, the new federal agency will not be able to protect our most vulnerable consumers...

Partisan "leaders" are now chosen, weeks ahead of the Republic's 112th Congress. Now is the time to confirm Executive Branch leaders for the next two years. It is past time to appoint leaders for independent regulatory agencies and leaders for our federal courts.

Barack Obama reminded us that "Leadership...

Federal Reserve nominee Peter Diamond has been blocked for months by Senate Republicans. The Obama Administration wasted no time repeating the plea for his confirmation after Diamond took home the Nobel Prize in Economics on October 11, 2010.

A White House statement released after the Stockholm announcement began:...

As Barack Obama prepared for his CNBC-hosted Investing In America Townhall, perhaps he studied investor-guru Bill Gross's "new normal" thesis. With his creative advisory appointment of Elizabeth Warren to "stand-up" the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama seems to have recognized a similar "new normal" in...

With the Senate's Memorial Day recess coming to a close, Barack Obama should use his recess appointment authority to fill critical vacancies in his administration. As he is well into the second year of his presidency, Obama should exploit every Senate recess during summer 2010 to ensure a fully staffed...

Barack Obama has appointed fewer judges in his first year than any president in modern history. There are over 100 empty federal benches across the 860 member judiciary. Many jurisdictions face formal emergencies and certain court districts are overwhelmed.

It should be no surprise that...

For both health care reform and scores of blocked nominees, President Barack Obama now asks for "simple up-or-down votes." Is it a mission impossible to find just a few Republican Senators who would break from their extreme obstructionist GOP caucus?

Jim Bunning's Senate floor tantrum...

It sometimes happens during the Valentine's holiday season. A relationship needs shaking up. A dysfunctional pattern must be broken. Sometimes it takes an ultimatum -- things must change or else.

That is the message Barack Obama personally delivered to Senate Republican leaders as they prepared to leave...

Last week, Harry Reid stated that recess appointments are needed to fill the growing number of federal government vacancies. On the Senate floor, Majority Leader Reid referenced his past resistance to recess commissions before asking: "But what alternative do we have? What alternative do we...

Is Barrack Obama now ready to fight partisan confirmation obstruction against his nominees? When Ben Bernanke's reappointment was jeopardized, the president fully engaged the fight. Obama worked the phones himself to help Senate leadership line up 60 cloture votes. But what about the additional 300 critical federal executive, regulatory...

Barack Obama should announce plans to recess appoint Ben Bernanke as Fed Chair while the Senate debates whether to hold a timely confirmation vote. The bold act would reassure world financial markets that Bernanke will keep his job, and signal to the Senate that the president is ready to fight...