GOP obstructionism

The SunZia Transmission Line project, which will help generate wind and solar energy for western states, will move forward after negotiations and compromise from high ranking officials. Hurdles remain — such as an environmental impact analysis — but the project could be in service as early as 2018. The news is welcome for workers. A new study predicts the project will create a total of 43,000 construction jobs.

Republican Florida governor Rick Scott has always had a huge problem when it comes to the environment. To begin with, he has repeatedly made it clear that he does not believe in climate change, and certainly not the role that human beings play in exacerbating the problem. But, facing a fierce opponent with a stellar environmental record in this year’s gubernatorial race, Scott has had to swallow his pride and open up to the idea that he is wrong on climate change. The truth, however, is that the entire experience was more of a publicity stunt than a science lesson

How much of our hard-earned tax money are Republicans throwing away simply because of their Obama(care) Derangement Syndrome? According to a new study by the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — a shit-ton. Yeah, that's a technical term.

Court of Federal Claims Judge Patricia Elaine Campbell-Smith has determined that the U.S. government violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by not paying 1.3 million essential workers “on time” during last year’s government shutdown. Under the FLSA, workers are expected to receive minimum wages and overtime pay on their scheduled paydays.

After 300 Missouri religious leaders interrupted House proceedings — 23 of whom were peaceably arrested — their voice was heard in its cry for Medicaid expansion. Unfortunately, Rep. Myron Neth didn't like their tone, and now pins its failed expansion on the protesters' lack of decorum.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday he's keeping "all options open" on whether to seek the governor's office in 2016 or remain in the Senate, where he has expressed frustration with partisanship and gridlock. Manchin, a Democrat, said his time as governor was the most productive period in his life but he hasn't felt the same way since his election to the Senate in 2010 to finish the term of the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd.

While Virginia Republicans grow their beards, act like stupid frat boys, and generally treat the entire issue of Medicaid expansion like a joke, back in the real world, these Republicans are hurting hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Actually, they're not just hurting them, they're doing far worse than that.

Ten months to next year's midterm elections, Democrats are determined to make Congress' slim production of fewer than 60 laws and plenty of incompletes — on immigration, gun control, tax reform and basic spending bills — a defining issue, heaping much of the blame on the GOP-led House for obstructing President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.

Two days before it was too late, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, after another of their delaying and obfuscating tactics, finally roused itself and voted to keep student loan rates from doubling by linking that action to a reprieve for vital transportation money for the next year. All the representatives from Virginia, except two, voted for the common-sense action. Those two were Bob Goodlatte (6th) and Robert Hurt (5th).