WASHINGTON — It sounds like good news: Annual premiums for job-based family health plans went up only 4 percent this year. But hang on to your wallets. Premiums averaged $15,745, with employees paying more than $4,300 of that, a glaring ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama election GOP Kaiser Permanente medicare politics premiums

TAMPA, Fla. — A nuclear energy expert from Maryland found himself under fire from some in the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention Monday after he criticized natural gas fracking and its viability as a primary energy source. Donald ...

Tagged with: calvert cliffs convention election GOP house of delegates maryland national republican rockville

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland’s House Republican leaders say they are troubled by the boating accident involving Delegate Don Dwyer, who has admitted he had been drinking before a collision that hospitalized six people, including the delegate. Delegate Anthony O’Donnell, the House ...

Tagged with: Delegate Don Dwyer GOP house leadership News republican

WASHINGTON — An election-year tax faceoff between Democrats and Republicans in the GOP-controlled House is heading toward a predictable outcome Wednesday. Republicans are poised to pass a bill to renew a full slate of Bush-era tax cuts for every working ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama democrats election GOP middle class mitt romney rep. steny hoyer republicans senate tax cuts Taxes white house

WASHINGTON — In an election-year swipe at President Barack Obama’s energy policies, the Republican-led House on Wednesday voted to revoke Obama’s five-year plan for offshore drilling, replacing it with its own plan that calls for more ambitious oil and gas ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama Congress Energy gas GOP Government house offshore drilling oil policy senate

WASHINGTON — All but 13 of the 289 Republicans in the House and Senate have signed a pledge vowing to oppose tax increases. On Thursday, the author of that pledge met with some of them to help them understand exactly ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama Congress democrat GOP senate Taxes united states

WASHINGTON — Republicans controlling the House moved Wednesday to block a new Federal Communications Commission rule requiring TV stations to disclose online information about political ad buys by candidates, political parties and outside groups. The FCC adopted the rule in ...

Tagged with: block Congress Elections FCC GOP house senate wisconsin

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill Tuesday to preserve low interest rates for millions of college students’ loans, as the two parties engaged in election-year choreography aimed at showing each is the better protector of families in today’s ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama bill democrat GOP Government senate student loan washington

WASHINGTON — Republicans considered to be up-and-comers are scrambling to declare a lack of interest in becoming Mitt Romney’s running mate. With the former Massachusetts governor poised to win the GOP nomination in June, if not earlier, some of the ...

Tagged with: election GOP mitt romney nomination republicans united states vice president

HAGERSTOWN — If U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett feels a threat to his re-election, he doesn’t show it. Addressing a breakfast crowd at a Republican primary debate in Hagerstown, the 85-year-old conservative from Frederick County calmly ticks off the same objectives ...

Tagged with: 6th U.S. Congressional District GOP hagerstown house of delegates maryland seat