House, Senate Divided Over Homeland Security Funding

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The department runs out of money at midnight. The Senate is on track to pass a bill to fund the department with no strings attached. The House will vote on a bill to fund the department for 3 weeks.

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White House Move To Protect Nest Eggs Sparks Hopes And Fears

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President Obama makes remarks on his proposal to tighten consumer protections for people saving for retirement Monday at AARP as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Labor Secretary Tom Perez listen. Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Getty Images

President Obama makes remarks on his proposal to tighten consumer protections for people saving for retirement Monday at AARP as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Labor Secretary Tom Perez listen.

Getty Images

The Obama administration is creating new protections for Americans saving and investing for retirement, but industry groups say the new rules could hurt the very people the president says he wants to help

Obama Wants Rules That Force Brokers To Put Clients' Interests First

If you're building a retirement nest egg, big fees are the dangerous predators looking to feast on it. The White House says too many financial advisers get hidden kickbacks or sales incentives to steer responsible Americans toward bad retirement investments with low returns and high fees.

"If your business model rests on taking advantage of bilking hard-working Americans out of their retirement money, then you shouldn't be in business," Obama said Monday. "That's pretty straightforward."

The White House is directing the U.S. Department of Labor to craft new rules that require retirement advisers to put consumers' best interests ahead of their financial gain. But some industry groups are sounding the alarm.

"A sledgehammer is not needed where a regular hammer would fix the problem," the Financial Services Roundtable said in a statement.

Tim Pawlenty, the group's president and CEO, has another metaphor at the ready.

"There's always a few bad apples," says Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor. "We would encourage focusing on bad apples and removing them, instead of tipping over and smashing the whole apple cart."

"We don't want to get to a point where the red tape and bureaucracy and cost freezes lower income people from being able to take advantage of financial planning advice."

- Tim Pawlenty, Financial Services Roundtable

Pawlenty says that he hasn't seen details of the new rules yet, but that if the rules create burdensome regulation, financial planners might decide it's not worth working with people of modest means.

"We don't want to get to a point where the red tape and bureaucracy and cost freezes lower-income people from being able to take advantage of financial planning advice," he says.

But not all industry groups are so worried.

"There's a lot of overheated rhetoric," says Kevin Keller, the CEO of the Certified Financial Planner Board, a voluntary standards group that certifies financial planners.

He says he supports what the White House is trying to do. The new rules would create what's called a "fiduciary standard," which is a requirement to act in a clients' best interest.

Business

That Nest Egg Needs To Last As Long As You Do. So How Do You Start?

Some industry groups claim that the fiduciary standard will reduce the availability of financial advice for middle-class Americans, but Keller says that's not true. Still, everything depends on the actual language in the rules.

Kent Smetters, a Wharton School economist who served in the George W. Bush administration, says he supports the move by the White House. But he's also frustrated by existing regulations.

For example, he says, stock brokers already are held to a fiduciary standard, but have found loopholes, so brokers can still get commissions for steering people into bad investments with high fees.

"Literally, this is legal," Smetters says. "I could say to you, 'Chris, I have your best interests in mind, I think you should invest in this fund x, y, z.'

"That first half of the sentence, I really had your best interests in mind," he adds. "The second half of the sentence, I take off my fiduciary hat, and you don't know any better because after all you're going there for is advice. You don't have a clue. It's just screwing over middle-class households."

Jeb Bush Takes 2016 Show Into Unfriendly Territory At CPAC

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addresses the audience at his last Conservative Political Action Conference appearance in March 2013. Bush is to appear again Friday, as he considers a potential 2016 presidential campaign. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addresses the audience at his last Conservative Political Action Conference appearance in March 2013. Bush is to appear again Friday, as he considers a potential 2016 presidential campaign.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

For close to a decade, Jeb Bush's audiences have almost exclusively been people who have paid good money to hear him speak.

That changes today, when he appears at the Conservative Political Action Conference — where potential 2016 presidential rivals are already taking shots at him and some activists are organizing a walk-out.

NYU college student Ivan Teo said he doesn't consider Bush "one of us," but does give him credit for at least showing up on hostile turf. "I think him coming here, it's brave. And I think that it's great that we have a chance to ask him questions."

Bush, the former Florida governor and the brother and son of the last two Republican presidents, is the presumed Republican establishment favorite in a venue that historically has not been kind to the party establishment.

In 2011, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul won the CPAC presidential straw poll, while Mitt Romney won the 2012 nomination. In 2007, Romney won the straw poll, while Arizona Sen. John McCain won the GOP nomination the following year.

And while many Republicans with presidential ambitions make CPAC an annual pilgrimage, Bush during his years as governor avoided the gathering as part of his overall strategy of staying away from events that would feed presidential speculation. Bush ended that self-imposed exile in 2013, and got a decidedly indifferent reception. His was the Friday night keynote speech — the "Ronald Reagan Dinner" — and Bush had just recently published his book Immigration Wars, that advocated an overhaul similar to what the Senate wound up passing a few months later.

Bush used the occasion to scold his party for seeming "anti-everything," but also prescribed the same optimistic message about a "right to rise" that is the theme of his pre-campaign. Just months after the 2012 presidential election, Bush's speech did not particularly offend his audience as much as fail to interest them at all. Bush spoke for just under 20 minutes, during which time many in the ballroom carried on conversations over dessert and coffee, ducked outside to answer phone calls, or just left entirely.

Before and after that, he was primarily speaking to corporate audiences that had paid him tens of thousands of dollars to hear him. Even in recent appearances in Detroit and Chicago, where he gave speeches as part of his "Right to Rise" political committees, Bush spoke to sympathetic audiences, and then took gentle questions from moderators.

Bush did do a warm-up of sorts Wednesday evening, appearing on conservative talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt's program, but even there the questioning was mild — primarily about foreign policy and the military.

Neither immigration nor the Common Core education standards, which are reviled by many of the GOP's most conservative voters, came up in that interview. Both are certain to be asked about Friday, when Bush is questioned for 20 minutes by Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Bush, 62, compiled what was considered a deeply conservative record in his two terms as Florida governor, including tax cuts totaling $14 billion, support of gun rights, the creation of private school voucher programs and the use of public money to persuade women to avoid abortions. But his support for more stringent education standards in Common Core and an immigration overhaul that would not deport all those in this country illegally has angered many conservatives.

'Ballot Selfies' Clash With The Sanctity Of Secret Polling

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A man takes a "selfie" while waiting in line to cast his vote in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race in November. Darren Hauck/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Darren Hauck/Getty Images

A man takes a "selfie" while waiting in line to cast his vote in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race in November.

Darren Hauck/Getty Images

It's All Politics

Is A Ban On 'Ballot Selfies' Overkill?

From Pope Francis and President Obama to the kid down the block, we have, for better or worse, become a world full of selfie-takers.

But as ubiquitous as they are, there are some places where selfies remain controversial — like the voting booth. The legal battle rages over so-called "ballot selfies" in the state that holds the first presidential primary.

This may be a fight of the digital age, but according to New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, it involves a very old American ideal — the sanctity of the secret ballot.

"If somebody wants to go out and say that they voted for this person or that person they can do it. They can do it, but that ballot is sacred," he says.

Gardner has been the state's top election official since 1976. To say he views ballot selfies with suspicion would be an understatement.

He backed a change in law last year that made New Hampshire the first state to ban them explicitly.

He says allowing people to show a marked ballot — actual proof how they voted — opens the door to voter coercion, or vote buying. He insists that anything that compromises privacy in the ballot booth is a step in a very, very dark direction.

"I have a copy of the last ballot that was used when Saddam Hussein was elected, and that ballot identified who the person was. Hitler did the same thing in Austria," Gardner says.

Brandon Ross, a libertarian-leaning patent lawyer, says, "I think if the secretary of state wants to bring up Hitler, I think they should just quit now. They lose. That's absurd."

Ross is one of three plaintiffs suing in federal court to strike down New Hampshire's ballot selfie ban. He says the state's law, which can fine people $1,000 for sharing an image of their ballot, goes way too far.

"It's like a picture you can a never show without breaking the law, it's just a banned photograph. That's wildly unconstitutional. It's a core part of our democratic process is being able to communicate who you vote for. This is 2015 now, people interact with social media constantly," he says.

Could any ballot selfie ban be enforceable?

"There is no way to do it comprehensively. Of course, there are many laws which are honored more in the breach than are actually enforced," says Jeff Hermes, an attorney with the Media Law Resource Center in New York. "Speeding laws are a great example of that."

New Hampshire's attorney general is investigating four voters for posting ballot selfies.

A report by the Digital Media Law Project found most states have some sort of prohibition against sharing marked ballots. Most have been on the books for years, and, as in New Hampshire, their aim was to fight corruption.

Gilles Bissonnette of the New Hampshire ACLU represents the people challenging New Hampshire's law. He says everybody should want clean elections, but banning selfies isn't the way to achieve them.

"The more tailored approach here would be to aggressively investigate and prosecute vote buying, and to aggressively investigate and prosecute vote bribery. But I think the question here is whether this law appropriately addresses those interests." Bissonnette says.

This case is scheduled for trial in federal court next month. In the meantime, bills to repeal the selfie prohibition are pending at the State House.

Action on either front could make the first state to impose a ballot selfie ban, the first state to get rid of one.

This Season On 'House Of Cards,' It's Tough To Be The Boss

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Kevin Spacey's President Frank Underwood is embattled and often frustrated in the third season of Netflix's House of Cards. David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR hide caption

itoggle caption David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR

Kevin Spacey's President Frank Underwood is embattled and often frustrated in the third season of Netflix's House of Cards.

David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR

When House of Cards' third season opens, Kevin Spacey's murderous politician Frank Underwood is fooling the world again.

From the very first scene, he's bringing a presidential motorcade to his tiny hometown of Gaffney, S.C., pretending to honor his father's grave for the press.

"Nobody showed up for his funeral except me, not even my mother," Underwood says in one of those sly asides where he speaks directly to the audience. "But I'll tell you this ... When they bury me, it won't be in my backyard. And when they pay their respects, they'll have to wait in line."

As he says this, Underwood relieves himself on his father's grave, out of the media's sight. That's when we see the real man: manipulative, arrogant and ruthlessly focused on his own legacy.

That's a major theme for this latest season of House of Cards — or at least, throughout the first six episodes made available to critics (Netflix releases all episodes for the season to customers today).

Last season ended as Frank Underwood was appointed president. As this year's story begins, he's been at the job for six months, and we see a man used to winning hit more than a few roadblocks.

Television

'House Of Cards' Is Built To Last

Television

Antihero Or Villain? In 'House Of Cards,' It's Hard To Tell

One of the first signs of trouble is Underwood's struggle to explain a new jobs program on the Colbert Report, which Stephen Colbert still hosts in the House of Cards universe.

"This is a fundamentally different look at how to solve the problems of unemployment," Underwood tells Colbert. "It has the size and the scope of the New Deal."

Colbert's reply goes or the jugular: "Oh, so it's a socialist redistribution of wealth wherein the baby boomers will latch onto the millennials like a lamprey and just keep sucking until they're as dry as a crouton."

There's even trouble with Underwood's Lady Macbeth of a wife, Claire Underwood, who reacts to a crisis of conscience by publicly undercutting her husband. That enrages President Underwood: "You want to know what takes real courage?" he snarls at his wife. "Keeping your mouth shut. No matter what you might be feeling. Holding it all together, when the stakes are this high."

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Robin Wright, as First Lady Claire Underwood, begins to challenge her husband on his machinations this season. David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR hide caption

itoggle caption David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR

Robin Wright, as First Lady Claire Underwood, begins to challenge her husband on his machinations this season.

David Giesbrecht/Netflix PR

Claire Underwood, played with steely reserve by Robin Wright, is uncharacteristically conflicted. "We're murderers, Francis," she tells him.

"No we're not," Frank replies. "We're survivors."

These setbacks actually solve a problem critics uncovered in House of Cards' first two seasons: Everything worked too well. At a time of real-life congressional paralysis, Frank Underwood got a historic education bill passed. He also killed a political patsy and an investigative journalist looking into his crimes.

But as Colbert notes, Frank Underwood the President has a different track record. "You've been president for six months," Colbert says to Underwood. "Unemployment has gone up, our trade deficit with China has increased ... I'm not entirely sure that you'll be able to eradicate unemployment the way you've been able to eradicate your approval polls."

Some of this can get a little tedious. Watching Underwood push a presidential commission into cutting Social Security for his jobs program feels like watching a dramatic reading of a subcommittee meeting on C-SPAN.

And there's something frustrating for viewers in seeing the show's central character turned from a devilish antihero with all the answers into an often-impotent villain.

Still, the new season's early episodes are a binge-watcher's delight. Bingeing on some shows is a little dangerous; it's easy to miss important details in the rush to uncover the next plot point.

But House of Cards benefits from hurried viewing. It keeps you from noticing how much of a political soap opera it really is, or questioning who to root for, since every major character is just different shades of self-obsessed and power hungry.

And if Claire Underwood really decides to fight her husband's evil, it could be the TV showdown of the year — redeeming the culture of Washington politics while rewarding the binge watchers one more time.

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