Word: capitol
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last week President George Bush removed most of what leverage Washington still enjoyed over Beijing by approving a one-year extension of China's most favored nation trading status. Bush's move drew angry criticism from many members of Congress, including Republicans, but Capitol Hill is unlikely to muster the two-thirds vote of both chambers that would be needed to block the measure. Bush argued his case on economic grounds, claiming that to deprive Beijing of its MFN classification would harm the Chinese people, cost capitalist Hong Kong 20,000 jobs and $8.5 billion in exports of Chinese-made...
...were craning their necks for a better look. Flanking the cameras and electric cables came the men with microphones and blazing lights. In the middle of it all strode the politician they were focusing on, trailing a small group of aides. Had the scene been set in the U.S. Capitol, it would have been run-of-the-mill stuff. But this was the Kremlin, and the man doing the politicking was President Mikhail Gorbachev. As he moved along, he buttonholed Deputies of the new parliament of the Russian federation, urging them to preserve national unity by electing his candidate...
...abrasive North Carolina Senator, who opposed new funding to fight AIDS last week, complains he's a target of the "homosexual community" and needs the protection of Capitol security officers...
...growing impatience with Israel on Capitol Hill is reflected in a gradual but perceptible ebbing in the power of the so-called Jewish lobby. "Today the great and grievous fright about AIPAC is gone," says a high-ranking staff member of the House subcommittee on Middle Eastern affairs. "There is a real sense of sorrow up here at what's become of Israel, that it's been reduced to bashing Palestinians and producing leaders like Shamir and Sharon." Such sentiments -- shocking at first hearing when one considers that their source is a politician who has worked closely with Jewish leaders...
Critics of limitation rightly say that not all old blood is bad blood. Many, perhaps most, members of Congress are qualified and competent -- individually. But together, as an institution, they are paralyzed. Expeditious action on Capitol Hill is reserved for nonsensical commemorative resolutions like "National Prom Graduation Kickoff Day." Important issues -- the deficit, education reform, health care -- are either ducked or shunted to powerless commissions for study. Contrivances like automatic spending cuts substitute for judgment...