A key Republican senator just trapped the GOP on Obamacare repeal

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and is thus one of the most important figures in the Republican Party’s quest to figure out exactly what they are going to do with the Affordable Care Act. So this statement by Alexander is a big deal:

Lamar Alexander Says Minimum Wage Should Be Abolished

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the Senate's labor committee, said in a hearing Tuesday that he would prefer to see the minimum wage abolished.

Alexander's declaration came amid a back-and-forth between a witness from the conservative Heritage Foundation and Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The trio had been debating what kind of impact a higher minimum wage would have on a theoretical worker, and it seemed Sanders wanted to know whether the witness opposed raising the minimum wage or having a minimum wage at all. (The discussion can be seen here, starting at 2:14.)

Lamar Alexander Says Video Games Are 'A Bigger Problem Than Guns' But No, They Aren't

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard several hours of testimony on gun violence, from luminaries up and down the spectrum of opinion on reducing gun violence. Today's hearings precede the larger debate to come on what action, if any, Congress will take in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Measures that are said to be "on the table" include some heavy lifts -- a proposed assault weapons ban, limiting the availability of high-capacity magazines -- and some things that could get passed with relative ease, such as strengthening the current background check regime.