You can’t swing a dead cat video in Washington lately without hitting a lobbyist, consultant, attorney or adviser on retainer to Google or one of its tech rivals. Google, whose top executives have long been a bottomless cup of campaign coffee for Democrats, is finally entering its bipartisan phase, theatrically hiring Republican operatives…
Category: Congress
Solyndra Executives Refuse To Testify At Hearing : NPR
Top executives from a bankrupt California solar energy company have declined to testify before a congressional hearing investigating their half-billion dollar government loan. Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and the company’s chief financial officer, Bill Stover, both invoked their Fifth Amendment right to decline to testify to avoid self-incrimination. Harrison told the House Energy…
Infrastructure Funds Benefit More Than The Economy[audio]
A number of U.S. mayors have been in Washington this week for meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Their message: We need help. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett was in the group from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. And he was the sole Republican. Cornett talks to David Greene about the needs…
Contrary To GOP Claims, Research Shows Environmental Regulation Actually Spurs Economic Growth
Environmental regulations and the agency that enforces them, the EPA, have been singled out for particularly rough treatment. Republicans have scheduled a series of votes starting this week aimed at repealing or halting them. But two reports highlighted today by Politico — one by the Economic Policy Institute, the other by Public Citizen…
Wonkbook: Can the new Obama get anything done?
The smart money is still on nothing big getting done this year or next. In Washington, the smart money is almost always on nothing big getting done this year or next. But it’s not at all clear that the chances of something big getting done are lower under the White House’s confrontational strategy…
GOP mayors like Obama’s jobs plan. GOP governors don’t.
Republicans in Washington have little love for President Obama’s jobs plan and his proposal to pay for it. But the president may find a warmer reception from Republicans governing on the local level. The U.S. Conference of Mayors–a bipartisan national group for mayors of major cities–has openly embraced the American Jobs Act, with key Republican…
Obama jobs bill still waits for action in the Senate
Senate Democratic leaders have said for days they could not take up the president’s proposal until they resolved ongoing legislative battles with Republicans over funding for highway construction, the FAA, FEMA and a bill to keep the government operating into the new fiscal year, which begins October 1. However, they also admitted they…
Obama White House: ‘Compromise By Necessity’ Phase Is Behind Us
And so, as the administration enters the next stage of deficit reduction talks, it’s doing so with its chest notably puffed out. “It is fair to say we’ve entered a new phase,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told The New York Times on Monday. “The popular narrative is that we sought compromise…
Paul Ryan, Herman Cain Push For Tax Increases On Middle Class
Ryan, while backing a payroll tax hike, nevertheless said that tax hikes cannot be part of the deficit-cutting proposal that the super committee comes up with. As part of his explanation, Ryan made it clear that he sees no difference between raising taxes proactively and allowing tax breaks to expire. “You already have…
Andy Ostroy: You Bet It’s Class Warfare
Its called the “Millionaire’s Tax”, and it’s pure genius. Finally, President Obama and Democrats have caught on to the power and importance of branding. My God, it’s almost Rovian in its sheer simplicity and potential impact. The tax is a brilliant scheme by the president to achieve his goal of taxing the rich and creating…
House GOP Rejects Tax Cuts For Middle Class
House Republicans rejected President Obama’s week-old jobs plan, including about $240 billion in payroll tax cuts. In a memo to their caucus, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and other leaders dismissed the bill’s largest spending and tax cutting portions, leaving little of the bill intact. via House GOP Rejects…
Obama signs patent reform bill
President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday that will overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time since 1952. “We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it,” Obama said at a signing ceremony at a high school in Arlington, Virginia. This measure “cuts away the red tape…
US Rep: Copyright has actually been an “impediment” to rightsholders
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has a rejoinder to those who argue copyright laws must be further strengthened: “I think if we were to do nothing on copyright law, we would be getting it just about right.” Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley, spoke this week at a meeting of the Intellectual Property Breakfast Club in Washington,…
A Potential Superhero For The Supercommittee
At one point, Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl suggested that the government might raise money by tackling Medicare fraud or by selling public lands. “I’m not against our working with you on any issue that you want us to work with you on,” Elmendorf said. “But there’s no evidence that suggests that this…
GOP Makes Last Ditch Effort To Postpone Repeal Of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
In a last ditch effort to prolong Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who chairs the Military Personnel subcommittee, have written a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Pannetta asking the Pentagon to postpone the scheduled repeal of the ban against open…
GOP Jobs Plan: More Snakes?
GOP members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today called attention to a proposed regulation that would restrict the transportation and importation of nine types of snakes, including the Burmese Python. In a new report entitled “Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform,” GOP…
Wonkbook: The ‘supercommittee’ is not really super
So pity the poor members of the supercommittee, who are being asked to be all things to all people, and who are inevitably going to fail. Some of them, in fact, are already trying to prepare the rest of Washington to be disappointed. In today’s edition of The Hill, Alexander Bolton reports that…
Blue Dogs Cool To Obama Jobs Vision
Blue Dog Democrats are pushing members of the joint deficit Super Committee to reduce the deficit significantly more than they’ve been tasked with. But they don’t want to talk about President Obama’s jobs plan. And beneath the surface its clear that there are major differences between the White House and conservative members of…
Senate Republicans block FEMA disaster relief funds
A package of disaster relief funding worth $7 billion was blocked from coming up for a vote by Senate Republicans on Monday, drawing sharp condemnation from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who lambasted the conservative party for abandoning Americans in need. Cantor last said “The funds will be there.” Now he’s blocking them. -TRP…