Technically, we won’t hit the fiscal cliff — Washington’s preferred term for the near-simultaneous triggering of more than $600 billion tax increases and spending cuts, as well as the predicted point at which we once again hit the debt ceiling — until after the election. But the effects could be felt long before. The 2011…
Category: Congress
Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Says Keep or Expand Obamacare
The public’s view of the law is quite complex: Reservations co-exist with sentiment that most of the law’s changes are necessary and perhaps even need to be expanded. In the latest edition of the Kaiser Health Tracking poll, for example, 53 percent of respondents said Obamacare should either be kept as is (25 percent) or…
GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act
The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act.” And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president’s Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday. It’s the first legislative response from House Republicans after the Supreme Court upheld the law….
Congressional GOP Planning Rollback Of Individual Health Law Provisions
As the House Rules Committee schedules a hearing on the bill to repeal the full 2010 health law, Republican members and staff examine how to target individual provisions through budget reconciliation. Politico Pro: Gaming Out Repeal By Reconciliation If Mitt Romney wins the White House and Republicans take back total control of Congress in November,…
GOP Aims to Sink Navy’s “Great Green Fleet”
Even though House conservatives fought in May to prevent the Navy from spending any money on biofuel, the service last Friday launched its “Great Green Fleet”—the first-ever US flotilla to get underway with mostly non-conventional fuel. But election-year jockeying may mean an epic battle over biofuel in Washington this fall. The fleet—technically, an aircraft carrier…
Democrats Lead House Ad Spending
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its allies have made their plans known early this year, plopping down millions of dollars in advertising reservations in markets across the country months before those advertisements will air. The DCCC has reserved a total of $46 million across dozens of media markets around the country for ads that…
Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs
The deadline for new transportation funding is June 30, and if the calendar flips to July without a compromise, as many as 1.9 million workers could lose their jobs, at least temporarily. The Senate version of the bill, if adapted, would create an additional one million new jobs as well, according to Department of Transportation…
The price of a do-nothing Congress
The latest employment data indicate that the U.S. job market is in a holding pattern — the price we pay for a do-nothing Congress focused more on austerity than job creation. Our economy added 69,000 new jobs in May, for an average of 96,000 over the past three months, with a downward revision of 49,000…
Sophomoric? Members Of Congress Talk Like 10th Graders, Analysis Shows
Georgia Republican Rep. Rob Woodall registers the second-lowest grade level: 8.01. An example of Woodalls speech: “What do they say about socialism, Mr. Speaker? Its a great plan until you run out of other peoples money. Guess what? Weve run out of other peoples money. I just want to show you a chart.” Thats five…
DCCC Posts Big April Fundraising Haul
The DCCC has posted boffo fundraising figures in recent months, often outraising their partisan counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee. A DCCC spokesman said this was their “best April in history.” By comparison, the DCCC raised just under $3 million in April of 2006, a year in which they took control of the House, according…
Republicans Likely Renege On Their Pledge To ‘Replace’ Obamacare
The GOP’s internal disagreement and unwillingness to offer a unified comprehensive plan suggests that they consider health care a low legislative priority. For instance, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the GOP’s spokesman on economic issues — told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the party will “articulate our vision” to replace the law, but wouldn’t…
House and Senate Unanimously Reject Obama Budgets — Or Do They?
While the Sessions and Mulvaney bills put forward the same topline numbers as those in the president’s budget, neither offered any specifics. The Sessions legislation was 56 pages long; actual budgets are closer to 2,000 pages long. Thus, a White House official said, the Sessions proposal was a “shell that could be filled with a…
Debt Ceiling Debate Is Revived In Washington[audio]
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned on Tuesday that the U.S. will likely hit its debt limit sometime before the end of the year. At the same event in Washington, House Speaker John Boehner promised that any increase in the nation’s debt ceiling would have to be accompanied by corresponding budget reductions. SOURCE: Debt Ceiling Debate…
The American Community Survey Is Under Attack
Last week the GOP-led House of Representatives voted to end the American Community Survey, or ACS, the Census Bureau’s annual study of U.S. socioeconomic conditions. The largely party-line vote defied the advice of conservative think tank experts, the interests of the business community, and, most critically, common sense. Data from the 21-page questionnaire are used…
Paul Ryan Suggests We Need To Shred America’s Safety Net Because Rich People Give Politicians Money
“Every other country in the world calls it bribery. We call it campaign financing.” “That’s BS,” a constituent told Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) during a town hall Friday. “I don’t think you or any of the rest of the politicians want to fix” it, the Wisconsinite declared as the crowd roared with applause. Ryan, however,…
Paul Ryan Challenged By Town Hall Constituents Over Previous Praise Of Ayn Rand
Last month, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) disavowed his one-time political muse, Ayn Rand, because of her “atheist philosophy.” Some of his constituents, however, aren’t buying it. Ryan praised Rand’s ideas at length during a 2005 gathering in her honor and declared that “the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I…
Republicans: Cut Programs For The Poor, Not The Military
As Congress returns from recess this week, House Republicans are set to advance legislation to replace automatic defense spending cuts they agreed to last year with cuts to programs for the poor and working class. The controversial measure is expected to pass the House and die in the Senate, making it largely a political exercise…
CHART OF THE DAY: US Vs. UK Growth
Now the first thing to note is that the US has recovered WAY better than either the Eurozone or the UK. So if you think Obama has been a disaster, you might first acknowledge that the US has performed better than all its major Western peers. But beyond that, check out the UK line. The…
Paul Ryan Flip Flops on Ayn Rand: ‘I Reject Her Philosophy’
In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote: “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would…
“If Paul Ryan Knew What Poverty Was, He Wouldnt Be Giving This Speech”
Rep. Paul Ryan R-Wis., chairman of the House budget committee, knew some Catholics were spoiling for a fight with him Thursday when he was scheduled to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. Nearly 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter expressing concerns with his recent comments that his proposed budget, which includes…