Fox News host Eric Bolling — who is fond of discussing President Obama’s penchant for “chugging 40′s” and inviting “hoodlum[s] in hizzouse” and the “crib” — told Rep. Maxine Waters D-CA this morning that she should “step away from the crack pipe.” While discussing Waters tough rhetoric about bankers, Bolling, without any apparent relevancy aside…
Category: Congress
ANALYSIS: The Real World Debunks The GOP’s ‘Austerity Now’ Ideology
In Britain, a large package of budget cuts and austerity measures which rolled out in 2010 has not unleashed the proverbial job creators in the private market. Instead, the country is still shackled with an economic growth trend that’s even worse that what it suffered in the aftermath of the Great Depression. In the Eurozone…
Obama continues push for payroll tax cut extension
President Barack Obama continues his push Tuesday to get Congress to extend a payroll tax cut, a day after House Republican leaders agreed to remove an obstacle in the passage of the tax cut extension. Obama released Tuesday a video about what he called the need to extend the tax cut by the end of…
Rand Paul Blocks Senate Transportation Bill Over Aid To Egypt
It isn’t often that legislation passes through the Senate free of controversy, but a bipartisan transportation bill was on a course to do just that — until yesterday. The bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA) and Republican Sen. James Inhofe (OK), easily passed a procedural vote last week and, with President Obama’s support…
Why Is Paul Ryan So Angry About Reduced Unemployment?
In other words, after more than a year of obstruction by a Republican-controlled US House that has refused to act to address unemployment and underemployment, and that has rejected sound proposals for addressing the mortgage crisis, Ryan and his allies are attacking the Obama administration, Bernanke and the Fed for trying to do something. That’s…
White House To GOP: Only One Way Around Defense Cuts — And You’re Not Gonna Like It
In light of Congressional Republicans’ abandonment of a key part of the debt limit agreement, two senior administration officials briefing reporters at the White House Monday said automatic, across the board cuts to defense programs will happen as scheduled unless Republicans relent on their refusal to raise revenues. The officials conducted the briefing under the…
The GOP’s Economic Sabotage – Disinformation and Deliberate Destruction.
It was somewhere between hilarious and pathetic to watch Republicans respond to the positive jobs report last Friday. Some friends and I were counting the minutes until some Republican started casting aspersions on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which compiles and releases the data. Sure enough, by early Friday afternoon, Tea Party Congressman Allen…
Republicans Have Journalists Arrested for Entering Public Hearing
In a stunning break with First Amendment policy on Capitol Hill, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to…
Democrats prime recruits to try to take back the House
Just 15 months after taking a thumping in the 2010 midterm elections, House Democrats have seized on the current anti-Washington fervor and are confident they can win the 25 seats they need to regain control of the House. Vice President Joe Biden made a bold prediction on Friday, telling House Democrats at their annual retreat…
GOP played Keystone card, lost
If you missed the press conference after the State Department announcement that the Keystone XL pipeline had been canceled, you missed a heck of a show. House Speaker John Boehner was mad. And the Republican lawmakers behind him were furious. Over and over, Boehner and the gang asked angrily “What happened?” knowing full well that…
If the feds can shut down Megaupload, why do we need SOPA?
For more than a year, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have argued that existing laws were insufficient to deal with the problem of “rogue sites” hosted overseas. Theyve been pushing bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act as essential weapons in…
Dodd to Internet: You And Your Blackout Can Drop Dead
SOPA and PIPA are on the ropes, thanks in part to a recent flurry of Internet activism. Tomorrow, a number of sites, including Reddit and Wikipedia, plan to “blackout” their sites in protest—i.e., go inactive. And this isnt just some wily fringe movement: late on Tuesday, Google also got into the mix, announcing that it…
Obama Seeks Power To Merge Agencies
A senior administration official says President Barack Obama will ask Congress for more power to streamline the government by merging agencies. And if Obama gets the fast-track power he wants, his first proposal would be to combine trade and commerce operations into one. The official says Obama is seeking what the White House is calling…
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to Kill
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to KillNext week, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act PIPA, the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. Its a horrible prospect — but this isnt the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of…
Three More Recess Appointments
Doubling down on President Barack Obama’s bold recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the White House announced Wednesday that Obama would also use his recess powers to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law. The move is sure…
The White House Blog : Richard Cordray
Today the President will appoint Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has one important job: look out for the best interest of American consumers. He’ll work on behalf of millions of families across the nation to ensure they’re not being taken advantage of by debt collectors and credit reporting agencies. As…
Obama to Recess Appoint Richard Cordray
The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010. Cordray’s an accidental…
The GOP’s health-care problem
On Saturday, David Fahrenthold wrote that “more than a year after Republicans first pledged to ‘repeal and replace’ President Obama’s new health-care law, the GOP is still struggling to answer a basic question. Replace it . . . with what?”This shouldn’t be such a problem. Health care is a big issue. It’s been around a long time….
Boehner announces deal with Reid on end to payroll tax impasse
House Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday that he had agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a two-month extension of a package including a payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment benefits. Boehner said in statement he and Reid “reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January…
Obama renews call for end to payroll tax impasse [video]
President Obama renewed his call Thursday for the House of Representatives to pass a two-month extension of the cut in Social Security payroll taxes and unemployment insurance benefits which Congress enacted a year ago. The only reason the impasse continues is because “a faction of House Republicans have refused to support this (two-month) compromise,” Obama…