In Case You Missed It
Last week, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation released the most comprehensive and up-to-date research on what the so-called “Super Committee” could implement in the final hours of deliberation. The failure of the committee will result in automatic spending cuts for both discretionary and mandatory spending programs. However, Congress could still act to achieve the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and savings by consulting NTUF’s BillTally savings list. In fact, not only would Congress reach the target savings figure but an additional $300 billion in HALF the required time. The BillTally program measures proposed changes in federal spending using a five budget year window, rather than the ten year window used by the Super Committee.
Most Expensive Bill of the Week: The Bill: S. 1321, Practical Energy Plan Act of 2011, Annualized Cost: $1.4 billion ($6.8 billion over five years)
DETAILS AND MORE: http://action.ntu.org/site/MessageViewer?dlv_id=12221&em_id=9202.0
Showing posts with label Super Committee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Super Committee. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
‘Supercommittee’ Fails to Reach Agreement, Obama Threatens to Veto Any Effort to Get Rid of $1.2T in Automatic Cuts
Posted on November 21, 2011
(The Blaze/AP) Congress’ supercommittee conceded ignominious defeat Monday in its quest to conquer a government debt that stands at a staggering $15 trillion, unable to overcome deep and enduring political divisions over taxes and spending.
Stock prices plummeted at home and across debt-scarred Europe as the panel ended its brief, secretive existence. Republicans and Democrats alike pointed fingers of blame, maneuvering for political advantage in advance of 2012 elections less than a year away. Both sides agreed action was still required, somehow, and soon.
“Despite our inability to bridge the committee’s significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve,” the panel’s two co-chairs, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., said in a somber statement.
They added it was not possible to present “any bipartisan agreement” – omitting any reference to the goal of $1.2 trillion in cuts over a decade that had been viewed as a minimum for success.
President Barack Obama held a press conference at 5:45 p.m. Monday to discuss the committee’s impotence, and threatened that he will veto any effort to get rid of automatic spending cuts that would take effect in 2013 if Congress can’t find other ways of trimming government deficits:
CONTINUED and VIDEO HERE:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/deficit-reduction-supercommittee-confirms-failure/
(The Blaze/AP) Congress’ supercommittee conceded ignominious defeat Monday in its quest to conquer a government debt that stands at a staggering $15 trillion, unable to overcome deep and enduring political divisions over taxes and spending.
Stock prices plummeted at home and across debt-scarred Europe as the panel ended its brief, secretive existence. Republicans and Democrats alike pointed fingers of blame, maneuvering for political advantage in advance of 2012 elections less than a year away. Both sides agreed action was still required, somehow, and soon.
“Despite our inability to bridge the committee’s significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve,” the panel’s two co-chairs, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., said in a somber statement.
They added it was not possible to present “any bipartisan agreement” – omitting any reference to the goal of $1.2 trillion in cuts over a decade that had been viewed as a minimum for success.
President Barack Obama held a press conference at 5:45 p.m. Monday to discuss the committee’s impotence, and threatened that he will veto any effort to get rid of automatic spending cuts that would take effect in 2013 if Congress can’t find other ways of trimming government deficits:
CONTINUED and VIDEO HERE:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/deficit-reduction-supercommittee-confirms-failure/
Friday, November 18, 2011
Democrats’ ‘Satan sandwich’ starts tasting pretty good - TheHill.com
11/18/11
The bipartisan debt-limit deal, famously called a “Satan sandwich” by a prominent Democrat this summer, is looking more heavenly to the left.
Republicans crowed after striking the agreement with President Obama, while congressional Democrats cried foul. Despite the White House’s endorsement of the bill, 95 House Democrats voted against it.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the Budget Committee, subsequently said Republicans called Obama’s bluff. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he got 98 percent of what he wanted in the deal.
Three months later, members of both parties are looking at the deal much differently.
A GOP lawmaker who requested anonymity told The Hill that “it’s the 2 percent that’s killing [Boehner] … I’ve never understood why we thought 12 people could come up with a solution any better than we could.”
With the supercommittee deadlocked, the sequestration cuts of $1.2 trillion are now likely to be triggered. Those reductions would hit national security programs, but not call for structural reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and/or Social Security.
Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services committees were wary of putting defense cuts in the trigger, but Democrats essentially said the GOP would have to choose between tax increases or cuts to the military. Republicans opted for the latter, despite major concerns expressed by House Armed Service Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.).
CONTINUE READING: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/194473-dems-satan-sandwich-starts-tasting-pretty-good-
The bipartisan debt-limit deal, famously called a “Satan sandwich” by a prominent Democrat this summer, is looking more heavenly to the left.
Republicans crowed after striking the agreement with President Obama, while congressional Democrats cried foul. Despite the White House’s endorsement of the bill, 95 House Democrats voted against it.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the Budget Committee, subsequently said Republicans called Obama’s bluff. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he got 98 percent of what he wanted in the deal.
Three months later, members of both parties are looking at the deal much differently.
A GOP lawmaker who requested anonymity told The Hill that “it’s the 2 percent that’s killing [Boehner] … I’ve never understood why we thought 12 people could come up with a solution any better than we could.”
With the supercommittee deadlocked, the sequestration cuts of $1.2 trillion are now likely to be triggered. Those reductions would hit national security programs, but not call for structural reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and/or Social Security.
Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services committees were wary of putting defense cuts in the trigger, but Democrats essentially said the GOP would have to choose between tax increases or cuts to the military. Republicans opted for the latter, despite major concerns expressed by House Armed Service Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.).
CONTINUE READING: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/194473-dems-satan-sandwich-starts-tasting-pretty-good-
Thursday, November 17, 2011
CCTA FEDERAL Watchdog Report- November 15, 2011
Lynn Childs—Federal Watchdog Report/Tea Party Report
Coastal Carolina Taxpayer Association
November 15, 2011
Beaufort Observer: Walter Jones votes "no" of Vets' job bill. One of only 6 no votes. Palombo blasts Jones' vote-- November 14, 2011
The Committee released this video: http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2011-11-14-256985.112112-Walter-Jones-votes-no-of-Vets-job-bill-One-of-only-6-no-votes-brPalombo-blasts-Jones-vote.html
Rep. Walter Jones, of North Carolina's Third Congressional District vote against H. R. 2433. Jones was one of only six representatives to vote "no."
On November 10 the Senate passed the VOW Act. to review the key provision of the VOW Act. Frank Palombo, Jones' opponent in the May Republican Primary, said: "It is inexcusable that Jones opposed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act," said Palombo after his interview. "Veterans in eastern North Carolina deserve a Congressman who leads for their benefit," continued Palombo. "Instead we have Jones, who after 16 years in Washington, isn't influential enough to work on this very important bill for his constituents."
"After serving two tours in the Air Force and then building relationships with wonderful veterans while serving in law enforcement, I will be the strongest advocate in Congress for our military heroes and their families. Jones' vote against the VOW Act is another example of how his votes are harming eastern North Carolinians. After 16 years in Congress, Jones has lost touch with the citizens of eastern North Carolina."
RESPONSE FROM WALTER JONES OFFICE—Glen Downs, Chief of Staff:
First of all, “The Beaufort Observer” actually hosted Frank Palombo’s campaign website when he first launched his campaign. We most definitely consider alternative media to be legitimate news sources. But the Beaufort Observer is something else altogether – they are advocating for a candidate.
If he was a real news source, he most likely would have gone and checked our news release from October 13 (see link below), “JONES VOTES AGAINST $1.6 BILLION IN MORTGAGE FEES FOR VETERANS”, and learned his rationale. http://jones.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=268954
“This bill would force veteran homeowners to pay billions more in mortgage fees and then use that money to help other veterans find work,” said Congressman Jones. “Picking the pockets of some veterans in order to help out other veterans is a false choice, and this Congress can do better. To pay for these new work incentives, we should have cut funding for Obamacare, or foreign aid, or any number of other wasteful Washington spending programs, not take money from other veterans. “
Anyway, thanks for checking in to get the facts! Please share the word with other leaders that we are always happy to talk to Tea Party, Liberty, and Tax Payer leaders directly. They can express opinions or concerns, or ask questions, directly with us – no filters!!
============================================================================
WEBSITE: HOLD THEIR FEET OT THE FIRE-- Feet to the Fire was created to be a one-stop-shop for conservatives seeking a clear view of what our members of Congress actually do, as opposed to what they say. To accomplish this, the site presents a clear and concise ranking showing which representatives adhere to the core values of the Tea Party movement. All bills, amendments, and votes from this session of Congress are easily accessible and are updated regularly throughout the day. Further, the site includes tens of thousands of frequently updated news stories related to members of Congress and to specific pieces of legislation. All of these items are easily searchable.
http://feettothefire.org/
SUPER COMMITTEE UPDATE:
The Hill: GOP wobbles on no-new-taxes vow-- Republicans are beginning to wobble from their categorical opposition to raising taxes, opening the possibility of a deficit-reduction deal by the beginning of next week.
Ten days until the supercommittee’s absolute deadline (counting today) ... six days until the CBO needs to know what it’s scoring if there’s going to be a deal ... and still no glimmer of a bipartisan bargain remotely in sight no matter what co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling says. In fact, Clyburn says his fellow Democrats on the panel are getting more and more itchy to get off the same page, and the Republicans in the group are getting ready for a fusillade of criticism from the rank and file — especially House members returning from a week back home — for their offer to raise $250 billion in new revenue (without actually raising tax rates), which would get one-fifth the way toward the panel’s $1.2 trillion minimum target.
The boomlet today is for the idea that the deal would do nothing more than set reconciliation instructions for a net-revenue-rasing tax overhaul (size not yet determined) to be written next year — and with the same up-or-down-vote/no-filibuster process that’s supposed to help the supercommittee now. It’s the last plausible escape hatch left for the supercommittee to wriggle through, especially because the lawmakers can say their move would be more than kicking the can down the road — it would be facing the reality that rewriting the tax code in a few days would be nearly impossible, because of the prospect that a single misplaced comma could mess things up seriously down the road.
The talk of dismantling the punishment trigger — the across-the-board sequester cutting both military and civilian programs in the absence of a deal — is getting louder again today, mainly because Obama over the weekend made clear that he opposes the idea but pointedly did not use the word “veto” in discussing how he would react to a bill that would disarm the trigger.
2nd Amendment Alert: H.R. 822 is scheduled for a floor vote today!
H.R. 822 is scheduled for a floor vote today, and it is imperative that you call Rep. G. K. Butterfield at (202) 225-3101 and let them know that the federal government has no business messing around with your concealed carry permit.
As you know, I’ve been vocal about my opposition to H.R. 822. I’m worried it will open the door to MASSIVE federal overreach and intrusion into the concealed weapons permit process.
The LAST people we want involved in setting concealed weapons policy are the federal government.
In fact, one of my biggest concerns about concealed carry permits -- the lists of gun owners a permit process creates -- should send shivers down your spine: Imagine Eric Holder and the BATFE with a national database of concealed carry permit holders.
It’s bad enough to have those lists exist at a state level. Once Eric Holder and his cronies find a way to request that list from a state, they’ll do it -- all the in the name of “implementing H.R. 822.” See post on our blogspot!
SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR OBAMACARE LAWSUIT IN MARCH 2011! The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments next March over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul – Focused on the heart of the 2010 law, a requirement that individuals buy medical insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty--a case that could shake the political landscape just as voters are about to decide if Obama deserves another term.
The decision to hear arguments in the spring allows plenty of time for a decision in late June, just over four months before Election Day. This sets up an election-year showdown over the White House’s main domestic policy achievement.
The justices announced they will hear more than five hours of arguments, an extraordinarily long session, from lawyers on the constitutionality of a provision at the heart of the law. The provision in question is the requirement that individuals buy health insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty, and other related questions about the act.
CAUTION: ELENA KAGEN still refused to recuse herself—while uber-liberal left and lamestream media try to discredit Clarence Thomas because his wife is Tea Party Supporter—so, if you disagree with Obamacare you can’t hear the case
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS ALERT: Deal in the District--ALERT--November 17, 2011, 12pm-1:00 Local Time -- URGENT! This Thursday, thousands of Tea Party Patriots from across the nation will visit their Representatives’ local offices to tell them…
No more gimmicks. No more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize. Note: Please visit the office at any time on Thursday if you can’t go at noon. More information on our blogspot: http://cctaxpayers.blogspot.com/2011/11/tea-party-patriots-alert-deal-in.html
TEA PARTY WIN: My inspirational friend Helen in Cary, has been working the phone on the Occupy Wall Street Movement (and helped kick start the eviction in NYC). The plan is we tea partiers would like to camp out and live rent and tax free on government lands and has a tax free organizations set up to help feed and provide us. And while we are at we can cure the homeless problem and move all the homeless to the cities! See The Blaze and our blog for more information on the OWS efforts!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our regular website is http://cctaxpayers.com/
Be sure and read today’s on CCTA Blogspot at http://cctaxpayers .com
And read Lynn’s Daily’s News Digest at http://cctaxpayers.blogspot.com/p/lynns.html
Respectfully,
Lynn Childs
Federal Watchdog and Tea Party Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayer Association
November 15, 2011
Beaufort Observer: Walter Jones votes "no" of Vets' job bill. One of only 6 no votes. Palombo blasts Jones' vote-- November 14, 2011
The Committee released this video: http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2011-11-14-256985.112112-Walter-Jones-votes-no-of-Vets-job-bill-One-of-only-6-no-votes-brPalombo-blasts-Jones-vote.html
Rep. Walter Jones, of North Carolina's Third Congressional District vote against H. R. 2433. Jones was one of only six representatives to vote "no."
On November 10 the Senate passed the VOW Act. to review the key provision of the VOW Act. Frank Palombo, Jones' opponent in the May Republican Primary, said: "It is inexcusable that Jones opposed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act," said Palombo after his interview. "Veterans in eastern North Carolina deserve a Congressman who leads for their benefit," continued Palombo. "Instead we have Jones, who after 16 years in Washington, isn't influential enough to work on this very important bill for his constituents."
"After serving two tours in the Air Force and then building relationships with wonderful veterans while serving in law enforcement, I will be the strongest advocate in Congress for our military heroes and their families. Jones' vote against the VOW Act is another example of how his votes are harming eastern North Carolinians. After 16 years in Congress, Jones has lost touch with the citizens of eastern North Carolina."
RESPONSE FROM WALTER JONES OFFICE—Glen Downs, Chief of Staff:
First of all, “The Beaufort Observer” actually hosted Frank Palombo’s campaign website when he first launched his campaign. We most definitely consider alternative media to be legitimate news sources. But the Beaufort Observer is something else altogether – they are advocating for a candidate.
If he was a real news source, he most likely would have gone and checked our news release from October 13 (see link below), “JONES VOTES AGAINST $1.6 BILLION IN MORTGAGE FEES FOR VETERANS”, and learned his rationale. http://jones.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=268954
“This bill would force veteran homeowners to pay billions more in mortgage fees and then use that money to help other veterans find work,” said Congressman Jones. “Picking the pockets of some veterans in order to help out other veterans is a false choice, and this Congress can do better. To pay for these new work incentives, we should have cut funding for Obamacare, or foreign aid, or any number of other wasteful Washington spending programs, not take money from other veterans. “
Anyway, thanks for checking in to get the facts! Please share the word with other leaders that we are always happy to talk to Tea Party, Liberty, and Tax Payer leaders directly. They can express opinions or concerns, or ask questions, directly with us – no filters!!
============================================================================
WEBSITE: HOLD THEIR FEET OT THE FIRE-- Feet to the Fire was created to be a one-stop-shop for conservatives seeking a clear view of what our members of Congress actually do, as opposed to what they say. To accomplish this, the site presents a clear and concise ranking showing which representatives adhere to the core values of the Tea Party movement. All bills, amendments, and votes from this session of Congress are easily accessible and are updated regularly throughout the day. Further, the site includes tens of thousands of frequently updated news stories related to members of Congress and to specific pieces of legislation. All of these items are easily searchable.
http://feettothefire.org/
SUPER COMMITTEE UPDATE:
The Hill: GOP wobbles on no-new-taxes vow-- Republicans are beginning to wobble from their categorical opposition to raising taxes, opening the possibility of a deficit-reduction deal by the beginning of next week.
Ten days until the supercommittee’s absolute deadline (counting today) ... six days until the CBO needs to know what it’s scoring if there’s going to be a deal ... and still no glimmer of a bipartisan bargain remotely in sight no matter what co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling says. In fact, Clyburn says his fellow Democrats on the panel are getting more and more itchy to get off the same page, and the Republicans in the group are getting ready for a fusillade of criticism from the rank and file — especially House members returning from a week back home — for their offer to raise $250 billion in new revenue (without actually raising tax rates), which would get one-fifth the way toward the panel’s $1.2 trillion minimum target.
The boomlet today is for the idea that the deal would do nothing more than set reconciliation instructions for a net-revenue-rasing tax overhaul (size not yet determined) to be written next year — and with the same up-or-down-vote/no-filibuster process that’s supposed to help the supercommittee now. It’s the last plausible escape hatch left for the supercommittee to wriggle through, especially because the lawmakers can say their move would be more than kicking the can down the road — it would be facing the reality that rewriting the tax code in a few days would be nearly impossible, because of the prospect that a single misplaced comma could mess things up seriously down the road.
The talk of dismantling the punishment trigger — the across-the-board sequester cutting both military and civilian programs in the absence of a deal — is getting louder again today, mainly because Obama over the weekend made clear that he opposes the idea but pointedly did not use the word “veto” in discussing how he would react to a bill that would disarm the trigger.
2nd Amendment Alert: H.R. 822 is scheduled for a floor vote today!
H.R. 822 is scheduled for a floor vote today, and it is imperative that you call Rep. G. K. Butterfield at (202) 225-3101 and let them know that the federal government has no business messing around with your concealed carry permit.
As you know, I’ve been vocal about my opposition to H.R. 822. I’m worried it will open the door to MASSIVE federal overreach and intrusion into the concealed weapons permit process.
The LAST people we want involved in setting concealed weapons policy are the federal government.
In fact, one of my biggest concerns about concealed carry permits -- the lists of gun owners a permit process creates -- should send shivers down your spine: Imagine Eric Holder and the BATFE with a national database of concealed carry permit holders.
It’s bad enough to have those lists exist at a state level. Once Eric Holder and his cronies find a way to request that list from a state, they’ll do it -- all the in the name of “implementing H.R. 822.” See post on our blogspot!
SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR OBAMACARE LAWSUIT IN MARCH 2011! The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments next March over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul – Focused on the heart of the 2010 law, a requirement that individuals buy medical insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty--a case that could shake the political landscape just as voters are about to decide if Obama deserves another term.
The decision to hear arguments in the spring allows plenty of time for a decision in late June, just over four months before Election Day. This sets up an election-year showdown over the White House’s main domestic policy achievement.
The justices announced they will hear more than five hours of arguments, an extraordinarily long session, from lawyers on the constitutionality of a provision at the heart of the law. The provision in question is the requirement that individuals buy health insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty, and other related questions about the act.
CAUTION: ELENA KAGEN still refused to recuse herself—while uber-liberal left and lamestream media try to discredit Clarence Thomas because his wife is Tea Party Supporter—so, if you disagree with Obamacare you can’t hear the case
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS ALERT: Deal in the District--ALERT--November 17, 2011, 12pm-1:00 Local Time -- URGENT! This Thursday, thousands of Tea Party Patriots from across the nation will visit their Representatives’ local offices to tell them…
No more gimmicks. No more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize. Note: Please visit the office at any time on Thursday if you can’t go at noon. More information on our blogspot: http://cctaxpayers.blogspot.com/2011/11/tea-party-patriots-alert-deal-in.html
TEA PARTY WIN: My inspirational friend Helen in Cary, has been working the phone on the Occupy Wall Street Movement (and helped kick start the eviction in NYC). The plan is we tea partiers would like to camp out and live rent and tax free on government lands and has a tax free organizations set up to help feed and provide us. And while we are at we can cure the homeless problem and move all the homeless to the cities! See The Blaze and our blog for more information on the OWS efforts!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our regular website is http://cctaxpayers.com/
Be sure and read today’s on CCTA Blogspot at http://cctaxpayers .com
And read Lynn’s Daily’s News Digest at http://cctaxpayers.blogspot.com/p/lynns.html
Respectfully,
Lynn Childs
Federal Watchdog and Tea Party Chairman
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
CQ ROLL CALL HIGHLIGHTS: Daily Briefing--November 16, 2011
Today In Washington
THE HOUSE: Convened at 10, will begin legislating at noon and will be done for the day by 7. There will be a nearly unanimous vote to clear legislation combining a pair of new tax credits for hiring veterans (a sliver of the Obama jobs package) with the repeal of a 3 percent tax withholding from government contracts (a sliver of the GOP jobs agenda). But the debate will be much more contentious on the first pro-gun bill advanced by the Republicans since they took control this year. It would allow people with concealed weapon permits in their home state the right to carry a concealed gun in other states.
THE SENATE: Convened at 10 and is debating what seems on the surface like a relatively non-controversial $33 billion spending bill for the Energy Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. (Reid’s effort to combine it with two other fiscal 2012 appropriations measures fell apart yesterday in a welter of objections about its spending totals and language allowing American banks to do business in Cuba.)
Reid signaled that, if the energy and water debate bogs down, he was ready to quickly drop the bill and turn instead to the defense authorization measure updated by Armed Services yesterday. He also issued a vague exhortation for senators and their aides to keep their Thanksgiving week travel plans flexible — especially if anyone makes parliamentary trouble for the military policy bill.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is sound asleep in Canberra, where it’s almost 4 on Thursday morning. He’ll spend his second day in Australia addressing Parliament and traveling to a military base in Darwin. The remote northern coastal town is where 2,500 Marines will be stationed permanently under an agreement the president and Prime Minister Julia Gerard announced yesterday — much to the consternation of the Chinese government, which doesn’t appreciate the U.S. effort to become a military counterweight to China in the Pacific Rim.
BASIC MATH: The sum of today’s supercommittee tea leaves is that there’s just enough hope for a deal left that Reid and Boehner are willing to enter the fray — although maybe only long enough to conclude that the two sides cannot be bridged, and certainly not in the time available. While the formal legislative language has to be done by Monday and the committee doesn’t have to vote until a week from today, a general consensus has emerged that there needs to be a handshake by the day after tomorrow (maybe push-able until Saturday) for the paperwork and the budgetary scorekeeping to get done in time.
Pushed hard by John Kerry — who sees this budget deal as his legacy-maker — Democrats are now willing to drop their revenue number to $800 billion (from $1 trillion) in a final attempt to get to a deal. But in return, they’re going to insist that entitlement curbs over the next decade be held to that new, lower number as well. And the Republicans are showing every sign they’re going to spurn that offer. Not only do they want to extract more from Medicare and Medicaid, but much more importantly, they also are already so far outside their own comfort zone with their stated willingness to go for as much as $300 billion in new revenues.
Co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling signaled as much last night when he said of his side, “We have gone as far as we feel we can go” on taxes. That was an acknowledgment of the reality that — even with Pat Toomey, the small-government advocate turned senator, putting his name atop the tax plan, the leadership would be hard-pressed to corral enough members of the GOP rank and file to push such a deal to enactment.
The flurry of top leadership meetings last night could also be a signal that the supercommittee has revealed that it has essentially abandoned hope of reaching a $1.2 trillion deal, and that the two parties’ members are looking for guidance from the top Hill brass about whether they should walk away altogether — or roll out a bill worth less than that amount (the current best guess is they have agreement on about $600 billion in savings) that largely avoids addressing taxes and entitlements. The supercommittee is allowed to create a proposal that cuts just a few hundred billion dollars — and then the difference between that figure and $1.2 trillion would be the size of the across-the-board defense and civilian spending cuts. And shrinking the size of that sequester would at least be a way to tamp down talk that the self-imposed punishment should be skirted altogether.
EPARTURES AND ARRIVALS: Minibus No. 2 is permanently on blocks, and even the vestige that remains before the Senate — the Energy-Water bill — may be abandoned in the next 24 hours. (Reid really, really wants the bill to pass because it would put the Senate on record against any funding for the nuclear waste storage center under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, but he may be forced to relent in the face of a wave of GOP amendments designed to stoke the Solyndra controversy.)designed to stoke the Solyndra controversy.)
What it means: Appropriators will be spending the next month doing what they’ve been fighting against — but what’s been expected of them — all year: Assembling a behemoth appropriations package to handle the great majority of discretionary appropriations for the nine months of fiscal 2012 that remain. The must-pass, and generally bipartisan, Pentagon spending bill will be the vehicle that carries all the other measures.
That scenario assumes enactment by this weekend of Minibus No. 1, the three-bill domestic spending package that also keeps the rest of the government running until Dec. 16. That’s going to happen, but not without some sweating among the House Republican whips, who are now working hard to hold the number of GOP defections to no more than 40. (That number of “no” votes would mean 20 Democrats would have to vote “yes” to assure passage.) Their challenge is being made significantly more difficult now that two prominent conservative groups, the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, have come out against the bill — by putting it on their “key vote” lawmaker-approval scorecards — because in their view it doesn’t cut spending enough (less than 1 percent overall for the programs covered) and would increase the maximum size of home loans that can receive FHA guarantees.
THE SENATE: Convened at 10 and is debating what seems on the surface like a relatively non-controversial $33 billion spending bill for the Energy Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. (Reid’s effort to combine it with two other fiscal 2012 appropriations measures fell apart yesterday in a welter of objections about its spending totals and language allowing American banks to do business in Cuba.)
Reid signaled that, if the energy and water debate bogs down, he was ready to quickly drop the bill and turn instead to the defense authorization measure updated by Armed Services yesterday. He also issued a vague exhortation for senators and their aides to keep their Thanksgiving week travel plans flexible — especially if anyone makes parliamentary trouble for the military policy bill.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is sound asleep in Canberra, where it’s almost 4 on Thursday morning. He’ll spend his second day in Australia addressing Parliament and traveling to a military base in Darwin. The remote northern coastal town is where 2,500 Marines will be stationed permanently under an agreement the president and Prime Minister Julia Gerard announced yesterday — much to the consternation of the Chinese government, which doesn’t appreciate the U.S. effort to become a military counterweight to China in the Pacific Rim.
BASIC MATH: The sum of today’s supercommittee tea leaves is that there’s just enough hope for a deal left that Reid and Boehner are willing to enter the fray — although maybe only long enough to conclude that the two sides cannot be bridged, and certainly not in the time available. While the formal legislative language has to be done by Monday and the committee doesn’t have to vote until a week from today, a general consensus has emerged that there needs to be a handshake by the day after tomorrow (maybe push-able until Saturday) for the paperwork and the budgetary scorekeeping to get done in time.
Pushed hard by John Kerry — who sees this budget deal as his legacy-maker — Democrats are now willing to drop their revenue number to $800 billion (from $1 trillion) in a final attempt to get to a deal. But in return, they’re going to insist that entitlement curbs over the next decade be held to that new, lower number as well. And the Republicans are showing every sign they’re going to spurn that offer. Not only do they want to extract more from Medicare and Medicaid, but much more importantly, they also are already so far outside their own comfort zone with their stated willingness to go for as much as $300 billion in new revenues.
Co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling signaled as much last night when he said of his side, “We have gone as far as we feel we can go” on taxes. That was an acknowledgment of the reality that — even with Pat Toomey, the small-government advocate turned senator, putting his name atop the tax plan, the leadership would be hard-pressed to corral enough members of the GOP rank and file to push such a deal to enactment.
The flurry of top leadership meetings last night could also be a signal that the supercommittee has revealed that it has essentially abandoned hope of reaching a $1.2 trillion deal, and that the two parties’ members are looking for guidance from the top Hill brass about whether they should walk away altogether — or roll out a bill worth less than that amount (the current best guess is they have agreement on about $600 billion in savings) that largely avoids addressing taxes and entitlements. The supercommittee is allowed to create a proposal that cuts just a few hundred billion dollars — and then the difference between that figure and $1.2 trillion would be the size of the across-the-board defense and civilian spending cuts. And shrinking the size of that sequester would at least be a way to tamp down talk that the self-imposed punishment should be skirted altogether.
EPARTURES AND ARRIVALS: Minibus No. 2 is permanently on blocks, and even the vestige that remains before the Senate — the Energy-Water bill — may be abandoned in the next 24 hours. (Reid really, really wants the bill to pass because it would put the Senate on record against any funding for the nuclear waste storage center under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, but he may be forced to relent in the face of a wave of GOP amendments designed to stoke the Solyndra controversy.)designed to stoke the Solyndra controversy.)
What it means: Appropriators will be spending the next month doing what they’ve been fighting against — but what’s been expected of them — all year: Assembling a behemoth appropriations package to handle the great majority of discretionary appropriations for the nine months of fiscal 2012 that remain. The must-pass, and generally bipartisan, Pentagon spending bill will be the vehicle that carries all the other measures.
That scenario assumes enactment by this weekend of Minibus No. 1, the three-bill domestic spending package that also keeps the rest of the government running until Dec. 16. That’s going to happen, but not without some sweating among the House Republican whips, who are now working hard to hold the number of GOP defections to no more than 40. (That number of “no” votes would mean 20 Democrats would have to vote “yes” to assure passage.) Their challenge is being made significantly more difficult now that two prominent conservative groups, the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, have come out against the bill — by putting it on their “key vote” lawmaker-approval scorecards — because in their view it doesn’t cut spending enough (less than 1 percent overall for the programs covered) and would increase the maximum size of home loans that can receive FHA guarantees.
— David Hawkings, editor
Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/davidhawkings.
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--November 16, 2011
CONTACT: Lynn Childs, CCTA Tea Party Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association
CONTACT: Lynn Childs, CCTA Tea Party Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association
(252-402-0333) lynn.ccta@gmail.com
Tea Party to “Deal in the District” with Local Representatives
Activists to Demand Real, Gimmick-Free Spending Cuts
NEW BERN, NC – On Thursday at noon local time, members of the Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest grassroots organization, will visit their representatives in the House of Representatives in district offices across the country to demand they and the so-called “Super Committee” show fiscal responsibility and make real spending cuts, not accounting gimmicks. Activists are encouraged to RSVP for the “Deal in the District” at http://www.teapartypatriots.org/event/deal-in-the-district/.
“Our local Patriots will be bringing their concerns in-person to their representatives in Congress to demand they listen to our demands for real spending cuts, now,” said Lynn Childs of Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association. “It will be up to them to respond.”
“We want real cuts, not the phantom, fake cuts which are standard procedure for a Congress quick to posture as champions of debt and deficit reduction,” said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots.
“Reducing the government’s future spending is not a real cut,” said Mark Meckler, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots. “Tea Party Patriots demand gimmick-free reductions in federal spending in the Super Committee’s November 23 plan. Activists across the country know we are headed the way of Greece if we do not immediately face fiscal reality.”
Activists are encouraged to tell their Member of Congress:
• We want REAL spending cuts. No more gimmicks, no more lies. Make real cuts and prioritize!
• Increasing spending more slowly than someone else is still increasing spending.
• When you increase spending by $5 and then cut $3, you haven’t made a cut. Your total spending is still $2 higher than it was before. This is a gimmick. Stop it. Now.
• If you say you’re cutting $3, then cut $3. This year. (And in case it’s not clear to your Rep., $3 is an example. A whole lot more than $3 needs to be cut!)
• All of the so-called cuts passed by Congress always get spread out over ten years, but this Congress has no authority over the next Congress and those cuts from this year can easily be overturned. Therefore, real cuts are cuts that occur within in the same fiscal year.
• Our country’s national debt has now surpassed our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now is the time for real cuts, not fake cuts.
• We see what is happening to Greece and Italy, and to the Eurozone in general. It is the responsibility of elected officials to make real cuts now.
Tea Party Patriots is a national grassroots coalition with more than 3,300 locally organized chapters and more than 15 million supporters nationwide. Tea Party Patriots is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets. Visit Tea Party Patriots online at www.TeaPartyPatriots.org.
The Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association, a grassroots, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, advocates minimum government and maximum freedom. We are dedicated to the preservation of free enterprise and the United States
###
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS ALERT: Deal in the District--ALERT--November 17, 2011, 12pm Local Time
URGENT! This Thursday, thousands of Tea Party Patriots from across the nation will visit their Representatives’ local offices to tell them…
No more gimmicks. No more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize.
Here are the details. (Click here for more information)
•Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011.
•Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (in your local time zone).
Note: Please visit the office at any time on Thursday if you can’t go at noon.
•Location: Your local Representative’s office. (Click here to find yours)
Action steps.
1.RSVP here.
2.Send this Deal in the District page to your members, friends, neighbors, family, etc.
3.Learn about what REAL CUTS look like here, before you visit your Congressman. There are materials and resources on this page that you can download and print out.
4.Spread the word about this event on Facebook and Twitter. Use the hashtag #realcuts if you are tweeting about the event.
Remember…
•We want REAL spending cuts. No more gimmicks, no more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize!
•Increasing spending more slowly than someone else is still increasing spending.
•When you increase spending by $5 and then cut $3, you haven’t made a cut. Your total spending is still $2 higher than it was before. This is a gimmick. Stop it. Now.
•If you say you’re cutting $3, then cut $3. This year. (And in case it’s not clear to your Rep., $3 is an example. A whole lot more than $3 needs to be cut!)
•All of the so-called cuts passed by Congress always get spread out over ten years, but this Congress has no authority over the next Congress and those cuts from this year can easily be overturned. Therefore, real cuts are cuts that occur within in the same fiscal year.
•Our country’s national debt has now surpassed our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now is the time for real cuts, not fake cuts.
•We see what is happening to Greece and Italy, and to the Eurozone in general. It is the responsibility of elected officials to make REAL CUTS now.
Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Tea Party Patriots, Inc. are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes.
Copyright © Tea Party Patriots, Inc. 2011
Tea Party Patriots
1025 Rose Creek Drive
Ste 620-322
Woodstock, GA 30189
Support: 404-593-0877
support@teapartypatriots.org
No more gimmicks. No more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize.
Here are the details. (Click here for more information)
•Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011.
•Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (in your local time zone).
Note: Please visit the office at any time on Thursday if you can’t go at noon.
•Location: Your local Representative’s office. (Click here to find yours)
Action steps.
1.RSVP here.
2.Send this Deal in the District page to your members, friends, neighbors, family, etc.
3.Learn about what REAL CUTS look like here, before you visit your Congressman. There are materials and resources on this page that you can download and print out.
4.Spread the word about this event on Facebook and Twitter. Use the hashtag #realcuts if you are tweeting about the event.
Remember…
•We want REAL spending cuts. No more gimmicks, no more lies. Make REAL CUTS and prioritize!
•Increasing spending more slowly than someone else is still increasing spending.
•When you increase spending by $5 and then cut $3, you haven’t made a cut. Your total spending is still $2 higher than it was before. This is a gimmick. Stop it. Now.
•If you say you’re cutting $3, then cut $3. This year. (And in case it’s not clear to your Rep., $3 is an example. A whole lot more than $3 needs to be cut!)
•All of the so-called cuts passed by Congress always get spread out over ten years, but this Congress has no authority over the next Congress and those cuts from this year can easily be overturned. Therefore, real cuts are cuts that occur within in the same fiscal year.
•Our country’s national debt has now surpassed our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now is the time for real cuts, not fake cuts.
•We see what is happening to Greece and Italy, and to the Eurozone in general. It is the responsibility of elected officials to make REAL CUTS now.
Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Tea Party Patriots, Inc. are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes.
Copyright © Tea Party Patriots, Inc. 2011
Tea Party Patriots
1025 Rose Creek Drive
Ste 620-322
Woodstock, GA 30189
Support: 404-593-0877
support@teapartypatriots.org
Monday, November 14, 2011
CQ ROLL CALL: Daily Briefing--November 14, 2011
Today In Washington
THE SUPREME COURT: The justices agreed this morning to review the constitutionality of the health care overhaul in time for a ruling in June. They said they will hear five hours of oral arguments — likely in late March — focused on the heart of the 2010 law, a requirement that individuals buy medical insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty.
THE HOUSE: Convenes at 2 to debate bills that would name seven post offices, a wildlife refuge in Mississippi and a federal courthouse being built in Florida (for Alto Lee Adams, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court from 1949-51). If any lawmakers object, they can demand a roll call vote after 6:30.
THE SENATE: Convenes at 2 for preliminary debate only (no cutting or deregulating amendments from Republicans yet) on the second appropriations minibus for the fiscal year that’s six weeks old: a $129.5 billion package combining what are normally three different spending bills: Energy-Water, Financial Services and State-Foreign Operations.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama’s got only one public event on the third day of his Pacific Rim trip: a fundraiser at 11:15 (Hawaii time) at the Aulani Disney Resort in Kapolei.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS: The Supreme Court’s timetable for considering the health care law gives the justices the power to make their most politically decisive ruling since they effectively decided the 2000 presidential election.
But that’s only if a majority of the court decides it even wants to settle the question of whether the federal government has the power to compel people to buy a product in the commercial marketplace (a health insurance policy) and punish them (with a tax) if they don’t. A ruling, four months before Election Day, that the mandate is constitutional would provide a significant and perfectly timed boost to Obama and congressional Democrats — because it would enshrine for the ages their top shared domestic policy achievement. A ruling that strikes it down would grant the GOP nominee-in-waiting, and congressional Republican candidates, their No. 1 campaign season wish — because it would validate all of their vituperative derisions of “Obamacare” as an unconstitutional overreach.
The main reason the justices would take one side or the other is that the regional federal appeals courts have been split on the core question of whether the mandate is within Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. (Two have upheld the law, a third has found it unconstitutional and a fourth has ruled it’s too soon to say.) And a main function of the Supreme Court is to make consistent judicial policy when the lower courts disagree. But it’s also true (Bush v. Gore aside) that Roberts and the other conservatives who are the majority on the court have said over and over again that the judicial branch should generally look for ways to stay out of white-hot political disputes — and also should defer, if at all possible, to the will of the elected branches of government when it comes to policy disputes.
And so the easiest way to find five votes between now and June might be for one of those conservatives (the chief justice, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and that big maybe, Kennedy) to shop the view among his colleagues that it’s too soon to decide the constitutional question yet — because the mandate hasn’t actually taken effect and so no one has been “harmed” by having to pay a penalty for not obeying.
ANOTHER WAY OUT: Ten days until the supercommittee’s absolute deadline (counting today) ... six days until the CBO needs to know what it’s scoring if there’s going to be a deal ... and still no glimmer of a bipartisan bargain remotely in sight no matter what co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling says. In fact, Clyburn says his fellow Democrats on the panel are getting more and more itchy to get off the same page, and the Republicans in the group are getting ready for a fusillade of criticism from the rank and file — especially House members returning from a week back home — for their offer to raise $250 billion in new revenue (without actually raising tax rates), which would get one-fifth the way toward the panel’s $1.2 trillion minimum target.
The boomlet today is for the idea that the deal would do nothing more than set reconciliation instructions for a net-revenue-rasing tax overhaul (size not yet determined) to be written next year — and with the same up-or-down-vote/no-filibuster process that’s supposed to help the supercommittee now. It’s the last plausible escape hatch left for the supercommittee to wriggle through, especially because the lawmakers can say their move would be more than kicking the can down the road — it would be facing the reality that rewriting the tax code in a few days would be nearly impossible, because of the prospect that a single misplaced comma could mess things up seriously down the road.
The talk of dismantling the punishment trigger — the across-the-board sequester cutting both military and civilian programs in the absence of a deal — is getting louder again today, mainly because Obama over the weekend made clear that he opposes the idea but pointedly did not use the word “veto” in discussing how he would react to a bill that would disarm the trigger.
TOTALLY SPENT: Negotiators are on course to announce their deal today on the first minibus of fiscal 2012 spending bills — in plenty of time for Congress to clear it by week’s end. The package will provide $128 billion in discretionary appropriations through next September for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and HUD departments as well as NASA, the FDA and the National Science Foundation. It also will have language keeping all the rest of the government on autopilot until the middle of December — meaning there’s really not even the theoretical threat of another government shutdown this week. (The first shutdown resulting from the fabled Gingrich-Clinton budget standoff started 16 years ago today, by the way.)
Two of the more important policy shifts that will be carried by the minibus are restrictions on NASA’s relationships with China and Chinese-owned companies, and an end to restrictions on heavy trucks using the interstate highways in Maine and Vermont.
RIM SHOT: Fresh off his success in winning bipartisan congressional backing for trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Peru, Obama is making headway on another front that could make trade liberalization one of the “who knew?” hallmarks of his presidency. At the APEC summit in Honolulu over the weekend, he won commitments from Japan and Canada to join talks aimed at binding nine Pacific Rim nations to a trade pact in the next year. If it happens, it would be the biggest such deal since NAFTA in 1994 — and would be a significant step toward giving American goods and services a commercial advantage against those from China. (The talks already involve Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore, all of which already have separate free-trade agreements with the U.S., as well as Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Brunei.)
ONE-DAY STORY: There won’t be any investigative or poor public relations “legs’’ to last night’s “60 Minutes” report suggesting that Boehner, Pelosi, House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus and other lawmakers made stock-trading profits off of insider information. That’s because what’s being alleged is based on implication only; insider-trading laws don’t apply to members of Congress; the story was bipartisan in nature, and thus one side can’t use it against the other; and, besides all that, the public perception of Congress is already so low that it won’t be driven lower by additional evidence that buttresses existing suspicions that people at the Capitol get preferential treatment.
All that said, the issues raised by CBS (and Peter Schweizer, the conservative Hoover Institution scholar who drove the reporting process for Steve Kroft’s piece) are as ethically complex as they are important. But, in a sense, those issues boil down to this: Since House members and senators have access to non-public information on the full range of American and global economic activity — and have the capacity to shape the futures of almost any business — should their every investment transaction be suspect to suspicion? If the answer is “yes,” but the notion is that lawmakers should have a chance to buy stocks like the rest of us, should they be compelled — if not by law, then by public pressure — to make all of their investments through blind trusts?
QUOTE OF NOTE: “They’re wrong. Waterboarding is torture. It’s contrary to America’s traditions. It’s contrary to our ideals,” Obama said last night during his press conference after the APEC summit, reacting to the support for the practice expressed by Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann at Saturday night’s GOP presidential debate. “That’s not who we are. That’s not how we operate. We don’t need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism, and we did the right thing by ending that practice.”
— David Hawkings, editor
Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/davidhawkings.
THE SUPREME COURT: The justices agreed this morning to review the constitutionality of the health care overhaul in time for a ruling in June. They said they will hear five hours of oral arguments — likely in late March — focused on the heart of the 2010 law, a requirement that individuals buy medical insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty.
THE HOUSE: Convenes at 2 to debate bills that would name seven post offices, a wildlife refuge in Mississippi and a federal courthouse being built in Florida (for Alto Lee Adams, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court from 1949-51). If any lawmakers object, they can demand a roll call vote after 6:30.
THE SENATE: Convenes at 2 for preliminary debate only (no cutting or deregulating amendments from Republicans yet) on the second appropriations minibus for the fiscal year that’s six weeks old: a $129.5 billion package combining what are normally three different spending bills: Energy-Water, Financial Services and State-Foreign Operations.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama’s got only one public event on the third day of his Pacific Rim trip: a fundraiser at 11:15 (Hawaii time) at the Aulani Disney Resort in Kapolei.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS: The Supreme Court’s timetable for considering the health care law gives the justices the power to make their most politically decisive ruling since they effectively decided the 2000 presidential election.
But that’s only if a majority of the court decides it even wants to settle the question of whether the federal government has the power to compel people to buy a product in the commercial marketplace (a health insurance policy) and punish them (with a tax) if they don’t. A ruling, four months before Election Day, that the mandate is constitutional would provide a significant and perfectly timed boost to Obama and congressional Democrats — because it would enshrine for the ages their top shared domestic policy achievement. A ruling that strikes it down would grant the GOP nominee-in-waiting, and congressional Republican candidates, their No. 1 campaign season wish — because it would validate all of their vituperative derisions of “Obamacare” as an unconstitutional overreach.
The main reason the justices would take one side or the other is that the regional federal appeals courts have been split on the core question of whether the mandate is within Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. (Two have upheld the law, a third has found it unconstitutional and a fourth has ruled it’s too soon to say.) And a main function of the Supreme Court is to make consistent judicial policy when the lower courts disagree. But it’s also true (Bush v. Gore aside) that Roberts and the other conservatives who are the majority on the court have said over and over again that the judicial branch should generally look for ways to stay out of white-hot political disputes — and also should defer, if at all possible, to the will of the elected branches of government when it comes to policy disputes.
And so the easiest way to find five votes between now and June might be for one of those conservatives (the chief justice, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and that big maybe, Kennedy) to shop the view among his colleagues that it’s too soon to decide the constitutional question yet — because the mandate hasn’t actually taken effect and so no one has been “harmed” by having to pay a penalty for not obeying.
ANOTHER WAY OUT: Ten days until the supercommittee’s absolute deadline (counting today) ... six days until the CBO needs to know what it’s scoring if there’s going to be a deal ... and still no glimmer of a bipartisan bargain remotely in sight no matter what co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling says. In fact, Clyburn says his fellow Democrats on the panel are getting more and more itchy to get off the same page, and the Republicans in the group are getting ready for a fusillade of criticism from the rank and file — especially House members returning from a week back home — for their offer to raise $250 billion in new revenue (without actually raising tax rates), which would get one-fifth the way toward the panel’s $1.2 trillion minimum target.
The boomlet today is for the idea that the deal would do nothing more than set reconciliation instructions for a net-revenue-rasing tax overhaul (size not yet determined) to be written next year — and with the same up-or-down-vote/no-filibuster process that’s supposed to help the supercommittee now. It’s the last plausible escape hatch left for the supercommittee to wriggle through, especially because the lawmakers can say their move would be more than kicking the can down the road — it would be facing the reality that rewriting the tax code in a few days would be nearly impossible, because of the prospect that a single misplaced comma could mess things up seriously down the road.
The talk of dismantling the punishment trigger — the across-the-board sequester cutting both military and civilian programs in the absence of a deal — is getting louder again today, mainly because Obama over the weekend made clear that he opposes the idea but pointedly did not use the word “veto” in discussing how he would react to a bill that would disarm the trigger.
TOTALLY SPENT: Negotiators are on course to announce their deal today on the first minibus of fiscal 2012 spending bills — in plenty of time for Congress to clear it by week’s end. The package will provide $128 billion in discretionary appropriations through next September for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and HUD departments as well as NASA, the FDA and the National Science Foundation. It also will have language keeping all the rest of the government on autopilot until the middle of December — meaning there’s really not even the theoretical threat of another government shutdown this week. (The first shutdown resulting from the fabled Gingrich-Clinton budget standoff started 16 years ago today, by the way.)
Two of the more important policy shifts that will be carried by the minibus are restrictions on NASA’s relationships with China and Chinese-owned companies, and an end to restrictions on heavy trucks using the interstate highways in Maine and Vermont.
RIM SHOT: Fresh off his success in winning bipartisan congressional backing for trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Peru, Obama is making headway on another front that could make trade liberalization one of the “who knew?” hallmarks of his presidency. At the APEC summit in Honolulu over the weekend, he won commitments from Japan and Canada to join talks aimed at binding nine Pacific Rim nations to a trade pact in the next year. If it happens, it would be the biggest such deal since NAFTA in 1994 — and would be a significant step toward giving American goods and services a commercial advantage against those from China. (The talks already involve Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore, all of which already have separate free-trade agreements with the U.S., as well as Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Brunei.)
ONE-DAY STORY: There won’t be any investigative or poor public relations “legs’’ to last night’s “60 Minutes” report suggesting that Boehner, Pelosi, House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus and other lawmakers made stock-trading profits off of insider information. That’s because what’s being alleged is based on implication only; insider-trading laws don’t apply to members of Congress; the story was bipartisan in nature, and thus one side can’t use it against the other; and, besides all that, the public perception of Congress is already so low that it won’t be driven lower by additional evidence that buttresses existing suspicions that people at the Capitol get preferential treatment.
All that said, the issues raised by CBS (and Peter Schweizer, the conservative Hoover Institution scholar who drove the reporting process for Steve Kroft’s piece) are as ethically complex as they are important. But, in a sense, those issues boil down to this: Since House members and senators have access to non-public information on the full range of American and global economic activity — and have the capacity to shape the futures of almost any business — should their every investment transaction be suspect to suspicion? If the answer is “yes,” but the notion is that lawmakers should have a chance to buy stocks like the rest of us, should they be compelled — if not by law, then by public pressure — to make all of their investments through blind trusts?
QUOTE OF NOTE: “They’re wrong. Waterboarding is torture. It’s contrary to America’s traditions. It’s contrary to our ideals,” Obama said last night during his press conference after the APEC summit, reacting to the support for the practice expressed by Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann at Saturday night’s GOP presidential debate. “That’s not who we are. That’s not how we operate. We don’t need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism, and we did the right thing by ending that practice.”
— David Hawkings, editor
Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/davidhawkings.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
BREAKING: Dems Walk Away from Super Committee
November 10, 2011
Latest update on the lack of progress for Dems and Republicans to reach a tax deal. Yesterday Democrats of the Super Committee rejected Republicans’ offer to “raise federal tax collections by nearly $300 billion over the next decade.”
Senator Rand Paul exclusively has JUST told Sean that not only are Democrats rejecting offers put on the table, but now they won’t even continue to negotiate and have “walked away from the table…refusing to talk to the Republicans.”
Paul warns the American people that this is all about Obama’s reelection, and the taxpayers livelihood is of no concern to Obama and the Democrats.
CONTINUED: http://patriotupdate.com/14435/breaking-dems-walk-away-from-super-committee
Latest update on the lack of progress for Dems and Republicans to reach a tax deal. Yesterday Democrats of the Super Committee rejected Republicans’ offer to “raise federal tax collections by nearly $300 billion over the next decade.”
Senator Rand Paul exclusively has JUST told Sean that not only are Democrats rejecting offers put on the table, but now they won’t even continue to negotiate and have “walked away from the table…refusing to talk to the Republicans.”
Paul warns the American people that this is all about Obama’s reelection, and the taxpayers livelihood is of no concern to Obama and the Democrats.
CONTINUED: http://patriotupdate.com/14435/breaking-dems-walk-away-from-super-committee
Monday, October 31, 2011
Today In Washington
Monday, October 31, 2011
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is ordering the FDA to take new steps to prevent and reduce shortages of cancer medicines, anesthetics, emergency-room supplies and other drugs that have recently been in short supply. He’s signing an executive order to that effect within the hour, the latest move in his effort to advance his priorities without any input from Congress. But the president is going to endorse legislation requiring drug makers to notify the FDA six months ahead of a potential shortage.
Obama spent more than an hour in the Oval Office this morning with Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who’s now leading a balky effort to broker Middle East peace.
THE SENATE: Convenes at 3 with no business beyond a 5:30 vote to confirm Stephen Higginson, who runs the appeals office for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans and teaches full time at Loyola Law School, for a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
THE HOUSE: Convenes at 1 for a brief pro forma session.
BIG DOGS BARKING: With 23 days to the next big deadline for a deficit deal, look for the top four Capitol Hill leaders to get much more overtly involved this week in the search for a deal that could get through Congress with bipartisan support — and narrow the next decade’s yawning budget gap by substantially more than the $1.2 trillion supercommittee minimum. That’s because the continuing partisan impasse over taxes has kept the all-powerful 12 from getting close at all to an agreement — despite about two dozen gatherings for private negotiating sessions, social dinners and public hearings.
With the lights on in both chambers for the first time in three weeks, Boehner and McConnell have the opportunity to do some coordinated temperature-taking about the willingness of rank-and-file Republicans to accept some measure of additional revenue (whether tied to expected economic growth or not) as the price of a deal that makes a big dent in the deficit, eases economic anxiety and restores at least some confidence in Washington. If they conclude that close to half of GOP House members and senators are willing to make that trade-off, a grand bargain may yet be achievable — and they will give Jeb Hensarling and Jon Kyl the green light to work out the details.
Similarly, Reid and Pelosi will be doing some gentle whip-cracking of their own — to make sure that not too many in their ranks are rebelling against the big concessions to party principles embodied in last week’s opening Democratic bid at the supercommitee: $500 billion in Medicaid and Medicare reductions and trims to discretionary spending beyond what’s already in store — assuming that those cuts are paired with a decent-sized tax increase. (The liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the Democrats’ plan “actually stands well to the right of plans” offered by the Bowles-Simpson and Rivlin-Domenici commissions and is the best the GOP should be allowed to hope for in a negotiated settlement.)
The White House, meanwhile, shows less and less interest in the supercommittee process by the day. Officials there are concluding there’s so little chance for a deal that there’s no percentage in the president putting any of his dwindling political capital on the line — especially while he’s getting some mileage (and an uptick in his approval ratings) out of his “We can’t wait” campaign to show he can govern at the margins without any help from the do-little Congress.
As has been the case since the supercommitee was created in August, its best chance for overcoming the long odds for success lies in lawmakers’ concluding that the alternative would be worse: indiscriminate across-the-board cuts to domestic and defense programs that make Republicans and Democrats cringe with nearly equal anxiety.
A LITTLE GET-TOGETHER: The most tangible budget news of the week won’t be the Senate’s passage of only its second spending bill for the fiscal year that started a month ago. A solid bipartisan vote for that domestic spending “minibus” — $128 billion for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and HUD departments as well as the FDA and the National Science Foundation — is on course for no later than Wednesday. But the real news will be that, after that, House and Senate appropriators plan on convening their first actual conference committee in two years — and that those lawmakers actually have been authorized by their leaders to come up with a genuine compromise agreement.
The big question for the negotiators is whether to turn what’s currently a three-spending-bill amalgam into a package including five or six bills. They will do so only if appropriators are confident they can push whatever bill they come up with through the House — where a coalition of conservative Republicans (who lament the bills would spend too much) and liberal Democrats (who lament the opposite) appear to have the combined muscle to stop any spending legislation for now.
SOURCE: CQ Roll Call--Daily Briefing, http://www.cqrollcall.com/
— David Hawkings, editor
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama is ordering the FDA to take new steps to prevent and reduce shortages of cancer medicines, anesthetics, emergency-room supplies and other drugs that have recently been in short supply. He’s signing an executive order to that effect within the hour, the latest move in his effort to advance his priorities without any input from Congress. But the president is going to endorse legislation requiring drug makers to notify the FDA six months ahead of a potential shortage.
Obama spent more than an hour in the Oval Office this morning with Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who’s now leading a balky effort to broker Middle East peace.
THE SENATE: Convenes at 3 with no business beyond a 5:30 vote to confirm Stephen Higginson, who runs the appeals office for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans and teaches full time at Loyola Law School, for a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
THE HOUSE: Convenes at 1 for a brief pro forma session.
BIG DOGS BARKING: With 23 days to the next big deadline for a deficit deal, look for the top four Capitol Hill leaders to get much more overtly involved this week in the search for a deal that could get through Congress with bipartisan support — and narrow the next decade’s yawning budget gap by substantially more than the $1.2 trillion supercommittee minimum. That’s because the continuing partisan impasse over taxes has kept the all-powerful 12 from getting close at all to an agreement — despite about two dozen gatherings for private negotiating sessions, social dinners and public hearings.
With the lights on in both chambers for the first time in three weeks, Boehner and McConnell have the opportunity to do some coordinated temperature-taking about the willingness of rank-and-file Republicans to accept some measure of additional revenue (whether tied to expected economic growth or not) as the price of a deal that makes a big dent in the deficit, eases economic anxiety and restores at least some confidence in Washington. If they conclude that close to half of GOP House members and senators are willing to make that trade-off, a grand bargain may yet be achievable — and they will give Jeb Hensarling and Jon Kyl the green light to work out the details.
Similarly, Reid and Pelosi will be doing some gentle whip-cracking of their own — to make sure that not too many in their ranks are rebelling against the big concessions to party principles embodied in last week’s opening Democratic bid at the supercommitee: $500 billion in Medicaid and Medicare reductions and trims to discretionary spending beyond what’s already in store — assuming that those cuts are paired with a decent-sized tax increase. (The liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the Democrats’ plan “actually stands well to the right of plans” offered by the Bowles-Simpson and Rivlin-Domenici commissions and is the best the GOP should be allowed to hope for in a negotiated settlement.)
The White House, meanwhile, shows less and less interest in the supercommittee process by the day. Officials there are concluding there’s so little chance for a deal that there’s no percentage in the president putting any of his dwindling political capital on the line — especially while he’s getting some mileage (and an uptick in his approval ratings) out of his “We can’t wait” campaign to show he can govern at the margins without any help from the do-little Congress.
As has been the case since the supercommitee was created in August, its best chance for overcoming the long odds for success lies in lawmakers’ concluding that the alternative would be worse: indiscriminate across-the-board cuts to domestic and defense programs that make Republicans and Democrats cringe with nearly equal anxiety.
A LITTLE GET-TOGETHER: The most tangible budget news of the week won’t be the Senate’s passage of only its second spending bill for the fiscal year that started a month ago. A solid bipartisan vote for that domestic spending “minibus” — $128 billion for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and HUD departments as well as the FDA and the National Science Foundation — is on course for no later than Wednesday. But the real news will be that, after that, House and Senate appropriators plan on convening their first actual conference committee in two years — and that those lawmakers actually have been authorized by their leaders to come up with a genuine compromise agreement.
The big question for the negotiators is whether to turn what’s currently a three-spending-bill amalgam into a package including five or six bills. They will do so only if appropriators are confident they can push whatever bill they come up with through the House — where a coalition of conservative Republicans (who lament the bills would spend too much) and liberal Democrats (who lament the opposite) appear to have the combined muscle to stop any spending legislation for now.
SOURCE: CQ Roll Call--Daily Briefing, http://www.cqrollcall.com/
— David Hawkings, editor
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