Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. The President spent the day today in New Jersey and New York City, first talking jobs, then going to some elite fundraisers. Not exactly a good political juxtaposition.
THE SENATE: It's becoming very apparent that Congress won't be doing much of anything for the rest of this election year. Republicans seem pretty content to not only filibuster Democratic agenda items, but to grind the Senate to a halt until the Democratic majority is reduced or eliminated. Take the bill on the floor right now, the small business lending bill. The bill has been on the floor for almost a month. Republicans have refused to allow votes on amendments or the bill itself, despite the fact that the bill is basically a Republican idea. The party that talks daily about tax breaks to businesses doesn't want to allow a vote on a bill that gives money directly to small businesses. We've said it a million times, but Republicans knee-jerk opposition is becoming a disturbing matter of habit.
Tomorrow, finally, the Senate will vote whether to cut off debate on the small business bill, and hopefully will send it to the House quickly so that it can go straight to President Obama's desk.
Then there's the issue of energy. Majority Leader Reid has taken the idea of a comprehensive energy bill off the table for this session of Congress. He has instead proposed a much narrower bill, that will raise the liability cap for BP in relation to the oil spill, and will also contain some small investments in alternative energy. Reid was hoping to bring the bill to the floor early next week. But Republicans are howling in opposition even to this small measure, ostensibly because they are against new regulations on "hydro-flacking" which is a way to extract onshore natural gas. Is there any question whether they'll let this bill go through? I don't think so.
Given these restrictions, I think it's time that the President use some of his executive powers to make changes. For one, he could have the EPA place restrictions on carbon emissions. At the very least, the EPA could issue that threat to spur some sort of action on climate change. On the jobs front, Obama could put some backhanded political pressure on the federal reserve to take more measures to pump money into the economy short-term, or as Matthew Yglesias suggests, do some strategic talking.
THE HOUSE: While the Senate spent a day dilly-dallying, the House actually did some minorly important work. This morning, the House unanimously passed a bill that would bring parity to sentencing for crack and cocaine users. There has long been a policy that punishes crack users far more than cocaine users, which has a disparate impact on minorities. The Senate has already passed the bill, so it will go straight to President Obama for his signature.
The House also passed the first of 12 annual appropriations bills today, the bill funding Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. This is usually the least controversial of the spending bills, and today was no exception. The bill passed by a vote of 411-6. All of the no votes came from Republicans. The House will take up another spending bill tomorrow, though they will almost certainly not complete all 12 bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, which will require Congress to pass some continuing resolutions to keep the government funded.
That's it for today, we'll see you tomorrow, at which point we'll have a special announcement.
Showing posts with label Small Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Small Business. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Daily Strike-7/27/10-Undisclosed
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike, on what's been a somewhat depressing day in politics.
THE SENATE: The Senate today failed to advance the campaign finance bill known as the DISCLOSE Act. The bill, which passed the House, would place new disclosure requirements on corporations and unions donated to political campaigns. Republicans decried the bill as as trampling on free speech, even though many of these same Republicans voted for a far more expansive campaign finance bill in 2002. The vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill (that's about 4 votes away from final passage, if you're keeping track) was 57-41, and it broke down strictly on party lines. Every Democrat voted for the bill, except for Majority Leader Reid, who voted no for procedural reasons. Every Republican voted no. Senators Lieberman (?-CT) and Ensign (R-NV) were absent.
Today's vote means that the bill is killed for the remainder of this Congress, and for the foreseeable future. As bad as our political system is now, it will only get worse, as corporations have unencumbered access to political candidates. Today's vote also proves that Republicans care far more about their own political interest than they do about the integrity of our democratic system, though you probably knew that already.
The Senate is limping towards the finish line of this month's session. Tomorrow, Senators will continue consideration of the Small Business Jobs bill, which would provide for loans to small businesses during the economic downturn. If only Democrats could find ways to add some other stimulus money to this bill, like money for state and local governments.
After the Senate finishes the work on that bill, they'll vote on the Kagan Supreme Court nomination next week and skip out of town, having done very little to address the myriad of problems facing the country.
THE HOUSE: The House voted today to give final approval to $60 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For all the deficit hysteria we've seen over much smaller spending bills, this bill passed by a huge margin of 308-114. 102 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted against the war funding. Democrats had originally tried to attach domestic measure to the war funding bill, like aid to states, summer and youth jobs programs, and other jobs measures. Democrats were unable to get enough support for these items in the Senate.
It still amazes me that a tiny jobs bill gets bottled up in the Senate almost weekly, while a much larger funding bill for endless wars passes without a whimper.
The House will move on to consideration of appropriations bills over the next couple of days. The House will skip town at the end of the week, but hopefully they'll ratify whatever the Senate does on Small Business lending legislation.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The main event at the White House today was a meeting with bipartisan Congressional leadership about the rest of the legislative agenda this year. The meeting didn't produce much news, but we were able to glean some tension between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. Pelosi is furious at Reid for abandoning a comprehensive climate bill in favor of a scaled-back piece of energy legislation. Pelosi forced her vulnerable members to support a cap-and-trade bill with the promise that Reid would follow suit in the Senate, which will not happen. I obviously sympathize with Pelosi on this one, but I'm not sure what else Reid could have done. There clearly weren't 60 votes for the climate bill, and the White House has shown almost no leadership in advocating for the legislation.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow!
THE SENATE: The Senate today failed to advance the campaign finance bill known as the DISCLOSE Act. The bill, which passed the House, would place new disclosure requirements on corporations and unions donated to political campaigns. Republicans decried the bill as as trampling on free speech, even though many of these same Republicans voted for a far more expansive campaign finance bill in 2002. The vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill (that's about 4 votes away from final passage, if you're keeping track) was 57-41, and it broke down strictly on party lines. Every Democrat voted for the bill, except for Majority Leader Reid, who voted no for procedural reasons. Every Republican voted no. Senators Lieberman (?-CT) and Ensign (R-NV) were absent.
Today's vote means that the bill is killed for the remainder of this Congress, and for the foreseeable future. As bad as our political system is now, it will only get worse, as corporations have unencumbered access to political candidates. Today's vote also proves that Republicans care far more about their own political interest than they do about the integrity of our democratic system, though you probably knew that already.
The Senate is limping towards the finish line of this month's session. Tomorrow, Senators will continue consideration of the Small Business Jobs bill, which would provide for loans to small businesses during the economic downturn. If only Democrats could find ways to add some other stimulus money to this bill, like money for state and local governments.
After the Senate finishes the work on that bill, they'll vote on the Kagan Supreme Court nomination next week and skip out of town, having done very little to address the myriad of problems facing the country.
THE HOUSE: The House voted today to give final approval to $60 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For all the deficit hysteria we've seen over much smaller spending bills, this bill passed by a huge margin of 308-114. 102 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted against the war funding. Democrats had originally tried to attach domestic measure to the war funding bill, like aid to states, summer and youth jobs programs, and other jobs measures. Democrats were unable to get enough support for these items in the Senate.
It still amazes me that a tiny jobs bill gets bottled up in the Senate almost weekly, while a much larger funding bill for endless wars passes without a whimper.
The House will move on to consideration of appropriations bills over the next couple of days. The House will skip town at the end of the week, but hopefully they'll ratify whatever the Senate does on Small Business lending legislation.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The main event at the White House today was a meeting with bipartisan Congressional leadership about the rest of the legislative agenda this year. The meeting didn't produce much news, but we were able to glean some tension between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. Pelosi is furious at Reid for abandoning a comprehensive climate bill in favor of a scaled-back piece of energy legislation. Pelosi forced her vulnerable members to support a cap-and-trade bill with the promise that Reid would follow suit in the Senate, which will not happen. I obviously sympathize with Pelosi on this one, but I'm not sure what else Reid could have done. There clearly weren't 60 votes for the climate bill, and the White House has shown almost no leadership in advocating for the legislation.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Daily Strike-7/20/10-Relief, At Last
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. It was another busy July day in politics, so let's get to it.
THE SENATE: Thanks to the newest Senator, Carte Goodwin of West Virginia (D), the Senate was finally able to break a logjam on the unemployment extension bill. As a result, suffering American families will finally get some much-needed relief. Goodwin joined 57 other Democrats, as well as Republicans Snowe and Collins of Maine to cut off debate on the bill. Democrat Ben Nelson (NE) and every other Republican refused to spend $34 billion to give much needed assistance to those who have borne the brunt of the very recession caused by Republican economic policies.
The vote on the bill itself will come tomorrow, though it is certain to pass, since cloture has already been invoked. The bill will then head to the House where it will be rubber stamped Thursday and sent to the President for his signature.
The bill would have passed anyway, but the President's pushback against Republican obstruction on this bill was wise and helpful. Those who think it's ok to balloon the deficit by giving tax breaks to the rich while refusing to vote for a minor bill that would help struggling Americans need to be called out.
The Senate will move next to the long-stalled small business loan bill. Democrats should force Republicans to explain why they are holding this bill up.
Away from the floor, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 13-6. Every Democrat on the committee supported her nomination, including some who were less than impressed with her confirmation hearings. The only Republican on the committee to support the nomination was Lindsey Graham (SC), who also supported Sonia Sotomayor last year. Graham's support all but assures Kagan's nomination when she comes to the Senate floor in a couple of weeks. My guess is that she'll get about 69 votes, the same amount Sotomayor received last summer.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The President today met and held a joint press availability with new British Prime Minister David Cameron. This was Cameron's first trip to the White House as Prime Minister. The two leaders played nice, emphasizing their agreement on economic policy, climate change, Afghanistan, and Israel. The biggest point of contention, apparently, was Cameron's discomfort with Obama's excessive criticism of BP. BP, of course, is a major British corporation. I have very little sympathy for Cameron's view in this case. Cameron and Obama also disagreed as to whether there should be an investigation into BP's possible involvement in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year.
I've always thought that even though Cameron is a conservative, he and Obama are actually pretty similar ideologically. I expect that they'll continue to have a good working relationship.
The biggest story from the White House today though involved a former USDA employee. The employee, an African American Woman, made a speech at the NAACP in which she talked about being resistant to helping white farmers 24 years ago when her career began in Georgia. Conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart showed the video completely out of context to make it seem like the employee, Shirley Sherrod, still held those views currently.
Sherrod was forced to resign, under pressure from USDA head Tom Vilsack, with support from the White House. This is a complete shame. The White House should not be taking cues from Andrew Breitbart, a known liar. Sherrod should be reinstated immediately.
That's it for this evening, see you tomorrow!
THE SENATE: Thanks to the newest Senator, Carte Goodwin of West Virginia (D), the Senate was finally able to break a logjam on the unemployment extension bill. As a result, suffering American families will finally get some much-needed relief. Goodwin joined 57 other Democrats, as well as Republicans Snowe and Collins of Maine to cut off debate on the bill. Democrat Ben Nelson (NE) and every other Republican refused to spend $34 billion to give much needed assistance to those who have borne the brunt of the very recession caused by Republican economic policies.
The vote on the bill itself will come tomorrow, though it is certain to pass, since cloture has already been invoked. The bill will then head to the House where it will be rubber stamped Thursday and sent to the President for his signature.
The bill would have passed anyway, but the President's pushback against Republican obstruction on this bill was wise and helpful. Those who think it's ok to balloon the deficit by giving tax breaks to the rich while refusing to vote for a minor bill that would help struggling Americans need to be called out.
The Senate will move next to the long-stalled small business loan bill. Democrats should force Republicans to explain why they are holding this bill up.
Away from the floor, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 13-6. Every Democrat on the committee supported her nomination, including some who were less than impressed with her confirmation hearings. The only Republican on the committee to support the nomination was Lindsey Graham (SC), who also supported Sonia Sotomayor last year. Graham's support all but assures Kagan's nomination when she comes to the Senate floor in a couple of weeks. My guess is that she'll get about 69 votes, the same amount Sotomayor received last summer.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The President today met and held a joint press availability with new British Prime Minister David Cameron. This was Cameron's first trip to the White House as Prime Minister. The two leaders played nice, emphasizing their agreement on economic policy, climate change, Afghanistan, and Israel. The biggest point of contention, apparently, was Cameron's discomfort with Obama's excessive criticism of BP. BP, of course, is a major British corporation. I have very little sympathy for Cameron's view in this case. Cameron and Obama also disagreed as to whether there should be an investigation into BP's possible involvement in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year.
I've always thought that even though Cameron is a conservative, he and Obama are actually pretty similar ideologically. I expect that they'll continue to have a good working relationship.
The biggest story from the White House today though involved a former USDA employee. The employee, an African American Woman, made a speech at the NAACP in which she talked about being resistant to helping white farmers 24 years ago when her career began in Georgia. Conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart showed the video completely out of context to make it seem like the employee, Shirley Sherrod, still held those views currently.
Sherrod was forced to resign, under pressure from USDA head Tom Vilsack, with support from the White House. This is a complete shame. The White House should not be taking cues from Andrew Breitbart, a known liar. Sherrod should be reinstated immediately.
That's it for this evening, see you tomorrow!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Daily Strike-6/15/10-The Oval Office Address
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. We're coming to you just before the President makes a nationally televised speech to the nation on the oil spill along the Gulf Coast. According to early reports, the President will talk about the administration's response to the spill, ongoing federal efforts to rebuild suffering industries what he plans to ask from BP executives at a meeting tomorrow. He's also likely to use the opportunity to call for comprehensive energy legislation before this year's midterm elections. The naysayers are rightly pointing out how much of an heavy lift this will be, but he might as well use this opportunity to go for bold change. To hear my thoughts on the speech in real time, follow my Twitter account. Here's the rest of the day in politics:
THE SENATE: The Senate continued work on the extenders bill (the bill that extends expiring tax breaks and unemployment insurance). Yesterday, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the bill, though he withdrew the motion today, most likely realizing that he doesn't have 60 votes to give basic safety net protection to millions of Americans during a recession. He will have to give in to the unreasonable demands of moderate Democrats and Republicans, and not surprisingly, he'll be dealing with the usual suspects, like Senators Nelson (D-NE), Snowe (R-ME) and Collins (R-ME). Until Reid can reach some sort of deal, the debate will continue indefinitely. While it continues, Senators will vote on amendments like they did today.
The first couple of amendments dealt with the oil spill issue. Senator Sanders (I-VT) wisely proposed removing millions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies. You'd think with all the deficit hawks in Congress, this would be a no-brainer. But you're forgetting that these self-proclaimed deficit hawks only care about spending when it goes to the poor or middle class! The amendment failed by a vote of 35-61. Every Republican voted against the amendment, as did the following corporate Democrats who have a lot of explaining to do: Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Begich (AK), Bennet (CO), Bingaman (NM), Conrad (ND), Dodd (CT), Dorgan (ND), Hagan (NC), Inouye (HI), Kerry (MA), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Warner (VA) and Webb (VA).
Next was an amendment from Senator Vitter (R-LA) that would have sought to ensure that any revenues from the oil trust fund would be used to pay off the deficit and not go into any new spending. The amendment failed by a vote of 48-49, with Vitter getting the support of 9 Democrats.
The final amendment, from Senator Franken (D-MN) establishes a Office of the Homeowner Advocate for the purposes of informing people of their options under the Home Affordable Modification Program. The amendment passed 63-33, with the support of every Democrat besides Conrad (ND) and Nelson (NE). Republicans Brown (MA), Burr (NC), Collins (ME), Graham (SC), Grassley (IA), Murkowski (AK), Snowe (ME) and Vitter (LA).
The Senate also approved three District Court nominees today, which leaves about 30 seats vacant! Don't you just love the Senate?
THE HOUSE: The House today passed an important bill to spur small business lending by a vote of 247-170. 5 Republicans crossed over to support the bill, while 8 Democrats voted no, out of concern that the bill would add to the deficit. This is a pretty unambitious proposal to accelerate lending to business so that they can invest in capital. I'm surprised (sort of) that it faced such opposition.
More interesting, though, was the Republican motion to recommit that preceded the vote on final passage. Republicans used the motion to bring up a vote on whether to overturn the individual mandate in the new health care law. Republicans have been harping about the provision being unconstitutional and evil. Of course, by eliminating the individual mandate, the entire law would be undermined. Insurance prices would go up, because while companies would be required to cover people with preexisting conditions, healthy people would not be getting into the insurance pool. Republicans, though, were mostly interested in scoring a political point. And they did a pretty good job, on first glance. 21 Democrats crossed over to support repeal, all of whom voted against health care in the first place. Rep. Cao (R-LA) was the lone Republican voting no. Let's just hope that the 21 Democrats who voted yes today are the first to be defeated in this November's election. Here's the list in case you're interested: Altmire (PA), Boren (OK), Boucher (VA), Bright (AL), Chandler (KY), Childers (MS), Critz (PA), Davis (TN), Edwards (TX), Holden (PA), Marshall (GA), McIntyre (NC), Minnick (ID), Nye (VA), Peterson (MN), Ross (AR), Shuler (NC), Skelton (MO), Tanner (TN), Taylor (MS) and Teague (NM).
That's it for tonight. Head over to my Twitter account for my reaction to the speech.
THE SENATE: The Senate continued work on the extenders bill (the bill that extends expiring tax breaks and unemployment insurance). Yesterday, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the bill, though he withdrew the motion today, most likely realizing that he doesn't have 60 votes to give basic safety net protection to millions of Americans during a recession. He will have to give in to the unreasonable demands of moderate Democrats and Republicans, and not surprisingly, he'll be dealing with the usual suspects, like Senators Nelson (D-NE), Snowe (R-ME) and Collins (R-ME). Until Reid can reach some sort of deal, the debate will continue indefinitely. While it continues, Senators will vote on amendments like they did today.
The first couple of amendments dealt with the oil spill issue. Senator Sanders (I-VT) wisely proposed removing millions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies. You'd think with all the deficit hawks in Congress, this would be a no-brainer. But you're forgetting that these self-proclaimed deficit hawks only care about spending when it goes to the poor or middle class! The amendment failed by a vote of 35-61. Every Republican voted against the amendment, as did the following corporate Democrats who have a lot of explaining to do: Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Begich (AK), Bennet (CO), Bingaman (NM), Conrad (ND), Dodd (CT), Dorgan (ND), Hagan (NC), Inouye (HI), Kerry (MA), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Warner (VA) and Webb (VA).
Next was an amendment from Senator Vitter (R-LA) that would have sought to ensure that any revenues from the oil trust fund would be used to pay off the deficit and not go into any new spending. The amendment failed by a vote of 48-49, with Vitter getting the support of 9 Democrats.
The final amendment, from Senator Franken (D-MN) establishes a Office of the Homeowner Advocate for the purposes of informing people of their options under the Home Affordable Modification Program. The amendment passed 63-33, with the support of every Democrat besides Conrad (ND) and Nelson (NE). Republicans Brown (MA), Burr (NC), Collins (ME), Graham (SC), Grassley (IA), Murkowski (AK), Snowe (ME) and Vitter (LA).
The Senate also approved three District Court nominees today, which leaves about 30 seats vacant! Don't you just love the Senate?
THE HOUSE: The House today passed an important bill to spur small business lending by a vote of 247-170. 5 Republicans crossed over to support the bill, while 8 Democrats voted no, out of concern that the bill would add to the deficit. This is a pretty unambitious proposal to accelerate lending to business so that they can invest in capital. I'm surprised (sort of) that it faced such opposition.
More interesting, though, was the Republican motion to recommit that preceded the vote on final passage. Republicans used the motion to bring up a vote on whether to overturn the individual mandate in the new health care law. Republicans have been harping about the provision being unconstitutional and evil. Of course, by eliminating the individual mandate, the entire law would be undermined. Insurance prices would go up, because while companies would be required to cover people with preexisting conditions, healthy people would not be getting into the insurance pool. Republicans, though, were mostly interested in scoring a political point. And they did a pretty good job, on first glance. 21 Democrats crossed over to support repeal, all of whom voted against health care in the first place. Rep. Cao (R-LA) was the lone Republican voting no. Let's just hope that the 21 Democrats who voted yes today are the first to be defeated in this November's election. Here's the list in case you're interested: Altmire (PA), Boren (OK), Boucher (VA), Bright (AL), Chandler (KY), Childers (MS), Critz (PA), Davis (TN), Edwards (TX), Holden (PA), Marshall (GA), McIntyre (NC), Minnick (ID), Nye (VA), Peterson (MN), Ross (AR), Shuler (NC), Skelton (MO), Tanner (TN), Taylor (MS) and Teague (NM).
That's it for tonight. Head over to my Twitter account for my reaction to the speech.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Daily Strike-6/10/10-Good Disaproval
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. Today may be the first day I'm legitimately excited that something failed in the 111th Congress. That's worth celebrating, I guess.
THE SENATE: By a vote of 47-53, the Senate failed to pass a GOP-sponsored resolution that would seek to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, as it is now required to do under law. Ostensibly, the GOP (and their dirty Democratic allies) said that Congress should be in charge of regulating greenhouse gases, not EPA "bureaucrats." The problem is that no GOP Senator so far has signed on to any such piece of legislation. What they really want is for greenhouse gases NOT to be regulated at all. Essentially, this resolution is doing the bidding of the oil and coal industries.
Every single Republican voted for the resolution, which is discouraging, because we would need at least one of their votes to get a comprehensive energy bill that sets a price on carbon. Perhaps more encouraging were the "Dirty Half-Dozen" Democrats who voted yes, mostly to protect dirty industries in their home states. Here is the list of Democrats, so you can call and harass them: Bayh (IN), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), and Rockefeller (WV).
While I'm glad this resolution was defeated, the close vote shows that there simply isn't the will in Congress, even despite the oil spill. I don't know what kind of disaster will force our political leaders to address this dire problem, but I hope they do so before it is too late.
If Congress doesn't act by the end of this year, the Obama administration should take the political hit and regulate greenhouse gases through the EPA.
The Senate will move back to the tax extenders/unemployment bill next Tuesday. After all the extremely hard work they've done creating jobs, they deserve a four day weekend (I hope you know what I'm being sarcastic).
THE HOUSE: The House today passed a bill that reforms the Federal Housing Administration. The bill is designed, according to the Majority Whip's office: (a) to minimize the default risk to the MMIF and to homeowners; and (b) to meet the housing needs of the borrowers that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single family program is designed to serve. The bill passed by an overwhelming margin of 406-4. No votes came from Republicans Broun (GA), Flake (AZ) and Paul (TX), as well as (somewhat questionably) Democrat Mike Honda (CA).
The House has adjourned for the week, and will take up a small business loan program and a separate small business tax credit bill when it returns next Tuesday.
THE WHITE HOUSE: For some reason, there has been a lot of conservative clamor recently about how President Obama hasn't met with BP CEO Tony Heyward to discuss the oil spill cleanup. Apparently, Obama has taken these complaints to heart. He will meet with Heyward at the White House next week, though I'm not quite sure exactly what the meeting will accomplish.
The President did meet today with families of those who died when the oil rig exploded in April. He offered his condolences and promised to do all he could to prevent such a disaster in the future.
That's it for today. We'll see you on Monday morning!
THE SENATE: By a vote of 47-53, the Senate failed to pass a GOP-sponsored resolution that would seek to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, as it is now required to do under law. Ostensibly, the GOP (and their dirty Democratic allies) said that Congress should be in charge of regulating greenhouse gases, not EPA "bureaucrats." The problem is that no GOP Senator so far has signed on to any such piece of legislation. What they really want is for greenhouse gases NOT to be regulated at all. Essentially, this resolution is doing the bidding of the oil and coal industries.
Every single Republican voted for the resolution, which is discouraging, because we would need at least one of their votes to get a comprehensive energy bill that sets a price on carbon. Perhaps more encouraging were the "Dirty Half-Dozen" Democrats who voted yes, mostly to protect dirty industries in their home states. Here is the list of Democrats, so you can call and harass them: Bayh (IN), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), and Rockefeller (WV).
While I'm glad this resolution was defeated, the close vote shows that there simply isn't the will in Congress, even despite the oil spill. I don't know what kind of disaster will force our political leaders to address this dire problem, but I hope they do so before it is too late.
If Congress doesn't act by the end of this year, the Obama administration should take the political hit and regulate greenhouse gases through the EPA.
The Senate will move back to the tax extenders/unemployment bill next Tuesday. After all the extremely hard work they've done creating jobs, they deserve a four day weekend (I hope you know what I'm being sarcastic).
THE HOUSE: The House today passed a bill that reforms the Federal Housing Administration. The bill is designed, according to the Majority Whip's office: (a) to minimize the default risk to the MMIF and to homeowners; and (b) to meet the housing needs of the borrowers that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single family program is designed to serve. The bill passed by an overwhelming margin of 406-4. No votes came from Republicans Broun (GA), Flake (AZ) and Paul (TX), as well as (somewhat questionably) Democrat Mike Honda (CA).
The House has adjourned for the week, and will take up a small business loan program and a separate small business tax credit bill when it returns next Tuesday.
THE WHITE HOUSE: For some reason, there has been a lot of conservative clamor recently about how President Obama hasn't met with BP CEO Tony Heyward to discuss the oil spill cleanup. Apparently, Obama has taken these complaints to heart. He will meet with Heyward at the White House next week, though I'm not quite sure exactly what the meeting will accomplish.
The President did meet today with families of those who died when the oil rig exploded in April. He offered his condolences and promised to do all he could to prevent such a disaster in the future.
That's it for today. We'll see you on Monday morning!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Daily Strike-10/29/09-The Unveiling
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike on an extremely busy day in politics. No time to waste.
HEALTH CARE: In a dramatic ceremony in front of the front steps of the Capital, House Democrats unveiled the final version of health care reform, a product of months of negotiations that took place after three committees reported bills in July. You all probably know the most publicized details by now. The bill has a public option with rates to be negotiated individually with providers. It will set up a national health insurance exchange for those who don't get insurance through their employers, and it will offer subsidies for people who can't afford to pay. It will also expand the eligibility for Medicaid to 150% of poverty. The bill will be financed by savings in Medicare and through a surtax on individuals making above $500,000 and families that make over $1,000,000. Here are some great additions to the bill that mark major improvements from the original proposal in July:
There are a couple of kinks to work out before we can start popping the corks. Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been trying to round up 40 votes to block the rule for considering the bill if his abortion amendment isn't included. The bill currently forbids federal funding for abortions (per the provisions of the Hyde amendment) but Stupak is insisting that it bar any money from government subsidies by spent to terminate pregnancy. Stupak is still trying to strike a deal with the Democratic leadership, but whether he can is still unclear. Democrats will try to pass a rule restricting amendments to the bill, because if Stupak's anti-abortion amendment passed (and it probably would), many pro-choice Democrats would vote against the bill. Stupak better not ruin this. Talk to your Michigan colleague John Dingell, Bart! He's been trying to get this done for over 40 years!
The House GOP responded to the bill with the usual laments about how long the text is. "It's 1990 pages long! Noooooo!!! We're not gonna have enough time to read it!!!" First of all, they won't read it anyway. They are completely predisposed to opposing the bill. Second of all, it is written in legalese, so reading it wouldn't help any normal person understand it. Third, is this seriously the best they've got? At the GOP press conference today, there was zero discussion about the contents of the bill besides buzzwords like a "government takeover." When reporters asked Minority Leader Boehner if Republicans would offer an alternative, he said he didn't know, but that Republicans have "ideas." I'm sure you do have ideas, but why don't you write a bill, take into consideration all of the complications with writing difficult legislation, get it scored by the CBO, make some trade offs etc. It's easy to talk about having good ideas when you don't have to make an actual proposal.
The leadership plans to begin debate on the bill in the middle of next week. A final vote would occur Thursday at the earliest, but most likely early the following week. The bill isn't perfect. I wish the public option was based on Medicare rates. But this is an exciting day. The bill will cover 96 percent of all Americans, and it will probably pass the House of Representatives in the next two weeks. Not too shabby.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The other big news of the day is that the economy grew by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. This news is a mixed blessing for the White House. They tried to use the number as evidence that the stimulus has worked. After all, this is the first quarter that the economy has grown in a year. On the other hand, it's possible that the good GDP numbers will feed into the narrative that Obama may have saved the economy for elites, but with unemployment still hovering at 10%, what has he done for the rest of us?
I'm also worried that when the government's stimulus programs start to wind down toward the end of this year and the beginning of 2010, GDP growth might be stunted. I hope that the government has the courage to extend stimulus programs, even if doing so isn't politically popular.
The President used an address to small business leaders to talk about the GDP numbers, and also to stress that the work of rescuing the economy is still largely unfinished. He spent the rest of the day meeting members of Congress, and the Minister Mentor of Singapore.
THE HOUSE: The House today passed the conference report on the Interior Appropriations bill. This conference report included a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through December 18th while Congress finishes the remaining 7 appropriations bills that have yet to emerge. The conference report also includes extensions of various tax credits from the economic stimulus package. With completion of this conference report (as you'll see in the next section, it passed the Senate today as well), Congress has now finished 5 out of the 12 annual spending bills. The final vote in the House was 247-178, with 10 Republicans voting yes, and 15 Democrats voting no.
Later, the House passed a popular bill to improve programs providing loan access to small businesses. It passed easily by a vote of 389-32, with all no votes coming from the GOP. The House also approved a Republican motion to recommit by a vote of 372-149. The motion instructed the Small Business Administration to conduct studies on additional credit risk factors. All no votes on the motion came from Democrats. Prior to final passage, the House considered several amendments. The full list is available here.
THE SENATE: The Senate is STILL in a stalemate over a bill to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans are insisting on votes on unrelated amendments. They have thus far rejected Democratic unanimous consent requests to vote on the bill immediately. Democrats, for some reason, have not yet called a vote on a motion to proceed to the bill, even though the Senate voted to cut off debate on that motion. Bottom line: Because Senators are acting like babies, millions of Americans are not getting unemployment benefits. It really baffles me that Senators can be so self-absorbed. I guess we'll have to wait until next week to see this bill come up for a vote.
The Senate did have time to pass the Interior Appropriations bill conference report/continuing resolution. The final vote was 72-28, with no votes coming from 25 Republicans and Democrats Bayh (IN), Feingold (WI) and McCaskill (MO). Prior to a vote on final passage, the Senate voted 60-40 to waive the requirement that conference reports only contain legislation previously passed by both chambers. That vote fell strictly along party lines. As far as I know, this was the first vote all year where 100 Senators voted, and all of them voted along party lines. 60 votes were needed to waive the requirement.
Whew. That's it for a busy day in politics. Please leave us some comments and start a discussion.
HEALTH CARE: In a dramatic ceremony in front of the front steps of the Capital, House Democrats unveiled the final version of health care reform, a product of months of negotiations that took place after three committees reported bills in July. You all probably know the most publicized details by now. The bill has a public option with rates to be negotiated individually with providers. It will set up a national health insurance exchange for those who don't get insurance through their employers, and it will offer subsidies for people who can't afford to pay. It will also expand the eligibility for Medicaid to 150% of poverty. The bill will be financed by savings in Medicare and through a surtax on individuals making above $500,000 and families that make over $1,000,000. Here are some great additions to the bill that mark major improvements from the original proposal in July:
- The bill is not only fully paid for, but it will actually reduce the deficit by over $104 billion over ten years. What happens after that (the so called out years) is unclear. A lot of these savings come from the decision to further expand Medicaid coverage, since it is cheaper to cover people under Medicaid than it is to subsidize private insurance. To be fair, some of these savings come from some creative accounting. For one, the bill doesn't include the "Doc Fix" which will come to the House floor as a separate $200 billion bill. Second, the bill does not adjust the surtax for inflation. This is potentially very dangerous, because in 20 years, $500,000 might be a middle-class income. Surely, Congress, like they do with the Alternative Minimum Tax, would pass a temporary fix.
- The bill includes a provision that forces insurance companies to spend 85% of their income on health services. This superb provision would be a great way to cut into egregious insurance company profits. I doubt it will pass the insurance-owned United States Senate.
- The best part about this bill, is that many great provisions will come into effect almost immediately. Not only will this be good for American families, but great politically for the Democratic party. Here is a full list of the provisions that will come into effect next year. As the Big Picture said, "talk about delivering!"
There are a couple of kinks to work out before we can start popping the corks. Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been trying to round up 40 votes to block the rule for considering the bill if his abortion amendment isn't included. The bill currently forbids federal funding for abortions (per the provisions of the Hyde amendment) but Stupak is insisting that it bar any money from government subsidies by spent to terminate pregnancy. Stupak is still trying to strike a deal with the Democratic leadership, but whether he can is still unclear. Democrats will try to pass a rule restricting amendments to the bill, because if Stupak's anti-abortion amendment passed (and it probably would), many pro-choice Democrats would vote against the bill. Stupak better not ruin this. Talk to your Michigan colleague John Dingell, Bart! He's been trying to get this done for over 40 years!
The House GOP responded to the bill with the usual laments about how long the text is. "It's 1990 pages long! Noooooo!!! We're not gonna have enough time to read it!!!" First of all, they won't read it anyway. They are completely predisposed to opposing the bill. Second of all, it is written in legalese, so reading it wouldn't help any normal person understand it. Third, is this seriously the best they've got? At the GOP press conference today, there was zero discussion about the contents of the bill besides buzzwords like a "government takeover." When reporters asked Minority Leader Boehner if Republicans would offer an alternative, he said he didn't know, but that Republicans have "ideas." I'm sure you do have ideas, but why don't you write a bill, take into consideration all of the complications with writing difficult legislation, get it scored by the CBO, make some trade offs etc. It's easy to talk about having good ideas when you don't have to make an actual proposal.
The leadership plans to begin debate on the bill in the middle of next week. A final vote would occur Thursday at the earliest, but most likely early the following week. The bill isn't perfect. I wish the public option was based on Medicare rates. But this is an exciting day. The bill will cover 96 percent of all Americans, and it will probably pass the House of Representatives in the next two weeks. Not too shabby.
THE WHITE HOUSE: The other big news of the day is that the economy grew by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. This news is a mixed blessing for the White House. They tried to use the number as evidence that the stimulus has worked. After all, this is the first quarter that the economy has grown in a year. On the other hand, it's possible that the good GDP numbers will feed into the narrative that Obama may have saved the economy for elites, but with unemployment still hovering at 10%, what has he done for the rest of us?
I'm also worried that when the government's stimulus programs start to wind down toward the end of this year and the beginning of 2010, GDP growth might be stunted. I hope that the government has the courage to extend stimulus programs, even if doing so isn't politically popular.
The President used an address to small business leaders to talk about the GDP numbers, and also to stress that the work of rescuing the economy is still largely unfinished. He spent the rest of the day meeting members of Congress, and the Minister Mentor of Singapore.
THE HOUSE: The House today passed the conference report on the Interior Appropriations bill. This conference report included a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through December 18th while Congress finishes the remaining 7 appropriations bills that have yet to emerge. The conference report also includes extensions of various tax credits from the economic stimulus package. With completion of this conference report (as you'll see in the next section, it passed the Senate today as well), Congress has now finished 5 out of the 12 annual spending bills. The final vote in the House was 247-178, with 10 Republicans voting yes, and 15 Democrats voting no.
Later, the House passed a popular bill to improve programs providing loan access to small businesses. It passed easily by a vote of 389-32, with all no votes coming from the GOP. The House also approved a Republican motion to recommit by a vote of 372-149. The motion instructed the Small Business Administration to conduct studies on additional credit risk factors. All no votes on the motion came from Democrats. Prior to final passage, the House considered several amendments. The full list is available here.
THE SENATE: The Senate is STILL in a stalemate over a bill to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans are insisting on votes on unrelated amendments. They have thus far rejected Democratic unanimous consent requests to vote on the bill immediately. Democrats, for some reason, have not yet called a vote on a motion to proceed to the bill, even though the Senate voted to cut off debate on that motion. Bottom line: Because Senators are acting like babies, millions of Americans are not getting unemployment benefits. It really baffles me that Senators can be so self-absorbed. I guess we'll have to wait until next week to see this bill come up for a vote.
The Senate did have time to pass the Interior Appropriations bill conference report/continuing resolution. The final vote was 72-28, with no votes coming from 25 Republicans and Democrats Bayh (IN), Feingold (WI) and McCaskill (MO). Prior to a vote on final passage, the Senate voted 60-40 to waive the requirement that conference reports only contain legislation previously passed by both chambers. That vote fell strictly along party lines. As far as I know, this was the first vote all year where 100 Senators voted, and all of them voted along party lines. 60 votes were needed to waive the requirement.
Whew. That's it for a busy day in politics. Please leave us some comments and start a discussion.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Daily Strike-3/15/09-Not-So-Lazy Sunday
Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. A busier Sunday than usual, so let's get caught up on the day in politics.
SUNDAY SHOWS: Today was a very interesting day on the Sunday talk-show circuit. The most notable interview was former (ahh, that still feels good) Vice President Dick Cheney's sit-down with CNN's John King. Cheney said several news-making things. First, he reiterated his claim that President Obama's policy decisions on torture, Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition is making America more succeptible to terrorist attack. I don't understand how he can get away with saying this stuff.
He also claimed that the Iraq war had largely succeeded in its objectives, that Bush should not be blamed for the economic crisis, and that Obama is using the bad economy to justify a massive expansion of government. In the course of the interview, he also noted his distaste at his former boss for his decision not to pardon Scooter Libby, and his "love" of Rush Limbaugh. All I can say is, thank God this man is no longer in a position of power.
The other talk-shows mostly dealt with the economy. News came out last night that AIG was still paying out millions in bonuses, despite the fact that they've taken billions in federal bailout dollars. Members of both politically parties, obviously, were quick to express their outrage. I was particularly disappointed, though, with White House Economic Council Larry Summers, who said that there was nothing the government could do about AIG because the bonuses were "part of contracts." Hopefully this creates more justified anger at Wall Street. I, for one, don't care if they entered into the contract. If you're taking federal money, you better use it wisely. It's a shame that the government, mostly the Bush administration but also a bit in the current administration, has set no conditions on financial institutions.
SMALL BUSINESS: The other big economic news was the apparent announcement tomorrow of an aid package for small business. The President and Secreatary of the Treasure Timothy Geithner are expected to announce that $730 million of the economic stimulus bill will be to used to cut lending fees for small businesses. The plan is designed to allow small businesses to have increased access to credit, so they can borrow, expand and hire more workers. I'll be interested to see how Republicans react, since they constantly base their economic arguments on what the impact will be on small business.
One thing that this policy reminds us is that we've become so immune to large numbers in the past few months. $730 million really isn't a lot of money when you consider that we spent $1.1 billion in stimulus money for comparative effectiveness research in health care.
HEALTH CARE TAX: The New York Times reported yesterday that the administration is willing to consider taxing health care benefits to pay for access for the uninsured. Obama's economic advisor Christina Romer claimed that Obama does not want to take that route. It would be a difficult thing to do, considering that he hammered John McCain last fall for a simillar proposal. I think there are other ways to save on health care spending that wouldn't directly hit consumers, such as decreased payments to private medicare advantage programs, increased funding for preventative care, and of course, increased income taxes on the wealthy.
That's it for today. Join us tomorrow morning for the Weekly Strike. If you haven't already done so, make sure you are an official follower of this blog. Also, we'd love to see some comments!
SUNDAY SHOWS: Today was a very interesting day on the Sunday talk-show circuit. The most notable interview was former (ahh, that still feels good) Vice President Dick Cheney's sit-down with CNN's John King. Cheney said several news-making things. First, he reiterated his claim that President Obama's policy decisions on torture, Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition is making America more succeptible to terrorist attack. I don't understand how he can get away with saying this stuff.
He also claimed that the Iraq war had largely succeeded in its objectives, that Bush should not be blamed for the economic crisis, and that Obama is using the bad economy to justify a massive expansion of government. In the course of the interview, he also noted his distaste at his former boss for his decision not to pardon Scooter Libby, and his "love" of Rush Limbaugh. All I can say is, thank God this man is no longer in a position of power.
The other talk-shows mostly dealt with the economy. News came out last night that AIG was still paying out millions in bonuses, despite the fact that they've taken billions in federal bailout dollars. Members of both politically parties, obviously, were quick to express their outrage. I was particularly disappointed, though, with White House Economic Council Larry Summers, who said that there was nothing the government could do about AIG because the bonuses were "part of contracts." Hopefully this creates more justified anger at Wall Street. I, for one, don't care if they entered into the contract. If you're taking federal money, you better use it wisely. It's a shame that the government, mostly the Bush administration but also a bit in the current administration, has set no conditions on financial institutions.
SMALL BUSINESS: The other big economic news was the apparent announcement tomorrow of an aid package for small business. The President and Secreatary of the Treasure Timothy Geithner are expected to announce that $730 million of the economic stimulus bill will be to used to cut lending fees for small businesses. The plan is designed to allow small businesses to have increased access to credit, so they can borrow, expand and hire more workers. I'll be interested to see how Republicans react, since they constantly base their economic arguments on what the impact will be on small business.
One thing that this policy reminds us is that we've become so immune to large numbers in the past few months. $730 million really isn't a lot of money when you consider that we spent $1.1 billion in stimulus money for comparative effectiveness research in health care.
HEALTH CARE TAX: The New York Times reported yesterday that the administration is willing to consider taxing health care benefits to pay for access for the uninsured. Obama's economic advisor Christina Romer claimed that Obama does not want to take that route. It would be a difficult thing to do, considering that he hammered John McCain last fall for a simillar proposal. I think there are other ways to save on health care spending that wouldn't directly hit consumers, such as decreased payments to private medicare advantage programs, increased funding for preventative care, and of course, increased income taxes on the wealthy.
That's it for today. Join us tomorrow morning for the Weekly Strike. If you haven't already done so, make sure you are an official follower of this blog. Also, we'd love to see some comments!
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