The Daily Strike-2/4/10-A Legislative Accomplishment?

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. I'm happy to take a break from stocking up on milk and toilet paper in advance of the DC Snowpocolypse and fill you in on the day in politics.

THE HOUSE: On the day that the Democrats officially lost their 60-seat majority, Congress actually sent a reasonably important piece of legislation to President Obama's desk! It's been awhile. Unfortunately, this bill isn't quite anything to write home about. The House voted today to agree to the Senate-passed bill that both raises the debt ceiling and implements new pay-as-you-go budgeting rules. Because House leaders wanted their members to be able to vote for the PAYGO provision (popular!) and against raising the debt ceiling (unpopular) they voted on each part of the bill separately.

The debt ceiling portion, as expected, passed by an extremely narrow 217-212 vote. 37 Democrats joined every single Republican in opposition. It still amazes me how easily politicians can get away with votes like this. If we did not raise the debt ceiling, we would default on our loans and the economy would descend into chaos. The PAYGO provision, which requires Congress to offset all new spending increases with offsetting spending cuts or tax increases, passed by a larger vote of 233-187. This has long been a cause celebre of Blue Dog Democrats, which makes it all the more confusing that a few Blue Dog Democrats voted against it. Once again, Republicans all voted no, because they think that the provision will result in tax increases.

For those of you Congress nerds, here is a list of Democrats who voted against the debt ceiling and PAYGO. For the rest of you, skip down to the next section.

Debt Ceiling: Adler (NJ), Boccieri (OH), Bright (AL), Carney (PA), Childers (MS), Donnelly (IN), Drieuhaus (OH), Ellsworth (IN), Foster (IL), Giffords (AZ), Grayson (FL) (that one surprises me), Halvorson (IL), Hodes (NH), Kirkpatrick (AZ), Kissell (NC), Kosmas (FL), Kratovil (MD), Maffei (NY), Markey (CO), Massa (NY), McIntyre (NC), McNerney (CA), Melancon (LA), Minnick (ID), Mitchell (AZ), Murphy (NY), Murphy (PA), Nye (VA), Owens (NY), Perriello (VA), Peters (MI), Schauer (MI), Space (OH), Taylor (MS), Teague (NM), Titus (NV) and Wu (OR).

PAYGO: Bright (AL), Filner (CA), Kosmas (FL), Kucinich (OH), Maffei (NY), McIntyre (NC), McNerney (CA), Minnick (ID), Mitchell (AZ), Nye (VA), Pastor (AZ), Peters (MI), Taylor (MS), Waters (CA), and Weiner (NY). An interesting mixtures of liberals and moderates.

The House also passed a bill to enhance cybersecurity by a vote of 422-5, with all no votes coming from the GOP. The bill authorizes new spending for research and development for cybersecurity research. The House also voted on a bunch of amendments.

Next week, the House plans to vote on a bill to eliminate the health insurance industry's anti-trust exemption. This bill would have little policy implications, but it is perhaps a decent way to get Democrats momentum on health reform. We'll have more on this next week.

THE SENATE: The Senate today swore in its newest member, Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Brown was sworn in by Vice President Biden this evening, officially ending the Democrats' 60-vote majority. Before Brown was sworn in, the Democrats used their remaining super majority hours on some nominations. By a vote of 60-37, the Senate approved the nomination of Patricia Smith to be Solicitor for the Department of Labor. All yes votes were from Democrats. The Senate also confirmed Martha Johnson to be administrator of the General Services Administration by a unanimous 94-2 vote. Her nomination was delayed almost a year by Republican Senators, and then she is confirmed almost unanimously. What a perfect embodiment of what's wrong with the United States Senate. Now we get word that Republican Senator Shelby (AL) has announced that he will filibuster EVERY Obama nominee until the administration heeds his demands on some unrelated issues. I can't believe this is how the United States Senate functions. The American people need to understand how the Senate is crippling progress in this country.

Majority Leader Reid (NV) said that the Democrats will take a vote on a jobs-related bill on Monday. Reid did not release details of exactly what the bill is or how much it's going to cost. Reid will need the support of one Republican to advance the bill. Thus is the new reality for Democrats.

THE WHITE HOUSE: President Obama held a conference call with Democratic National Committee supporters this afternoon. He answered questions on jobs, health care, small business tax cuts and education. The most notable takeaway from the even was that President Obama wants a jobs bill passed before Congress goes back to health care. I disagree with that approach. Like sour milk, the longer the health care bill is out there, the nastier it gets. I'm very disappointed that President Obama hasn't shown more leadership in crossing the health care finish line.

That's it for now. Because of the snowpocolypse, we won't be writing until we've dug ourselves out on Monday morning. Have a great weekend!

The Daily Strike-2/3/10-Friendly Congressional Showdown

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. It looks like we are headed for another snow-pocolypse this weekend. Is this God's punishment for Congress' inaction on health reform? Maybe.

SENATE DEM/OBAMA CONFRONTATION: The President, fresh off his stellar performance during a Friday question/answer session with the House GOP, held a similar public meeting today with members of the Senate Democratic caucus. The President was slightly more polite to members of his own party, but he came with some harsh words of advice. The President told Democratic Senators that the message from the Massachusetts election was NOT to sit back and do nothing. He said that if Democrats don't follow through on their promises and pass health reform, people will soon not be able to differentiate between the two parties. Finally, he implored Democratic Senators to get out of the world of inside-the-beltway cable chatter and blogs and to get back in touch with their constituents.

It's becoming increasingly clear that Democrats won't heed this good advice. In fact, you could tell by the questions asked at the meeting. First of all, Obama took questions primarily from vulnerable members who wanted some free air time. Embattled Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln said that Obama has to disassociate from the "extreme left" and return to the center. Of course! It's such a radical, extreme idea to expand the private health care system! It's absolutely COMMUNIST to want to create jobs and regulate Wall Street. I can understand when political pundits complain about Obama being too "leftist," but Democratic Senators should know that his agenda is centrist.

Another vulnerable Senator, Evan Bayh of Indiana, said that the President must make "hard choices" to decrease the deficit. This is the same Senator Bayh who voted to drastically cut taxes on the heirs of millionaire estates. B(a)y(h) the way, the Senator's predecessor, Republican Dan Coats, has decided to take another shot at the seat this November. This could be a very close race.

Today's display, combined with the Democrats inability to come up with a coherent plan to finish health reform, lead me to believe that Democratic Senators are more interested in running for the hills than doing anything productive. Matthew Yglesias suggested that Senate Democrats might want to be in the minority so they won't have to have the responsibility of governing. I think, unfortunately, he may be right.

SCOTT BROWN: Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown (MA ) made a big fuss before he was elected about being sworn-in right away. Then, he decided he needed "time" for a transition. Basically he decided that he didn't want to be sworn in before February 11th, because the Senate was taking tough votes on raising the debt ceiling. Every Republican knew the bill had to pass, but none of them wanted to vote for it. If Brown had been sworn in, at least one Republican would have to support the bill. Well now Brown has changed his mind and wants to be sworn in tomorrow so that he can vote on a possible jobs bill next week. So starting tomorrow evening, the Democrats will officially lose their 60 seat supermajority.

Speaking of a jobs bill, it looks like the Senate will be taking up various jobs measures piece by piece. They'll probably start with the more popular ideas, like tax breaks for small businesses who hire new workers. I wish they would do something more comprehensive, but some action is better than no action.

Before Brown is sworn in, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Patricia Smith to be a Solicitor at the Department of Labor. The Senate will then vote to cut off debate on Martha Johnson to be Administrator for the GSA. Republicans are adamantly opposed to her nomination for some reason (I have no idea). So Democrats will use their last hours with a supermajority to push through her nomination.

HOUSE: The House today today began consideration of a bill that enacts new cyber-security provisions. The bill appears to have bipartisan support. The House has already voted on a few amendments, and will vote on final passage tomorrow. They will also vote on whether to adopt the Senate-passed measure to raise the debt ceiling and institute statutory pay-as-you-go budgeting rules. We'll have full coverage in tomorrow night's entry.

That's it for now. We'll see you tomorrow night!

The Weekly Strike-2/1-2/7

Good morning and welcome to the Weekly Strike, where we preview the week in politics. It's the first day in February, and you know what that means, budget time!

BUDGET: The President this morning unveiled his Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal. There is a lot of good, and some bad, in this blueprint. Among the good things in this proposal are money set aside for a jobs bill, money for the health care overhaul, and increased funding for Pell Grants. On the revenue side, I'm particularly pleased with a new fee on banks (though it is a modest fee), the expiration this year of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and new taxes on international corporations. The bad parts of the budget are, of course, the freeze in non-defense discretionary spending over the next three years and continued inflated spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall, the budget will increase the deficit this year to $1.6 trillion, and would increase the ten year projected deficit to just under $9 trillion. The budget proposal will add $5 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

First off, I should mention that a President's budget blueprint never actually comes to fruition. Congress has its own priorities, and it almost never agrees to most of the President's recommended tax increases and spending cuts. Overall, though, the budget is a solid proposal that keeps in tact the President's key investments in health care, education, and energy. The revenue proposals strike me as very progressive; all of the taxes will be imposed on the wealthy and corporations.

I will say, though, that this proposal makes the freeze in discretionary spending look even more ridiculous. The budget proposal was going to show record deficits no matter what, and the proposed spending fee is barely making a dent. I don't think Republicans will stop attacking the President's spending habits because he proposed something that, at most, would decrease the deficit a fraction of a percentage point. All the freeze will do is deprive government agencies of critical funding needs.

Real deficit reduction will only occur when the economy grows, unemployment goes down, and tax revenue increases. Even with the jobs bill, there is still not enough in this budget that will ignite necessary economic growth. We'll have more on the budget proposal throughout the week, including reactions from key lawmakers. Just a hunch: Republicans won't be praising it.

THE WHITE HOUSE: The President has only released his schedule for today thus far. This morning, he will give remarks on the budget. This afternoon, he will participate in a YouTube forum, where he will answer questions from users that were posed during last week's State of the Union address.

I don't think the President could possibly have a better day than he did on Friday. By now you've probably heard that President Obama engaged in an hour-long back and forth with members of the House Republican Conference. House Republicans asked questions (usually in the form of veiled political attacks), and the President responded in detail, politely ridiculing the Republicans for lies and obstruction. It was beyond good political theater; it was must-see. Democracy would work a lot better if these types of honest exchanges and debate happened more frequently. As you can see in this video, the President was able to address GOP criticism head-on, without shoddy filtering from the mainstream media.

THE HOUSE: The House has a reasonably busy schedule this week. Tomorrow and Wednesday, the House will vote on a series of suspension bills. Thursday, the House will take up a measure to improve cyber-security. The bill will award research grants to improve computer and network security.

The House will then take up the Senate-passed bill raising the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. I expect that the House will pass this bill and send it to the President. Blue Dog Democrats should feel more comfortable supporting this debt increase after the Senate included an amendment that would reinstitute pay-as-you-go budgeting rules. If the House agrees to the Senate bill, and the President signs it, the debt limit should be sufficient to finance government operations through the end of the year.

By the way, it's looking like we'll go another week without any resolution on health reform. House and Senate Democrats have not yet agreed on a way forward. I would continue to insist that the House pass the Senate version of health reform, and then both chambers pass a "sidecar" reconciliation bill with requisite changes.

THE SENATE: The Senate will vote this evening on the nomination of Patricia Smith to be Solicitor for the Department of Labor. Smith's nomination has been held up by Republicans for several months due to statements she made relating to her work as a New York State Labor Commissioner. Smith told the Senate HELP committee that her labor commission launched a program called "wage watch" to find companies who were not paying proper wages. Evidence surfaced that showed that the program was actually developed by unions and public interest groups. This seems like a reason to support her nomination even more in my view.

That's it for now. We'll see you tonight! Leave some comments!

The Daily Strike-1/28/10-Post-SOTU

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. We're coming to you tonight from New Haven, CT, home of Yale University and birthplace of Ricci v. DeStefano. Now to the day in politics...

STATE OF THE UNION: I was overall pleased with the President's State of the Union last night. I was especially impressed by how he narrowed in on the factors inhibiting our nation's progress, like hyper-partisanship, the United States Senate, and corporate influence in Congress. He also showed something that has been sorely lacking over the last several months: passion. He struck a very good chord last night by saying that he won't quit, and the nation won't quit, despite his recent political setbacks. I also liked his courage in calling some people out, like the Supreme Court for their horrible decision last week in the Citizens United case, Congressional Democrats for being weak willies, and Congressional Republicans for being obstructionist. In that sense, his speech was very bold.

My major issues with his speech is that he didn't fundamentally change the economic narrative that threatens his legislative agenda. In fact, he added to it. I cringed when he said that Congress should be tightening its belts during a recession. No, Mr. President, it shouldn't, and you know that! As we've talked about numerous times before, the President is feeding the narrative that somehow cutting government spending will help us make it out of the recession. This unfortunate view is represented by his ill-advised freeze of discretionary spending, which will take effect in 2011.

Also, some of the President's policy proposals, especially relating to jobs, were not very ambitious. It might be politically wise for the President to seek the low-hanging fruit, like capital gains tax cuts on small businesses, but he will need to do a lot more to ignite the kind of job creation that we all want. The Senate seems to be following the President's lead, and will vote on a small jobs bill that won't be nearly large enough to make a big impact. He also gave Congress little guidance in how to proceed on health care. I appreciate how he implored them to "get it done," but I thought he could have give more concrete instructions to Congressional Democrats.

Overall, the speech was good in that it allowed the President to regain the trust and respect of people who were doubting him the most, like soft Democrats and independents. He was strong and reassuring, and hopefully his performance will give him so political capital so that he can get some legislative accomplishments. The way Congress is right now, that's not looking promising.

THE PRESIDENT: The President and Vice President were in Tampa Bay, Florida today to unveil a $1 billion grant to build a high-speed rail line. I'm a huge fan of high speed rail, and one of the best things Obama has done thus far is use stimulus money to spur this important investment in our infrastructure. The event in Tampa Bay doubled as a bit of a political rally. The President, surrounded by enthusiastic supporters, said that he has "no apologies" for his work thus far.

The President will hold an event in Baltimore tomorrow to officially announce a new plan to give tax credits to small businesses that hire new workers.


THE SENATE: It was a very busy day in the United States Senate. Senators finished up a bill that was raise the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. Republicans wanted Democrats to own this unpopular measure, so they voted en masse to let the United States default on its loans. The bill only passed with the support of all 60 Democrats. And yes, Republican Scott Brown, who won last week's Senate race in Massachusetts, did not want to be seated in time to take this difficult vote, so he let Massachusetts' interim Senator Paul Kirk (D) do the dirty work. The House will take up the bill next week, and will send it to the President by next Friday. When the President signs the bill, our debt ceiling will be high enough to last us through the November elections.

Prior to a vote on final passage, the Senate voted on a few amendments. The first amendment, offered by Senator Brownback (R-KS) would establish a commission to review Congressional spending and federal agencies. The amendment failed to get the 60 votes needed for passage, despite the support of Democrats Bayh (IN), Bennet (CO), Hagan (NC), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Merkley (OR), Nelson (NE), Nelson (FL), Shaheen (NH), Tester (MT), Warner (VA) and Webb (VA). Republicans Cochran (MS), Gregg (NH) and Snowe (ME) voted no.

The second amendment, offered by Senator Sessions (AL) would have established a five year cap on discretionary spending. You don't need me to remind you why this is a horrible idea. It's a shame that it got 56 votes, though it was short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Democrats Bayh (IN), Begich (AK), Bennet (CO), Carper (DE), Hagan (NC), Klobuchar (MN), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Nelson (NE), Nelson (FL), Pryor (AR), Shaheen (NH), Tester (MT), Udall (CO), Warner (VA) and Webb (VA).

Finally, the Senate voted to re-institute pay-as-you-go budgeting rules. These rules require all new spending to be offset with tax increases or spending reductions. It was abandoned by Congress in the early years of the Bush administration. The amendment passed 60-40 on a pure party line vote. Republicans objected to these rules because it might result in tax increases. Of course, taxes have NOTHING to do with cutting the deficit. Absolutely nothing!

The Senate then turned to the nomination of Ben Bernanke for another term at the Federal Reserve. Bernanke faced opposition from both parties due to his performance ahead of the 2008 financial meltdown, but he ended up being confirmed relatively easily by a vote of 70-30. The "no" votes were pretty much split between the two parties. Bernanke will now serve at the Fed until at least 2014. Prior to a vote on the nomination itself, the Senate voted to cut off debate on the nomination by a vote of 77-23. See, people? You can oppose something but choose not to filibuster it!

The House was out of session today as the Republicans began their annual retreat. Both chambers will come back into session next Monday.

That's it for tonight! Our next entry will be Monday morning. See you then, and leave comments!

The Daily Strike-1/26/10-The Lost Argument

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. I'll keep this entry short, because you need to read The Big Picture's entry below. It really sums things up nicely.

WORST DECISION REDUX: I'm still fuming about President Obama's apparent decision to freeze non-defense discretionary spending for the next three fiscal years. It is stupid both policy-wise and politically. I failed to fully articulate this yesterday, but the worst part about the decision is that it concedes the argument over economic policy to the Republican party. We've been trying to argue for the past year that we must invest money not to end the recession, which would create jobs and tax revenue. The Republicans argued that we should "tighten our belts" in Washington, which would somehow ensure economic growth. Our argument is right, there's is wrong. Yet, by proposing to freeze discretionary spending, we're tacitly admitting that we're wrong. The policy may not be the worst thing in the world if we cut unnecessary spending, like farm subsidies, instead of key social programs. But even if the policy isn't so bad, the optics are absolutely horrible.

HEALTH CARE: According to a New York Times article out tonight, Democrats are in "no rush" to pass health reform. Some lawmakers think that the earliest the bill could pass at this point would be the end of February. And we know how many deadlines we've already missed to this point! The obvious solution, which would be to have the House pass the Senate bill, and for both chambers to pass a "sidecar" reconciliation bill that would make changes to the measure. For this to work, Democrats need to cobble together 218 votes in the House, and 50 votes in the Senate. This should seemingly be easy, but many Democrats are so scared by last week's Senate election in Massachusetts that they may not be ready to support the bill. In the Senate, a few moderate Senators, like Nelson (NE) and Lincoln (AR), have already said they would oppose a reconciliation bill. As others have noted, both of these hypocritical Senators have supported numerous reconciliation bills in the past. Of course, we can lose 9 Senate Democrats and still get this done. The key is for 50 Senate Democrats to sign a letter saying they would support a reconciliation bill making corrections to the Senate legislation. This would, according to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, give House Democrats confidence that there would definitely be changes to the bill.

There, unfortunately, is very political will to get this done. Democrats are too scared of their pending electoral prospects to pass a bill at this point. There is virtually no discussion among any lawmakers about the consequences of inaction: 30 million Americans not having health insurance. The only consequences they ever talk about are political consequences. It makes me sick.

SENATE: The Senate continued to work on a bill to raise the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. In order to pass the bill, many Senators wanted to include some sort of mechanism to control our spiraling debt. Today, the Senate voted on a series of amendments. The key vote was on a bipartisan amendment from Senators Conrad (D-ND) and Gregg (R-NH) that would set up a bipartisan commission that would propose cost-savings measures that would then be subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress. The amendment attracted support from a coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans, but failed to get the 60 votes necessary to pass. Liberal Senators were too afraid that the commission would attack entitlement programs, and Republicans were worried that they would propose tax increases. (I don't want to resort to relativism here. Every Democrat just voted for the biggest deficit busting bill in years, health care reform, and every Republican voted against it). The vote failed 53-46. 35 Democrats and 18 Republicans voted yes, while 25 Democrats and 21 Republicans voted no. The Senate also voted on an amendment by Senator Baucus, which sought to assure that Social Security wouldn't be cut by any deficit commission. The amendment passed 97-0. No freedom-loving Republican was willing to vote to cut that socialist program!

The Senate is currently voting on a few more amendments, all of them from Senator Coburn. These amendments seek to rescind funding from various agencies. I expect all of these amendments to fail. The Senate will presumably move on to final passage of the bill tomorrow. On Thursday, the Senate will vote to cut off debate on the renomination of Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. At this point, I guess he will get the 60 votes needed to advance.

The House just worked on a few suspension bills today.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow, of course, is the State of the Union. I will probably write an entry before the address, but you can get my thoughts on the speech LIVE on my Twitter account. See you then!

The Daily Strike-1/21/10-The Pathetic, Cowardly and Discombobulated Democratic Party

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. These are some very tough times in Washington, probably the toughest for progressives since Bush's reelection in 2004. At least during 2005-2006, we got to revel in President Bush's failure and unpopularity. Today, the Supreme Court issued one of its worst and most catastrophic decisions in the past half century, and that's not even what's making me the most angry tonight.

HEALTH CARE: In the wake of Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday night, Democrats could have come back with a unified message: we lost because we have lost touch with voters, the voters expect us to deliver for them, and we need to get to work for the American people. They could have saved the squabbling and strategic decision making for private conversations. Instead, Democrats are acting like chickens with their heads cut off. I've been absolutely astonished at how the Democrats have acted since Tuesday's loss, most notably on the issue of health reform.

In my book, Congress has a reasonable and relatively easy path to achieving health care reform in the very near future. The House could pass the Senate version of the health care bill, and then both chambers could take up a package of changes as part of a reconciliation bill, which would only require 51 votes in the Senate. That plan, requires that 218 out of 256 Democrats cared more about the people of this country than their own egos or political futures. That does not seem to be the case. Progressive Democrats have ruled out voting for a bill that covers 30 million people because they're upset about a few odds and ends, and they're bitter at what happened to reform in the United States Senate. Some liberals have gone on TV and declared reform dead. Conservative Democrats are going out in public and questioning their President's ambitiousness and the scope of his agenda. House leaders have openly admitted that they don't have the votes to pass the Senate bill, yet they seem to making no effort to win over their members. President Obama has thus far been silent on the subject.

This is just a disastrous response, and it is callous considering how many lives are at stake.

Some Democrats are discussing paring down the bills and passing only the "popular" items to try and get bipartisan support. There are two glaring problems with this. One, no matter what you do, Republicans will not support a health care bill. Period. Their strategy of opposing this bill vociferously is working wonders. Why stop now? Two, the bill only works when the parts make up the whole. If you simply prohibit companies from denying coverage for a preexisting condition, a bunch of sick people will come into the system, and premiums skyrocket. That's why you have an individual mandate, so that healthy people can come into the system and pool the risk. If you're forcing people to buy insurance, you want to make sure they can afford it, so you give them subsidies. (And so on and so forth). This approach just makes no sense to me.

This is gut-check time for House Democrats. They have the option of doing great good for the American people. They can all go around and say "we don't have the votes" or "not happening," but they have the power to make it happen. They have a power to save thousands of lives per year, and they can't bring themselves to act.

As many others have noted, if this died, the Democratic base has no legitimate reason to show up at the polls in November. If huge Democratic majorities can't pass our major priorities, what's the point of electing a huge Democratic majority in the first place? And that's my health care rant of the day.

SUPREME COURT DECISION: As if this week couldn't get any worse, the Supreme Court issued a devastating decision overturning rules that prohibit corporate (and union) contributions to political campaigns. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that campaign finance laws violate the 1st amendment right to free speech. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion, and he was joined by the conservative block of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito. Justice Stevens wrote strongly-worded dissent, and he was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor (yay Sonia!).

This decision is pretty simple. It pretty much gives corporations more influence with politicians than they already have. It will help undermine the basic tenets of democracy, that everyone should have an equal voice in government. It disgusts me that people and entities with more money now have access to more "political speech." The Democrats should start a grassroots movement to overturn this decision with a constitutional amendment. I won't hold out hope for that happening any time soon.

TOUGH TALK: There is one piece of decent news today! The President has introduced some populist proposals that would represent major advances in financial regulation. The President is proposing, based on advice from former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, would propose new restrictions on what banks do and how big they can get. Let Dr. Ezra Klein explain:

The early reports aren't so clear on how the administration will handle size (some imply it's just the bank tax while others focus on vague, new regulatory powers), but the new limits seem pretty defined: Banks that have both a commercial banking division (where they take your money) and a proprietary trading division (where they invest in things like sub prime mortgages to increase their money) will no longer be able to use the cash from their commercial accounts to finance the trades in their proprietary accounts.

The devil is in the details of course, but this is a very positive announcement both policy-wise and politically. In terms of policy, it would be the equivalent of a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act, and would help to protect consumers. It goes much further than the financial regulatory plans currently being debated in Congress. Politically, it can help Obama and the Democrats get back on the side of the little guy. We are daring the Republicans to stand with the big financial institutions. But of course, we first need to get Congressional Democrats aboard, which will be painstakingly difficult.

THIS AND THAT:

-In Congress today, the House passed a few land management bills. They also passed a few suspension bills, including one offering condolences to Haiti. Ron Paul voted AGAINST that.

The Senate is working on a bill to increase the debt limit through the end of this year so that the government doesn't default on its loans. Republicans know that we can't actually default on our loans, but they will vote against increasing the debts so that the Democrats must incur the burden of a tough vote. True patriots they are! The first vote today was an amendment offered by Senator Thune (R-SD) that would end the TARP program. Republicans have tried variations of this amendment several times, and it has failed every time. This time, the amendment, which needed 60 votes to pass, failed by a vote of 53-45. Democrats taking the political bait to end TARP were Bayh (IN), Begich (AK), Bennet (CO), Feingold (WI), Feinstein (CA), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Nelson (FL), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), Udall (CO), Webb (VA) and Warner (VA).

-Republican Bob McDonnell, the newly sworn-in Governor of Virginia will give the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address. This is a very strong choice for the GOP. McDonnell was a very attractive pragmatic conservative candidate in the VA-Gov race this past fall.

That's it for today, everyone. Try to keep your spirits up.

The Daily Strike-12/24/09-Milestone Achieved

Good morning and welcome to the Daily Strike. This will be a quick entry, as I'm about to head to the airport. But how could I not commemorate this historic day?

HEALTH CARE: A little after 7am this morning, the United States Senate, by a vote of 60-39 (Republican Jim Bunning did not vote), passed health care reform. Vice President Biden assumed his constitutional role as President of the Senate and announced the final roll call vote. The 60-vote Democratic caucus, strained for months by intense intra-party negotiations, held together vote after vote over the last several days, and in doing so, passed the greatest expansion of the social safety-net since the Great Society.

To many of us, this doesn't seem like a victory. After all we've given up to please the Liebermans and Nelsons, it may seem like we're stuck with an empty case called "health reform." I think Ezra puts our feelings into perspective very nicely in this piece.

Senate and House leaders will return to work early next week to begin the arduous process of merging the two bills. The House returns to work on January 11th, while the Senate does not come back into session until the 20th. As a result, it will be several weeks before we get a definitive look at the final bill. But at this point, there's no turning back. I think it was very key that Senate liberals like Bernie Sanders (VT) and Russ Feingold (WI) supported the Senate bill. It sends a message to House liberals that this is something any good progressive should support, despite its shortcomings.

Some issues, like abortion, subsidies, the shape of the health insurance exchange, and the employer mandate, will be difficult to settle. But negotiators, led by the President of the United States, are determined to get it done. And they will. The President should have a bill at his desk by the State of the Union, if not shortly after.

DEBT CEILING: The Senate also voted 60-39 to raise the nation's debt ceiling by another $200 billion. This temporary raise will allow us to move into February without defaulting on our loans. This bill is sort of like cleaning the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody wants to do it, but everyone recognizes that it needs to be done. Part of the responsibility of governing is taking tough votes that won't be popular at home. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) assured the Democratic caucus that they would get no Republican support. After Democrat Evan Bayh (IN) voted against the bill, Democrats were a vote short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill. Retiring Republican George Voinovich (OH) took the hit and supported this necessary piece of legislation. Both Houses of Congress must return to the issue in February when the ceiling will have to be raised once again.

That's it for now. And that's it for much of the next week here in Strike-land. As I said yesterday, you can expect a couple of longer entries by New Year's Day, but in the meantime, relax, take a break from politics, and enjoy your holidays.