GOP RAMS PAYROLL TAX CUTS EXTENSION, KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE THROUGH HOUSE

Published December 13, 2011

| Associated Press

December 13, 2011: House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, 
center, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, meets with 
reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)
 

WASHINGTON –  Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama's request -- but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.

Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate, triggering the final partisan showdown of a remarkably quarrelsome year of divided government.

The legislation "extends the payroll tax relief, extends and reforms unemployment insurance and protects Social Security -- without job-killing tax hikes," Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared after the measure had cleared.

Referring to the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, "Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs."

On a long day of finger pointing, however, House Democrats accused Republicans of protecting "millionaires and billionaires, `' and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as "ideological candy" for the tea party-set.

After the House vote, the White House urged Congress on in finishing work on extending the tax cuts and jobless aid. Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that didn't mention the pipeline but renewed Obama's insistence that the legislation be paid for, at least in part, by "asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share" in higher tax levies.

Lawmakers "cannot go on vacation before agreeing to prevent a tax hike on 160 million Americans and extending unemployment insurance," he said.
 

Republicans mocked Obama's objections to their version of the bill.

"Mr. President, we can't wait," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, employing a refrain the White House often uses to criticize Republicans for failing to take steps to improve an economy struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.

Voting in favor of the legislation were 224 Republicans and 10 Democrats, while 179 Democrats and 14 Republicans opposed it.

At its core, the measure did include key parts of the jobs program that Obama asked Congress to approve in September.

The Social Security payroll tax cuts approved a year ago to help stimulate the economy would be extended through 2012, avoiding a loss of take-home income for wage-earners. An expiring program of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless would remain in place, although at reduced levels that the administration said would cut off aid for 3.3 million.

A third major component would avert a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients, a provision Republicans added to appeal to conservatives but one that the White House and Democrats embrace, too.

While the tax and unemployment provisions were less generous than Obama sought, he and Republicans clashed principally over steps to cover the estimated $180 billion cost of the measure, and on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada through environmentally sensitive terrain in Nebraska to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Obama recently delayed a decision on granting a permit for the pipeline until after the 2012 election.

The payroll tax legislation was one of three major bills that Congress was struggling to finish before adjourning for the year, and by far the most contentious.

A measure covering Pentagon spending was ready for passage, and, separately, negotiators said they were close to a deal on a $1 trillion measure to fund most government agencies through the end of the budget year.

That deal was in limbo, though, with Obama and congressional Democrats using it as leverage to keep House Republicans at the table negotiating a final compromise on the tax and unemployment measure.

It was the final showdown of a year that once brought the government to the brink of a shutdown and also pushed the Treasury to the cusp of a first-ever default.

Those confrontations produced last-minute compromises.This time, leaders in both parties stressed a desire to renew the unemployment tax cuts and jobless benefits that are at the core of Obama's jobs program.

Obama and most Democrats favor an income surtax on million-dollar earners to pay for extending the Social Security tax cut, but Republicans oppose that, saying it is a violation of their pledge not to raise taxes.

Republicans drew attention at every turn to the pipeline, which is backed by some lawmakers in the president's party as well as by the blue-collar unions representing plumbers, pipefitters, electricians, carpenters and construction workers.

Estimates of the jobs that would be produced by pipeline construction vary widely but are in the thousands in a time of high national unemployment. The State Department estimated the total at about 6,000; project manager TransCanada put it at 20,000 directly, and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in debate on the House floor it was more than 100,000.

Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said he had an open mind about the pipeline but also said it had no legitimate role in the payroll tax bill. Republicans argued otherwise.
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the pipeline's construction would allow Canada to send one million barrels of oil a day into the United States, lessening domestic reliance on imports.

He said Canadian development of a pipeline is a certainty, and lawmakers needed to decide whether they wanted it to end up in the United States or "someplace like China."

Exasperated House liberals back Pelosi, point finger at President Obama

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 10, 2011  

YOU CAN'T TELL THE PLAYERS WITHOUT A PROGRAM -- AND AS USUAL, YOU CAN'T TELL THE PLAYERS ANYTHING!

By Mike Lillis / 08/09/11 08:15 PM ET / THE HILL

 

Frustrated liberals are standing behind House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), even though she has not attempted to torpedo bills that they strongly opposed.

Dozens of House Republicans have defected this year on high-profile bills on funding the government and raising the debt limit, ostensibly giving Pelosi and her liberal-leaning caucus leverage.

But that perceived sway has proven largely meaningless, as Pelosi’s allegiance to the administration has left her in the awkward position of tacitly endorsing policies she dislikes.

In short, as long as President Obama and GOP leaders are forging bipartisan deals, the leverage of House Democrats will go only as far as their willingness to buck their own president — something they’ve so far been disinclined to do.

Indeed, amid the year’s most contentious and partisan budget battles, House Democratic leaders have prioritized the appearance of party unity over the policy concerns of their caucus.

Liberal Democrats, for instance, objected to the nearly $40 billion in spending cuts included in the 2011 continuing resolution (CR) enacted in April. More recently, they howled in opposition to the debt-limit package bursting with domestic spending cuts but entirely absent any tax-revenue increases.

Although Pelosi voted against the CR, she did so quietly, without announcing her intentions beforehand or whipping fellow Democrats to join her in opposition. She even suggested she would vote yes if her support were needed to pass the bill.

Pelosi supported the debt-limit bill while conceding it was a raw deal for Democrats. Although most observers predicted House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would need Democratic votes to pass the proposal, Pelosi afterward said she thought the Republicans could secure the votes on their own.

“I’m unhappy about the fact that this was developed with a premise that the Republicans would have the 218 [votes needed to pass the debt-ceiling bill],” she told reporters last week, according to Talking Points Memo. “Since they didn’t, we should’ve had more influence.”

Half of the House Democratic Caucus rejected the final deal, while 73 percent of House Republicans voted for it.

The bipartisan deals on the CR and the debt have complicated Pelosi’s effort to win back the House because it is difficult to criticize Republicans for backing deals that Obama signed into law. Moreover, the presidential race will be center stage next year, and House Democrats have grumbled that Obama’s actions in 2011 clearly illustrate that winning back the House is not among his top priorities.

A growing number of liberal Democrats and policy groups say the White House has left Pelosi little choice through the budget debates. They’re blaming Obama’s deal-making style for undermining most of the leverage held by Pelosi and other House Democrats.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/176191-exasperated-house-liberals-back-pelosi-point-finger-at-president

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Senate slaps down House bill -- clock ticks on compromise. Yikes!

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / July 29, 2011

ABC News -- House Republicans Friday evening narrowly passed a proposal to raise the debt ceiling by $900 billion, cut spending by about that much and require another debt ceiling vote in about six months -- only to have Democrats in the Senate scuttle it.

As expected, the Senate voted down -- tabled -- the House Republican bill written by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The vote was 59-41.

Passage of Boehner’s bill could, however, strengthen the Republicans’ position, showing their unity as they enter negotiations with the Senate on what kind of compromise can ultimately pass both chambers of Congress and raise the debt ceiling before Aug. 2, when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said the government will start to default on its debt.

That drama will play out over the weekend and into next week as senators begin consideration of their own bill backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., which would raise the debt ceiling through the coming general election and into 2013. The specifics of what language senators will consider are not yet set.

Democrats have noted their lack of input on the Boehner plan and say Republicans have refused to negotiate with them in recent days on a deficit reduction deal.

Republicans have pointed out that the Boehner plan and the earlier Cut, Cap and Balance Act are the only deficit reduction plans to pass a congressional vote in recent days.

A spokesman for Speaker Boehner reacted to the Senate's vote in a written statement.

“For the second time, the House has passed a reasonable, common-sense plan to raise the debt limit and cut spending," Boehner press secretary Michael Steel said, "and, for the second time, Sen. Reid has tabled it.  The responsibility to end this crisis is now entirely in the hands of Sen. Reid and President Obama.”

So it appeared the game of "Debt Default Chicken" continued.  The House, following the Senate, is preparing a statement vote of its own. Each side's vote is intended to prove to the other that their debt-ceiling bills can’t pass.

Here’s the plan:

With the 59-41 vote against the Boehner bill behind the Senate, Reid is expected to move to begin debate in the Senate on his own bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling and reduce the deficit. But . . .

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the House of Representatives will have a vote on that Reid debt ceiling bill.  The Republican-controlled House almost certainly will vote it down. Of course, none of this means much.  The real question is when the two sides will negotiate a compromise that can actually pass.

Those negotiations have quietly begun, but it's hard for many observers to see how they can have a deal passed and signed by Aug. 2 if they have not agreed to a compromise deal by midnight Saturday.

If they do have a deal by then, they could have a final Senate vote by Monday morning, setting up House vote late Monday, averting the economic catastrophe they have all been predicting would result from inaction.

But the temperature on Capitol Hill doesn't appear conducive to compromise.

As the Senate voted to table the Boehner bill, a testy exchange played out on the Senate floor as the senators battled over procedure, highlighting the divide that still remains between Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Knowing that Reid at this time does not have the votes to pass his own proposal, McConnell took to the floor and offered to vote on cloture immediately on the Reid measure.

McConnell noted the irony of the House likely voting on the Reid plan before the Senate.

“We would be happy to have that vote tonight, and I would also mention to my friend, the House of Representatives intends to vote on the Reid amendment tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.,” McConnell said.

“We would be more than happy to accommodate the majority and have a vote on the Reid budget tonight. The markets are waiting for us to act."


It appeared to be a move to embarrass Reid, who apparently couldn’t hold a vote on cloture -- and win at the 60 vote threshold -- on his bill tonight.

Reid shot back, referencing days of delays in the House vote on Boehner's plan: “Let’s hope they’re more timely in their 1 o'clock vote tomorrow than they have been in the last few days.”

Reid said they would be happy to have a “simple majority vote,” on the proposal. A simple majority vote only needs 50 votes to pass. But McConnell obviously objected to a simple majority. He wanted it voted approved by 60 votes.

“This is almost an out-of-body experience to have someone suggest that we have a 50-vote threshold on a matter of this magnitude here in the United State Senate,” McConnell said. “I’m genuinely perplexed,
genuinely perplexed that my friend the majority leader doesn’t want to vote on his proposal.”

A frustrated Reid exclaimed, “We’ve been negotiating with ourselves,” and then left the podium.
Earlier this evening, after a night and day of uncertainty, cajoling and tweaking, the Boehner bill passed the House by a 218-210 vote.

Like their Senate colleagues, however, Democrats in the House held the line. Not a single one supported Boehner’s proposal. Twenty-two Republicans also opposed their party leadership’s self-described imperfect legislation.

Boehner delivered a fiery speech before the vote began, accusing the White House and President Obama of not offering their own proposal in months of negotiations.

“I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the United States,” Boehner said, pointing out that until last week he was ready to accept some increased tax revenues to achieve a larger deficit reduction bargain.

“Put something on the table,” he yelled. “Tell this country where you are.”

Until last week, Boehner and President Obama were engaged in closed-door negotiations on a “grand bargain” to raise the debt ceiling while also trying to fix the problem of the debt by enacting sweeping reforms to Medicare and Social Security and overhauling the tax code. But Boehner abandoned those negotiations a week ago when he said Democrats demanded too many tax revenues to offset spending cuts.

The plan that passed Friday, also known as the Budget Control Act of 2011, was revised to ensure that a balanced budget amendment is passed by both Houses of Congress before a second tranche of debt limit increase authority is granted to the president in about six months.

The measure would find $917 billion in savings over 10 years, while the debt limit would be increased by $900 billion. The second stage of the plan would create a select joint committee on deficit reduction before the debt limit is increased again.

As Boehner left a meeting with Republicans Friday morning, he announced, "we have a deal," and noted that he was smiling.

He was not smiling Thursday night, when Republicans failed to even vote on an earlier version of the bill that lacked that balanced budget amendment provision. Boehner could only afford to lose support from 24 of his Republican colleagues, but when it became clear he didn’t have the votes Thursday evening after 5 p.m., the planned vote on the bill was delayed.

Including the balanced budget requirement effectively bought more votes Friday, particularly among freshman Tea Party members who came to Congress in 2010 promising to change Washington and rein in spending. To them, a constitutional amendment to balance the budget is key.

Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., was previously a ‘no’ and announced on Friday he was a solid ‘yea.’

“Votes on the debt ceiling should be a thing of the past. This mess is not about the debt ceiling; it’s about Washington’s addiction to spending,” Landry said in a statement shortly after the meeting. “My fellow freshmen and I are committed to finding a long-term solution to our nation’s debt. A balanced budget amendment will prevent an immediate downgrade of our credit rating and ensure that we’re not right back at this point next year.”

That sentiment was echoed by other rank-and-file Republicans who have decided to drop their opposition to the plan now that there is a mechanism for long-term reform in the legislation.

Senate Democrats now will start the arduous process of bringing up their own bill for consideration. At the end of a days-long process, Reid’s will have to find support from a handful of Republicans to pass his proposal through the Senate.

Republicans have said that many of the cost savings in Reid’s proposal are “phony” -- he counts, for instance, $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even though those wars are already winding down. He would raise the debt ceiling for much longer, too. Both proposals create a new Congressional committee on deficit reduction.

It is now up to Congressional leaders to find that deal that can pass both houses of Congress.

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl), John R. Parkinson (@jrpabcdc), Sunlen Miller, Michael S. James and Z. Byron Wolf (@zbyronwolf) contributed to this report.

New polls confirm Barack Obama's Democratic base is crumbling.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / July 27, 2011 

Political commentary from Andrew Malcolm      

Los Angeles Times

With all of the spotlights on the high-stakes debt maneuverings by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner the last few days, few people noticed what Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders said:
"I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition."
This is political treason 469 days before a presidential election. Yes, yes, this is just a crusty old New England independent for now, albeit one who caucuses loyally with Harry Reid's Democratic posse.
But while most of the media focuses on Republican Boehner and the tea party pressures on him to raise the debt limit not one Liberty dime, Sanders' mumblings are a useful reminder that hidden in the shadows of this left-handed presidency are militant progressives like Sanders who don't want to cut one Liberty dime of non-Pentagon spending.
Closely read the transcript of Obama's Monday statement on the debt talks stalemate. The full transcript is right here. And the full transcript of Boehner's response is right here.
An Unbalanced Approach to a Balanced Approach
Using political forensics, notice any clues, perhaps telltale code words that reveal to whom he was really addressing his Monday message? Clearly, it wasn't congressional Republicans -- or Democrats, for that matter.
The nation's top talker uttered 2,264* words in those remarks. He said "balanced approach" seven times, three times in a single paragraph.
That's the giveaway. Obviously, David Plouffe and the incumbent's strategists have been polling phrases for use in this ongoing debt duel, which is more about 2012 now than 2011. "Balanced approach" is no sweet talk for old Bernie or tea sippers on the other side.
Obama is running for the center already, aiming for the independents who played such a crucial role in his victorious coalition in 2008. They were the first to start abandoning the good ship Obama back in 2009 when all the ex-state senator could do was talk about healthcare, when jobs and the economy were the peoples' priority.
Democrats lost the New Jersey and Virginia governor's offices largely as a result of that and Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts. And then came last November's midterms when voters chose the approach of that historic pack of House-bound Republicans.
Republicans have their own poll problems in some areas. But even without an identified GOP presidential alternative, we've had a plethora of recent polls showing Obama's fading job approval, especially on the economy.
Now, comes a new ABC News/Washington Post poll with a whole harvest of revelations, among them, strong indications that Obama's liberal base is starting to crumble. Among the nuggets:
Despite those hundreds of billions of blown stimulus dollars and almost as many upturn promises from Joe Biden, 82% of Americans still say their job market is struggling. Ninety percent rate the economy negatively, including half who give it the worst rating of "poor."
Are You Better Off Today Than Jan. 20, 2009?
A slim 15% claim to be "getting ahead financially," half what it was in 2006. Fully 27% say they're falling behind financially. That's up 6 points since February.
A significant majority (54%) says they've been forced to change their lifestyle significantly as a result of the economic times -- and 60% of them are angry, up from 44%.
To be sure, 30 months after he returned to home cooking, George W. Bush still gets majority blame for the economy.
But here's the breaking news for wishful Democrats: George W. Bush isn't running for anything but exercise.
"More than a third of Americans now believe that President Obama’s policies are hurting the economy, and confidence in his ability to create jobs is sharply eroding among  his base," the Post reports.
Strong support among liberal Democrats for Obama's jobs record has plummeted 22 points from 53% down below a third. African Americans who believe the president's measures helped the economy have plunged from 77% to barely half.
Obama's overall job approval on the economy has slid below 40% for the first time, with 57% disapproving. And strong disapprovers outnumber approvers by better than two-to-one.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/07/obama-poll-jobs-democratic-base-crumbling.html

Reid would rather murder unborn babies than compromise on spending deal!

By Alexander Bolton - THE HILL 03/17/11

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared Thursday that a Republican proposal seeking to ban taxpayer dollars for Planned Parenthood will not be part of any agreement to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

Asked Thursday about the GOP proposal, Reid defended group, which provides abortions, and said the GOP measure will not be part of a long-term funding deal.

“[It] won’t be part of an agreement,” Reid said.

Reid's vow will complicate negotiations on that spending deal. GOP leaders are under intense pressure from their members and outside groups to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who crafted the House amendment, has said it is time to pass his measure. It is one of 67 riders attached to the spending bill cleared by the House last month. Pence's office declined to comment on Reid's remarks.

The Senate on Thursday approved a measure to fund the government for another three weeks, which gives the competing sides a short period of time to reach a new deal.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Reid -- who opposes abortion rights -- argue that defunding Planned Parenthood would deprive low-income women of family-planning counseling and cancer screenings.

Nineteen Senate Democrats sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday pledging to defeat Republican efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funds for the rest of the year.

“We wanted to offer our support in rejecting the ideological, divisive riders passed by the House of Representatives, which serve only a purely political agenda,” they wrote.


The senators say the rider would “effectively shut down health centers that serve three million women each year and provide nearly one million lifesaving screenings for cervical cancer, more than 830,000 breast exams and nearly four million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.”

Aides to Reid and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) met for an hour and a half Wednesday evening to discuss a compromise to keep the government in operation beyond April 8. That’s when a stopgap funding measure passed Thursday by the Senate runs out.


Reid said he reviewed the list of amendments attached to the House-passed bill and found several unacceptable.


"Those that I focused on are not only no, but hell no," Reid said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, criticized Reid on Thursday evening: "Sen. Reid is wrong. Planned Parenthood is an abortion-centered organization and America's largest. It performs more than 300,000 abortions a year, which constitutes at least 37 percent of its revenue, by conservative estimates.... Planned Parenthood must be defunded and it must be defunded now."

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/150547-reid-defunding-planned-parenthood-cant-be-included-in-spending-deal