Cruising to Recess

++The House finally passed the student loan bill, which is heading to the President's desk. It will work for several years before rates explode again.

++Democratic representative Braley from Iowa insists the House should stay in session until a real Farm Bill is passed. The House bill excludes SNAP, the food stamp program, and would leave 50 million without nutrition.

++The Senate--for the first time in history--approved a director of the AFT. Since 2006, the post has been made a position that needed Senate confirmation. Because of the Reid deal with McConnell,Obama's nominee went through but at a small margin that threatened the whole filibuster deal.

++House Republicans defunded the non-existent ACORN for the second time. They are expected to repeal Obamacare another time before the August recess.

++Obama's seeming preference of Larry Summers for FED chair met with blowback from the Senate Democrats and House women. The Senate Democrats informed the President that Larry Summers would have a tough time getting confirmed. The preference of people like Senator Elizabeth Warren is Janet Yallin. Yallin would be the first woman in history to head the Chair. An alternative is the former head of TIAA-CREF, which would make him the first African-American.

++All nominees for the NLRB have been approved so that we now have labor law back. Until now, the failure to have a full board met there was no way to enforce any labor law or the right to unionize. 

++Paul Ryan hints that immigration reform could pass the House if Boehner gets rid of the Hastert Law and vote on it piecemeal. Ironically,immigration reform is the only is which the majority of rank-and-file Republicans are in favor of. A new Pew poll of Republicans indicate that the rank-and-file want the party to move even farther Right.

++Groundswell a new rightwing group of the conservative press,congressional staffers and Clarence Thomas' wife have met with John Boehner and Darryl Issa to get them to push Benghazi. The purpose of the ground is to create talking points to counter progressives and also to counter Karl Rove, whom they think is not conservative enough.

++On immigration reform,evangelical Christians, the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove are pressing House Republicans to move forward. 

++President Obama has offered Grand Bargain 2.0, which consists of cutting corporate tax rates in return for raising the minimum wage and building infrastructure. Both Boehner and McConnell have turned it down.

++THUD went thud. The bill for Transportation Housing and Urban Development was pulled in the House because Republicans did not want to cut the bill to fit their own Ryan budget. It was a sign that when push came to shove when filling in the numbers on their budget, they failed. The THUD bill is considered a job creator for congressional districts.

++On Obamacare, Ted Cruz bemoans the Republicans lack of guts to defund it. Mike Lee, teabag Senator from Utah, said that if you fund it, you own it. 

++The big fly in the Obamacare issue is the deal that the GOP made with the Democrats. To de-rail the bill when it first cae up, the GOP dared the Democrats to make Congress have to participate in the exchanges. They normally participate in the exchange for federal employees. The Democrats agreed and now everyone is faced with paying for insurance at higher rates than the federal health plans. To counter the news that health insurance premiums are falling under Obamacare,Florida and Georgia have announced massive increases. Both states neglected to agree to the Medicaid extension or to create their own exchanges. Meanwhile, Vermont is chugging on to a one-payer system and Montana has embarked on an innovative system of clinics, which has both saved the state and patients' money. 

++The American economy has grown slightly more than predicted at an anemic 1.5%.  Manufacturing has expanded the fastest pace in 2 years. The Car industry reports record sales. The S&P 500 has eclipsed 1,700 for its first time in history. Jobless claims are the lowest in 5 years. 

++PPP has Sarah Palin galloping to a Senate nomination in Alaska but losing to Sen.Begich by 52 to 40.

++PPP also has Alison Grimes edging Mitch McConnell 45 to 44. More Importantly, over 50% of Kentuckians believe McConnell doesn't deserve re-election.