++As we said last year,all we expect from Obama's last term is immigration reform. I don't expect any of his jobs initiatives to be approved by Congress and the next President will have to deal with the issue of poverty.
++I happen to agree with E.J. Dionne when he urges Obama to establish the language of debate for the next decade in our politics like Reagan did.
++Yes, we will see proposals on the minimum wage,unemployment insurance and other goodies that are now playing their way into our political debate.
++President Obama's aides are saying that their ambitions are small and that the President will outline what he will do through executive action.
++He will also set the tone for this year's elections for the Democrats.
++We should remind everyone that the long-term unemployed have been screwed since no one on the Hill seems capable of addressing the issue.
++The Farm Bill, originally passed by the Senate two years ago, may--or maybe not--be taken up by the House this week. The lack of action by the House Republicans has eroded the staunch support of the Farmers Bureau for the GOP and threaten their rural vote.
++Jon Karl interviewed Jay Carney on ABC yesterday and raised the issue that only 37% of Americans believe Obama will do the right thing. Jon asked whether Obama will get his Mojo back. Someone should ask Karl is he knows that Mojo is.
++The CBS poll has Obama at 46-47% approval rating. And again I happened on a poll about Obama's like ability, which is at 59%. As long as he hangs there, he is in decent shape.
++The GOP will have three responses to Obama's State of the Union address. Mike Lee for the Teabaggers,Rand Paul for Rand Paul, and a House woman.
++The Media meme is that Obama had a terrible year and how can he have a better one. I explained last year why I felt it was not a terrible year for Obama. But Billy Kristol said it was a good year for the Republicans because it was a bad year for Obama. I guess he forgot the government shutdown.
++Speaking of which, Mitch McConnell and Tan Man Boehner have said there will not be a clean debt ceiling hike. They said this on the tenth anniversary when both men gave George W. a clean debt ceiling hike.
Showing posts with label Debt Ceiling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debt Ceiling. Show all posts
Monday, January 27, 2014
Friday, December 20, 2013
Harry's Sick,Senate and Obama to Leave Town
++Harry Reid was hospitalized this morning and will stay in the hospital and miss today's votes.
++Janet Yellin won't be confirmed until January.
++The Senate will go home with no Farm Bill, extended unemployment benefits and judicial nominations may or may not have to be re-submitted.
++Democratic chairpersons revolted against the Nuclear Free Iran Act and President Obama said he would veto. But Rachel Maddow quite correctly pointed out that with the number of Democratic cosponsors,if the stand alone bill came to the floor it might have passed with a veto proof majority and paved the way to war with Iran.
++Unsurprisingly,the Senate did passed by a whopping vote of 84-15 a Defense bill of $552.1 billion and $80.7 billion for the War in Afghanistan and other overseas operations.
++The Bill does allow President Obama to send Gitmo prisoners to third countries but still doesn't allow for the remaining prisoners to be tried in American courts.
++The Bill actually does allow the U.S. to pay for the destruction of the chemical weapons in Syria.
++Jack Lew says the debt ceiling will have to be raised sometime in February or early March. Watch this space.
++The GDP's Third Quarter was revised upward to 4.1% from 3.6%, the second best quarter since the 2007 Recession.
++Even Huffington Post had to admit that the state exchanges for ACA are running at top speed and enrollments are surging in states that are part of the Union.
++New Mexico's Supreme Court OK'd same-sex marriage. Weirdly,LGBT activists are predicting Indiana will be next.
++President Obama is supposed to address the press before he leaves for his Christmas Holidays in Hawaii.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Quiet Town
++The shining village on the mound continues the government shutdown. The House GOP has been trying to pass piecemeal bills to open parts of the government they like. They particularly want to ensure the parks around D.C. and the operating budget for D.C. in in place because of the negative effect the shutdown is having on the "Cooch" election bid in Virginia. But they are not even passing their own bills.
++Andrew Sullivan hit it out of the park yesterday with his essay on "The Nullification Party" and he urged President Obama to treat this as the constitutional crisis that Lincoln faced. I happen to agree and think Sullivan's piece at the Daily Dish is worth reading.
++In the late night hours before the closedown, John Boehner shocked his colleagues by designating conferees to meet with the Democrats to negotiate the CR,shocking because for 18 times the House has refused to negotiate the budget with the Senate despite Senator Patty Murray's repeated request. What I missed until Louise Slaughter talked about it on the Rachel Maddow Show that with all the ping-ponging Harry Reid only needed 51 votes to kill the House initiatives. But with a call to conference, Boehner was trying to trick the Senate back into the 60 vote range for consideration and then shift the blame for the shutdown on the Senate. The public isn't buying.
++I repeat the CR is a compromise bill that showed the Democrats caved to the GOP's top budget line, which is an amazing $300 billion less than the President proposed.
++In the Fox "slim down", not shutdown,their own poll showed President Obama with 50% approval and 79% disapproved of the shutdown. CNN showed Congress with a stunning 10% approval rating, the lowest since modern polling began.
++Nationwide, editorials blasted the Tea Party for preventing a clean CR from coming to vote. Every pundit and political junkie is hip to the fact that a clean CR would pass the House if Speaker Boehner would allow it. For the first time in a while,the moral equivalency of the corporate media has disappeared with blame laying squarely on the House Republicans.
++Incredibly dangerous is this morning's statements from the Republican Caucus that they may link the CR to the debt ceiling vote. I think the President is on firmer ground than he thinks to raise the debt ceiling himself. Parry versus the United States in 1935 brought this issue to the Supreme Court. The United States failed in its bid not to pay its bills. The 14th Amendment is pretty absolute--more than the 2nd Amendment is--that you can not question the United States in terms of its debts. And I have yet to find any statutory basis for the "debt ceiling" at all. It's a myth that has been useful for three decades but doesn't have a legal reality.
++President Obama has called the Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss the situation. Since he is the only reasonable person around, I fear like many he will give more than the Democrats already did by allowing the sequestration levels in the CR. But so far the Democrats have remained united and the President firm. The same can't be said by the Republicans, who are in open civil war with themselves and against the country.
++Meanwhile Obamacare clicked in with perhaps its most important component the individual mandate. The exchanges and the federal website was so overwhelmed that the severs crashed. Over 2 million in New York logged onto the state's website, 2.8 million on the Federal website, and hundreds more thousand on the state exchanges. Some glitches were worse than others. I read several different accounts from computer geeks of the various problems with selected websites but can't understand a word they said. But the bottom-line is that demand for health insurance is far greater than people expected.
++The United Nations weapons inspectors are en route to Syria and face the shortest time-line to remove chemical weapons there.
++The Iranian Parliament passed a resolution approving President Rowhani's overture to the West. John Kerry is expected to start the nuclear negotiations in Geneva next week.
++Just like with the BP oil spill, President Obama has had to postpone his trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. John Kerry will go in his place. The President has to hunker down and deal with Congress.
++Hurray for the Pirates . Russell Martin, picked up from the Yankees last year,hit two homers to eliminate the Cincinnati Reds. Tonight, the Cleveland Indians go against the Tampa Rays for an elimination game in the Wild Card race. Go Indians!
++Andrew Sullivan hit it out of the park yesterday with his essay on "The Nullification Party" and he urged President Obama to treat this as the constitutional crisis that Lincoln faced. I happen to agree and think Sullivan's piece at the Daily Dish is worth reading.
++In the late night hours before the closedown, John Boehner shocked his colleagues by designating conferees to meet with the Democrats to negotiate the CR,shocking because for 18 times the House has refused to negotiate the budget with the Senate despite Senator Patty Murray's repeated request. What I missed until Louise Slaughter talked about it on the Rachel Maddow Show that with all the ping-ponging Harry Reid only needed 51 votes to kill the House initiatives. But with a call to conference, Boehner was trying to trick the Senate back into the 60 vote range for consideration and then shift the blame for the shutdown on the Senate. The public isn't buying.
++I repeat the CR is a compromise bill that showed the Democrats caved to the GOP's top budget line, which is an amazing $300 billion less than the President proposed.
++In the Fox "slim down", not shutdown,their own poll showed President Obama with 50% approval and 79% disapproved of the shutdown. CNN showed Congress with a stunning 10% approval rating, the lowest since modern polling began.
++Nationwide, editorials blasted the Tea Party for preventing a clean CR from coming to vote. Every pundit and political junkie is hip to the fact that a clean CR would pass the House if Speaker Boehner would allow it. For the first time in a while,the moral equivalency of the corporate media has disappeared with blame laying squarely on the House Republicans.
++Incredibly dangerous is this morning's statements from the Republican Caucus that they may link the CR to the debt ceiling vote. I think the President is on firmer ground than he thinks to raise the debt ceiling himself. Parry versus the United States in 1935 brought this issue to the Supreme Court. The United States failed in its bid not to pay its bills. The 14th Amendment is pretty absolute--more than the 2nd Amendment is--that you can not question the United States in terms of its debts. And I have yet to find any statutory basis for the "debt ceiling" at all. It's a myth that has been useful for three decades but doesn't have a legal reality.
++President Obama has called the Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss the situation. Since he is the only reasonable person around, I fear like many he will give more than the Democrats already did by allowing the sequestration levels in the CR. But so far the Democrats have remained united and the President firm. The same can't be said by the Republicans, who are in open civil war with themselves and against the country.
++Meanwhile Obamacare clicked in with perhaps its most important component the individual mandate. The exchanges and the federal website was so overwhelmed that the severs crashed. Over 2 million in New York logged onto the state's website, 2.8 million on the Federal website, and hundreds more thousand on the state exchanges. Some glitches were worse than others. I read several different accounts from computer geeks of the various problems with selected websites but can't understand a word they said. But the bottom-line is that demand for health insurance is far greater than people expected.
++The United Nations weapons inspectors are en route to Syria and face the shortest time-line to remove chemical weapons there.
++The Iranian Parliament passed a resolution approving President Rowhani's overture to the West. John Kerry is expected to start the nuclear negotiations in Geneva next week.
++Just like with the BP oil spill, President Obama has had to postpone his trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. John Kerry will go in his place. The President has to hunker down and deal with Congress.
++Hurray for the Pirates . Russell Martin, picked up from the Yankees last year,hit two homers to eliminate the Cincinnati Reds. Tonight, the Cleveland Indians go against the Tampa Rays for an elimination game in the Wild Card race. Go Indians!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Government Shutdown Ping-Pong
++The House just passed another bill shutting down the government if Obamacare isn't postponed. This time they lost a few Republicans as so-called "moderates" are beginning to tire of this charade.
++President Obama spoke well today about how you don't get a ransom for doing your basic job and told the nation that tomorrow the health exchanges are being set up with or without the government operating.
++Elizabeth Warren, the Senator of Commonsense,was impolite to note that the Senate passed a budget in March that rolled back the Sequester but the House refused to meet in conference to negotiate a compromise budget that would have kept the government funding for a whole year. Then she was impolite to note that the Senate a few months later passed individual funding bills but the House could not. The noticeable failure by the House was the Farm Bill, which ended up with the passage of subsidies for the private farms of House members but another bill to cut $50 billion from foodstamps.
++Steve Benen, whose voice hasn't been amplified now he is at Rachel Maddow blog, points out today that the closing of the government has been the GOP plot since March, pointing to the same disturbing facts Senator Warren did in her Senate speech this afternoon.
++At slightly after 9pm EST, I have no idea where this will end, except to note that this is a CR for only two months. It is absurd for the President and the Senate to make even one concession for a nothing burger.
++The New York Times had an excellent op-ed this morning on why President Obama must raise the debt ceiling himself because he would be facing the possibility of breaking several laws at once and raising the debt ceiling would be the most fruitful of all his options. Apparently, the President did consider this last time and Huffington Post submitted a Freedom of Information Request which was turned down by the DOJ.
++Eric Holder didn't let the shutdown talks stop him. The DOJ is suing North Carolina on its Voter ID law.
++Late last Saturday night, the House pulled another boner by inserting language that companies can deprive women of birth control coverage in insurance. I was not even a teenager when the issue of contraceptives was decided by the Supreme Court. So the government could shutdown on the issue of contraceptives and a tax on medical devices, which I suppose the tea baggers think are dildos and other adult toys.
++One think to consider if you already have health insurance,if the House had succeeded in postponing Obamacare, your premiums would rise from 10-15%.
++Preliminary polls show over 60% blame the GOP for closing the government and only 13% the President. But I have also seen polls in states like Texas, which blame the Democrats more than Republicans. But I still bet on the GOP taking the blame. Unfortunately, it will not affect the end results in House races in 2014 because Larry Sabato said today there are in good shape and have sufficient money. Voter suppression and gerrymandering will not weaken their position.
++Another side debate is whether John Boehner will crash and fall. Conservatives are all over the map on this. Byron York argues Boehner is immune from a tea party revolt. But then again he won't bring a clean CR to the floor. He must be afraid of something. A straight up and down clean CR vote would pass with Democratic support.
++Ezra Klein appeared the other night on the Rachel Maddow Show to say a government shutdown will allow the Tea Baggers to get their Ya-Yas out. Ezra thinks that's a good think and then we could have a straight debt ceiling raise. I sincerely doubt it. House Republicans are thrilled at closing the government down. This was the Reichstag fire they wanted all along. And a vast majority do not believe stopping a debt ceiling would matter any. This is a dangerous area to explore and the Teabaggers, who show no signs of understanding basic economics, would go there in a minute.
++President Obama spoke well today about how you don't get a ransom for doing your basic job and told the nation that tomorrow the health exchanges are being set up with or without the government operating.
++Elizabeth Warren, the Senator of Commonsense,was impolite to note that the Senate passed a budget in March that rolled back the Sequester but the House refused to meet in conference to negotiate a compromise budget that would have kept the government funding for a whole year. Then she was impolite to note that the Senate a few months later passed individual funding bills but the House could not. The noticeable failure by the House was the Farm Bill, which ended up with the passage of subsidies for the private farms of House members but another bill to cut $50 billion from foodstamps.
++Steve Benen, whose voice hasn't been amplified now he is at Rachel Maddow blog, points out today that the closing of the government has been the GOP plot since March, pointing to the same disturbing facts Senator Warren did in her Senate speech this afternoon.
++At slightly after 9pm EST, I have no idea where this will end, except to note that this is a CR for only two months. It is absurd for the President and the Senate to make even one concession for a nothing burger.
++The New York Times had an excellent op-ed this morning on why President Obama must raise the debt ceiling himself because he would be facing the possibility of breaking several laws at once and raising the debt ceiling would be the most fruitful of all his options. Apparently, the President did consider this last time and Huffington Post submitted a Freedom of Information Request which was turned down by the DOJ.
++Eric Holder didn't let the shutdown talks stop him. The DOJ is suing North Carolina on its Voter ID law.
++Late last Saturday night, the House pulled another boner by inserting language that companies can deprive women of birth control coverage in insurance. I was not even a teenager when the issue of contraceptives was decided by the Supreme Court. So the government could shutdown on the issue of contraceptives and a tax on medical devices, which I suppose the tea baggers think are dildos and other adult toys.
++One think to consider if you already have health insurance,if the House had succeeded in postponing Obamacare, your premiums would rise from 10-15%.
++Preliminary polls show over 60% blame the GOP for closing the government and only 13% the President. But I have also seen polls in states like Texas, which blame the Democrats more than Republicans. But I still bet on the GOP taking the blame. Unfortunately, it will not affect the end results in House races in 2014 because Larry Sabato said today there are in good shape and have sufficient money. Voter suppression and gerrymandering will not weaken their position.
++Another side debate is whether John Boehner will crash and fall. Conservatives are all over the map on this. Byron York argues Boehner is immune from a tea party revolt. But then again he won't bring a clean CR to the floor. He must be afraid of something. A straight up and down clean CR vote would pass with Democratic support.
++Ezra Klein appeared the other night on the Rachel Maddow Show to say a government shutdown will allow the Tea Baggers to get their Ya-Yas out. Ezra thinks that's a good think and then we could have a straight debt ceiling raise. I sincerely doubt it. House Republicans are thrilled at closing the government down. This was the Reichstag fire they wanted all along. And a vast majority do not believe stopping a debt ceiling would matter any. This is a dangerous area to explore and the Teabaggers, who show no signs of understanding basic economics, would go there in a minute.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The News From D.C.
++Another American male commits mass slaughter--this time at D.C.'s Naval Yard.
++Tan Man Boehner decides to "defund Obamacare" with his continuing resolution. All this maneuver does is close the government until both chambers can get it right.
++Eric Cantor wants to condition the debt ceiling hike on Obama approving the Keystone Pipeline. What other agenda items from the Romney campaign can the GOP sneak through?
++President Obama called the GOP's demands extortion and urged the Business Roundtable to use its influence on Congress to try and act normal. He said again there would be no negotiating over the debt ceiling.
++Rumors have Janet Yallin being nominated by President Obama to the Fed Chair next week.
++Now I hope President Obama would raise the debt ceiling on his own and invoke the Constitution.
++We are back to the Obama is weak meme. I guess people prefer the white male sociopathic form of leadership, which served us so well in the financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
++The House Benghazi Crowd looks like they are lowering their sights and trying to nail Hillary.
++For those people who get off on the pseudo-drama of Congress, remember the budget,the debt ceiling and the immigration reform bill would have been solved by now if Boehner jettisoned the Hastert rule, which not a law but just an understanding among Republicans.
++Eric Cantor call off the House recess because he thought the Teabaggers might have to work next week.
++Tan Man Boehner decides to "defund Obamacare" with his continuing resolution. All this maneuver does is close the government until both chambers can get it right.
++Eric Cantor wants to condition the debt ceiling hike on Obama approving the Keystone Pipeline. What other agenda items from the Romney campaign can the GOP sneak through?
++President Obama called the GOP's demands extortion and urged the Business Roundtable to use its influence on Congress to try and act normal. He said again there would be no negotiating over the debt ceiling.
++Rumors have Janet Yallin being nominated by President Obama to the Fed Chair next week.
++Now I hope President Obama would raise the debt ceiling on his own and invoke the Constitution.
++We are back to the Obama is weak meme. I guess people prefer the white male sociopathic form of leadership, which served us so well in the financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
++The House Benghazi Crowd looks like they are lowering their sights and trying to nail Hillary.
++For those people who get off on the pseudo-drama of Congress, remember the budget,the debt ceiling and the immigration reform bill would have been solved by now if Boehner jettisoned the Hastert rule, which not a law but just an understanding among Republicans.
++Eric Cantor call off the House recess because he thought the Teabaggers might have to work next week.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Could We Get Real?
++The Republican House is now at war with Republicans in the Senate because they want the Senate GOP to take the lead in de-funding Obamacare. Tan Man Boehner's idea of getting a temporary budget solution by adding defunding Obamacare has now been withdrawn by the House Republicans because it did not suit The Club of Growth and Americans for Prosperity and other right-wing interest groups. They knew that it would be stripped from a Senate version and sent to Obama for his signature. The GOP budget would hamper Medicare, cut foodstamps by $50 billion and continue the sequestration. This little gambit by Boehner and Cantor didn't even sell well to their own Caucus.
++Nancy Pelosi rightfully called this the abyss of GOP dysfunction. How anyone in their right mind could vote for a Republican now is beyond me. They are virtually incapable of any form of governing.
++House Teabaggers wants to throw the ball to Ted Cruz and a handful of Senators to force the Senate to vote on defunding Obamacare and face a veto by President Obama.
++Remember all this is just to avoid a government shutdown, which both the House and Senators went off to recess, pledging to avoid.
++None of this makes any rational sense. The GOP criticize President Obama has embarrassed the United State before the world. What do you think the last three years of incompetence by the GOP done?
++President Obama needs to do two things to avoid the total meltdown of the political system into Teabag anarchy. 1. Appoint Janet Yellin as the new Fed chair to avoid a long drawn-out battle in the Senate. 2. By executive order, unilaterally raise the debt ceiling to avoid market chaos.
++Sequestration will start taking big hunks out of the military budget this year and less than the devastation it has wrought to domestic discretionary spending. The Democrats have a logical plan for ending sequestration but they have to remember the other side is a few planks short of a full deck. It is unlikely there can be any meaningful bipartisan movement on the budget this year and the next.
++One of the cut tricks little Ricky Cantor came up with was to pass a budget at the current sequestered amount that is about $200 million less than the Senate approved cuts. That would mean the base budget would be the already reduced budget and then add on the mandatory cuts for this year. All this in the pursuit of cutting the national government below 2008 levels.
++Remember, dear reader, the majority of Republicans do not want Obamacare defunded. This is the sole interest of the corporately funded anarchists.
++Nancy Pelosi rightfully called this the abyss of GOP dysfunction. How anyone in their right mind could vote for a Republican now is beyond me. They are virtually incapable of any form of governing.
++House Teabaggers wants to throw the ball to Ted Cruz and a handful of Senators to force the Senate to vote on defunding Obamacare and face a veto by President Obama.
++Remember all this is just to avoid a government shutdown, which both the House and Senators went off to recess, pledging to avoid.
++None of this makes any rational sense. The GOP criticize President Obama has embarrassed the United State before the world. What do you think the last three years of incompetence by the GOP done?
++President Obama needs to do two things to avoid the total meltdown of the political system into Teabag anarchy. 1. Appoint Janet Yellin as the new Fed chair to avoid a long drawn-out battle in the Senate. 2. By executive order, unilaterally raise the debt ceiling to avoid market chaos.
++Sequestration will start taking big hunks out of the military budget this year and less than the devastation it has wrought to domestic discretionary spending. The Democrats have a logical plan for ending sequestration but they have to remember the other side is a few planks short of a full deck. It is unlikely there can be any meaningful bipartisan movement on the budget this year and the next.
++One of the cut tricks little Ricky Cantor came up with was to pass a budget at the current sequestered amount that is about $200 million less than the Senate approved cuts. That would mean the base budget would be the already reduced budget and then add on the mandatory cuts for this year. All this in the pursuit of cutting the national government below 2008 levels.
++Remember, dear reader, the majority of Republicans do not want Obamacare defunded. This is the sole interest of the corporately funded anarchists.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Snowden Has Left the Airport
++Whistleblower and former Booz-Hamilton employee Snowden has left the Moscow airport and been given one-year asylum in Russia. He has been offered a job by Russia's Facebook. The U.S. says it is sad.
++Award-winning writer Samantha Powers was approved as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Most important about Ms. Powers is that she is married to Cass Sunstein, whom Glenn Beck said was the "most powerful man in America". She was approved by the Senate by a vote of 87 to 10. Marco Rubio led the dissenters.
++Patricia Millett made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, putting confirmation of Obama's judicial nominees off until September.
++Illinois' Governor just signed the bill legalizing medical marijuana, making the state 20th to do so.
++Mitch McConnell successfully filibustered the Senate's Transportation bill sending Susan Collins in a huff about the Senate not being able to do its work.
++The Post's op-eds tonight were filled with Republicans lamenting the carnival atmosphere of the GOP's threats to close down the government. Michael Gerson tried to lecture the tea baggers that Obamacare will fail anyway of its own weight but that their nonsense to repeal it only breathes new life in it. Basically he cautioned the GOP on threatening to defund Obamacare as a recipe for electoral disaster. Charles Krauthammer lectures the libertarians on the threat of isolationism.
++Same sex marriages are now legal in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Washington,D.C. A lesbian couple has launched a federal suit to have same sex marriage recognized in Virginia. A Gallup poll now has over 50% of Americans believing same sex marriages should be legal in all states.
++All the noise about the debt ceiling,defunding the government and Obamacare seems not to make sense but it does. Congress will be away on recess until September. The House will only be in session for 9 days in September. By the end of September,there has to be either a budget agreement or a continuing resolution and lifting of the debt ceiling. October 1, another phase of Obamacare kicks in. So the nihilists among the Republicans want to bring the house down but others think any budget deal is going to be close to impossible except for a continuing resolution. But the problem with this is that sequestration will then continue--gutting both domestic discretionary spending and the military budget.
++ Ted Cruz will join Jim DeMint on the "Defund Obamacare Tour" funded by the Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the Heritage Foundation.
++The House will conclude tomorrow with its 40th attempt against Obamacare. This time it is a bill to prevent the IRS from being involved in enforcing the bill. Testimony from the staff rolling out Obamacare infuriated Republican congressmen because the Obama official said that she has met with thousands of small businesses and small business associations and there have only been anecdotal evidence that a small number of small businesses will not ensure their employees. The CBO projects the delay in implementing the individual mandate will cost the government about $10billion and mean that 500,000 will not be insured in 2014 as planned.
++The Tea Party Republicans hope that lightning will strike twice this summer and they will repeat the uprising of 2010. But this time they will have to confront the basic benefits of Obamacare and reality might de-rail their game. The big money players are still hoping to dissuade young people from applying for medical insurance so that the "exchanges" will become more expensive than advertised. Kaiser polls indicate that young people or the "invincibles" now believe health insurance is important for their lives. The key will be how many act on their beliefs.
++Award-winning writer Samantha Powers was approved as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Most important about Ms. Powers is that she is married to Cass Sunstein, whom Glenn Beck said was the "most powerful man in America". She was approved by the Senate by a vote of 87 to 10. Marco Rubio led the dissenters.
++Patricia Millett made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, putting confirmation of Obama's judicial nominees off until September.
++Illinois' Governor just signed the bill legalizing medical marijuana, making the state 20th to do so.
++Mitch McConnell successfully filibustered the Senate's Transportation bill sending Susan Collins in a huff about the Senate not being able to do its work.
++The Post's op-eds tonight were filled with Republicans lamenting the carnival atmosphere of the GOP's threats to close down the government. Michael Gerson tried to lecture the tea baggers that Obamacare will fail anyway of its own weight but that their nonsense to repeal it only breathes new life in it. Basically he cautioned the GOP on threatening to defund Obamacare as a recipe for electoral disaster. Charles Krauthammer lectures the libertarians on the threat of isolationism.
++Same sex marriages are now legal in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Washington,D.C. A lesbian couple has launched a federal suit to have same sex marriage recognized in Virginia. A Gallup poll now has over 50% of Americans believing same sex marriages should be legal in all states.
++All the noise about the debt ceiling,defunding the government and Obamacare seems not to make sense but it does. Congress will be away on recess until September. The House will only be in session for 9 days in September. By the end of September,there has to be either a budget agreement or a continuing resolution and lifting of the debt ceiling. October 1, another phase of Obamacare kicks in. So the nihilists among the Republicans want to bring the house down but others think any budget deal is going to be close to impossible except for a continuing resolution. But the problem with this is that sequestration will then continue--gutting both domestic discretionary spending and the military budget.
++ Ted Cruz will join Jim DeMint on the "Defund Obamacare Tour" funded by the Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the Heritage Foundation.
++The House will conclude tomorrow with its 40th attempt against Obamacare. This time it is a bill to prevent the IRS from being involved in enforcing the bill. Testimony from the staff rolling out Obamacare infuriated Republican congressmen because the Obama official said that she has met with thousands of small businesses and small business associations and there have only been anecdotal evidence that a small number of small businesses will not ensure their employees. The CBO projects the delay in implementing the individual mandate will cost the government about $10billion and mean that 500,000 will not be insured in 2014 as planned.
++The Tea Party Republicans hope that lightning will strike twice this summer and they will repeat the uprising of 2010. But this time they will have to confront the basic benefits of Obamacare and reality might de-rail their game. The big money players are still hoping to dissuade young people from applying for medical insurance so that the "exchanges" will become more expensive than advertised. Kaiser polls indicate that young people or the "invincibles" now believe health insurance is important for their lives. The key will be how many act on their beliefs.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Don't Vote Tonight, Call Chicken Delight
++John Boehner can at least console himself that he is a more produtive speaker of the House than the Iraqi speaker of parliament. Boehner has passed 12 laws to date, the Iraqi speaker only 6. In contrast, Nancy Pelosi last term passed 254 laws. To be fair, it is estimated that Boehner will pass about 40 laws by the time his term expires. Still one of the worst records in the history of the United States.
++John Boehner told the House to go home tonight as he is still 26 votes short on his bill after vowing it would pass the House tonight.
++Even though John Boehner has been consulting Rush Limbaugh on the deficit ceiling plan, the Rushbo surprised this morning by urging House Republicans to vote against.
++Harry Reid was positively salivating at the prospect of the Boehner passing his bill tonight. He had kept the Senate around just to vote against it. All day long Harry Reid had b een promising the House that Boehner's bill was dead on arrival. So it probably was a disappointment he didn't get to shut it down tonight.
++The Boehner bill has gone back into re-write to appease the teabaggers. Red State claims they are adding a Balance Budget Amendment to the Constitution to the bill, precisely what Senator John McCain had warned against just yesterday. The other addition is to cut the funds for the Pell Grants because teabaggers believe it is welfare since minority students benefit from them. If anything the bill would become even more rightwing than it is.
++But teabaggers are expressing the concern that if they vote for Boehner than their constituents will be angry with them because it will never become law. A little late in the day when you consider that the teabaggers voted for the Ryan Plan that got rid of Medicare.
++But the good news as the economy goes off the cliff is that the House spent time naming a post office in Peoria, Illinois.
++Little attention has been paid to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops denunciation of the Boehner bill for making the poor pay an exorbitant amount in the budget cuts. In fact, Boehner's bill violates the rules of budget cutting that says that those programs protecting the most vulnerable must be preserved as a matter of law.
++The 14th Amendment has gained momentum in the debt ceiling argument. Bill Clinton met with President Obama advising him to invoke it. This is not unprecdented. Harry Truman once invoked it to raise the debt ceiling. From what I can tell, there seem to be several ways to do this by exceutive order. Paul Roberts, a former adviser to Ronald Reagan, wrote today that President Obama didn't have to go that fair. Apparently, in all those unitary executive rulings by the George W. Bush administration, the President is allowed to unilaterally declare an economic emergency and single-handedly do what he needs to do.
++The question facing Boehner is whether he can maintain the speakership if his bill goes down. Apparently, the conventional wisdom is he can last the term. But we face a government shutdown in September the way the House is acting because the continuing resolution on the budget will expire. And word is that Boehner doesn't want another deficit ceiling fight in his first term even though his bill calls for it. So if things are rough for the President, Boehner is the saddest tangerine as John Stewart said.
++The situation gets more bizarre as it unfolds. Boehner today said that he didn't care whether his bill would negatively affect the country's credit rating. "I have no control over that". Even though he had been warned several days before the bill was first posted about the fact.
++Freshmen GOP tweets today were sort of sad. It was clear they didn't even know how something became law. It was only throughout the day that it became clear to them that the House bill had no chance to become law. So the idea that this would force the Senate and the President's hand--the argument being used by Boehner and Cantor--rang hollow and they began to back away.
++I believe that the teabaggers honestly believe when they passed the Ryan Plan, the Cut, Cap and Balance bill that they had actually passed a law. They sincerely don;t know how the system works.
++Meanwhile Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell are quietly drafting a bill to raise the debt ceiling until the next presidential term with an attempt to merge Boehner and Reid's approaches.
++John Boehner told the House to go home tonight as he is still 26 votes short on his bill after vowing it would pass the House tonight.
++Even though John Boehner has been consulting Rush Limbaugh on the deficit ceiling plan, the Rushbo surprised this morning by urging House Republicans to vote against.
++Harry Reid was positively salivating at the prospect of the Boehner passing his bill tonight. He had kept the Senate around just to vote against it. All day long Harry Reid had b een promising the House that Boehner's bill was dead on arrival. So it probably was a disappointment he didn't get to shut it down tonight.
++The Boehner bill has gone back into re-write to appease the teabaggers. Red State claims they are adding a Balance Budget Amendment to the Constitution to the bill, precisely what Senator John McCain had warned against just yesterday. The other addition is to cut the funds for the Pell Grants because teabaggers believe it is welfare since minority students benefit from them. If anything the bill would become even more rightwing than it is.
++But teabaggers are expressing the concern that if they vote for Boehner than their constituents will be angry with them because it will never become law. A little late in the day when you consider that the teabaggers voted for the Ryan Plan that got rid of Medicare.
++But the good news as the economy goes off the cliff is that the House spent time naming a post office in Peoria, Illinois.
++Little attention has been paid to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops denunciation of the Boehner bill for making the poor pay an exorbitant amount in the budget cuts. In fact, Boehner's bill violates the rules of budget cutting that says that those programs protecting the most vulnerable must be preserved as a matter of law.
++The 14th Amendment has gained momentum in the debt ceiling argument. Bill Clinton met with President Obama advising him to invoke it. This is not unprecdented. Harry Truman once invoked it to raise the debt ceiling. From what I can tell, there seem to be several ways to do this by exceutive order. Paul Roberts, a former adviser to Ronald Reagan, wrote today that President Obama didn't have to go that fair. Apparently, in all those unitary executive rulings by the George W. Bush administration, the President is allowed to unilaterally declare an economic emergency and single-handedly do what he needs to do.
++The question facing Boehner is whether he can maintain the speakership if his bill goes down. Apparently, the conventional wisdom is he can last the term. But we face a government shutdown in September the way the House is acting because the continuing resolution on the budget will expire. And word is that Boehner doesn't want another deficit ceiling fight in his first term even though his bill calls for it. So if things are rough for the President, Boehner is the saddest tangerine as John Stewart said.
++The situation gets more bizarre as it unfolds. Boehner today said that he didn't care whether his bill would negatively affect the country's credit rating. "I have no control over that". Even though he had been warned several days before the bill was first posted about the fact.
++Freshmen GOP tweets today were sort of sad. It was clear they didn't even know how something became law. It was only throughout the day that it became clear to them that the House bill had no chance to become law. So the idea that this would force the Senate and the President's hand--the argument being used by Boehner and Cantor--rang hollow and they began to back away.
++I believe that the teabaggers honestly believe when they passed the Ryan Plan, the Cut, Cap and Balance bill that they had actually passed a law. They sincerely don;t know how the system works.
++Meanwhile Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell are quietly drafting a bill to raise the debt ceiling until the next presidential term with an attempt to merge Boehner and Reid's approaches.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hitting the Ceiling
++The Chamber of Commerce has reaped great benefits in backing the new Republican majority in the House. Former corporate employees have become staff members and virtually gutted regulation on oil and gas, the environment and have tried to gut the new Consumer Protection Agency.
++But it's clear for all the gains in real influence and power that the members they elected are economically illiterate and obtuse to the point where they really could bring down the economy. The Chamber is frantically lobbying the House to pass the Tan Man's plan. Wall Street is now beginning to realize that the prospects for a debt ceiling deal are not good and the stocks are plunging.
++By late afternoon it was reported that Boehner after telling his Caucus get "their ass in line" would get 217 votes for his bill.
++The irony is that bringing to the bill to the floor tomorrow would violate the House's new three day rule to allow floor debate. But since they no longer read the constitutional justification for legislation as they promised, why are we not surprised by the latest breach of etiquette?
++The new version of the bill , as scored by the CBO,has the cuts now totalling $950 billion, still below Boehner's orginal $1.25 trillion. This could prove problematic for the teabaggers who were told to get in line.
++Judson Phillips of the Teabaggers held a rally of ten--not thousands or hundreds--outside the House. Phillips has demanded Boehner resign as speaker.
++House Republicans still have three reservations about the bill. Not enough discretionary spending will be spent. They will have to go through this debate again rather shortly because it is a two-stage process and their constituents are furious and their poll numbers are diving. And, thirdly, the bill omits their Holy Grail--the much vaunted Balanced Budget Amendment,which wouold require a two-thirds vote to raise any taxes.
++John McCain lost it today over the demands by the "teaparty hobbits". McCain said that the demands by conservatives for a Balanced Budget Amendment on a debt ceiling law was "bizarro". This is the reason, McCain said, that the Republican party ends up with a Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell as a Senate candidate. He lectured the new Senators from the teaparty that it is nuts to believe they can have their way with a Democatically controlled Senate and a Democratic President.
++Hey, but that didn't stop John Boehner from appearing on right-wing radio soliciting support because President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hate his bill. His public pitch is that his bill is a vote against President Obama. It's not for some national interest--heaven forbid.
++Iowa Christianist Steve King claimed that Obama would be impeached if the debt ceiling isn't lifted. Not so fast, legal scholars claim that with the 14th Amendment and the House's responsibility in the Constitution for generating the budget, it would be Speaker Boehner who would face impeachment.
++So far, all Democratic House members and Senators have pledged not to vote for the Boehner Plan.
++The Black Caucus unanimously voted today to vote against anything but a clean debt ceiling bill. They also urged the White House to use the 14th Amendment.
++James Clyburn came out today and urged President Obama to use the 14th Amendment As the third-ranking Democrat, he would signalled to the White House that the Democratic caucus would provide him cover if he did.
++White House spokesman Carney shot the suggestion down today saying the White House didn't want to get into an esoteric legal discussion.
++Alice Rivlin said the whole debt ceiling was a big fraud. Rivlin was the founder of the CBO and later a member of the Clinton Administration.
++Yves Smith, author of Econned, said that the Administration should call everybody's bluff. She said that there were at least three ways to handle the situation. The first was to invoke the 14th Amendment. The Second was for Treasury to selectively default on the nearly $1.5 trillion bonds held by the Federal Reserve as part of the recent Fed stimulus move. The Third was the very artful suggestion that the Mint produce a $1 trillion coin for Treasury and that would then be deposited in the government's acount. She basically said that Geitner has not been imaginative in his approach to this. And that no one could stop the Administration.
++Smith says that Wall Street does have a Plan B in case of default. Hedge Fund managers are ready to scoop up Treasuries because everyone on the Street believes a default would be temporary.
++Smith warned that the new mantra on austerity is dangerous. As consumers are trying to pay down their debt, the government must pick up the slack to allow them to. If not, you have situations like Ireland where austerity programs have caused the economy to shrink by 20%. She coted Latvia and Greece as other examples where industry is de-leveraging now and as a result debt to GDP ratios actually worsen.
++But it's clear for all the gains in real influence and power that the members they elected are economically illiterate and obtuse to the point where they really could bring down the economy. The Chamber is frantically lobbying the House to pass the Tan Man's plan. Wall Street is now beginning to realize that the prospects for a debt ceiling deal are not good and the stocks are plunging.
++By late afternoon it was reported that Boehner after telling his Caucus get "their ass in line" would get 217 votes for his bill.
++The irony is that bringing to the bill to the floor tomorrow would violate the House's new three day rule to allow floor debate. But since they no longer read the constitutional justification for legislation as they promised, why are we not surprised by the latest breach of etiquette?
++The new version of the bill , as scored by the CBO,has the cuts now totalling $950 billion, still below Boehner's orginal $1.25 trillion. This could prove problematic for the teabaggers who were told to get in line.
++Judson Phillips of the Teabaggers held a rally of ten--not thousands or hundreds--outside the House. Phillips has demanded Boehner resign as speaker.
++House Republicans still have three reservations about the bill. Not enough discretionary spending will be spent. They will have to go through this debate again rather shortly because it is a two-stage process and their constituents are furious and their poll numbers are diving. And, thirdly, the bill omits their Holy Grail--the much vaunted Balanced Budget Amendment,which wouold require a two-thirds vote to raise any taxes.
++John McCain lost it today over the demands by the "teaparty hobbits". McCain said that the demands by conservatives for a Balanced Budget Amendment on a debt ceiling law was "bizarro". This is the reason, McCain said, that the Republican party ends up with a Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell as a Senate candidate. He lectured the new Senators from the teaparty that it is nuts to believe they can have their way with a Democatically controlled Senate and a Democratic President.
++Hey, but that didn't stop John Boehner from appearing on right-wing radio soliciting support because President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hate his bill. His public pitch is that his bill is a vote against President Obama. It's not for some national interest--heaven forbid.
++Iowa Christianist Steve King claimed that Obama would be impeached if the debt ceiling isn't lifted. Not so fast, legal scholars claim that with the 14th Amendment and the House's responsibility in the Constitution for generating the budget, it would be Speaker Boehner who would face impeachment.
++So far, all Democratic House members and Senators have pledged not to vote for the Boehner Plan.
++The Black Caucus unanimously voted today to vote against anything but a clean debt ceiling bill. They also urged the White House to use the 14th Amendment.
++James Clyburn came out today and urged President Obama to use the 14th Amendment As the third-ranking Democrat, he would signalled to the White House that the Democratic caucus would provide him cover if he did.
++White House spokesman Carney shot the suggestion down today saying the White House didn't want to get into an esoteric legal discussion.
++Alice Rivlin said the whole debt ceiling was a big fraud. Rivlin was the founder of the CBO and later a member of the Clinton Administration.
++Yves Smith, author of Econned, said that the Administration should call everybody's bluff. She said that there were at least three ways to handle the situation. The first was to invoke the 14th Amendment. The Second was for Treasury to selectively default on the nearly $1.5 trillion bonds held by the Federal Reserve as part of the recent Fed stimulus move. The Third was the very artful suggestion that the Mint produce a $1 trillion coin for Treasury and that would then be deposited in the government's acount. She basically said that Geitner has not been imaginative in his approach to this. And that no one could stop the Administration.
++Smith says that Wall Street does have a Plan B in case of default. Hedge Fund managers are ready to scoop up Treasuries because everyone on the Street believes a default would be temporary.
++Smith warned that the new mantra on austerity is dangerous. As consumers are trying to pay down their debt, the government must pick up the slack to allow them to. If not, you have situations like Ireland where austerity programs have caused the economy to shrink by 20%. She coted Latvia and Greece as other examples where industry is de-leveraging now and as a result debt to GDP ratios actually worsen.
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