Capitolism

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

The House has already hit the road -- gone until September -- so the Senate has the joint to itself. I asked one Senate staffer what the rationale is behind the House taking off a week earlier?

"What is this thing you call a ‘rationale?'" he replied.

The Senate will vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor -- the only mystery there is how many deadbeat Republican votes she will pick up along the way.

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August 3, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

The House leaves town at the end of the week, the Senate one week later, and hopes for a health care bill before they vacate are all but nil. (Tell Congress to stick around and get the job done here.) They won't return until the second week of September, and meanwhile 14,000 people a day are losing their healthcare.

This week, Chairman Waxman continues negotiating with the conservative Blue Dog (pseudo)Democrats to try to get the House health care bill through his Energy and Commerce Committee. Even if the House could bring a bill to the floor for a vote, it probably won't until it knows where the Senate is headed. House Dems don't want to take a tough stand only to be left hung out to dry by Senate Dems as they strip the bill of a public option and a surcharge on the wealthy.

Over in the Senate, God only knows what Max Baucus is up to as he continues to try to woo brofriend Chuck Grassley. He's now working with just six members of the Finance Committee -- three Democrats (including him) and three Republicans. Majority Leader Harry "I'm no LBJ" Reid hopes to have the Baucus health care bill by the August recess so they can spend that month merging it with the decent Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee version.

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July 27, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

This week -- a lot of appropriations work, more markups on health care legislation, the Senate gets started on its climate bill, and welcome Senator Al Franken….

The Senate is scheduled to take up the $3.1 billion Legislative Branch spending bill and the $42.9 billion Homeland Security bill. The House will vote on the $22.9 billion Agriculture bill, $48.8 billion State-Foreign Operations bill, and the $77.9 billion Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill. The FY10 intelligence authorization act is also expected on the House floor -- there hasn't been an intelligence authorization bill enacted since FY05.

Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committees will continue work on their respective health care bills this week. It remains to be seen whether the Senate Finance bill will include a public plan option. Sen. Schumer has been the strongest advocate for one on the Finance Committee, but on Face The Nation he was talking possible compromise through regional cooperatives, a weak alternative to HELP's proposed HHS-run plan (which could also still be amended). The House will continue its work on a health care bill as well and plans on bringing legislation to the floor before summer recess begins on August 8. The Congressional Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Progressive Caucus, which together make up nearly 120 Members of the House and Senate -- will continue their advocacy for a strong public option.

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July 6, 2009

Fighting Like Hell for Healthcare Now

By Greg Kaufmann

At Upper Senate Park on the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, on a hot, humid DC summer day, 10,000 people from across the country rallied for healthcare reform with a real public option.

They flew in from as far as Washington state, Montana, New Mexico and Nebraska; bussed in from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and New Jersey; and made the trip from Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois.

It was a vibrant crowd, showing the colors of unions that turned out in force: CWA red, UFCW yellow, AFSCME green, SEIU purple, LiUNA orange, IBEW lime, and SIU blue.

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June 26, 2009

Coming Up ACES

By Greg Kaufmann

The Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) seemed to have hit a snag this week. One of the reasons was the opposition of House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson and agribusiness to the EPA -- instead of the USDA -- monitoring agricultural pollution. No agreement has been reached on that issue, but it looks like the bill will make it to the floor on Friday anyway -- even though, as CongressDaily reports, the 218 votes needed to pass it aren't a lock and negotiations continue.

Supporters and opponents of the bill are therefore kicking into high gear -- which means facts be damned in the case of the latter. The EPA and CBO have estimated the average household cost of the bill as somewhere between 22 cents and 48 cents per day ($80 to $175 per year) -- without taking into account the benefits of reduced global warming, energy efficiency promotion, or job creation. But that hasn't stopped Republicans from claiming the cap and trade program will "cost every American family $3000". They are also, of course, predicting massive job losses and a weak economy -- the same tired line they have used for decades in opposing clean air and clean water laws -- even though history has proven them wrong time and again and this bill would do the same.

Clean energy advocates like NRDC, Sierra Club, 1Sky, and Green For All are mobilizing activists to support and strengthen the legislation -- and fight any efforts to weaken it. Some of the issues include possible changes to clean energy incentives, emission reduction goals, the renewable energy standard, enforcement, green job investment in lower income communities, and auctioning pollution credits versus giving them away to polluters.

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June 23, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

Here's what's happening this week:

Congress will begin its July 4 recess at the close of business on Friday -- don't we all wish we could do the same? -- but before it does, it will attempt to make some headway on health care legislation.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee continues to markup its version of the bill, while according to the New York Times the Senate Finance Committee will be engaged in "intense back-room negotiations". In the House, three committees -- Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor -- will take up the 852-page draft of their joint health care bill.

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June 22, 2009

COIN Contradictions

By Greg Kaufmann

From Greg Kaufmann:

One problem with the Obama Administration's "Af-Pak" strategy -- aside from the lack of an exit strategy, air strikes, and a cost that threatens its domestic agenda -- is the fact that the allotment of resources consistently contradicts General Petraeus' own stated counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy. Petraeus says 80 percent of expenditures should go towards non-military purposes like economic development, and only 20 percent to the military. Yet the $106 billion supplemental approved yesterday by the House handed over nearly 90 percent of the funds to the military.

Representative Mike Honda -- Chair of the Asian Pacific American Caucus and a Progressive Caucus member -- homed in on that fact in his good statement explaining his vote against the supplemental yesterday (full statement here):

"… I cannot support the continuation of the Bush Administration's failed modus operandi in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, and the mis-proportioned 90-10 doctrine of assistance allocation – that is, 90% for military investments and only 10% for political, economic, and social development. The Supplemental represented our first opportunity to correct the failed approaches of the past, but we unfortunately did not use this chance."

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June 17, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

A preview from Greg Kaufmann:

This week, the Obama Administration will try once again to push through the $106 billion war supplemental. Opposition is much stronger than anyone anticipated, with most antiwar Democrats maintaining their stance, and House Republicans opposing $5 billion to boost IMF lending. In the Senate, Senators Lieberman, McCain and Graham have threatened to shut down business if there aren't assurances that photos of detainee abuse won't be released. Now is a good time for you to let your legislators know where you stand on this. The House is expected to vote on Tuesday.

We should see some more definition around healthcare legislation this week -- specifically on the question of whether the Senate will offer a public plan option? The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will markup its version tomorrow, while the Senate Finance Committee releases a draft on Wednesday. Finance Chair Max Baucus continues to pledge that he will have a bipartisan bill -- somewhat disturbing since Republican Committee members are united in their opposition to a public plan option to compete with private insurers. (Nothing like a little Senate chumminess and political cowardice to kill needed reform.) President Obama is in Chicago this afternoon speaking to the American Medical Association which also opposes the public plan option.

The administration will release its plan for reforming financial regulation this week. Smart money is on something rather underwhelming, brought to you courtesy of Geithner-Summers Inc. CongressDaily does report, however, that the Administration will support TARP Oversight Chair Elizabeth Warren's plan for a Consumer Product Safety Commission to regulate financial products -- so that's a piece of good news. Secretary Geithner will appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and House Financial Services on Thursday.

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June 15, 2009

Shotguns, AK-47's and Your National Parks

By Greg Kaufmann

National Parks are not like other public lands, and they are not like state lands. They are set aside because they are unlike anywhere else on Earth. -- Congressman Raúl Grijalva

Senator Tom Coburn has struck again, aided and abetted by feckless Majority Leader Harry Reid.

This time around, Coburn hijacked the credit card reform bill, attaching yet another insane gun amendment that has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand. The result? A vote for the "Credit Card Bill of Rights" is now also a vote for allowing loaded shotguns, rifles -- even AK-47s -- into our national parks. Score another win for the NRA, poaching, environmental degradation, and national insecurity -- and a huge loss for public safety.

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May 20, 2009

The Nefarious Al Gore

By Greg Kaufmann

Scalise, Sleaze, and the Nefarious Al Gore

Al Gore was on the Hill to endorse the House climate bill at an Energy and Commerce hearing. He was armed as always with the latest science, opening by announcing that new data shows the Artic ice cap may be about to completely disappear "if nothing is done to curb emissions of greenhouse gas pollution. For most of the last 3 million years, it has covered an area the size of the lower 48 states."

Republicans, no longer able to argue with Gore on the merits -- even the New York Times revealed that an association of Big Polluters buried its own scientific report affirming man-made global warming fourteen years ago -- desperately tried to cast aspersions on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning messenger.

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April 26, 2009