Capitolism

This Week On The Hill

By Christopher Hayes

A preview from Greg Kaufmann:

The Administration has had a far tougher time passing the $96 billion war supplemental than anyone anticipated. At play is opposition to escalation, a $108 billion line of credit for the IMF, and a Lieberman amendment that allows Defense Secretary Gates to withhold detainee photos as he sees fit. Great time to tell your reps how you want them to vote.

Healthcare talks continue in Senate Finance and also Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committees this week. Look for Democrats on both committees to release more details on the kind of legislation they want to introduce -- it remains to be seen if a public plan option will be included and, if so, how strong it will be. (Here's a disturbing quote from Robert Reich on that front.) CongressDaily reports that Ways and Means Chair Charlie Rangel will lay out his framework for healthcare on Tuesday to the Democratic Caucus. House Energy and Commerce and also Labor and Education committees will have a hand in the House legislation as well.

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June 8, 2009

This Week on the Hill

By Christopher Hayes

I've been a bad blogger the last week: Congress was on recess and I was working on a number of long-form writing assignments that had stacked up in my queue. But now Congress is back and so is Greg Kaufmann, who sends in this preview of the week's action:

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy is expected to release his proposed legislation which will include a public plan option. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to announce which options are still on the table for its draft of healthcare reform as well.

The House and Senate will continue their work on the $100 billion war supplemental -- expected to be approved this week or next. Sticking points include a $5 billion loan to the International Monetary Fund. Over 90 percent of the funding goes to the military, instead of 80 percent being devoted to non-military purposes as called for by the Petraeus counterinsurgency strategy.

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June 2, 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

This Week on the Hill

By Christopher Hayes

From Greg Kaufmann:

Before Congress can leave town for a week-long Memorial Day recess, members will take up credit card reform, the war supplemental, energy and climate change legislation, and hold a gazillion hearings on the FY10 budget.

The Senate takes up its version of the $90 billion-plus war supplemental approved last week in the House, 368-60. There will be debate on $80 million in funding to close Guantanamo -- funds not included in the House bill. Unfortunately, there probably won't be enough debate about the lack of an Afghanistan exit strategy, or the fact that 90 percent of the war funding is for military purposes -- which contradicts the counterinsurgency strategy that requires 80 percent to go towards non-military needs.

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May 18, 2009

Obama and Congress

By Christopher Hayes

Via Yglesias, Michael Scherer has a very good piece in Time about Obama's approach to congressional relations:

Obama is emerging, on the other hand, as a President who convenes the players, points them down the road and then lets the chips fall where they may. Obama regularly gathers members of Congress at the White House to give them broad encouragement, not marching orders. On May 5, he invited Democrats from the House Energy and Commerce Committee to a meeting at the White House, but he had no specific list of demands. He asked only for a bill that could get industry support, deal with regional concerns and provide market certainty for future investment. Behind the scenes, his aides all but backed off from any arm-twisting. "They are not at the negotiating table," said Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat from Virginia's coal country and a lead drafter of the bill.

This is spot on, and really, really frustrating. Sometimes it almost seems like the White House conducts itself like an editorial page: announcing its views, and principles and then promising to watch closely as the process unfolds. But its' not an editorial page, it's the White House. They don't have to just nudge. Think LBJ nudged?

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May 14, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Christopher Hayes

From Greg Kaufmann, our weekly preview:

The war supplemental, FY10 budget hearings, and credit card reform -- those are the big-ticket items this week.

The House is expected to pass the $96.7 billion war supplemental. Senate Appropriations will take it up on Thursday. $84.5 billion is devoted to military and intelligence ops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $10 billion for the State Department and USAID -- a split that flies in the face of the Petraeus counterinsurgency strategy which calls for 80% non-military and 20% military expenditures. (Today, participants in a National Call-In Day will ask their Representatives to fund alternatives to escalation and co-sponsor a bill demanding that President Obama provide an exit plan by the end of this year.)

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May 12, 2009

Reviving Anti-Trust

By Christopher Hayes

The New York Times has a piece today about the Obama administration's intention to actually enforce anti-trust provisions, a shocking departure from the actions of the last administration.

I just got back from a speech by Christine Varney, the recently confirmed Assistant Attorney General for anti-trust, who gave a remarkably forthright, unapologetic defense of zealous anti-trust enforcement. I'll have more to say about the speech later, which was short on specifics, but unequivocal about the dangers of "too big to fail." But anti-trust has been relegated to a backwater not only in the Bush administration's justice department, but also in our public discourse and in the elite opinion of legal academia. I think (hope!) this morning's speech marked the end of that chapter.

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May 11, 2009

This Week on the Hill

By Christopher Hayes

From Greg Kaufmann:

President Obama meets with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan on Wednesday, while the Senate, House, and Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) all look into Pakistan strategy.

The Administration's Pakistan-Afghanistan envoy Richard Holbrooke will testify before both Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the CPC holds its fifth forum on the Afghanistan War, examining how US policy in Pakistan is impacting Afghanistan. On Thursday, House Armed Services will hold a hearing on "Counterinsurgency… Issues and Lessons Learned", witnesses include counterinsurgency specialist David Kilcullen who recently called for drone attacks in Pakistan to be halted. Also on Thursday morning, House Appropriations will mark-up the Administration's $83 billion war supplemental.

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May 4, 2009

More Thoughts on Specter

By Christopher Hayes

After digesting a bit, here's my sense:

1) This is a huge deal psychologically and in terms of the media narrative. Both coverage and polling show the GOP is increasingly a marginalized party, controlled by its most reactionary, zealous members. This really furthers that (largely accurate) impression.

2) The motivation here is pretty clearly expediency: he was going to lose a GOP primary. No way around it. This is the best way for him to keep his seat.

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April 28, 2009

Specter to Switch Parties!

By Christopher Hayes

That's the word from CNN. Specter, of course, has had to bend further and further right to protect his right flank from primary challenger Pat Toomey. Apparently he realized that was a dead end. The GOP base, which makes up primary voters, is getting more and more right-wing. So he's decided to switch parties and become a Democrat, hoping to preserve his political future. He stresses in his statement that:

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords' switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

It's possible, indeed likely, that this is merely a semantic shift. Specter will retain his own politics, vote the way he was before and have a D in front of his name instead of an R. He's hoping he'll have a clear path to re-election as a Democrat in a blue state.

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April 28, 2009