Barack Obama continues to talk about bipartisanship, while pretending to be unaware that Congressional leaders are pulling stunts like this: Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday announced his committee would hold hearings on the creation of a new truth commission to investigate myriad allegations of corruption and wrongdoing in the Bush administration.
Roland Burris may not have many friends, but he doesn’t have much to lose. He’s 71, so doesn’t have to consider how the fight over his place in the Senate might affect his electability down the road. His Senate appointment revived a moribund political career, so it’s not as if he’d be favored for some other office if he gave up the seat. He’s the | Read More »
Why is it that the U.S. press seems unable to follow up on statements that President Obama makes to hispanic audiences (a term I use here in its broadest possible sense). As I pointed out yesterday, the press took no notice when Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that Obama had promised to pursue comprehensive immigration reform.
Well what do you know? Despite the rhetoric from President Obama and Congressional Democrats, it looks like the rich are set to reap more than their fair share from the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt spending plan: Billionaire Paul Allen is a Microsoft cofounder, the owner of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and the owner of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers. And, thanks to the stimulus bill President Obama signed | Read More »
Gee, there seem to be lots of Blue Dogs going home and telling their constituents: The stimulus was too partisan; Republicans got shut out of the process; and, The Blue Dogs are so influential that Congressional leaders can’t ignore them anymore. It begs the question: if the Blue Dogs are so influential, then why are they now apologizing and declaiming responsibility for how it turned | Read More »
In his current Canadian trip, Barack Obama has attracted a lot of attention for his statement that he would like to modify the NAFTA accord to give a higher status to labor and environmental standards. There’s been some blowback from Canada, but reaction has been relatively muted. What is surprising is that the reaction in Mexico has been muted as well. Given the Mexican government’s | Read More »
The Blue Dogs make a pretty good case: they bellied up to the bar and by-and-large supported a spending bill that Joe Biden warns will be used against them next year. Now the House leadership seems likely to ask them to line up and vote to end the secret ballot for union organizing — which is likely to wind up even less popular than the | Read More »
National Journal has the story: Just as the dust was settling last week from the exits of Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., whipped up the tumult again. By pulling out of consideration for Commerce secretary, a post previously abandoned by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), Gregg became the Obama administration’s fourth high-level dropout so far. But while this administration has | Read More »
Chances are you’ll recognize Joe Arpaio by name. And if you don’t, his bio is likely to jog your memory. Known as ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff,’ Arpaio has angered the liberal Democrats in Congress with his tough-on-criminals approach. And now they plan to go after him: House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and three fellow Democrats want the Department of Justice to investigate civil | Read More »
I thought that President Obama made clear that when we take prisoners, the United States must adhere to the guidelines in the Army Field Manual? Apparently when prisoners are taken for the cause of bigger government, officials sometimes have to resort to tougher measures. On a more serious note, are the Governor and the California Legislature so desperate for tax increases that they have to | Read More »
Yes We Can! Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters trust their own judgment more than President Obama’s when it comes to the economic issues affecting the nation.
The Nets made the mistake of leaking this idea before the money was approved. They were supposed to save such discussions until after Congress passed it. That said, once states start divvying up the cash that Barack Obama wants to give them, you can bet the Nets — and a host of other franchises — will start lining up for a share of the pot: | Read More »
Courtesy of Senator McConnell’s office: • Tax Benefits For Golf Carts, Electric Motorcycles and ATVs: (Pg. 60 of the Tax Division of Conference Report, lines 9-16, “(2) SPECIFIED VEHICLE.—The term ‘specified vehicle’ means any vehicle which—‘‘(A) is a low speed vehicle within the meaning of section 571.3 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the date of the enactment of the American Recovery | Read More »
I couldn’t agree more: Blue Dog Democrat Boren, the lone Democrat [in the Oklahoma delegation - bf], was the first to pop off about President Obama. Boren said Obama “missed an opportunity” for the stimulus bill to be bipartisan. “It was a good thing for the president to meet with Republicans. The previous administration never met with Democratic members of Congress. “The problem is that | Read More »
CNN’s Political Ticker reports that with Ted Kennedy apparently unavailable for a Senate vote tomorrow, Harry Reid is trying to line up one more Republican to vote for the Democrat spending bill. The concern is that without Kennedy, the bill has only the minimum number of votes required to pass: 60. And the three GOP supporters had made clear that their support was conditional on | Read More »
I don’t mean to be monotonous. If you haven’t figured out by now that Congressional Democrats really have no clue what they’re doing, or whether it will work, you never will. Charlie Rangel seems to think that this is a selling point, rather than a red flag. I guess you might say there are two types of people in the world: those who think it’s | Read More »
How much can you hide in a 1,434 page conference report? Quite a lot. According to Bloomberg, Congressional leaders managed to squeeze in a tax break of ‘up to $10 billion’ that General Motors has been looking for: GM won a provision that will erase a tax liability of up to $10 billion that would have resulted from restructuring efforts, said Senator Debbie Stabenow, a | Read More »
Get Flash Congressional Democrats have now agreed to a ‘bipartisan stimulus compromise’ supported by fewer than 1 percent of Congressional Republicans, on a plan to spend about $780 billion or so of your money trying to get the economy moving again. Economists say this bill might provide a few temporary jobs for some workers, but it does nothing to correct the fundamental problems of the | Read More »
For House liberals, there can never be enough spending: Some House Democrats are working furiously to reinstate funds the Senate cut from an $789 billion economic stimulus package speeding to the floor this week. In particular, progressive Democrats and members of the Congressional Black Caucus would like to see more money for social spending programs that was cut from the Senate package over the weekend | Read More »
I’ll let Rasmussen set it up: Democrats are still trusted more than Republicans to handle the economy by a 44% to 39% margin, but their advantage on the issue has been slipping steadily since November… In the first poll conducted after Barack Obama was elected president, the Democrats held a 15-point lead over the GOP on economic issues. In December, their lead dropped to 12 | Read More »
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