Politics - what I see and what I do not understand

Saturday, January 8, 2011

A visual tour of the Congressional career of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Full Story

First elected in 2006, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition but at age 18 was inspired to register as a Republican by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a fellow Arizonan. She switched parties in 1999 after realizing her views on social issues were more moderate than most Arizona Republicans.

Man linked to Giffords shooting called 'very disturbed'

By Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star Posted: Saturday, January 8, 2011 3:11 pm

Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily StarJared Loughner is the man identified by the Associated Press as the suspect in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and slayings of U.S. District Judge John Roll and 5 others this morning in Tucson. Law enforcement is at house on Soledad Avenue that matches the address of the Jared Loughner who registered as a volunteer at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, where this photo was taken.The man linked to the shooting today of Rep. Gabrielle Giffordsand others is 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, the Associated Pressreported.

Police have surrounded a house at 7700 N. Soledad Ave., which isthe address listed by a man with the same name on a variety ofonline accounts and in the volunteer registry for the 2010 TucsonFestival of Books. The home is near West Magee Road and NorthThornydale Road on the northwest side, about five miles from theshooting scene.
A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said hewas “obviously very disturbed.”
“He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” saidLynda Sorenson, who took a math class with Loughner last summer atPima Community College’s Northwest campus.
Sorenson doesn’t recall if he ever made any threats or utteredpolitical statements but he was very disruptive, she said. He wasasked to leave the pre-algebra class several times and eventuallywas barred from class, said Sorenson, a Tucson resident.
MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts maintained by Loughnersuggest he has spent most of his life on the northwest side: Hisprofile says he attended Thornydale Elementary, Tortolita MiddleSchool, Mountain View High School and Pima Community College.
The online accounts also contain bizarre discussions of a newcurrency and literacy, as well as threatening and despairingmessages.
“WOW! I’m glad i didn’t kill myself. I’ll see you on NationalT.v.! This is foreshadow .... why doesn’t anyone talk to me?..” heposted on MySpace Dec. 14.
On Dec. 13, he wrote: “I don’t feel good: I’m ready to kill apolice officer! I can say it.”
In a posting on YouTube, Loughner wrote repeatedly about a newcurrency.
“I’m thinking of creating a new currency,” he wrote. “Therefore,I’m thinking of a design for my new coins size, shape, color,material, and image to start a new money system.”
He also wrote repeatedly about literacy. In a written message onYouTube, Loughner said: “The majority of people, who reside inDistrict-8 are illiterate — hilarious. I don’t control your Englishgrammar structure, but you control your English grammarstructure.”
In a message posted on his MySpace account, titled “Goodbyefriends,” Loughner said: “Dear friends...please don’t be mad at me.The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person whois literate.” It was unclear when it was posted.
In a MySpace profile, Loughner said “My favorite interest wasreading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a greatstudy in college.”
He lists among his favorite books “Mein Kampf” and “TheCommunist Manifesto”. But he also includes a broad variety of othertitles, including: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “To Kill aMockingbird,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
In another YouTube message, Loughner said: “I know who’slistening: Government Officials, and the People. Nearly all thepeople, who don’t know this accurate information of a new currency,aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have mycivil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen.”
“In conclusion, my ambition - is for informing literate dreamersabout a new currency; in a few days, you know I’m consciencedreaming! Thank you!”
In a youtube.com video dated Dec. 15, entitled “Introduction:Jared Loughner” the accused gunman describes himself as a U.S.military recruit who had applied to join the Army. The Army,however, said it rejected Lougher as a recruit in 2008.
Loughner’s youtube video makes a rambling mention of “MEPS inPhoenix” a reference to the Military Entrance Processing Station inthe state capital that all Arizona recruits from every branch ofservice pass through before leaving for basic training.
“Every United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix isreceiving one mini bible before the tests,” it said. “JaredLoughner is a United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix.Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini bible before thetests.
“I didn’t write a belief on my Army application and therecruiter wrote on the application: None.”
First Sgt. Brian Homme, who oversees Army recruiting in Tucson,said Loughner applied to enlist in December 2008 and was sent toPhoenix to take a test and physical. But “he was found to beunqualified so he never joined the Army,” Homme said.
He declined to say why Loughner was rejected, citingconfidentiality laws.
Jared Loughner has had at least two minor run-ins with police,according to on-line court records.
In October 2007, Loughner was cited by the Pima County Sheriff'sDepartment for possession of drug paraphernalia, a charge that wasdismissed in November 2007 when he completed a diversionprogram.
One year later, in October 2008, Loughner was charged with a"local charge" in Marana Municipal Court, that charge was alsodismissed following the completion of a diversion program in March2009.
Court records indicate the Marana case file is due to be purgedin December 2013. It's unclear what the exact charge was.
Grant Wiens, 22, attended Mountain View High School withLoughner, although they were not in the same grade.
Wiens also took a class at Pima Community College with Loughner,where they occasionally talked, he said.
“He was a guy in high school who definitely had his opinions onstuff and didn’t seem to care what people thought of him,” Wienssaid. “He did his own thing.”
Ryan Miller, 19, was a sophomore at Mountain View when Loughnerwas a senior.
He said Loughner was seemed like a normal kid.
“I was in shock,” he said, describing his reaction to theshooting. “I didn’t know what possessed someone our age to dosomething like this.”

West Wing Week: 1/07/11 or "Resolutions"

Free Download |whitehouse| January 06, 2011 |
Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the first family returns to Washington, the President signs over 30 bills into law, and West Wing staff share their New Year's resolutions.

Absentee oaths add wrinkle to proceedings

By CQ Staff
The first votes cast in the 112th Congress by a pair of Republican lawmakers will likely be thrown out by the House after it was discovered Thursday that they voted before being sworn into office.
Reps. Pete Sessions of Texas and Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania apparently were in another part of the Capitol when Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, administered the oath of office to House members in the chamber Jan. 5.
They were sworn in by Boehner on Thursday afternoon, but not before they had each participated in five roll call votes and one quorum call that followed Boehner’s election as Speaker.
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Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said the resolution his panel is drafting to govern floor action next week on a Republican proposal (HR 2) to repeal the 2010 health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) will include language that would vitiate the votes cast by Sessions and Fitzpatrick before their swearing-in.
Such an action would not change the outcome of any of the House votes.
The Rules Committee recessed for more than 90 minutes in the middle of its marathon hearing Thursday on the health care bill after it became clear that Sessions, a member of the panel and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, had voted several times on the floor and in committee although he was not yet sworn in to begin his eighth House term.
After discussions with House parliamentarians, Dreier announced that “nothing has been violated as far as the actions of this committee” and that the upcoming rule would cancel out the two lawmakers’ floor votes. “The cleanest way to doing this is to address this in the rule,” Dreier said.
Another option might have been a unanimous consent request, but it was unclear whether Democrats would have let the new GOP majority escape a minor embarrassment so easily.
“What in the world was more important to Congressmen-elect Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick than taking the oath of office, committing to support and defend the U.S. Constitution?” wrote Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. “Republicans have spent a lot of time over the past two days proselytizing about House rules, but they don’t seem very keen on actually following the rules.”
The new House Democratic minority also would be glad to see the repeal effort hit a snag. Louise M. Slaughter, the top Rules Committee Democrat, expressed concern about continuing the hearing without completely resolving any constitutional issues that might be raised by Sessions’ participation.
“We feel that we are on somewhat shaky ground,” she said. “We would feel better, on our side, if we could recess and start the hearing over tomorrow.”
“How many other people decided not to take the oath on the floor?” Slaughter asked.
Dreier cited “a standard of collegiality” suggested by Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 “Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States,” which Dreier said indicates that a House member need only be in proximity of the Speaker when the oath of office is administered.
In 1837, the House adopted Jefferson’s manual in all cases except when its parliamentary guidance contradicts other rules of the House.
A Sessions spokesperson said the Texan “stated the oath publicly in the Capitol, but was not on the House floor” during the swearing-in.
The Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times published a photograph that the paper said showed Sessions and Fitzpatrick among a group of Fitzpatrick political supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center, their right hands raised, as the oath was being administered in the House chamber.
The House does not take attendance during the swearing-in ceremony at the beginning of each Congress. Both Sessions and Fitzpatrick participated in an initial quorum call and were in the chamber to vote for Boehner in the Speaker’s election.
“The purpose of the quorum call is to bring members to the floor,” said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. “Members are expected to stay on the floor afterwards, but often don’t. Any member not on the floor for swearing is expected to make that known to leadership to rectify.”
Also sworn in Thursday was Democratic Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, who was not in Washington on Jan. 5. He did not vote before being sworn in.
-- Ben Weyl and Niels Lesniewski, CQ Staff

Debt warning spurs showdown

By CQ Staff
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s warning that the government will hit its debt limit as early as March 31 has kicked off a high-stakes game of brinkmanship, with Republican leaders determined to extract spending concessions as the price of supporting an increase in the federal borrowing capacity and preventing a government default.
The looming deadline for raising the debt ceiling coincides with the need for Congress to find a way to fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2011 after a stopgap funding measure expires March 4.
It will also be hard on the heels of President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget submission, expected in mid-February.
And it comes after the House repealed a mechanism known as the “Gephardt rule” earlier this week, which in the past made it easier for the House to raise the debt limit by avoiding a direct vote on it.
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In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Geithner on Thursday warned that not raising the debt limit would cause a default on U.S. financial obligations, which he said would be potentially more damaging than the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
He called on Congress to raise the debt limit early this year, “well before the threat of default becomes imminent.”
“Default would effectively impose a significant and long-lasting tax on all Americans and all American businesses and could lead to the loss of millions of American jobs. Even a very short-term or limited default would have catastrophic economic consequences that would last for decades,” he said.
Republican leaders in both chambers want to tie spending cuts and budget changes aimed at gaining control of the nation’s ballooning debt to any vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Though GOP leaders view an increase in the debt limit as necessary, they will have to deal with tea party-backed freshman lawmakers and a few veteran conservatives who are ready to oppose it.
Mindful of the government shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996, for which the public blamed Republicans, GOP leaders are hashing out a strategy for forcing Obama and Senate Democrats to accept spending restraint as a condition for raising the debt limit.
“We’re talking among ourselves as to exactly what we think would be the best course to take,” House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday at the National Press Club during a public interview with Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal.
When asked what leverage the GOP would have in bargaining with the administration, Ryan said the duration of any debt ceiling increase offered an avenue for negotiation.
“There are different ways of doing a debt ceiling increase that speak to our strategy,” he said.
Ryan also raised the possibility that Obama could be blamed for a government default if the president rejected a debt limit increase with GOP conditions.
“I think it would be irresponsible if the president brings about a default in the country if he refuses to sign a bill raising the debt ceiling,” Ryan said.
The Treasury Department says the debt now stands at $13.95 trillion, leaving a cushion of just $335 billion below the current debt limit of $14.29 trillion. Geithner said the limit is likely to be reached between March 31 and May 16. He urged Congress to act during the first three months of the year.
Congressional Democrats also did some positioning of their own on the issue.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Reid accused the Republicans of “threatening to shut down government, to have the United States of America default on its bills. You can imagine, as well as I can, the economic crisis this would cause. And not only what it would do internationally, but what it would do at home: no more Social Security checks, the troops wouldn’t get their checks, veterans wouldn’t get their checks, border security, FBI, all of it.”
The administration’s request for Congress to raise the debt ceiling provoked a combative response from House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.
“The American people will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the president and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington,” Boehner said.
“While America cannot default on its debt,” he continued, “we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ourselves deeper into this hole and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren.”
Boehner added that the president and Democrats in Congress would have to work with Republicans to cut spending and overhaul the budget.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., seconded the House GOP’s call for tying spending controls to a debt limit increase and took a mild swipe at the administration.
“Rather than sending scary letters, what we ought to look at is an opportunity here on a bipartisan basis to address spending and the debt,” McConnell said.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus called on Congress to begin work on raising the debt limit immediately.
“No one is more concerned about reducing the deficit than I am, but this is no time to play chicken with American jobs and the future of our economy,” the Montana Democrat said in a statement. “It is time to tackle the deficit in a serious, bipartisan fashion and to do so in a manner that doesn’t risk the full faith and credit of our economy and our country in the process.”
As a fallback position, Geithner said Treasury could take “extraordinary measures” such as suspending the sale of Treasury securities to delay the date when the limit is reached by several weeks.
“Once these steps have been taken, no remaining legal and prudent measures would be available to create additional headroom under the debt limit, and the United States would begin to default on its obligations,” he said.
Geithner also warned that even if Congress were to scale back discretionary spending to fiscal 2008 levels, a goal of House Republicans, that action would delay the need to raise the debt limit by no more than two weeks.
Congress last raised the debt limit in February 2010.
-- Paul M. Krawzak, CQ Staff

The Employment Situation in December

Posted by Austan Goolsbee on January 07, 2011 at 09:40 AM EST Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 113,000 in December, capping 12 consecutive months of growth that added 1.3 million private sector jobs to the economy during 2010, the strongest private sector job growth since 2006. The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage point to 9.4 percent last month.
The overall trend of economic data over the past several months has been encouraging, due in large part to the initiatives passed by this Administration, but we still have a ways to go. The measures we worked with Congress to pass last month that continue tax cuts for the middle class and extensions to unemployment insurance are vital to sustaining the recovery. The Administration will also continue to focus on actions that the President has recommended to increase growth and job creation, such as providing incentives to encourage businesses to invest and hire here at home, investing in education and infrastructure, and promoting exports abroad.
In addition to the increases last month, the estimates of private sector job growth for October (now 193,000) and November (now 79,000) were revised up. Including today’s revisions, private sector employers have added an average of 128,000 jobs per month in the 4th quarter, the highest quarterly average in almost four years.
Overall payroll employment rose by 103,000 last month. Among the sectors with the largest payroll employment growth were leisure and hospitality (+47,000), education and health services (+44,000), temporary help services (+15,900), and manufacturing (+10,000). Local government (-20,000) and construction (-16,000) were among the sectors that subtracted from the total.
Even though the unemployment rate fell sharply in December, it is still unacceptably high and we need robust employment growth in order to recover from the deep job losses that began over two years ago. The overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically since then, but there will surely continue to be bumps in the road ahead. The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.
. Austan Goolsbee is Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Private Employment Chart for December of 2010

Private Employment Chart for December of 2010

Leader Cantor on the Latest Unemployment Report

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today released the following statement after the Department of Labor issued the December Unemployment report.
“Today’s jobs report shows unemployment hovering around 9% for the 20th consecutive month, and while the slight drop from last month is encouraging, we need to do more to make sure people can get back to work. That will start by empowering employers across the country to grow.
“The new Republican Majority is already working to cut government spending and the overreaching regulations put in place by the last Democrat-led majority so that the private sector economy can grow. First and foremost, we will repeal ObamaCare – the massive government takeover of health care that was rammed through Congress despite strong public opposition. With the repeal of this job-killing legislation, businesses will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and know they won’t be strapped with needless new mandates and taxes that will curb their ability to grow and be successful.
“The new Republican Majority is committed to a ‘cut-and-grow’ agenda which will signal to the private sector that we are ready and able to provide a pro-growth environment where businesses small and large can do what they do best – innovate, compete and lead. To that end, you will see the ‘cut and grow’ playbook begin to take hold over the next 3 weeks leading up to the President’s State of the Union Address. We must deliver results so that we can return this country to the land of responsibility, opportunity and success.”

U.S. judiciary facing rise in death

by Robert Anglen - Jul. 9, 2009 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

A prison informer gave up details of a planned hit in April:
A drug dealer wanted a federal prosecutor dead. The prosecutor had put him away;
now he was willing to pay someone to kill her.

The informer came forward on a Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Mosher in
Tucson was alerted to the threat on her life. The next day, Mosher was under the
protective guard of a team of deputy U.S. marshals who would cover her every
move for the next 10 days while another team investigated the
threat

Federal judges and prosecutors across the country, including
in Arizona, are confronting a growing number of threats against their lives. The
U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for federal court personnel,
reports that the number of threats nationwide against such officials, jurors and
witnesses has more than doubled in the past six years, from 592 to nearly 1,300.

In Arizona, U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said deputies who
once investigated a handful of threats, typically hurled by defendants at a
judge during sentencing, are now fielding three to four threats a week.

The threats come via e-mail, text message and telephone. They
are posted in the blogosphere and sometimes fed by polemic radio talk-show
hosts. In response, some federal judges have taken to arming themselves with
handguns. Others are tapping into federal funds to install or upgrade
home-security systems.

The need to investigate and assess the threats led to the
creation this year of a special unit of four full-time deputy marshals in
Arizona who monitor "inappropriate communications."

Marshals also have stepped up preventive measures, giving
personal-security lessons to federal court staffers and their families, training
them in evasive maneuvers and evaluating home-alarm systems.

The increase in threats is being fueled partly by the
Internet. A person who would never write a threatening letter to a judge does
not have qualms about posting the same anonymous message online, Gonzales
said.

Other factors are the country's worsening economic condition,
reflected in bankruptcy cases, where desperate people lash out in frustration at
judges who adjudicate their financial losses.

Gonzales also said the court system is seeing increasingly
violent defendants in cases related to immigration, terrorism, drugs and hate
crimes.

"A lot of times, you find threats are made by guys covered
with Cheeto dust and still living in their mother's basement," he said. "We
still have to neutralize all of those threats."

Threats change lives

Mosher said the threat on her life hit her like a brick. She
spent the next 10 days learning to live a completely different lifestyle.

"I've been doing this for this office for 20 years, and I
have never had a death threat," the 50-year-old prosecutor said. "It is very
disturbing. . . . You realize you are a victim. I do feel vulnerable."

Deputy marshals accompanied her when she went to work, the
grocery store, and to lunch and dinner appointments. They drove her car,
prepared to use defensive-driving techniques if attacked.

Deputy marshals went with her on hospital visits to her
ailing mother. Upon arriving at her home each night, they would go through every
room of her house, looking under beds and in closets, before she was allowed to
be alone.

Outside her house, Pima County sheriff's deputies, working
with the marshals, ran extra patrols. They were intentionally visible, sending a
signal.

"Basically, I had two people with me 24 hours a day," she
said. "They really impressed me with the training they had."

Mosher said marshals upgraded her home-security system. They
taught her to be aware of her surroundings. Every day, they would brief her
about their investigation.

Ultimately, they learned the informer was trying to use
jailhouse chatter to cut his own deal on a sentence. The drug dealer was a big
talker but had no intention of carrying out the threat.

Gonzales said that most threats fizzle into nothing and that
almost none leads to prosecutions.

"The vast majority of these things are just individuals
expressing their opinions," he said. "It's one thing to (make a threat). You
also have to have the means to do it."

Security for court staff

Security concerns intensified in 2005 after a man who was
angry over the dismissal of his civil-malpractice case murdered the husband and
mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow of Chicago.

On any given day now, the U.S. Marshals Service is running 20
protective details of judges and court staff across the country. Deputies are
shared with other jurisdictions to ease the manpower burden.

The Marshals Service this year opened a national
threat-assessment center at its headquarters in Arlington, Va., with links to
FBI, CIA and other law-enforcement databases. The center fields hotline calls
from court personnel, assesses the threat and can gather intelligence about the
person who made the threat.

Some federal court employees are linked to the system via a
panic button that alerts marshals at the center to their location and links them
to local emergency dispatchers.

Besides working details, marshals also evaluate the personal
security of judges, court staff and their families and coach them on safety
techniques. That could include observation training, advice on proper
landscaping around a house and how to react to a potential threat.

Gonzales said marshals also evaluate security at federal
courthouses across the country. Specific security measures are different in each
jurisdiction. Gonzales said the reason cameras and audio recorders aren't
allowed in Arizona's federal courts is to prevent potential bad guys from
identifying court staff, witnesses and jurors.

Gonzales said deputies work on identifying high-profile cases
that will generate controversy and outrage before they begin.

In February, when U.S. District Judge John Roll presided over
a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against an
Arizona rancher, the Marshals Service was anticipating the fallout.

When Roll ruled the case could go forward, Gonzales said
talk-radio shows cranked up the controversy and spurred audiences into making
threats.

In one afternoon, Roll logged more than 200 phone calls.
Callers threatened the judge and his family. They posted personal information
about Roll online.

"They said, 'We should kill him. He should be dead,' "
Gonzales said.

Roll, who is the chief federal judge in Arizona, said both he
and his wife were given a protection detail for about a month.

"It was unnerving and invasive. . . . By its nature it has to
be," Roll said, adding that they were encouraged to live their lives as normally
as possible. "It was handled very professionally by the Marshals Service."

At the end of the month, Roll said four key men had been
identified as threat makers.

The Marshals Service left to him the decision to press
charges but recommended against it. Roll said he had no qualms about following
their advice.

The recommendation was based on the intent of those making
the threats.

"I have a very strong belief that there is nothing wrong with
criticizing a judicial decision," he said. "But when it comes to threats, that
is an entirely different matter."

A Rocky Start

Posted by Jay
Newton-Small Friday, January 7, 2011 at 12:43
pm

Sure, the handing over of power went smoothly and civilly. But Republicans are off to a tough first week and Dems are not letting them forget it – or so say the dozens of press releases in my inbox. Governing is always harder than being in the minority and there's bound to be some period of transition – though it's only been four years, Republican memories can't be that short. Four reasons why the GOP's first week in power hasn't exactly been one of shock and awe:
New Minority Rights, Except on the First Bill
Republicans are getting hammered for breaking their own new rules with their bill to repeal health care reform: they're bringing up a bill without any committee action, that increases the deficit and they're not allowing any minority amendments.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor defended the move in a Tuesday press conference (note to Cantor staff: you might want to hold back some news when for big press conferences because if he's just there to answer questions he has no answers to, he's gonna get hammered and the resulting headlines will never be good):
The health care bill has been through this process – the bulk of the Congress prior was about the health care bill. This election was about jobs and the economy, and certainly the health care bill played a significant role. It has been litigated according to the American people, if you look at the polling on this.
While the latest Gallup poll shows that 46% of Americans want to see the bill repealed, it also shows that 40% do not – hardly a resounding rejection of the bill. Besides, going off poll numbers is hardly a great measure for passing unilateral legislation: another recent Gallup poll found that 67% of Americans support repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell but that didn't stop congressional Republicans from overwhelmingly opposing it.
Don't shoot the CBO
Whilst on the subject of health care reform, when asked if Republicans will get their own score on the health care bill Cantor on Monday lambasted the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
What we do know is the CBO fulfilled its role according to the rules set by this Congress, and it looked at the paper that was presented before them. We all know that the bill that was passed by the Democratic Majority was full of budget gimmickry.
Blaming the CBO is a common bipartisan pastime – especially estimates done whilst the other Party was in control. But, it's unusual for the Party in power to attack a CBO score of one of its bills, which is exactly what happened Thursday when the CBO estimated that repealing health care reform would add $230 billion to the deficit. Speaker Boehner responded:
I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit. CBO is entitled to their opinion, but they're locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act. Listen, even the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have made clear that this bill will not save the kind of money that was predicted earlier.
I don't imagine Boehner wanted to spend his first press conference as Speaker arguing over the hypothetical bias of the non-partisan CBO.
When we said 100, we really meant 50
Republicans also scaled back on their pledge to cut $100 billion from non-defense discretionary spending from the federal budget. By the time the current continuing resolution expires, Republicans argue, the fiscal year -- which ends in September -- will be half over.
Cantor also seemed to back pedal from their pledge not to cut military spending (not surprising given that Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself this week proposed nearly $80 billion in cuts). “I think most of us have said everything is going to be on the table,” Cantor said.
Oops – I really do have to swear?
Despite the GOP's elevation of the Constitution – reading it aloud on the House floor for the first time ever – the Party was embarrassed when it turned out that two of their own members were not officially sworn in: Pete Sessions of Texas and Pennsylvania's Mike Fitzpatrick.
The snafu forced the Rules Committee to break in the midst of considering the health care repeal and for the pairs' six votes during the day to be invalidated. The two were at a fundraiser for Fitzpatrick in the Capitol Visitors Center during the swearing in – Sessions is the head of the National Republican Campaign Committee.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/01/07/a-rocky-start/#ixzz1AUcDV269

Politics - what I see and what I do not understand

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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Should political rhetoric be toned down

Violent act strikes down Congresswoman

A Look at Gabrielle Giffords’ Career