Geithner mulling departure after debt ceiling deal?

As the deadline to raise the U.S. debt limit creeps nearer, Bloomberg is reporting that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is mulling a departure from the administration after a deficit deal between Congress and the White House is forged.
From Bloomberg:

[Geithner] signaled to White House officials that he’s considering leaving the administration after President Barack Obama reaches an agreement with Congress to raise the national debt limit, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Geithner hasn’t made a final decision and won’t do so until the debt ceiling issue has been resolved, according to one of the people. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.

Update:  In an appearance with former President Bill Clinton at a Clinton Global Initiative event Thursday evening, Geithner said for the "foreseeable future," he will continue in his position.  "I live for this work. It's the only thing I've ever done. I believe in it," he said, according to the AP.  Geithner added:  "We have a lot of challenges in the country and I'm going to be doing it for the foreseeable future."

Appeals court dismisses nuclear waste suit

By DINA CAPPIELLO, NEDRA PICKLER

updated 7/1/2011 1:13:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration won a legal battle Friday in the long-standing fight over where to bury the nation's nuclear waste, but it's not likely to be the last.

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The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against South Carolina, Washington state and others that want to ship radioactive spent nuclear fuel they are temporarily storing to a repository 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.
Congress chose Yucca Mountain as the leading candidate for waste disposal. But opponents are concerned about contamination, and the Obama administration said it would not consider the site and would look for alternatives.
The appeals court ruled that it's not an appropriate time for it to intervene because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn't made a final decision yet on the status of Yucca Mountain. So the court threw out the case.
But the court pointed out that the commission is required under the law to issue a final decision within four years of an application, which will come in 2012 for the Bush administration's application for construction at Yucca Mountain. The court noted the commission's decision can be reviewed by the court and that it can also be sued for failing to act by the deadline.
Other than Yucca Mountain, the United States has no long-term plan for disposing of its nuclear waste. A federal report issued early in June said the U.S. has generated more than 82,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste, which it was storing at 80 sites in 35 states.
The amount of waste is expected to double by 2055, the Government Accountability Office said.

The Japan nuclear disaster put a spotlight on the problems of storing spent nuclear fuel in pools on the grounds of nuclear power plants. The spent fuel rods at Fukushima-Daiichi were likely damaged after the nuclear power plant lost power and the ability to keep water on the rods to cool them. In the United States, spent fuel pools contain much higher concentrations of radioactive material.
Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the only site for possible development as a repository in 1987. The Bush administration moved forward with plans to develop it, over protests from Nevada led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.
President Barack Obama in his campaign for the White House vowed to kill Yucca Mountain, a decision that helped him win Nevada. Once in office, Obama promoted Gregory Jaczko, a former Reid aide, to chairman of the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A year later, Obama made good on his promise. Energy Secretary Steven Chu withdrew the government's application to build the dump, saying it wasn't a workable option. But the NRC licensing board rejected the administration's move, saying that the application couldn't be withdrawn without better justification.
The application is currently in limbo, since Jaczko has yet to hold a final commission vote on whether the licensing board's decision should be rejected or upheld and has refused to say if there ever will be a vote. In the meantime, Jaczko has shut down the licensing review, a decision that has been questioned by Republican lawmakers, and the agency's inspector general, which found last month that the NRC chief did not fully inform commissioners about his plans.
Meanwhile, the Energy Department has gone ahead with dismantling the project.
The three appellate judges, David B. Sentelle, Janice Rogers Brown and Brett M. Kavanaugh — all appointed by Republican presidents — each issued separate opinions with the same bottom line. All three said the suit must be dismissed because the decision over Yucca Mountain currently is up to the commission.

 

Michigan Rep. McCotter announces presidential run

Detroit congressman is third sitting member of House to join 2012 race 

updated 2 hours 34 minutes ago

LIVONIA, Mich. — Thaddeus McCotter, an independent-minded congressman from Michigan, launched a longshot bid Friday for the 2012 Republican nomination to run for president.

The conservative from the Detroit suburbs unveiled a campaign website and told a Michigan radio station he would formally announce his candidacy Saturday.
"There are a lot of people out there worried the American dream is in danger," McCotter told WJR radio.
He said the other Republican candidates are "fine people" but are not prepared to seize the opportunity to challenge and defeat Democratic President Barack Obama.
"I believe I could," he said. "You're never going to know unless you get into the arena."
First Thoughts: Another summer of Obama's discontent?
McCotter, 45, is a rock'n'roll fan and guitar player known to quote song lyrics and at times challenge his own party leaders. He is a strong supporter of the car industry and backed the industry bailout.

He enters the Republican campaign with little name recognition or money and will be a heavy underdog to rivals like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his fellow member of Congress, Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
But McCotter, who has been traveling the country to gauge the potential for his candidacy, said he senses Republican voters are open to new candidates getting in the race. Bigger names like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Texas Governor Rick Perry are still considering bids.
The congressman said he will continue to serve in the House while he runs for office.
McCotter's website lists five core principles for his candidacy, including "our liberty is from God, not from government" and "our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector."

 

Brownback signs bill restricting late-term abortions based on 'fetal pain'

April 11, 2011

Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill restricting late-term abortions based on the presumption that a fetus feels pain after the 21st week.
Brownback planned a signing ceremony Tuesday on two sweeping bills restricting abortion.
He has already signed House Bill 2218, according to the Kansas Legislative Information Systems and Services website. The other bill, House Bill 2035, has yet to be signed, according to the website. That one requires parental consent for minors to have an abortion.
Opponents of abortion have praised the measures.
HB 2218 was landmark legislation that is already law in Nebraska, according to Kansans for Life.
And HB 2035 strengthens parental involvement for pregnant minors, improves judicial bypass protocol and “acknowledges that abortion will terminate the life of a separate, whole, unique living human being,” the group said.
Abortion rights supporters have said the measures will jeopardize the health of women.
“While rare, an abortion that takes place after 22 weeks into a pregnancy is most often necessary because of a severe fetal indication or serious medical condition that endangers the life or health of the mother,” said Peter Brownlie, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
HB 2035 would force victims of incest or domestic violence “to navigate intricate and likely biased judicial proceedings in order to circumvent the double parental consent provision included in the bill,” said Julie Burkhart, founder and executive director of Trust Women.

The Abortion Fight

Kansas defunds Planned Parenthood

By Julian Pecquet - 05/13/11 12:50 PM ET

The Kansas state legislature passed a budget late Thursday night that strips state funding for Planned Parenthood.
The new budget strips about $334,000 in federal Title X funding for the organization, according to Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The nation's largest abortion provider is a lightning rod for religious conservatives, but it argues that eliminating government support for family planning and prevention will only hurt poor women.
"It is outrageous that Gov. [Sam] Brownback will sign a budget bill that will undermine women's health and deny Planned Parenthood from providing preventive health care through the Title X program," President and CEO Peter Brownlie said in a statement. "Thousands of Kansans are now at risk of losing access to basic, preventive health care."
The organization, he added, is "seriously considering all options — including litigation" to overturn the decision. Planned Parenthood has already sued Indiana after that state passed legislation stripping it of Title X funding; the next court date to seek injunctive relief is June 6.
The House of Representatives has passed similar legislation, but it died in the Senate. Similar efforts are also under way in state legislatures in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Kansas says abortion clinic failed inspections

Senate bill 36

By BRAD COOPER

The Kansas City Star

Related:

• Copy of the lawsuit filed by Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser

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No Kansas abortion clinic has met the state’s new licensing rules, raising the prospect that by Friday, Kansas will be the only state where women cannot get an abortion.
On Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the clinics inspected so far hadn’t met the new standards approved by the Legislature earlier this year.
Kansas has only three abortion clinics, all in the Kansas City area.
One, in Wyandotte County, has already been told it would not be licensed. The local president of Planned Parenthood said Tuesday that his Overland Park clinic still hadn’t been approved for a license.
But the stakes were raised Tuesday when a father-daughter physician team from a third clinic went to federal court to stop Kansas from imposing the new rules.
The lawsuit, brought by Herbert Hodes and his daughter Traci Nauser, alleges there was an organized and deliberate effort by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration “to close abortion clinics by any means necessary.”
“At every step …, KDHE implemented the licensing provisions of the act in ways that made it impossible for existing medical practices to obtain a license by the effective date,” the lawsuit contends.
A spokesman for the governor could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. A spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment declined to comment on the clinic’s lawsuit.
Hodes and Nauser run the Center for Women’s Health, an obstetrics and gynecological clinic in Overland Park that also provides abortion services.
State health inspectors were scheduled to inspect the Hodes’ clinic today, but the clinic canceled the review, saying it would not get a license anyway.
The lawsuit contends the licensing rules are overly burdensome and impose a “number of ambiguous and unclear requirements” on the clinics.
“As a whole, the temporary regulations impose burdensome and costly requirements that are not medically necessary or appropriate and that are not imposed on Kansas medical providers performing other comparable procedures,” the lawsuit charges.
Tuesday afternoon, state health regulators said the abortion clinics they’ve inspected so far have “failed to meet the minimum health and safety standards” in the new law. The agency refused to identify the clinics that were inspected.
KDHE said it will continue to work with applicants and provide follow-up inspections if it appears that the areas of noncompliance can be worked out.
The state last week notified Aid for Women in Kansas City, Kan., that it would not be licensed. The clinic was not inspected, but the decision was based on its application.
Planned Parenthood in Overland Park was inspected for 20 hours over two days last week.
Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said his agency has not been licensed yet. He reiterated that the inspection results indicated his agency will be in full compliance on or by Friday.
Brownlie said he has had communications with the state, but would not disclose details.
The new licensing law requires clinics to be inspected twice a year, including one unannounced review. It also spells out standards for operations, supplies, facilities and medical procedures.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said the law was needed to ensure the safety of women. She said the law was never intended to shut down abortion clinics and pointed out that a similar law is in place in South Carolina.
“Without any oversight, women really are in danger,” Culp said Tuesday.
She said women who are malpractice victims are less likely to go public after an abortion than if they had undergone a procedure like knee or shoulder surgery.
The regulations total 36 pages. Among other things, they require any physician performing an abortion to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. They also require each facility to have drugs and equipment to deal with a medical crisis such as a heart attack or an allergic reaction to medication.
They also contain requirements for the building, including dressing rooms for staff that are equipped with a toilet, a sink and a place to store clothes. The procedure rooms are also required to be at least 150 square feet and the recovery area must be at least 80 square feet per patient.
The rules also set required temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees for the recovery rooms and 68 to 73 degrees for procedure rooms.
The regulations were sent to providers on June 17, less than two weeks before the Hodes’ clinic was scheduled to be inspected and only days before Planned Parenthood was scheduled to be inspected.
Bonnie Scott Jones, one of the lawyers representing the physicians, called the timeline “absurdly short.”
“If you operate a medical practice, there’s no way that in two weeks you’re going to be able to transform the physical environment,” said Jones, counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Jones also said it was “quite shocking” that the department outright refused to grant a waiver from any of the rules.
“They weren’t even willing to hear the requests we wanted to make,” Jones said.
“That’s a really extreme process for a state agency applying new regulations that it just came up with and gave to the regulated entity.”
Should Kansas be left without an abortion provider, the nearest location for a woman to undergo a first-trimester abortion would be in Columbia, Jones said. The nearest location for a second-trimester procedure would be in St. Louis, she said.

To reach Brad Cooper, call 816-234-7724 or send email to bcooper@kcstar.com.

Paul Ryan Falsely Claims That Food Stamp Program Is ‘Rife With Fraud’

By Pat Garofalo on Jun 30, 2011 at 4:25 pm

In addition to releasing a radical budget that dismantled Medicare while likely raising taxes on the middle class, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has suggested a radical reworking of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps). Under his plan, which would simply block grant SNAP to state governments, “SNAP would largely lose the ability to respond to rising need, forcing states during economic downturns to cut benefits or create waiting lists for needy families.”
In order to build support for his dismantling of the food safety net, Ryan has been spreading falsehoods regarding SNAP. Case in point, during a question and answer session hosted by the Spolight on Poverty and Opportunity, Ryan claimed that SNAP is “rife with fraud“:

Help us figure out how to reform these programs so they can grow at more sustainable rates and so that they really work. Help us reduce the redundancy and the duplicativeness of programs. Help us figure out how to make sure that these things are actually getting the assistance to the people who really need them.
Look at SNAP for example. You know we get all these reports. We get hearings and GAO and reports about how the SNAP program is rife with fraud, how it’s not getting the assistance to the people who need it, how there’s no incentive to – we’ve got a guy who won a lottery that’s on the program you know. Help us figure out how to reform these programs so that they can work better.

Listen here:


But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found, SNAP errors are currently at an all-time low, with errors accounting for less than three percent of the program’s cost:

To ensure that benefits are provided only to eligible households and in the proper amounts, SNAP has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program and, in recent years, has achieved its lowest error rates on record. In fiscal year 2009, even as caseloads were rising, states set new record lows for error rates. The net loss due to errors equaled only 2.7 percent of program costs in 2009. There is no evidence that program errors are driving up SNAP spending.

During the recession, SNAP has been critical for reducing poverty and pumping money into local economies. So in order to push his radical revamp of the program, Ryan is simply inventing reasons to attack its current structure, which is actually functioning quite well.

Gov. Christie signs state budget after series of deep cuts

Published: Friday, July 01, 2011, 9:00 AM     Updated: Friday, July 01, 2011, 9:09 AM

By Statehouse Bureau Staff

Enlarge Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger Gov. Chris Christie gives his budget proposal to both houses of the Legislature. (Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger) Gov. Christie delivers 2011 budget address gallery (37 photos)

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie took an ax to the state budget Thursday.
Destroying Democrats’ efforts to restore funding to public assistance programs, the Republican governor Thursday slashed $900 million from a budget he blasted as "unconstitutional."
What was left was a $29.7 billion spending plan that cuts funding Democrats had sought to add for the state’s financially troubled cities, Medicaid, college tuition programs and suburban schools.
He also left $640 million unspent, the largest surplus in the past decade and double what the last three governors have left.
And Christie vetoed bills that would tax millionaires more to fund schools and provide tax relief for low-wage earners.
At a news conference to unveil the cuts he made with line-item vetoes, Christie blasted the Democratic budget as "unconstitutional" and based on "fantasy revenue found between the cushions."
"They decided to deceive the citizens of the state with a budget that makes them look like Santa Claus in an election year," Christie said. "How shocking, politicians deceiving and pandering to voters to get re-elected."
Christie had one explanation for his individual reductions: "We can’t afford it."
Democrats, who Christie said were "pandering to special interests" are expected to return next week and fight the reductions.

Video: Christie line item vetoes budget 

 

Gov. Chris Christie gutted the state budget today using the line item veto. Calling the Democrats budget a fantasy, Christie cut $900 million out of the proposed budget. (Video by Megan DeMarco / The Star-Ledger)

"There are special interests," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) responded. "They are called seniors, the middle class and low-income families who the governor just decimated. We are just beginning to digest the cuts in the budget, but they are extremely cruel and mean-spirited."
On Tuesday, Sweeney stood smiling next to Christie as the governor signed a sweeping overhaul of employee pensions and health benefits. Thursday, Sweeney stood in the back of the room at the governor’s Statehouse news conference with a somber look, later calling it the "most disappointing day in my entire career as a legislator."
"He makes it very hard to work with him," Sweeney said.
After handing down pages of line-item vetoes, the governor’s office refused to comment on or clarify any of the reductions.
Christie also cut deeply into his original proposal, trimming financial aid for the state’s most troubled cities from $149 million to $10 million. The biggest recipients last year were Camden, which was awarded $69 million, and Trenton, which was given $27 million from that fund.
"These municipalities will not be able to survive," said Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. "I think this is going to wreak havoc in communities."
The governor eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars Democrats wanted to restore to the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor, and to FamilyCare, the health plan for working poor people, said Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex).
"What he’s done is unconscionable, when the state can deny thousands access to health care and take it away for thousands more," Vitale said.
Christie also cut school funding by $500 million, slashing the $1.1 billion Democrats had sought. Christie left an extra $473 million that the Supreme Court ordered him to send to urban schools and $167 million for suburban and rural school districts that Democrats had added.

Video: Senate President Sweeney responds to Christie veto

Sweeney said today was "the most disappointing day" in his legislative career, and said Gov. Chris Christie's vetoes were "cruel" and "mean-spirited." (Video by Megan DeMarco / The Star-Ledger)

Other notable budget actions included:
• Christie for the second straight year cut $7.5 million for family planning centers like Planned Parenthood.
• Funding for "After the 3," an after-school program for low-income children, was eliminated.
• He cut $10 million for a program that provides legal representation for the poor in non-criminal cases.
• Christie will make a pension payment of almost $500 million in the next fiscal year.
• He left intact funding for "Senior Freeze," a program that provides property tax relief for senior citizens.
Christie cut the budget using his "line-item veto" authority, which allows him to reduce or remove portions of the budget and then sign it into law. The changes will not require legislative approval.
Calling them "mean-spirited and vindictive," Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) pointed to a $250,000 reduction in funding for the Office of Legislative Services, non-partisan legislative staff that disagreed with Christie about how much revenue the state is going to collect next year. Christie also cut salaries and wages for legislative staff: about $3 million in the Senate and $1 million the Assembly.
"It’s retaliatory because they came up with very responsible revenues that he just disagreed with," Buono said.
With the budget wrapped up, Christie said he is leaving this weekend for a two-week family vacation.

Service Members Sing the Star Spangled Banner for July 4th

Uploaded by dvidshub on Jun 27, 2011

Montage of over 150 U.S. military service members singing the United States National Anthem. Each note is represented by at least one service member. Produced by Staff Sgt. Joash Buenavista. Provided by American Forces Network Iraq. To download the full resolution video, visit http://dvidshub.net

The Keystone XL Pipeline: Game Over For the Climate

just what we need, a big ugly leaking pipeline running across the middle of the United States endangering, polluting the land, burning carbon into the atmosphere, and wreaking havoc all over the place.

by Bill McKibben 07-01-2011

We need you. In late August — from the 20th to Labor Day weekend — some of us are mounting what may turn into the largest-scale use of civil disobedience yet around global warming. We’ll be doing daily demonstrations that risk arrest at the White House in an effort to block the ugliest project you’ve probably never heard of: the so-called Keystone XL pipeline, which will run — if President Obama grants the necessary permits — from the tar sands of Alberta down to the Texas coast.
The original call for the action went out in late June, from a group of individuals that included Wendell Berry, Naomi Klein, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, scientist Jim Hansen, and others. They stressed that the action will be entirely peaceful; in fact, if you want to come you’ve got to be “dignified in dress and demeanor.” That’s because we want very much to show who the radicals are in this story.
And make no mistake — that pipeline is a radical act. It helps unlock the planet’s second-largest pool of carbon, after only the oil wells of Saudi Arabia. There’s enough carbon up there that if you could burn it all off you’d raise the atmosphere’s carbon concentration from its current 390 parts per million to nearly 600. Even burning a much smaller amount of these tar sands would mean that it’s “essentially game over” for the climate, according to Hansen.
The pipeline is ugly for other reasons too — it trashes native lands and endangers prime American farmland (can you imagine running an oil pipeline atop the Ogallala Aquifer?). But it’s beautiful for one reason: President Obama, all by himself, can stop it. Since it crosses national borders, it requires the man himself to sign a piece of paper saying it’s “in the national interest.”
We’re pretty sure he wants to stop it: After all, the day he secured the nomination for president, Obama said that “if we’re willing to fight for it,” generations from now, we’ll see this as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” But the pressure on him will be enormous. So, as he said at the very start of his presidency, even (or especially) his supporters will need to keep the pressure on him to do the difficult things. We have to show him, and everyone else, that there’s strong support for a livable planet. As EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said last week to explain Obama’s less-than-perfect environmental record: “They’re not marching on Washington the way they did on Earth Day in the ’70s.” She’s right — time for us to do what needs doing.
D.C. in August is not everyone’s idea of a great vacation spot. It’s hot and humid. But here’s the thing — unless we get to work right now, it’s going to be hot and humid everywhere. So join us at tarsandsaction.org – and take a stand against global warming.

Minnesota government shuts down

Posted at 09:34 AM ET, 07/01/2011

By Rachel Weiner

The Minnesota state government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. CDT Friday July 1,2011, after talks between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republicans fell apart. (Carlos Gonzalez - AP) After six months of disagreement and seven days of intense negotiations, the Minnesota state government shut down at midnight last night.
Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and the Republican-controlled legislature have been in a standoff since the beginning of the legislative session over how to close a projected $5 billion budget deficit.
In an echo of the national budget fight, Dayton wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans. Republicans wanted to close the gap with spending cuts and accounting shifts.
“I cannot accept a Minnesota where people with disabilities lose part of the time they are cared for by personal care attendants so that millionaires don’t have to pay $1 more in taxes,” Dayton said at about 10 P.M. last night, when it became clear that a deal would not be reached.
It’s the second shutdown in six years in the state. The last one came in 2005, under former governor Tim Pawlenty — now a Republican presidential candidate. That shutdown lasted eight days, and about 9,000 workers were temporarily laid off.
A judge ruled earlier this week that only core government functions will continue while the government is shuttered, which means public safety, welfare programs, care for residents in state facilities (including prisons), preservation of the government financial system and necessary administration functions (for example, payments and computer system maintenance).
That means state parks will close for the holiday weekend, the busiest of the year. The Department of Natural Resources has estimated tourism losses of $12 million for each week the government is closed. About twenty thousands state workers are officially laid off; they are eligible for unemployment insurance.
For days, the negotiations between Dayton and Republicans in the state legislature have been difficult to follow because both sides agreed to a “cone of silence.” Since the talks broke down, that cone has disappeared.
Republicans offered a deal that included layoffs for some state workers and teachers along with some unrelated measures they have been unable to pass, including a voter ID law and abortion restrictions. The GOP also proposed delaying $700 million in payment to public schools, who are already owed about $1 billion by the state.
In recent days negotiatiors came close to an agreement, with Democrats proposing $3.58 billion in spending over the next two years and Republicans asking for $3.4 billion. But the budget for health and human services, which constitutes about a third of state spending, was a final sticking point.
Republicans called on Dayton to convene a special session so that a stopgap measure could be passed and a shutdown avoided. Dayton refused.
Both houses of the state legislature turned Republican last fall for the first time in 38 years, reversing the roles in a state that for past eight years had Pawlenty battling a Democratic-held legislature.
“The equivalence is this: both in ‘05 and now, you had Democrats demanding that we raise taxes and raise spending,” Pawlenty told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a trip home Thursday.
Pawlenty also denied any resonsibility for the $5 billion deficit, for which he has repeatedly blamed Democrats in the legislature. But this shutdown could lead to renewed focus on Pawlenty’s fiscal record.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s WhoRunsGov profile
Conflict over the Iron Range highlights looming legal battle over Minnesota redistricting
Minnesota government goes into shutdown in partisan dispute

Govs. Rick Perry And Rick Scott Go AWOL During State Emergencies To Attend Secret Koch Event

By Marie Diamond and Alex Seitz-Wald on Jun 29, 2011 at 4:15 pm

As Texas faced some of the worst wildfires in its history and a severe drought crisis that has caused the federal government to declare the entire state a disaster area, its governor was schmoozing with well-heeled conservative donors in Vail, Colorado at a retreat organized by the right-wing industrialist Koch brothers. Gov. Rick Perry (R) left his state without notifying constituents or the press and dodged inquiries into his whereabouts. The media had to resort to tracking the tail number of a private plane owned by one of Perry’s major campaign donors. “This was an opportunity to talk about the economic success in Texas,” a spokesperson said, denying that the trip had anything to do with a potential presidential run.

Perry has spent the past two months complaining that the Obama administration has not been paying enough attention to his state’s fires.

Meanwhile, in Florida, days after declaring a state of emergency for his state’s own climate crisis, Gov. Rick Scott (R) disappeared over the weekend, failing to disclose his whereabouts in his public schedule and refusing to respond to numerous press inquiries. Yesterday, Scott finally admitted he left the state without informing his constituents to attend the the Koch summit. Florida press spent most of the past few days trying to track down the rogue governor while more than 300 wildfires continue to burn in the state:

​We finally have an answer as to where Gov. Rick Scott was this weekend, and it confirms our suspicion: at the billionaire Koch brothers’ secret conference outside Vail, Colorado.

St. Petersburg Times reporter Alex Leary got the information out of him, a day after the governor’s spokesman wouldn’t confirm or deny whether Scott was there.

“I told anybody who asked me,” the governor told the Times, apparentlyignoring the fact that he spends most of his days playing hide-and-seek from the media.

For the first time since he took office, Scott’s public schedule was empty this past weekend, leading most to assume he was trying to conceal his attendance at the Koch event. Scott eventually admitted that he addressed attendees at the retreat, but was vague about what he said.

The Koch brothers host a few of these gatherings each year to bring together conservative lawmakers and corporate titans to discuss their agenda and raise money for political groups, such as Americans for Prosperity and other Koch-funded enterprises. A January retreat in California reportedly raised $49 million for conservative campaigns.

Koch Industries spent $1.2 million helping elect Republican governors in 2010 alone, and have spent millions more pushing their radical anti-union, anti-health care agenda in the states. In response, the AFL-CIO published a guide called “8 Signs Your Governor Has A Koch Problem.” Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) also attended the Koch event.

Senate GOP To Dems On Debt Limit: Give Us Huge Medicare Cuts, Or Raise It Yourself

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2011, 4:07PM

Senate Republicans are threatening openly to throw up their hands and let Democrats vote to raise the debt limit on their own if President Obama doesn't cave and agree to trillions of dollars in entitlement cuts and zero tax increases. Here's how NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) put it, speaking to reporters Tuesday:

"I am wondering if as the deadline approaches, whether our Democratic colleagues in the Senate have realized that unless the President's willing to do a grand bargain that's good for the American people how much he's opening his own political party -- candidates running for 2012 in the United States Senate -- to a referendum on his failure to reach a grand bargain," Cornyn said. "Obviously if it's possible to deal with the spending problem and the entitlement reforms, that's our first choice. But if the President and his party refuse to do the right thing, then in the Senate they're going to be required to vote to raise the debt limit and we'll have a referendum in 2012 on that decision. I don't think if I were a senator on the other side of the aisle I would view that prospect with a lot of pleasure."

Translation: give us what we want, or we'll leave it to you to avoid default, then spend the next year and a half running against you on the grounds that you voted to give President Obama a blank check for massive government spending.

That wouldn't be true. But it doesn't have to be for Republicans' political purposes. Raising the debt limit polls about as high as razor-wire chewing gum. And whereas in the Senate the responsibility for raising it lies with the Democrats, in the House it's up to the GOP leadership. So this is either a different recipe for defaulting on the debt, or a turf-protecting way of passing the buck to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

Everyone knows Boehner is stuck between the absolute imperative that Congress raise the debt limit, and the highly partisan demands of his caucus, which won't vote to allow the country to borrow more money without simultaneously cutting a big hole into the social safety net. For weeks, that put him in the middle of the legislative food fight.

But as House GOP demands escalated, and after Boehner's top negotiator, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), walked out of debt negotiations last week, the Senate is now the center of the action. And the dynamic on that side of the Capitol is very different.

In some ways, it's tougher for Democrats over here. And it's hard to see an easy way out of it for them.