Meet the New House...

... same as the old House.

So as expected, despite his attempts at self sabotage by walking away from negotiation after negotiation,  pouting during a meeting with leaders after his failed Plan B stunt, telling Sen. Harry Reid to go fuck himself and blowing off the Sandy Relief Aid bill incurring the wrath of some of his own congressional "allies," including one particular large Republican Governor, John Boehner was re-elected as Speaker of the House with 220 votes.

The first filed bill came from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota, what the fuck are you thinking?!) to... wait for it... repeal Obamacare. You know, because the first 33 votes worked so well.

The sound you hear is that of my forehead repeatedly banging into my keyboard.

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 29, 2012

Congress Must Protect the Middle Class from Income Tax



...and a bonus! Yesterday's press conference saying basically the same thing.


President Obama Makes a Statement on Averting Tax Hikes for Middle Class Families



I'm almost convinced that the Republicans will balk and Harry Reid will have to bring a bill to the floor for an up or down vote (provided some insane Senator doesn't filibuster) and it will be sent to the House for a vote. Will John Boehner find his balls and bring it to a vote or will he side with the extremist crazy minority of his party and refuse to vote on it? We'll find out soon enough.

Just Say "Oops" and Get Out (The House GOP Payroll Tax Cut Fiasco Edition)

What the hell happened? How is it that the Republican "We'll-Slit-Our-Wrists-Before-We-Raise-Taxes-All-Hail-Grover-Norquist" Party found themselves on the wrong side of a tax cut issue?

House Republicans have privately offered up the terms of their surrender on the payroll tax cut, pending sign off from their notoriously unwieldy caucus...

...After conceding for weeks, the Dems finally said this far and no further — and actually meant it. You read that right.

And there is the crux of the issue. For the last year, Republicans decided that to defeat President Obama in 2012, they were going to be the Party of No, even on issues with which they agreed. They would grind the gears of government to a halt, economy and the American people be damned, just to regain control of the White House with whatever clown du jour would rise to the top of the GOP primary elections.

And for a while it worked. The President, whether you agreed with him or not, would make compromises with the intransigent Republicans because unlike them, he wasn't prepared to throw his fellow Americans under the bus. Some called it "pragmatism," some called it "caving." Either way, President Obama never stopped trying to make it work. He never walked away from the table, unlike others.

But there's a problem when you go all-in on every hand. Eventually, your bluff is going to be called. You can't have the winning hand every single time. And the pot the House Republicans eventually lost is any possible credibility with the voting public. What they could possibly have been thinking in their push to kill the payroll tax cut is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's Obama Derangement Syndrome kicking in at such a high level, they believed their own bullshit that anything the President says or does must be a bad thing, therefore it must be opposed. Even if it means rejecting issues and policies that the GOP has historically been in favor of.

So today they thought better of it and they've finally decided to fold a hand, but wagered too much in the process. Time will tell how much this will harm their chances in 2012, but judging by Congressional Republican approval ratings, my guess is that they're in for a rude awakening come November.

Another Example of Boehner Leadership (Kill C-SPAN Edition)

How cowardly can the House Republicans and House Weeper John Boehner get? Cowardly enough to prevent as vote on the Senate payroll tax holiday that passed with huge bipartisan support, adjourn for the day completely ignoring Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer at the podium... and then cutting off the C-SPAN feed.

“We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing this issue of critical importance to this country,” Hoyer added.

Moments later, the mic appeared to cut out. A few seconds after that, the video feed switched away from the House floor to a still image of the Capitol Dome. It appears someone in House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office cut the feed, as C-SPAN tweeted afterwards: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

Transparency, indeed.

House GOP Priorities

Is it jobs? Is it the economy? Is it foreign policy?

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are fighting an effort by the Obama administration to make federally-subsidized school lunches more healthy.

A January proposal by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aimed to limit — but not eliminate — fries and pizza on the lunch menu.

...Under pressure from lobbyists and some food companies that sell frozen pizza, salt and potatoes, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee rejected the new rules, painting them as “burdensome and costly regulations.”

Pizza is a vegetable. See? It's all about the important things.

UPDATE (8:10pm): Also this.You know, because it's important.

The House of Representatives passed a measure Wednesday that would make a permit to carry a concealed firearm from one state valid in any state that allows citizens to carry concealed weapons. The vote was 272 to 154.

Tackling the Important Stuff

I'm so glad the House of Representatives is grabbing the bull by the horns and dealing with tough issues.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement after the House, by unanimous consent, passed H.Res. 391, a resolution marking the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001:

“The people’s House has renewed its solemn vow to ‘never forget’ what happened on September 11, 2001. The thousands of innocents and heroes who lost their lives are in our prayers, as are their loved ones...

Seriously? Look, I get the whole 9/11 Remembrance thing, especially on the 10th anniversary, as well as anyone, but do we really need a resolution passed by unanimous consent vowing to "never forget"? It just comes across as fake and jingoistic.

Less White Flag, More Pit Bull

A regular reader of this blog, Nowhere Man, and I had a conversation about ScheduleGate way, way back, long ago when it was fresh in our memories a whole 48 hours ago. He made a cogent argument for the frustration we were feeling at the time, at the news of the White House switching the date of the anticipated job's speech. I asked Nowhere Man to email me in the form of a post and I'd include it in the blog.

I know this will stir up controversy, especially with my co-blogger Jennifer and others, who believe we should keep our sights focused on John Boehner and the obstructionist GOP instead of "blaming" President Obama, and rightly so. But in my opinion, the continuing pattern when it comes to the perception, the perception of the White House and Congressional Democrats backing down from a fight on a seemingly consistent basis can be a very damaging thing.

Whether the perception is true or not, we know that the combination of a right-wing echo chamber and a complicit mainstream media terrified at the thought of being labeled "liberal," can hurt. I've said it before: optics matter. All you have to do is think of John Kerry on a sailboard, Michael Dukakis wearing a helmet while riding in a tank, or the infamous Howard Dean yowl to know that optics matter. The general population likes the image of a strong leader. Whether they agree with him or not, they can at least say he's a person of convictions. But the constant backtrack is a turn off. Two words: Mitt Romney.

So yes, while he have to keep our eyes peeled and call out Republican hypocrisy at every turn, it would help tremendously if the President and the administration did as well.
___________________________


POSTED BY NOWHERE MAN

Let's go back in time and try to remember when the brand new President of the Unites States tried to pass the stimulus to a Democratically controlled Congress to stave off a hemorrhaging economy. Republican leadership led by John Boehner and Eric Cantor wanted tax cuts in the bill. President Obama, trying to show he can work with the Republicans, allowed them to fill it with tax cuts. The largest tax cuts in US history, $282 billion worth over two years. The result: not a single Republican voted for the stimulus.

Right then and there the new President, barely a month into his term, should've sent the Republicans a profound message: DON'T TAKE ME FOR A SUCKER. He should have told then Speaker Nancy Pelosi to write a new bill minus the tax cuts the Republicans wanted. But he decided not to fight and instead left the Recovery Act as it was. By doing so, he made his first big mistake and sent a very different message to the Republicans: I CAN BE ROLLED.

What the President has needed from the very beginning is an advisor with a pit bull attitude, the way former President Clinton had James Carville to call out what phonies and hypocrites the Republicans were, and to say President Obama was trying to be conciliatory but got stabbed in the back by the opposition instead.

In the battle over the Bush tax cuts, Obama gave speeches to his base renewing his campaign pledge to let them expire. The Republicans held unemployment insurance hostage. He caved again and explained, incredibly telling and stupid in my opinion, that the hostage was going to be injured. The hostage was ultimately us. But it reaffirmed to the GOP he can be rolled, and all you have to do is grab a hostage.

It's too bad he didn't have a pit bull standing in front of the DC, inside the beltway, media elite cameras, ripping the Republicans and saying they didn't have a soul for using the middle class and unemployed like so much used toilet paper so the rich could keep getting richer, especially at such a difficult time for so many people during the holiday season, questioning, "What kind of country are we?" or "What kind of country have we become?"

At the press conference announcing the continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he was so against, he was asked by a reporter if he was worried that the Republicans would now use the debt ceiling as the next hostage. Obama explained despite prior evidence to the contrary, that he thought Boehner was an HONORABLE man! I'm sure there were plenty of eye rolls by the White House Press Corp when he said that.

In the debt ceiling debates he repeatedly vowed that there would be no budget cuts without new revenues. He again gave speeches to his base telling them to contact their representatives to support his debt ceiling plan, and that there would be no cuts without new revenues. There was so much email traffic from his supporters that several Congressional websites crashed. I actually thought, "Finally! He's drawing a line in the sand!" Well we all know that turned out to be just another rerun: spending cuts with no new revenue.

There was no pit bull going around saying the Republicans love their party more than their country and proving it by willing to let the country go bankrupt. There was no thought of explaining how the elderly, the disabled, our combat soldiers engaged in two wars, were all being held hostage yet again. And President Obama, refusing to challenge the Republicans and see if they had the balls to let the country go under, as usual raised the white flag.

And now ScheduleGate. When I first heard that they scheduled the speech on the same day as the Republican debate, I said, "Wow! He's starting the campaign with a bang! What a politically brilliant and bold in your face move declaring 'I'm ready to fight and no more Mr. Nice Guy!'" I was listening to liberal radio that afternoon when the news broke on Boehner's rejection and suggestion that the speech be moved to the following night, opposite the first game of the year for the NFL.

In response, the White House should have explained the timeline. They should have said Boehner had no problem with it until Rush Limbaugh had a problem with it. They should have explained that Boehner's excuses were faulty at best because they were using a parliamentary tactic to prevent the President from making any recess appointments, therefore they were technically in session. They should have release a statement like this:

"While Congress was enjoying its five week layoff, there were and still are millions of Americans who have been on permanent unpaid vacations struggling to get by. They've been waiting for this current session of Congress to start who, under the leadership of John Boehner, have yet to introduce a single jobs bill in the nine months since he's been Speaker. They continue to demonstrate their benign neglect of the unemployed by the unprecedented rejection of the President's request for a joint session of Congress to deliver his speech for a jobs plan. 

The President has decided instead to give the speech to those its aimed at - the unemployed. Therefore, President Obama will be addressing an auditorium full of unemployed Americans at the University of Maryland as scheduled, on September 7th. We are making our case directly to the American people while the Republican controlled House passes all the anti-Planned Parenthood bills it wants."

But who am I kidding? That would be a pit bull talking!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Austan Goolsbee: ...Despite headwinds from high energy prices and disruptions from the disaster in Japan, the last three months of private job gains have been the strongest in five years. While the solid pace of employment growth in recent months is encouraging, faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn. We are seeing signs that the initiatives put in place by this Administration – such as the payroll tax cut and business incentives for investment – are creating the conditions for companies to add new jobs and foster the industries of the future. We will continue to work with Congress to find ways to reduce spending, so that we can live within our means without neglecting the investments in education, infrastructure, and clean energy that will strengthen our economy.

Yes, jobs, jobs, jobs. Something the Republican party ran on in November 2010, but judging by the votes taken in the House of Representatives so far, you'd think they ran on abortion, abortion, abortion.

Here's Speaker John Boehner's tweet today, trying to tamp down the best jobs numbers in FIVE YEARS.

Pathetic.

Joe Crowley: Speechless

Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) used to be my Congressman before I moved to New Jersey last year.
This is some pretty good stuff.

Anthony Weiner: Get Rid of Click and Clack

Rep. Anthony Weiner took to the floor of the House and outwardly mocked his Republican colleagues (and rightly so) for suspending House rules and calling an emergency session to... discuss the UN Resulution to impose a no fly zone over Libya? No. ...Vote for the US involvement for airstrikes in Libya with France and Britian? No. ...Oh, right, it was to vote for defunding NPR because of yet another edited video by hack James O'Keefe. Nothing about nuclear power plant safety, nothing about creating jobs. Just the GOP falling for another scam.

This is an instant classic.

Grand Oil Party

DCCC: Despite the need to cut spending and reduce the debt, today House Republicans voted against cutting taxpayer spending on subsidies for Big Oil companies making record profits. Last week, House Republicans voted to slash education, research and public safety budgets that would lead to more than 700,000 jobs lost nationwide.

One simple question: why are the leading oil companies, whose profits topped $485 BILLION in a 5-year span, receiving tax subsidies from the government?

Here we sit, with the Tea Party protesting that we're taxed enough already, Wisconsin union members fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights after banksters sucked state pension funds dry, $14 trillion in debt, states laying off workers in the public sector in an attempt to keep their heads above water while dragging down unemployment numbers and the economic recovery in the process, and we're allowing massive oil corporations making record profits to get away with huge tax breaks. Or rather, the fiscally responsible Republicans (and handful of DINOs) are allowing it to continue. How is that remotely acceptable?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Lose them? So be it.

That's what the leader of the House Republicans said regarding the possible loss of government jobs with draconian budget cuts proposed by the GOP. Whether you believe this is wasteful spending or not is irrelevant. These are real people. These are workers that will join the ranks of the unemployed.

This is the same John Boehner that was whining "Where are the jobs?" while pointing at President Obama in the perpetual unemployment blame game during the campaign. This is the same John Boehner that was going to do the bidding of the American people, "do the people's work" and stop wasting time on health care battles and work on job creation.

And now the Not-So-Ready-For-Prime-Time Speaker of the House shrugs his shoulders at the potential loss of jobs in the federal workforce; the same federal workforce that has been dragging down the monthly employment numbers and stagnating the unemployment rate. While private sector jobs have slowly been coming back, local and state governments have been shedding jobs. But hey, firefighters, police officers, teachers, sanitation workers, those aren't real people, right?

Meanwhile, the same John Boehner supported an alternative engine for the military's F-35 fighter jet, an engine that the military didn't want or need. Couldn't be that the engine is produced in the Speaker's home state, could it?  The bill was soundly defeated in the House today, practically evenly split among Republicans.  How many more defeats can Boehner sustain before becoming completely insignificant?

Patriot Act Extension Fails! - UPDATED

Breaking News:



The vote was 277-148. With a two-thirds vote necessary, 290 votes were needed to pass the legislation. Welcome, Tea Party, to the fractured GOP. More to follow.

UPDATE (2/9/11): From Raw Story:

The House voted 277 to 148 for the PATRIOT Act extension... short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it under a procedure that allows bills that aren't controversial to pass quickly.

But it appears the bill was controversial enough to convince some two dozen tea party-backed Republican freshmen to join a majority of Democrats in voting against it, The Hill reported.

Now here's the bad news.

The measure is now expected to return to the House floor for a regular vote that would require a simple majority to pass. If House members vote then as they did Tuesday, the extension will pass easily.

Doing The People's Work

House Republicans took another step Friday toward a repeal of last year's sweeping health care overhaul, as the lower chamber approved a key rule allowing a repeal bill to proceed to a vote.

Friday's procedural vote, largely along party lines, set the stage for a symbolic showdown over the signature Democratic law of the last Congress, under which parents can keep children on their health plans until the age of 26, insurers are barred from denying service due to preexisting conditions, Medicaid funding is dramatically expanded and some 30 million uninsured Americans are projected to receive coverage by 2019.

And then the Weeper of the House called a recess for the day at 12:30pm. You know, because it's getaway day and there are planes to catch and fund raisers to attend.

Constitutionally Supported?

POSTED BY JHW22

Soooo.... apparently a new House of Representatives rule requires Representatives to provide proof in each proposed bill that the bill is supported by some part of the Constitution. Yep, they insist that each bill have supporting evidence that it's Constitutional. Cool. I guess.

Homework assignment: find the part in the Constitution that says Congress can rename Post Offices. Alright, fine, you don't need to do any homework. The Constitution does say that Congress will "establish Post Offices and post Roads" in Article 1, Section 8 but that one statement barely seems substantial enough to validate the hundreds of renaming bills that are introduced every Congress.

Now, look, I don't have a problem with a post office being named after a fallen member of our armed services or a firefighter who died in the Twin Towers. I don't have a problem with that. I just think it's funny that the Republicans created a new rule just to pander to the teabaggers that will in effect, limit the amount of pandering they can do by naming a building after someone.

On a slight tangent, I keep hearing (like in the ABC link above) that the reading of the Constitution by the new House is a "first." Yet, that seems odd to me and I swear Keith Olbermann said a bit ago that it has been done twice before. I tend to believe Olbermann on this. So, this goes back to my running annoyances and distrusts of the media -- why must they report with such certainty something they likely haven't bothered to fact-check? The talking points from the media can be as nauseating as the talking points from politicians.

And So It Begins

Welcome to Day One of the 112th Congress in the Republican led House of Representatives.

From the C-SPAN chyron:



"...won't apply to tax cuts or Republican priorities."

Not Even Gonna Vote

POSTED BY JHW22

The House Democrats won't even bring Obama's tax compromise to the floor for a vote. Talk about chicken shit.

Here's my message to Republicans, oops, I mean angry Democrats:

So what's the plan? How are we going to get all or more of what Obama got us? What's the plan? And how realistic is the plan? How non-naive is the plan? What are WE going to give up to get the Republicans to give up something? Remember who the Republicans are, what their goal is and tell me what the damn plan is to get ALL of what WE want. You showed you have balls. So how are you going to keep them from getting chopped off and fed to us? WHAT'S THE PLAN!?

And what will YOU DO if we lose even one fraction of what Obama got us? If we lose the child tax credit increase? If we lose the payroll tax deduction? If we lose even one month of unemployment extension? What THEN? What if you don't get us anything else? WHAT THEN?

I sure as hell hope you guys succeed -- for America's sake. But if you lose one ounce of what Obama got us, this will be ON YOU and all the people who supported this.

You sure as hell better get this done! And equal to or better than what Obama got us. GET IT DONE!

And keep in mind angry Dems, if this practice in pissy negotiation fails, there's NO GOING BACK to Obama's plan. The Republicans will not go back. So if this is having "balls" tell me how balls are going to put food on a family's table. Are we going to eat your balls when they get chopped off?

This is utter bull fucking shit!

(Oh, and in the meantime, tell me how we get DADT and the Dream Act now!?!?!)

Through The Looking Glass

Welcome to Bizarro World, where a vote to continue tax cuts for the middle class is a... tax hike!

Michael Steel, a spokesman for John Boehner, emails a response to the news that House Dems are planning to hold a vote just on extending the middle class tax cuts:

"The last thing our economy needs right now is a massive tax hike on families and small businesses -- and that's what this plan would mean."

Party of Fuck No!

POSTED BY JHW22

Jimmy Williams, a lobbyist and a hilarious analyst who has worked for Durbin and Biden was a killer guest on Dylan Ratigan's show today. He was smart and funny and gave me my favorite perspective on a POTENTIAL loss tonight. He said (and I am paraphrasing here):

You can't land a punch if you don't have something to swing at so if the House goes Republican we will finally have a target.

IF the House falls into Republican hands and John "Orange Ya Glad I Didn't Say Banana" Boehner becomes Speaker, then WE have a target (and of course I mean a rhetorical target and not a some sort of gun sight target). For the last two years we have been on offense and defense. We have had to create policy while fending off the nuisances yapping at our feet. But if the House is run by Republican'ts they will actually have to DO SOMETHING. They will have to craft legislation and bring it the floor. And when they do, we will become the party of "FUCK NO!" The difference between their no and our no will be that ours stays consistent with the policies we have supported for the last 2, 4, 6 years. They said no to their own ideas. We will say no to their ideas without having to compromise our principles.

Now, I would much rather the House and Senate stay in Democratic hands and I have hope, but if we lose something tonight, let's make sure we force it to work in our favor.

Rangel Kicks Ass On The Floor - UPDATED VIDEO

I just caught part of Charlie Rangel on the House floor using a personal point of privilege to make his case and insist on a trail date from the House Ethics Committee, something that has not been done to date after two years of allegations of corruption.

He said there were definite violations and that he takes responsibility for not more closely looking at his books and those working the books for him, but vehemently denied corruption.  He also basically dared his  Democratic colleagues to expel him if they thought he was a liability in the upcoming elections, but also reminded them that they didn't mind him raising and accepting money from Rangel when they were running and needed it.

He may or may not be guilty, but it was pretty ballsy and a joy to watch - I hope to find the video and post it here.

UPDATE: Here's the C-SPAN link to Rangel's speech.