Tag Archives: Senate

The NRA is nothing more than a lobby for gun and ammunition manufacturers…

Posted on by
Reply

…and the elected GOP establishment is nothing more than their personal representatives.

Adolphus Busch IV requested the NRA immediately cancel his lifetime membership,  one day after the U.S. Senate rejected a bill that would have expanded background checks on guns:

“…One only has to ask why the NRA reversed its original position on background checks. Was it not the NRA position to support background checks when Mr. LaPierre himself stated in 1999 that NRA saw checks as ‘reasonable’? [...]

I am simply unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have a role in your vision. The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established. Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members.

One only has to look at the makeup of the 75-member board of directors, dominated by manufacturing interests, to confirm my point. The NRA appears to have evolved into the lobby for gun and ammunition manufacturers rather than gun owners.”

(h/t wilwheaton)

———————————————————————————————————

  
  
via sandandglass

———————————————————————————————————


jetgirl78: “I’ve heard some say the blocking the step would be a victory. My question is victory for who? Victory for what? All that happened today it was the preservation of the loophole that lets dangerous criminals buy guns without a background check. That didn’t make our kids safer.”

jetgirl78: “I’ve heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced. A prop, somebody called them. Emotional blackmail, some outlets said. Are they serious? Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don’t have a right to weigh in on this issue?”

———————————————————————————————————

“I have something I want to say to the victims of Newtown, or any other shooting,” Davis said. “I don’t care if it’s here in Minneapolis or anyplace else. Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to put a king in charge of my life. I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy, but you know what? Deal with it, and don’t force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss. I’m sick and tired of seeing these victims trotted out, given rides on Air Force One, hauled into the Senate well, and everyone is just afraid — they’re terrified of these victims.”

“I would stand in front of them and tell them, ‘go to hell,’” he added.

Source via sandandglass

The Senate’s Vote-a-rama: Paul Ryan and GOP House FAIL

Posted on by

The Hill: The Democratic-controlled Senate appears set to approve its first budget resolution in four years. Votes on amendments to the budget began Thursday night, with a final vote set for late Friday or early Saturday.

Brian Beutler explains why tuning into CSpan2 this afternoon to watch the Senate’s “vote-a-rama” could be very educational:

“…before the Senate passes its budget this weekend, it must first get through “votearama” — the quirk in the budget rules that essentially opens the amendment floodgates to eager lawmakers.

These amendments, like the budget itself, aren’t really binding. They’re highly politicized. And because there hasn’t been a Senate budget in a few years, there’s a huge pent up demand among members for using votearama as an opportunity to preen and take political stands. [...]

For instance: Last night, Senate Dems put Republicans on the spot and forced a vote on the House GOP budget. It failed, obviously, but because it’s the GOP’s central organizing manifesto, nearly every Republican member voted for it.

What went mostly unnoticed, though, is that Dems also forced the GOP to take a position on the single most politically contentious part of the Ryan budget — its call to replace the Medicare guarantee with a private insurance subsidy. That amendment was written to put members on record over whether to prohibit such a dramatic policy change. And by a vote of 96-3 the Senate answered that question with a resounding “yes.” Only Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul voted to effectively endorse Medicare privatization.

That says a lot about the politics of the Republican platform. Their commitment to a fiscal policy agenda they know to be politically toxic in its particulars is actually pretty impressive.

Democrats, by contrast, voted to preserve the tax increases their budget calls for. And they will circle their wagons around the Affordable Care Act when Republicans try to use the budget process to significantly undermine it. But on the particular, narrow issue of the ACA’s medical device tax, more than half the party joined the GOP in support of an amendment that called for its repeal…”

How bad was Paul Ryan’s night? Joan McCarter on March 22, 2013

Every Senate Republican but three voted to repudiate Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. The three? The three teabaggiest of all: Rand Paul (R-KY) Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz. …The slap-in-the-face vote was cast yesterday as the Senate continued working on its 2014 budget, an opportunity for all sorts of political hay-making, because budget rules allow for unlimited amendments. This one was offered by Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Thursday night. It’s a “No Vouchers for Medicare” amendment, repudiating the Ryan budget and “to prohibit replacing guaranteed benefits with the House passed budget plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program.” The Senate voted overwhelmingly for it, 96-3.

Ryan’s budget as a whole fared a little better. Republicans really didn’t want to have to vote on it, but Patty Murray made them, by offering it as one of the first amendments. It failed, 40-59.

“There seemed to be some resistance among my Republican colleagues in bringing up the House Republican budget for a vote. And it’s pretty easy to see why that is. The House Republican approach has been thoroughly reviewed and just as thoroughly rejected by the American people.” — Patty Murray, twisting the knife last night.

Paul Ryan’s star is definitely fading. Last year, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) was hailed as the man with a plan to save America. Today, barely half of his own party thinks highly of him. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, Ryan’s approval rating has plummeted since the November election. In the poll, only 35 percent of likely voters said they had a favorable view of him, while a 54 percent majority said they viewed him unfavorably. That’s a stunning reversal from last August, when 50 percent of voters liked Ryan, versus 32 percent who did not.

=================================================================

Also: The 39th time was not the charm on Obamacare repeal | Steve Benen on March 22, 2013: 

Remember when the 2012 presidential election ended the debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act? To a degree that is truly comical, congressional Republicans didn’t get the memo.

The Senate on Friday rejected another GOP attempt to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law. An amendment to the Senate budget resolution from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) failed on a 45-54 vote on Friday. Cruz’s amendment would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and encouraged patient-centered reforms to reduce costs.

Senate Republicans knew Cruz’s amendment was pointless, and knew it wouldn’t pass, but literally every GOP senator voted for it anyway — just because. [...]

To listen to Republican rhetoric on Capitol Hill is to hear a series of complaints about President Obama: he’s not being “serious” enough about getting things done… But it’s against this backdrop that Republicans vote, over and over again, to repeal a health care law they know won’t be repealed. They do so, in part because they have a radicalized base that expects near-constant pandering, in part because some of their leaders have broader ambitions and see these tactics as useful, and in part because these votes just seem to help Republicans feel better about themselves.

Michele Bachmann will be so upset. Literally! 

Some have the repeal count up to 54 times, with more attempts (yes, plural!) to be offered today.

On Obamacare’s Third Anniversary, Here Are Three Ways The Reform Law Has Helped Real Americans

=================================================================

Also Rand Paul, the winner of CPAC, is sponsoring a far-right extremist  amendment to have the U.S. withdraw from the U.N.  Not only is that a terrible idea for several reasons (one being economically), but “a recent poll showed that eight in ten Americans believe that the U.S. needs to maintain a strong relationship with the United Nations.”

And get this: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) “is planning on filing an amendment to the Senate budget resolution making it impossible for any gun control legislation to pass the Senate without a two-thirds majority—a standard currently reserved for the ratification of treaties. (That’s an even higher threshold than that imposed by filibusters, which can be broken with 60 votes.) ”[I]f the Lee amendment is passed, the practical effect will be that gun control can never again pass the Senate,” the far-right Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America boasted in an email to members on Friday. Lee’s amendment won’t pass. But the fact that Republicans would consider carving out an entirely new voting threshold just for gun control legislation tells you just how little ground they’re willing to concede, at least publicly, on this fight.”

More excitement (haha) at CSpan2!

New Year’s Deal

Posted on by

Brian Beutler: “It took until after 2 a.m. on the morning of January 1, 2013 — a few hours after the Bush tax cuts had technically expired — but the Senate passed legislation that will reinstate tax cuts for middle-class taxpayers, and lock in a variety of higher rates on income above $450,000. [...]

By passing the legislation with overwhelming support from members of both parties, the Senate has handed House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) responsibility for following suit, and averting the vast majority of the austerity measures in the so-called fiscal cliff.

Just days ago, Boehner was unable to round up sufficient support in the House for legislation that would have locked in the Bush tax cuts for income up to $1 million. The Senate-passed legislation raises significantly more revenue than Boehner’s plan would have, and will provide the Treasury with more than $600 billion than it would have collected over the next 10 years if all the Bush tax cuts had been extended.”

Some data:

  • The final vote was 89-8. The eight senators opposing the bill were: Democrats Tom Carper (D-DE), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Republicans Mike Lee (R-UT), Richard Shelby (D-AL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
  • Unemployment benefits are extended for a year.
  • The bill delays the sequester — and all the automatic, deep spending cuts to social safety net programs and defense — for two months, as well as delaying an increase in the deficit.
  • The House will take up the bill today in a rare New Year’s Day session.
  • And at least one positive thing can be said: no giveaway on Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. Basically, no spending cuts at all
  • See Suzy Khimm’s Fiscal Cliff cheat sheet.

The losers:

  • Those of us who got a break on the payroll tax. That will expire.
  • Federal workers whose pay, for whatever reason, continues to be shackled to Congressional pay. Obama was going to lift the federal employee (and congressional) pay freeze, but now that’s reimposed.

I’m still not certain I care if the House passes this legislation or not. Is it worth another round of reindeer games in 2 months? If the House doesn’t pass this, it all will need to get fixed much sooner. That might not be a bad thing.

Reindeer games on New Year’s Eve

Posted on by

McConnell called Biden into the negotiations yesterday, even though Biden has offered nothing different from Reid:

McConnell and Biden, who served in the Senate together for 23 years, are closing in on an agreement that would hike tax rates for families who earn more than $450,000, and individuals who make more than $400,000, according to sources familiar with talks.

The vice president and the Senate minority leader only began talking Sunday, after negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and McConnell sputtered.

Sources close to the talks said a deal is now more likely to come together but cautioned that obstacles remain, including how Speaker John Boehner and House Republican leaders react to any tentative agreement.

“The leader and the VP continued their discussion late into the evening and will continue to work toward a solution. More info as it becomes available,” a McConnell spokesman said.

Yesterday McConnell dropped one of his party’s demands — chained CPI:

Earlier in the day, negotiations between Reid and McConnell suffered a “major setback” after Republicans demanded the inclusion of a new method for calculating entitlement benefits as part of the cliff package, according to Democrats.

The provision, known as “chained CPI,” is opposed by many liberals because it would result in lower payments for Social Security beneficiaries.

[...] On the Senate floor early on Sunday, Reid ruled out any cuts to Social Security as part of any cliff agreement.

And what if we do go over the cliff?

Democrats later left a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting on Sunday afternoon united, with many prepared to go over the cliff if no amenable deal is reached.

“The world won’t end — remember Y2K?” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “If this thing goes on, all of a sudden, the people find out there’s a lot of revenue coming into the government — and we have a sequester that we can deal with in January and February, and I think we will. I think then perhaps — then Republicans won’t have to vote to raise taxes, we’ll all be voting to cut taxes.”

You know what? Finally we have a united Democratic Caucus willing to stand up to the Republicans. That’s a pretty good way to start a new year.

35 hours (or so) to go: the Senate / Democratic Plan A and Plan B on tax rate increases

Posted on by

“…by all accounts, the Reid/McConnell agreement, if it exists, will not be a sweeping deal along the lines of a grand bargain. It would instead focus primarily on tax rates — the $400,000 income threshold increasingly appears to be a precondition for the GOP — extended unemployment insurance, the Medicare “doc fix,” the alternative minimum tax, the estate tax, and a series of tax incentives for businesses and families, many of which were included in the Recovery Act.

The Senate plan would not, if all goes according to plan, deal with the sequester, the existing payroll tax break, or the debt ceiling. Why not? Because Republicans still hope to continue work on a larger (grander) debt-reduction deal in the new year.

In other words, even if there’s unexpected progress today and tomorrow on Capitol Hill, some deadlines will go unmet and the stage will be set for yet another self-inflicted crisis in a couple of months.

While we wait to see if/when a Senate plan comes together, there is a contingency plan — apparently Democrats have a Plan B of their own — in the event McConnell and Reid can’t reach an agreement (or the Senate rejects their deal). On Monday, if all else fails, Reid will bring a simple package to the floor: lower rates on income up to $250,000 and extended jobless aid. That’s it. If Senate Republicans kill it, the deadlines will pass and Democrats will try again in 2013. If the Senate passes it and the House balks, we’ll see the same outcome.

Obama and Reid seem to like their chances: GOP officials don’t want their final act of this Congress to be a vote against middle-class tax breaks, and complete failure would almost certainly give Democrats leverage in the new year anyway.”

Steve Benen: Where things stand

Harry Reid says it looks like we’re going over the fiscal cliff, is Boehner’s fault

Posted on by

Business Insider: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this morning that it “looks like” Congress will fail to come to a deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff. ”It looks like that’s where we’re headed,” Reid said. “I don’t know, time-wise, how it can happen now.” [...]

“Reid opened the Senate session by launching into a lengthy criticism of the House and Speaker John Boehner, saying he “seems to care more about his Speakership” than making a deal on the cliff. The House is being run “by a dictatorship of the Speaker,” Reid said. He accused Boehner of waiting until the election of the Speaker on Jan. 3 to get involved with negotiations. And he urged the lower chamber to pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which the Senate narrowly passed in July. The bill made permanent all of the Bush-era tax cuts on incomes of less than $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals. Reid also slammed the House for not being in session on Thursday. He said that instead of being in Washington, Republicans are “out watching movies.”

“They had to have a conference call,” he said.”

31 pro-gun Senators with absolutely nothing to say

Posted on by

inothernews: Cowards, called out by Meet The Press producer Betsy Fischer Martin.

Meanwhile (via Balloon Juice):

CEDAR LAKE, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man who allegedly threatened to “kill as many people as he could” at an elementary school near his home was arrested by officers who later found 47 guns and ammunition hidden throughout his home.

Von. I. Meyer, 60, of Cedar Lake, was arrested Saturday after prosecutors filed formal charges of felony intimidation, domestic battery and resisting law enforcement against him. He was being held Sunday without bond at the Lake County Jail, pending an initial hearing on the charges, police said in a statement.

Cedar Lake Police officers were called to Meyer’s home early Friday after he allegedly threatened to set his wife on fire once she fell asleep, the statement said.

Meyer also threatened to enter nearby Jane Ball Elementary School “and kill as many people as he could before police could stop him,” the statement said. Meyer’s home is less than 1,000 feet from the school and linked to it by trails and paths through a wooded area, police said.

~snip~

Officers searched the home, finding 47 guns and ammunition worth more than $100,000 hidden throughout the home. Many of the weapons were collector’s guns.

Also:

Saturday: 50 rounds of ammo were fired in the parking lot of Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach. No one was hurt.

Saturday: a three year-old in Oklahoma is dead after accidentally shooting himself in the head.

Sunday: two Topeka, Kansas, police officers were shot to death.

Sen. Rand Paul will obstruct flood insurance bill with amendment defining when life begins

Posted on by

An amendment which, of course, has nothing to do with floods or insurance but has everything to do with his party’s plan to do nothing until Election Day.

Think Progess reports that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is trying to attach an anti-choice amendment to the Senate’s flood insurance bill.

“After years of delay, senators recently came to an agreement over the flood bill and were set to vote on it this week. But now, Paul is threatening to hold up its final passage by adding an amendment defining when life begins. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed his displeasure with that move this morning, saying he would not bring the bill up for a vote if the amendment is added. [...] The National Flood Insurance Program helps homeowners whose houses are destroyed by floods — like those that devastated Minnesota and are currently sweeping Florida — and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion or conception.”

Why does Aqua Budda have a sudden interest in women’s issues like contraception and choice — is it like auditioning to be Romney’s VP? Isn’t he supposed to be a libertarian with the whole individual liberty, smaller government, ‘keep the federal gov’mit out of my business’ routine?  I know, I know — that claptrap only applies to white males. Clearly.

The President’s weekly address: appealing to House Republicans to do their job

Posted on by

Right now, we are seven days away from thousands of American workers having to walk off the job because Congress hasn’t passed a transportation bill. We are eight days away from nearly seven and a half million students seeing their loan rates double because Congress hasn’t acted to stop it.  [...] This is a time when we should be doing everything in our power – Democrats and Republicans – to keep this recovery moving forward. My Administration is doing its part. On Friday, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced $500 million in competitive grants for states and communities that will create construction jobs on projects like road repair and port renovation. And that’s an important step, but we can’t do it all on our own. The Senate did their part. They passed a bipartisan transportation bill back in March. It had the support of 52 Democrats and 22 Republicans. Now, it’s up to the House to follow suit; to put aside partisan posturing, end the gridlock, and do what’s right for the American people. It’s not lost on any of us that this is an election year. But we’ve got responsibilities that are bigger than an election. We answer to the American people, and they are demanding action. Let’s make it easier for students to stay in college. Let’s keep construction workers rebuilding our roads and bridges. And let’s tell Congress to do their job. Tell them it’s time to take steps that we know will create jobs now and help sustain our economy for years to come. – President Obama


…

Jamie Dimon received a warm tongue bath from the Senate Banking Committee yesterday

Posted on by

“That’s the way America works… The $2 billion J.P. Morgan lost someone else gained.” — Mitt Romney

The head of the largest bank in the US, JPMorgan, was called before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday to explain how between $3 – $8 billion was lost in a bad trade. The Huffington Post doesn’t report on how long Dimon’s day at the Senate-spa lasted:

In the end, Dimon revealed very little about the trade and not much more about his knowledge of it. He refused to discuss details of it, lest he reveal secrets to competitors — who already know all about the trade and have been hammering JPMorgan on it, adding to the bank’s losses. But the committee didn’t challenge him on that, even after he turned down an offer to close the hearing to the public.

And there were some aggressive initial questions that were not followed up by senators, who had just five minutes each to complete their questioning. Instead, much of the hearing was spent letting Dimon and some Republican senators rail against Congress’ efforts at regulatory reform after the financial crisis. Those reforms include the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks with federally insured deposits from taking the sort of chances Dimon’s own bank took.

[...] And nobody asked Dimon whether he thought his seat on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, a key financial regulatory arm, is a conflict of interest.

David Weidner at MarketWatch wrote that Dimon couldn’t hide his disdain for the proceeding and described him as looking like a “know-it-all” and “cocky.” But isn’t that what we’ve come to expect of Wall Street and bankers in general? It’s as if they’re thinking, Ugh! Just give us all the money already and genuflect before you leave. 

OpenSecrets reports that most of the members receive campaign money from JPMorgan (both parties), which would seem like a conflict of interest — but apparently it’s not. It would begin to explain why we’re in such a sorry state of affairs, however, and where we’re headed if the billionaires buy Romney the White House with their Citizens United sponsored SuperPACs this year.

JPMorgan Chase’s PACS — which are officially on behalf of the corporation — typically swing Republican. JP Morgan’s main PAC for candidate contributions has favored Republicans each year since 1996, with the exception of a near-tie in 2002. A second company PAC has focused on contributions to Republican-aligned PACs and party committees in 2010 and 2012. JPMorgan Chase has been relatively non-partisan in its giving to Banking Committee members, however. Its PAC money has found its way to all but six of the committee’s senators. While Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) are both retiring and have no need for campaign funds, Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Michael Johanns (R-NE) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have all faced reelection from 2008-2012 and have had to do without support from JPMorgan Chase’s PACS.

Josh Marshall reported that Tea party standard bearer Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) wants Jamie Dimon and his peers, not Congress and regulators. to institute best practices for Wall Street. “We can hardly sit in judgment of your losing two billion,” he said. And Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) added, in hushed reverence, “You’re obviously renowned, rightfully so I think, as being one of the most, you know, one of the best CEOs in the country for financial institutions. You missed this, it’s a blip on the radar screen.”

So there you have it. You can watch part of Jamie Dimon’s gentle tongue bathing for yourself:

GOP Senators ask JP Morgan CEO what / how they should regulate:

Morning Bunker Report: Thursday 5.17.2012

Posted on by

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY—————————–—

Mitt Romney refuses to say George W’s name after he endorsed him in an elevator –. “I’m for Mitt Romney,” Bush had blurted out to ABC News on Tuesday as the doors of the elevator closed on him in Washington, DC where he was giving a speech on human rights. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in St. Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday, Romney would only refer to Bush as President Barack Obama’s “predecessor.” — Raw Story

At a fundraiser, Mitt Romney attacks Obama for ‘dividing America’ and then complains that the discussion has gotten ‘way too vicious.‘ “If I’m fortunate enough to become president, I will not do what this president is doing,” Romney said. “I don’t care what the circumstance is. I am not going to divide America and spend my time attacking any one group of Americans… It’s gotten way too hot, way too vicious, frankly, on both sides of the aisle.” Romney also took the opportunity to praise the business leaders in the room. “I know that you get the impression that government doesn’t like you,” he said. “I love you, all right? I love what you do. I want to see entrepreneurs and innovators. I want to see more success. My ambition is to see more and more people able to enjoy the extraordinary benefits of America as you have.” According to the pool, the fundraiser brought in $2.3 million for Romney. — Buzzfeed

graph: Mother Jones

Romney Fund-raising Event Hosted at Home of Morning-After Pill Executive – And Planned Parenthood is pissed. “Mitt Romney can’t have it both ways,” the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund wrote in a statement. “The record is clear: Mitt Romney has vowed to restrict access to birth control, including emergency contraception, and undermine millions of women’s access to family planning.” Romney supporters spent $50,000-a-plate for a dinner hosted at the home of Phil Frost, chairman of Teva Pharmaceuticals, which makes the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step. – Daily Intel

Mitt Romney’s Debt Speech Ignores Key Facts – ROMNEY: “America counted on President Obama to rescue the economy, tame the deficit and help create jobs. Instead, he bailed out the public sector, gave billions of your dollars to the companies of his friends, and added almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined.” THE FACTS. Hardly. Presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush ran the national debt up to $10.62 trillion, the amount it was on the day Obama took office. Today, it is $15.67 trillion, according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt. So it has gone up by $5.05 trillion under Obama. That’s roughly half of the amount amassed by all the other presidents combined. In short, the debt has gone up by about half under Obama. Under Ronald Reagan, it tripled. — HuffPo

  • Spending, Taxes, Deficit are All Lower Today — In January 2009, before President Obama had even taken the oath of office, annual spending was set to total 24.9 percent of gross domestic product. Total spending this year, fiscal year 2012, is expected to top out at 23.4 percent of GDP. Here’s another interesting fact. Taxes today are lower than they were on inauguration day 2009. Back in January 2009, the CBO projected that total federal tax revenue that year would amount to 16.5 percent of GDP. This year? 15.8 percent. One last nugget. The deficit this year is going to be lower than what it was on the day President Obama took office. Back then, the CBO said the 2009 deficit would be 8.3 percent of GDP. This year’s deficit is expected to come in at 7.6 percent. — Think Progress

PRESIDENT OBAMA / DEMOCRATS————————————————————

Biden in Ohio: Romney Economics and what the wealthy call “envy” – Vice President Joe Biden brought the Obama campaign’s Bain Capital offensive to Ohio on Wednesday. [...] While workers lost jobs, health care and saw pensions dwindle, Romney and his partners “walked away with at least $12 million on compensation.” “Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules. He ran up massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks that experience is going to help our economy?” he said. [...] Republicans have accused Obama of antagonizing business, and said the attack on Bain Capital is class warfare. Biden bristled at the contention in his remarks. “I resent the fact they think we’re talking about envy. That it’s job envy, wealth envy. That we don’t dream,” Biden said, his voice booming through the cavernous facility. “My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams. They don’t get it! They don’t get who we are!” – latimes.com

graph: Mother Jones

  • The vice president argued for a populist vision — “Obama economics” — that “believes everyone deserves a fair shot, a fair shake, and everybody should play by the same rules.” “Then there’s the Romney philosophy,” he said. “The Romney economics which says as long as the government helps the guys at the top to do well, workers and small business communities, they can fend for themselves but the country will be OK if the big guy is doing well.” For the first time, Biden directly and publicly critiqued Romney’s business record at Bain Capital, claiming it illustrates a worrisome approach to running the U.S. economy. “By the way, Romney raised this. We didn’t raise this. He says it’s his business experience. So let’s take a hard look at that business experience,” Biden said. “In the 1990s there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Mo. It had been in business since 1888. When Romney and his partners bought that company, eight years later that company was in bankruptcy.” – KGO 810 San Francisco

Senate rejects budgets by Obama, Republicans — The Senate voted 99-0 against Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget request, with Democrats stressing that the vote was unnecessary because lawmakers wrote spending caps into a deal agreed last summer to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. In March, the House of Representatives rejected Obama’s budget proposal in a 414-0 vote. […] An alternative Republican plan put forward this year by Representative Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, called for balancing the budget over three decades in part by deeply cutting some social safety services and reforming entitlement programs like Medicare. The Ryan plan, too, failed to win enough votes to advance in the Senate, after passing the House one month ago. Democratic Senator Carl Levin said the Ryan plan “does not address what budget experts of all ideological stripes tell us we must address: the need for additional revenues.” Democrats have argued that there has been gridlock over a budget deal because Republicans refuse to accept higher taxes for millionaires along with spending cuts. “Rather than restore revenue, this budget is premised on the notion that high-income earners haven’t gotten enough in tax cuts,” Levin said. — Raw Story

Obama warns opponents over debt ceiling showdown — Obama hosted House Speaker John Boehner and other top lawmakers for a White House lunch where much of the discussion focused on the mounting pressure over how to unclog a fiscal logjam at year’s end, including expiring tax provisions, a looming debt ceiling, and automatic military cuts. The president demanded a “serious bipartisan approach” to avoid a repeat of last year’s crisis which pushed the country to the edge of default and led to its first-ever credit downgrade. “The president made clear… that we’re not going to recreate the debt ceiling debacle of last August,” when Republican-led congressional gridlock nearly shut down the federal government, Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said. […] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who attended the lunch, [said] any discussion of it would be “premature” until after the sequester takes effect or Congress takes measures to avoid it. – AFP

  • According to Tim Geithner, we won’t hit the debt ceiling until a few months into 2013. By that time, either the Bush tax cuts will have already expired and the automatic spending cuts will have already begun or the parties will have come to some big fiscal deal and the debt ceiling will have been raised along the way. — Ezra Klein

Fox News contributor Monica Crowley called the president of the United States “bigoted” for his suggestion that a name like “Barack Hussein Obama” made winning elections more challenging. [...] Conservative websites like Hot Air immediately accused the current White House resident of trying to “smear” presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s supporters as racist.  [...] “It’s not fair!” Crowley said of the president’s comments. “What he meant was, I’m going to have a tough time because I have this funny name — this is the line he used in 2008 — because of my race, because of my ethnicity, because of my name. This is a man who won in 2008 with 53 percent of the vote. It was not a tight election. And to suggest the American people are somehow opposing him because of his race or his name is insulting to the American people and, quite frankly, Megyn, I think, bigoted in its own right.” – Raw Story

The Republican War on the Federal Workforce

Posted on by

It’s a good thing that Democrats have the backs of federal workers.

Senate rejects pay freeze extension for federal workers 

 The National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees cheered the amendment’s failure.

“Rejecting this amendment is clear evidence that many members of the Senate understand the need for shared sacrifice among every group in our society, rather than turning to federal employees for even greater contributions, especially to fund matters unrelated to the federal workforce,” NTEU President Colleen Kelley said in a statement Wednesday.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., voiced dissent to the bill during floor debate Wednesday, calling the amendment “another Republican attack on the federal workforce.”

“Enough is enough. Every amendment, they’re picking on the federal workforce,” Cardin said. Roberts did not mention the federal pay freeze measure during the debate.

The House passed a pay-freeze extension similar to the Robert’s amendment in February.

House Passes Pay Freeze Extension – How Did Reps Vote?

The House voted late Wednesday to pass HR 3835, Rep. Sean Duffy’s (R-WI) bill that would extend the current pay freeze for federal employees and members of Congress for one year.

The bill passed by a vote of 309 to 117. 72 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the legislation and only two Republicans voted against it.

A group of 17 Democrats in Congress recently sent a letter voicing their opposition to additional cuts that would harm federal employees. Interestingly, all but one of these members of Congress kept their word on voting against bills such as this pay freeze extension legislation. Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) voted in favor of the pay freeze bill while the other eligible members voted against it.

Senate rejects plan to extend federal pay freeze

By a vote of 47 to 51, the Senate rejected an amendment to a highway funding bill introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would have extended the freeze through Jan. 2014 to fund energy projects, an adoption tax credit and tax deductions for college expenses and for state and local property taxes.

The vote came during debate on a bill to provide federal highway funding. The White House has said it will oppose any effort to extend the pay freeze for another year to pay for other federal programs or to pay down the federal deficit.

A coalition of groups representing federal employees angrily denounced the bill Monday as the latest attempt to curtail federal pay to offset the costs of tax breaks and policies completely unrelated to the public sector workforce.

Last month, the National Treasury Employees Union released a list (PDF) of more than 20 “legislative proposals harmful to the federal workforce,” including several measures that would extend the pay freeze through 2015; measures imposing a two-week unpaid furlough for federal workers; a bill to cut the workforce and impose a hiring freeze through 2014; proposals to allow the hiring of one employee for every three who leave federal service; and bills that would force federal workers to sharply increase their pension contributions.

Another hand in the pockets of federal workers

If it’s Tuesday, or any day that ends with “Y,” it must be time for another move on the wallets of federal workers.

The latest attempt in a seemingly unending series of proposals to cut their pay or benefits is scheduled for a Senate vote Tuesday. And once again, the plan is to use their money for unrelated projects.

[...] “While some in Congress continue to make it a priority to protect the wealthiest Americans from contributing anything to deficit reduction, this [Roberts] amendment would cut another $26 billion from this one group of middle class workers,” said Kelley’s letter.

[...] But Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) said he opposed the part-time amendment because: “I must stand up against Congress’s new habit of treating federal employees like a piggy bank. Congress must stop taking from our dedicated federal employees . . . to fund completely unrelated priorities. ”

War on the middle class, income redistribution, class warfare: brought to you by the 21st Century Republican (tea)Party.