GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics
GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics
This morning, the House began consideration of the rule for debate of the House health care bill. As the Democratic Women’s Caucus took to the microphone on the House floor to offer their arguments for how the bill would benefit women, House Republicans — led by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — repeatedly talked over, screamed, and shouted objections. “I object, I object, I object, I object, I object,” Price interjected as Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) tried to hold the floor.
In an effort to delay and derail the proceedings, the Republicans continually talked over the Democratic women for half an hour. They sought to prevent the debate by calling for unnecessary “parliamentary inquiries” and requests for “expanding the debate” by an hour.
After being repeatedly interrupted by Republican shouts, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) observed:
Do I not have the right to be able to continue my sentence without objections that are trying to censor my remarks here on the floor that I have a right to make as a member of this House?
Watch a compilation:
The presiding chair of the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), tried to assuage the Republican ruckus, without much success. The debate must be conducted with “a measure of comity and grace and decency,” Dingell urged. “There’s no advantage to be achieved by making all this fuss,” he told the Republicans.
- Comments
- 292
Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved ‘Vile’ Anti-Semitic Signs
Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved ‘Vile’ Anti-Semitic Signs
One of the most disturbing images from yesterday’s Tea Party rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill was a protester’s gruesome sign showing a pile of dead Holocaust victims. The banner — captured by ThinkProgress here — read: “National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany – 1945.” Another sign said that “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds [sic],” a reference to the famous Jewish banking family often implicated in conspiracy theories. Today, Nobel Prize winner and Holoacaust survivor Elie Wiesel strongly condemned the signs, calling them “indecent and disgusting.” From his foundation’s Twitter page:
The National Jewish Democratic Council also criticized the “vile invocations of Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric” and called out GOP leaders who stood in plain view of the signs but ignored them. The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded that the rally organizers “publicly repudiate the use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery.” Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) made similar comments in a video he posted on YouTube, singling out the rally’s organizer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN):
I can’t believe that Congresswoman Bachmann would stand where she stood, and see those images, and not have the common decency to say, “I disagree with the use of those images.” I think that she owes the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust an apology. She owes us all an apology. And I’m waiting. We’re all waiting.
Watch it:
When Politico asked House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-OH) spokesman for comment on these signs, he simply replied, “Leader Boehner did not see any such sign. Obviously, it would be grossly inappropriate.” Today, Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) spokesman called the photograph “inappropriate.”
ThinkFast: November 6, 2009
ThinkFast: November 6, 2009
A new labor report this morning indicates 190,000 jobs were lost last month. Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate since April 1983 and “much higher than analysts expected.”
Nidal M. Hasan’s name “appears on radical Internet postings,” including “posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.” A fellow officer says Hasan “argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars,” and while an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan reportedly had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision.
President Obama will make his first visit as president to Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon. The White House says the visit was scheduled before the fatal shootings at Fort Hood yesterday. Obama is also pushing back a planned trip to Capitol Hill “aimed at discussing the proposed health care overhaul with lawmakers” from today to Saturday.
House Democratic leaders are trying to secure 218 votes to pass a health care reform bill this weekend. Of the 258 House Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — while “confident of victory” — is “working to limit defections to the roughly 25 Democrats viewed as ‘hard no’ votes.”
The editorial boards of both the New York Times and the Washington Post today sharply criticized Congress’s plans to expand a home buyer’s tax credit as stimulus. “This costly giveaway to the real estate and mortgage industry will spend far more in taxpayers’ dollars than it can ever deliver in economic benefit,” writes the NYT. The Post called the extension “a bad idea.”
Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the overwhelming majority of Americans would remain uninsured and continue paying higher premiums under the Republicans’ health care alternative. In fact, it’s unlikely that any of the members of the Republican House Leadership would be able to find affordable insurance under their own proposal, should they chose to give up their government-sponsored plans. The six men and one woman in the Republican House leadership have an average age of 52 and, as a group, are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease, different cancers, high blood pressure, and a host of other chronic diseases. The Republican health alternative would allow insurers to discriminate against these conditions and price the Republican leaders out of the market. Igor Volsky explains why Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
ThinkFast: November 5, 2009
ThinkFast: November 5, 2009
In a conference call last night that was arranged by the corporate front group Americans for Prosperity, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) called on protesters to “scare” members of Congress into killing health care reform. “Republican organizers are planning for activists to go into the House office buildings and the U.S. Capitol and confront members directly.”
Speaking on the House floor yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) read estimates of how many people will die in each congressional district if health care legislation is not passed. “Is it really asking too much of us that we keep people alive?” asked Grayson. “We know according to the Harvard study we will keep these people alive.”
After clearing “one of the final hurdles” late Tuesday, Democratic House leaders are pushing for a Saturday vote on their health care bill. House leaders “didn’t appear to have secured the 218 votes they need” due to concern about the funding of abortions, but leaders are moving to quickly swear in two newly-elected Democrats in an effort to pass the bill before next week’s holiday.
The Republican wins in New Jersey and Virginia helped inflate Fox News’ ratings Tuesday night, the New York Times reports. Fox, which was the only cable network to see significant ratings increase on election night, had its “biggest percentage gains” when the Republican governor-elects gave their victory speeches.
Senate Democrats are considering passing their climate bill out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee without amendments today due to a GOP boycott of the mark up process. The committee is due to convene at 9 a.m. today.
Creigh Deeds Failed To Run As A Progressive
Creigh Deeds Failed To Run As A Progressive
Republican Bob McDonnell won a “landslide” victory over Democrat Creigh Deeds in yesterday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, sweeping the state by a whopping 18 points. Exit polls showed Democrats had “trouble getting their base to the polls.” One possible explanation: Deeds did not run as a progressive reformer.
McDonnell “spent much of the campaign trying to tie Deeds to cap-and-trade environmental legislation and pro-union legislation on Capitol Hill that is unpopular with many Virginia voters.” But rather than make the affirmative case for progressive policy reforms, Deeds responded by largely “distanc[ing] himself from Obama’s agenda, especially on health and energy policy.” Some key examples:
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON CLIMATE: By the end of his campaign, Deeds was running ads attacking Obama’s clean energy agenda, saying Obama’s “cap and trade bill” would “hurt the people of Virginia.” Other ads carried the same message: “Creigh Deeds says no to any new energy taxes from Washington.” Instead of disputing his Republican opponent’s false attacks on climate legislation, Deeds amplified them. Deeds chose to run away from his past record on environment and climate issues. He had been a leader in “getting a land-preservation tax credit program into effect and supporting mass transit,” and “supporting a gas tax to fund transportation improvements.” Deeds “was one of 40 members of a commission on climate change convened by Virginia’s current governor.” His campaign platform included strong renewable energy and energy efficiency standards and environmental protection programs. Deeds embraced some coal industry positions. During the primary season, Deeds defended the despicable practice of mountaintop removal, telling a reporter in March, “The coal industry calls it surface mining.”
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON HEALTH CARE: During the final gubernatorial debate, Deeds stressed that health reform must “reduce costs so more people can afford insurance” and “increase coverage,” but argued that creating the option of a public health care plan “isn’t required.” “I don’t think the public option is necessary in any plan…I would certainly consider opting out if that were available to Virginia,” he said. After the debate, Deeds conceded that the plan might be “one way” to reduce costs, but “maybe one way might not be the best way.” “We have to leave all options on the table to find ways to reduce costs and increase coverage,” he concluded. The Deeds campaigned also issued a statement reiterating the candidate’s lukewarm support for the plan. “If the public option proves to be the best way” to reduce costs and expand
coverage, “he’d support having Virginia participate. He’ll examine all of the proposals on the table and choose the option than provides
Virginians with the most affordable and quality coverage.”NOT PROGRESSIVE ON LABOR ISSUES: “When I’m governor, you won’t just have a friend in Richmond — you’ll have a partner,” Deeds told union supporters in October, 2008. However, despite support from SEIU and the Teamsters, Deeds then proceeded to campaign on an anti-labor platform. He opposed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — which would have created a fairer path toward unionization for workers — saying it would “put us at a competitive disadvantage” and reasserting the false right-wing claim that EFCA would eliminate the secret ballot in union elections. Deeds also did not support the right of public safety employees in Virginia to bargain collectively, “because it would carry with it the right to strike.” However, Deeds had previously told the Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia that he was a “strong” supporter of their right to collectively bargain.
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON IMMIGRATION REFORM: More than one in ten Virginians are immigrants. The Immigration Policy Center also points out that Latinos comprised 2.0% (or 74,000) of Virginia voters in the 2008 elections — enough to make a difference in a tight race. Creigh Deeds might regret repeatedly voting in favor of legislation that would hurt a large and growing part of his constituency. Deeds voted alongside his contender, Republican Robert F. McDonnell, to designate English as the state’s official language. He also supported denying undocumented immigrants state or local benefits. Deeds recently voted in favor of a bill that would’ve restricted in-state college tuition benefits to undocumented immigrants. And although undocumented immigrants can’t vote, about one-third of all “unauthorized families” in the country are “mixed-status families,” or families that include legal resident and US citizen family members. Neither Deeds nor McDonnell talked much about immigration on the campaign trail, however, Deeds’ organizers told the Washington Post that he would treat immigration as a federal issue and McDonnell would not.
ThinkFast: November 4, 2009
ThinkFast: November 4, 2009
Concerns over jobs and the economy helped propel Republicans to sweep the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia. In Virginia, Governor-elect Bob McDonnell pledged “a wise and frugal government” and to keep taxes, regulation and litigation “to a minimum.” In New Jersey, Governor-elect Chris Christie pledged to cut regulations and spending and “get government back under control.”
In New York’s 23rd congressional district, Bill Owens scored a historic victory by becoming the first Democrat to carry the district since the mid-19th century. In California, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who “never retreated from his support of progressive policies” during the campaign, easily won a special election.
Fifty-three percent of Maine voters chose to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law yesterday, with 47 percent voting against the proposition. There was brighter news for gay rights advocates in Washington state, where voters narrowly approved Referendum 71 granting “registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples.”
On a 344 to 36 vote, the House yesterday rejected a U.N. report that accuses Israeli and Palestinian forces of war crimes during last year’s war in the Gaza Strip as “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.” The nonbinding resolution urges the Obama administration “to oppose unequivocally any endorsement” of the report.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has set aside an earlier ruling that would have allowed five victims of the U.S. rendition program to sue the U.S. government. At the behest of the Obama administration’s Department of Justice, the case will be re-heard before an 11-judge panel December 15th.
ThinkFast: November 3, 2009
ThinkFast: November 3, 2009
Buoyed by their success in New York’s 23rd congressional race, right-wing activists “are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.” “What you’re going to see,” said FreedomWorks’ Dick Armey, “is moderates and conservatives across the country in primaries.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has reportedly reached a “private understanding” with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) that would ensure the Connecticut senator does not block a final vote on health care reform. “Lieberman keeps assuring Reid that he’s OK,” said one source. “But he’s one of those characters — you never know with Joe.
“Maine could become the first state to endorse gay marriage by popular referendum” today “as voters head to the polls to decide whether to repeal a recently-passed law legalizing unions between people of the same gender.” Following the disappointment of Proposition 8’s success last year in California, “advocates of same-sex marriage are optimistic that ballot box history won’t repeat itself in Maine.”
The suicide rate in the Army has passed that of the general population for the first time. Sixteen American soldiers took their lives in October, and suicides have risen 36 percent since 2006.
The Senate voted 85-2 to cut off debate on a bill that would expand homebuyer and business tax credits and expand jobless benefits. This bill would add up to 20 more weeks of aid to unemployment benefits, extending them through Thanksgiving and Christmas.
ThinkFast: November 2, 2009
ThinkFast: November 2, 2009
Afghan officials cancelled the country’s run-off presidential election set to take place this Saturday after challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced his withdrawal from the race. The officials declared President Hamid Karzai the winner. An election commission official “cited security and financial concerns about the cost of the vote.”
According to a summary of the FBI’s interview with Dick Cheney regarding the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, on 72 occasions, the former vice president said “he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small.” The equivocations underscore prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s famous declaration that “there is a cloud over the vice president.”
“Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway has emerged in internal Pentagon deliberations as the most outspoken opponent of permitting gay men and women to serve openly in the U.S. military,” the Washington Times reports. “He feels very strongly that [removing the ban] would be disruptive, and he opposes it,” said a former senior Pentagon official. President Obama has pledged to repeal the policy.
As the Senate climate change bill emerges from committee tomorrow, “key Republicans are making their opposition clear.” “Why are we trying to jam down this legislation now?” asked Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) at a hearing last week. Now, “Democratic leaders, with the support of the Obama administration, are trying to sway at least half a dozen Republicans by offering” support for new nuclear power plants.
A fact-checking performed by the AP shows that many Republican lawmakers are using “grade school arithmetic” to criticize the stimulus package. The AP notes that critics are complaining that the stimulus cost $246,000 a job, ignoring material costs and the ongoing value of jobs created.
Right Wing Falsely Asserts Right Wing Boogeymen Bill Ayers And Jeremiah Wright Visited The White House
Right Wing Falsely Asserts Right Wing Boogeymen Bill Ayers And Jeremiah Wright Visited The White House
Early this evening, the White House voluntarily released nearly 500 visitor records of “individuals visiting the executive mansion between Inauguration Day and the end of July.” The easily-searchable list includes some famous names like Michael Jordan, Michael Moore, William Ayers, and Jeremiah Wright. Of course, the mere suggestion of Ayers and Wright has sent the right wing into a tizzy.
The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb:
The Weekly Standard’s Mary Katharine Ham:
The Washington Times’ Amanda Carpenter:
Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey:
But as the original post by White House ethics counselor Norm Eisen makes clear, the “William Ayers” and “Jeremiah Wright” on the list are actually different individuals who merely share the same name:
Given this large amount of data, the records we are publishing today include a few “false positives” – names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else. In September, requests were submitted for the names of some famous or controversial figures (for example Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly (”R. Kelly”), and Malik Shabazz). The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House. Nevertheless, we were asked for those names and so we have included records for those individuals who were here and share the same names.
Mainstream news outlets have reported this fact accurately. But for the right wing, the story was simply too good to be fact-checked.
ThinkFast: October 30, 2009
ThinkFast: October 30, 2009
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (TX) said yesterday that the GOP would “welcome” Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman into its ranks. Hoffman is slated to face off with Republican Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens in a special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district next week.
In a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform Summit on Wednesday, former Florida governor Jeb Bush claimed that “President Obama has used the bully pulpit as a way to attack capitalism.” “That’ll make the news,” added Bush after he uttered his criticism of Obama in response to a question from the audience.
Iran told the IAEA yesterday that it will reject a plan to send its stockpile of low enriched uranium to Russia to be processed and then returned for use in a reactor in Tehran. The decision came only “hours after Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisted that ‘we are ready to cooperate‘ with the West.”
According to a report that “appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network,” House ethics investigators “have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling.” Committee chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said “no inference should be made as to any member.”
A report released by the Obama administration today says that “the largest stimulus program in the nation’s history has created or saved at least 650,000 state and local jobs.” The White House says that “the actual number of jobs created so far is likely closer to 1 million, since its report on stimulus job creation only focused on $150 billion of the $339 billion” spent so far.
ThinkFast: October 29, 2009
ThinkFast: October 29, 2009
President Obama traveled to the Dover Air Force Base very early this morning to meet the flag-draped caskets of 18 Americans killed in military service in Afghanistan this week. Reporters witnessed Obama standing at attention and saluting the coffin of Army Sergeant Dale R. Griffin, whose family consented to media coverage.
President Obama “is considering sending large numbers of additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan next year but fewer than his war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, prefers.” Under what one official described as “McChrystal Light,” the General would be given less than the 40,000 forces he asked for with a narrowed mission of “protecting Afghan cities and key infrastructure.”
Speaking in Pakistan yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned a market bombing that killed more than 100 people. “These attacks on innocent people are cowardly,” she said. “They are not courageous. They are cowardly. If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process.”
In a sign that the economy is improving, the Commerce Department reported this morning that “the economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years.”
Under pressure from conservative Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “has decided to propose a government-run insurance plan that would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals, rather than using prices set by the government.” Pelosi was unable to get the votes needed to pass a bill with a “robust” public option. The bill would cost “less than the $900 billion ceiling suggested by President Obama.”
ThinkFast: October 28, 2009
ThinkFast: October 28, 2009
A USA Today analysis finds that the stimulus is working and is having “a significant impact on the economy.” A survey of 33 states and Puerto Rico found that 338,000 jobs have been created or saved so far this year.
$1.25 million: Amount former Alaska governor Sarah Palin received as a retainer for her book “Going Rogue,” which will be out on Nov. 17.
“The deaths today of eight more American troops in Afghanistan have made October the deadliest month ever for U.S. forces in what is already the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001,” reports ABC News. Fifty-five U.S. servicemembers have died this month, bringing the 2009 total to 280.
President Obama’s top advisers “are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers.” The strategy will “would stop short of an all-out assault on the Taliban while still seeking to nurture long-term stability.” But now, “the debate is no longer over whether to send more troops, but how many more will be needed.”
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s illegal drug trade, gets regular payments from the CIA, “and has for much of the past eight years.” The ties to Karzai have “have created deep divisions within the Obama administration” and complicate relations with President Hamid Karzai who has long been portrayed as an American puppet.
ThinkFast: October 27, 2009
ThinkFast: October 27, 2009
Hundreds of protesters from the Service Employees International Union and National People’s Action picketed the offices of Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo yesterday, calling for strong regulatory reform and the breaking up of big banks. The protests coincided with the annual meeting of the American Bankers Association, the trade group of the banking industry.
After “nine months of being nearly invisible,” President Bush spoke to nearly 15,000 people yesterday at a motivational seminar in Forth Worth, TX. Bush “used much of his 28 minutes onstage to talk about lighter topics such as picking out a rug design for the Oval Office that reflected his “optimism.” Attendees said they enjoyed his speech, although they acknowledged that he “wasn’t the best speaker.”
Foreign Service officer Matthew Hoh has resigned in protest over the continuation of the Afghan war. “We want to have some kind of governance there, and we have some obligation for it not to be a bloodbath,” Hoh told the Washington Post. “But you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) decision to include an opt-out public option in the health care bill headed to the floor “means that he will need the votes of all 60 members of the Democratic Caucus to move it forward.” Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) said in a statement, “I am deeply disappointed with the Majority Leader’s decision to include a public option as the focus of the legislation.”
Despite its aggressive attempts at green marketing, Toyota has stated that it refuses to join other companies and leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the alliance’s refusal to recognize global warming. A Toyota spokeswoman also said the company opposes a cap-and-trade program. MoveOn.org Political Action has launched a campaign to tell Toyota to stop opposing clean energy.
ThinkFast: October 26, 2009
ThinkFast: October 26, 2009
Following reports that President Obama was “actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform,” White House Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on the White House blog that “those rumors are absolutely false.” “President Obama completely supports” the Democratic leadership’s efforts, Pfeiffer wrote.
A new report from Thomson Reuters has found that the U.S. health care system wastes up to $800 billion ever year. “The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada,” the report notes.
Democrats are discussing ways to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, “eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year.” “We want to be able, within the cost framework and the implementation framework, to have as much start as early as possible, even though we know all of it can’t,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Congress and the Obama administration are getting ready to address the issue of banking institutions that are “too big to fail.” A measure that could be introduced this week “would make it easier for the government to seize control of troubled financial institutions, throw out management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution.”
Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he is working with his colleagues to block any increase in U.S. troops levels in Afghanistan. “There will be resistance to [a troop increase] if necessary…We will do what we can to prevent this mistake,” the senator told host Bob Schieffer.
ThinkFast: October 23, 2009
ThinkFast: October 23, 2009
In a meeting with President Obama yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) reportedly pushed for a public option that would allow states to opt-out of the program. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly doesn’t have the votes for a robust public option. Meanwhile, one Democratic source said Obama appeared to prefer a “trigger” option.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) rejected the public option. “A public option at the forefront really does put the government in a disproportionate position with respect to the industry,” she said. Snowe also indicated that health reform may not be completed by the end of this year.
Defense contractors are lobbying Sen. Dan Inouye (D-HI) to strip Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) anti-rape amendment from the defense appropriations bill. The amendment would withhold defense funding from companies barring their employees from taking sexual abuse cases to court. “The defense contractors have been storming [Inouye's] office,” said one source.
The Senate voted 68 to 29 yesterday to “extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation.” The hate crimes measure, “attached to an essential military-spending bill,” now needs the signature of President Obama, who has said he will sign it.
The Federal Reserve announced “that it would crack down on pay packages that encouraged bankers to take excessive risks, but officials acknowledged that the plan might not reduce the biggest paychecks on Wall Street.” The announcement coincides with the Obama administration’s decision “to cut the pay of many high earners at the seven companies that received the most taxpayer help.”
ThinkFast: October 22, 2009
ThinkFast: October 22, 2009
Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s special paymaster, will order firms that received a government bailout to “slash compensation to their highest-paid employees.” He will also demand “a host of corporate governance changes at those firms.” One bank executive complained that the compensation restrictions “were clearly much worse than what had been anticipated.”
“Some of the biggest Wall Street firms are back in the political-spending game after hunkering down while they were getting government bailout funds,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Companies such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley stopped making donations while they were receiving federal dollars, but now they have stepped up their contributions and lobbying spending.
Interest groups have spent $263.6 million lobbying on health care so far, a “record year for healthcare lobbying revenue.” If major reform passes, “K Street looks like a winner” as “lobbyists for healthcare industries will be plenty busy trying to influence the implementation of the bill” for years to come.
The inspector general for the TARP program, Neil Barofsky, told CNN yesterday that “the banking system today may be in a more precarious position than it was a year ago.” “These banks that were too big to fail are now bigger,” Barofsky said. “Potentially we could be in more danger now than we were a year ago.”
Afghanistan experts fear that the upcoming election run-off in Afghanistan may inflame ethnic divisions. “Afghanistan will be divided into two parts…when we go for a second round,” said Waheed Mojdah, an Afghan analyst. “Basically, this election is between Pashtuns and Tajiks and will clearly show which of these ethnicities is the most powerful.”
ThinkFast: October 21, 2009
ThinkFast: October 21, 2009
In remarks at a fundraising reception in New York City last night, President Obama criticized Wall Street for engaging in “reckless speculation and deceptive practices and short-sightedness and self-interestedness.” “So if there are members of the financial industry in the audience today,” Obama said, eliciting chuckles from the well-heeled crowd, “I would ask that you join us in passing what are necessary reforms. Don’t fight them.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “will deliver a major address on arms control and international security” today at the U.S. Institute of Peace. In her speech, Clinton will both promote “President Obama’s goal of reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the United States’ defense posture” and “argue that the United States will retain a safe, secure and effective strategic force.”
A “preliminary estimate” from the CBO projects that the House Democrats’ health care plan that includes a robust public option will reduce the deficit in its first ten years and would cost $871 billion over that period. The estimate is “significantly less” than previous ones and “under the $900 billion cap set by President Obama.”
Leading House Democrats are looking to re-brand the public option as a form of Medicare. “One of his concerns is that people don’t know what a public option is. Medicare is a public option,” said John Schadl, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN). The idea of re-branding the public option as Medicare “Part E” — E standing for everyone — was first proposed by columnist Thom Hartmann last month.
Mohawk Fine Papers became the latest company to resign from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its climate policy. “We believe that our continued membership in an organization that vigorously opposes sensible climate change policies is detrimental to our position as a business leader with a strong record in the areas of environmental innovation and climate protection,” said Mohawk Senior VP George F. Milner.
GOP Rep. from district where civil rights workers were lynched talks about shooting ‘tree-hugging Democrats.’
GOP Rep. from district where civil rights workers were lynched talks about shooting ‘tree-hugging Democrats.’
In a new interview with Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), Politico asks the congressman what the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus does. Harper’s response:
We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition.
Harper represents Mississippi’s 3rd congressional district, which contains Neshoba County — the place of one of the most infamous race-related crimes in American history. In 1964, white supremacists lynched three civil rights workers. In recent months, sportsmen around the country have been joining up with “tree-hugging” liberals on climate legislation. In April, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and other sportsmen’s and environmental groups “called for Congress to pass global warming legislation that includes increased funding for natural resource protection.”
ThinkFast: October 20, 2009
ThinkFast: October 20, 2009
Public support for a public health insurance option is increasing, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public option, up from 52 percent in mid-August. Greg Sargent notes that the poll also suggests that a majority favors a public option over a bipartisan health care bill.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to a run-off election on Nov. 7 against his main rival Abdullah Abdullah. The new election will allow the Obama administration to move forward with its Afghan strategy review, “a process that has been hamstrung by the delay in determining who its Afghan government partner will be.”
“A slight majority of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan is turning into another Vietnam,” according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll. Fifty-nine percent of people questioned “opposed sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan with 39 percent in favor. Of the 59 percent opposed, 28 percent want Washington to withdraw all U.S troops, 21 percent are calling for a partial American pullout,” and 8 percent want no change in troop levels.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent a “jaw-dropping” $34.7 million lobbying the federal government in the third quarter of 2009. Politico reports that “[t]he figure is greater than the sum of the next 18 highest filers so far…who combined to spend $30.9 million.”
President Obama will be in NYC tonight for a lavish Democratic Party fund-raising dinner with about 200 big donors. Though about a third of the attendees are expected to be from the financial industry, “only a half-dozen or fewer are expected to attend” that work for bailed out financial giants like Goldman Sachs, partially to avoid public rage “over the perception that Wall Street titans” are using bailout profits to influence Washington.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll