Washington Extra – In abeyance
Some say impasse, some say abeyance.
But whatever they call it, debt negotiations between Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers hit a brick wall.
After two days of meetings this week, Republicans decided it wasn’t worth going to the third session today and walked away.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took the harsher line, saying the talks were at an “impasse.” Dictionary definition: a situation from which there is no escape or a deadlock.
The White House took a gentler line describing the talks as in “abeyance.” Dictionary definition: temporary inactivity or a suspension.
So now they kick it upstairs. President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will take over, according to Reid.
That’s two Democrats and one Republican at the table. Does one golf game (Obama and Boehner last Saturday) a compromise make?
Republicans seek more “skin” to tax
When it comes to reaching a deal to reduce the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt, Republicans say they won’t go along with raising taxes — except maybe for the 50 percent of Americans who they say pay no federal income taxes.
Two senior Republicans said this week that those folks on the lower end of the income scale need to have “skin in the game” and should pay their fair share of federal income taxes.
“I would not impose a significant tax on the lower half or certainly not the lower 10 percent,” explained Senator Jon Kyl in a Senate speech. “But I think it’s important for all Americans to know that we all have a stake in this and that more than half of the people can’t just expect the so-called wealthy to bear all of the burdens of government.”
House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said House Republicans plan to push for tax reform that lowers rates for corporations and individuals, reduces a number of tax breaks and broadens the tax base.
“We have got nearing 50 percent of the people in this country who don’t pay income taxes,” Cantor told reporters. “I think most people would say everybody should have some skin in the game and pay their fair share.”
Raising taxes on middle and lower income people while lowering tax rates for corporations and higher income people might be a tough sell to voters. Public opinion polls show that a strong majority want to raise taxes on the wealthy to reduce deficits and debt.
Democrats have called for raising taxes on the wealthy and note that wage earners pay Social Security and other payroll taxes even if they don’t make enough to pay income taxes.
“We have got nearing 50 percent of the people…” are you kidding me? This guy is House Republican Leader?? Yikes!!
Let’s hope he includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, GE, Valero Energy, and many more in his “50%” category, or maybe start a new one–they not only paid no federal tax, but received refunds, as well!
Washington Extra – 9 below
Don’t underestimate the PoliPsych impact of the unemployment rate falling below 9 percent for the first time in nearly two years.
That number is the one which resonates with the public when candidates talk about jobs on the campaign trail.
The economy is still shaking off the doldrums so the White House did not want to be seen as publicly reveling in what must have been a privately gleeful moment after the 8.9 percent February unemployment rate was revealed.
President Barack Obama said the employment report showed progress in the economy, “but we need to keep building on that momentum.”
Republicans were certainly not going to praise economic data with a Democrat in the White House and a presidential election next year.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the unemployment rate “is still too high and we need to continue our efforts to make sure private sector employers have sure footing to invest in new employees and expand their businesses.”
Congress will be looking for creative ways to cut the deficit.
Washington Extra – Cake cutting
Everyone SAYS they want to cut the budget deficit, but when it comes to actually agreeing on a course of action, it’s not exactly a piece of cake.
President Barack Obama says his budget plan would halve the deficit by 2013. “So what we’ve done here is make a down payment, but there’s going to be more work that needs to be done, and it’s going to require Democrats and Republicans coming together to make it happen,” he said.
But Democrats and Republicans are far from seeing eye-to-eye on how to go about deficit cutting.
House Republican Leader Eric Cantor explained the difference as he sees it: “For years, Democrats have proposed more government spending to create jobs, resulting in the largest debt and deficits in history while unemployment remains too high. Republicans believe in free markets and the ability for small businesses and entrepreneurs to keep more of their own money so they can invest, grow their companies and hire employees.”
At some point both parties are going to have to start singing “stuck in the middle with you,” or nothing’s going to move.
(Sorry, have Grammy’s on the brain – how many people in DC have heard of Arcade Fire?)
Here are our top stories from Washington today…
Taxes: battle of the shoulds, musts, nots
Political maneuvering is in full bloom as positions are being staked out in the battle over tax cuts to the wealthy and for the hearts and minds of the Middle Class ahead of the November election.
President Barack Obama on Friday had his say: Congress should pass what everyone agrees on — extend Bush-era Middle Class tax relief for families earning up to $250,000.
For higher incomes, Obama said the country can’t afford extending tax cuts, but he is willing to talk about it . “We can have a further conversation about how they want to spend an additional $700 billion to give an average of $100,000 to millionaires. That I think is a bad idea.”
Obama didn’t slam the door in anyone’s face. In fact, if someone was looking for grains of compromise he appeared to leave the door slightly ajar.
House Republican leader John Boehner, who could be Speaker if his party wrestles control from Democrats on Nov. 2, said on Sunday that he would be open to only the Middle Class extension if that was the only piece that would get through, but in principle all the expiring tax relief should be extended.
“If the only option I have is to vote for those at 250 and below, of course I’m going to do that,” Boehner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “But I’m going to do everything I can to fight to make sure that we extend the current tax rates for all Americans.”
Then there’s Eric Cantor. The House Republican Whip is second on the leader ladder and issued a statement on Monday that didn’t exactly back Boehner (could there be a fight for Speaker brewing?)
You take that back, Mr. President!
Republicans are lining up to throw punches at President Barack Obama.
The Democratic president has been trading verbal barbs with House Republican Leader John Boehner over economic and fiscal policy. Obama on Wednesday took several swipes at Boehner and charged that it was the Republicans who took the country into deficit when they were running things in Washington.
Boehner retorted that Obama should freeze all tax rates and cut “federal spending to where it was before all the bailouts, government takeovers, and ‘stimulus’ spending sprees.” Boehner is in line to become House Speaker if Republicans seize control of Congress in November elections.
Other Republicans also jumped in the fray. Boehner’s House Republican lieutenants Eric Cantor and Mike Pence issued statements backing Boehner, saying non-security spending should be cut to 2008 levels.
Then Cantor went further. He demanded that Obama take back one thing he had said — specifically, the president’s allegation that the Republicans have not offered specific spending cuts. Cantor said that he personally had “sat across the table” from Obama and suggested ways to cut spending. Furthermore, he and Boehner had once sent a letter to Obama offering to work with him on spending cuts. And, House Republicans Jeb Hensarling and Paul Ryan had introduced a “Cut Spending Now” package that would save taxpayers $1.3 trillion. Cantor huffed that Obama should “either clarify or withdraw the accusation that he made earlier today.” All this when Congress isn’t even in session — lawmakers return next week from a long summer recess for a short fall legislative session. Expect more political punches as mid-term elections near in November and Obama’s Democrats struggle to keep control of Capitol Hill.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Boehner and Cantor after passage of stimulus Feb. 13, 2009)
boris
you are not listening or choose not to. Why do solcialists continue to spend government money (other peoples money) on programs that do not work. Ok forget the spending cuts how about freeze spending, oh but wait that would stop the socialist agenda.
Republican “Young Guns” take aim at Democratic-led Washington
Republican U.S. Representatives Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy are all in their 40′s.
Yet with many of their colleagues far older — in their 60′s, 70′s and 80′s — see themselves as “Young Guns,” part of a new breed of Republicans ready to challenge their Grand Old Party and take on Democratic-led Washington.
“Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders,” is the title of their book.
Published by Simon & Schuster, it’s to be on book shelves on September 14 in advance in advance of the Nov. 2 election that may see Republicans win control of the House from President Barack Obama’s Democrats.
“We’ve seen both parties ignore the needs of Americans while they concentrate on doing favors for the special interests that get them elected,” Cantor writes in his section of the book.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’re proud Republicans,” Cantor adds. “We just believe that our party has at times lost sight of the things we believe in, ideas like economic freedom, limited government, the sanctity of life, and putting families first.”
Ryan makes a plug for his “Roadmap for America’s Future.” Embraced so far by relatively few House Republicans, it includes gradually raising the retirement age to 70, reducing future Social Security benefits for the rich and putting Medicare and Medicaid recipients in private insurance plans.
As a member of the ’94 revolution, I personally saw the error of electing leaders who had been in the minority. I often say I only made one bad vote, but unfortunately, it was the first vote, and that was the only one that counted. I pray that all the new freshman will not make the same mistake we made in ’94 and elect leaders from the freshman class. That is the only way that we can possibly reverse the downward economic spiral we find in our nation.
In my legislative district, the young gun running was also a freshman in our State house in ’94, and will fight for new leadership. Boehner was Gingrich’s protege, and even though Newt may be the man with the best ideas,he proved himself to be a progressive.
As Steve Largent said to Speaker Gingrich in ’96 when Newt tried to reverse the gains we made in ’95, “Mr. Speaker, I have been in smaller rooms with bigger people, we will not be intimidated”. Hang tough, freshman, don’t buy into the system, our nation can not continue the direction we are going. It must be reversed, not slowed down.
Republicans want ideas, but stick to Republican tenets
Republicans looking to regain control of Congress say they want to listen to the ideas of Americans to come up with a plan for the country. And so they developed a new web forum to harness those ideas.
But they did make clear that any ideas accepted will have to adhere to basic Republican principles of smaller government and no tax increases.
So it’s possible that the proposal to legalize marijuana and other drugs and tax them won’t get serious consideration despite the fact that more people gave it a thumbs up than a thumbs down.
Another poster wants to eliminate taxes on people making more than $200,000. That idea didn’t get so many votes, but a number of people like the idea of eliminating the Internal Revenue Service altogether.
And one poster grumped about the Republican web forum being funded with taxpayer money.
“This project, America Speaking Out, is about trying to enlist the voices and help of the American people so we can begin by listening and turning around the equation in this town to produce an economy and an America that meets with the approval of the American people,” House Republican Whip Eric Cantor explained.
Photo credit: Reuters/Michael Dalder (light bulbs), Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Republican congressmen Eric Cantor (r) and John Boehner (l))
When seen from Capitol Hill, Jerusalem looks a bit different
What’s the U.S. policy toward Israel? It may depend on which branch of government you ask.
On Capitol Hill, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got a warm reception during his Washington visit this week. Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, says Congress is on “a different page” than the Obama administration over Jewish settlements in Jerusalem and the overall U.S. relationship with Israel.
Netanyahu got a less obviously effusive welcome from the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met him at a hotel on Monday and his White House meeting with the president on Tuesday took place behind closed doors, without photographers present.
But on Capitol Hill he was warmly, openly and officially received by leading lawmakers. Cameras clicked and rolled as Netanyahu was greeted in ornate reception rooms, first in the House of Representatives, then in the Senate Tuesday. In between, he lunched with lawmakers.
The Israeli prime minister got to hear his own words echo around the hallowed halls of Congress as well. At the morning meeting with Netanyahu, “Many of us said, Jerusalem is not a settlement,” Cantor told Reuters afterwards.
This had been Netanyahu’s line in a speech to the influential pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC on Monday evening, where he struck a defiant note after new criticism from Clinton of Jewish home construction in disputed territory in and around Jerusalem.
Cantor, the third-ranking Republican in the House, said he and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, are circulating for lawmakers’ signatures a letter to Clinton expressing concerns about the direction of U.S. policy. ”We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to the unbreakable bond that exists bewteen our country and the State of Israel and to express to you our deep concern over recent tension,” the letter says.
Different enough to tell them to stand on their own two feet? Cut ties and stop policing the world. We cannot afford it any longer
Republican wants more Massa exposure but Democrat says it’s over
House Republican Eric Cantor thinks Congress should get to the bottom of Eric Massa’s bizarre tale of congressional nudity, satanic White House advisers, the groping of men (or not) and a congressional healthcare putsch by Democrats. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the case is over.
“I know that Steny joins me in hoping that the ethics committee in Congress looks into this adequately and can get to the bottom of all of this,” said Cantor, who appeared along with Hoyer on NBC’s Today show. ”The best place for this to be resolved is in the ethics committee and let’s get to the bottom of it.”
Otherwise, the whole thing seems to make Cantor want to hold his nose. And he is not alone. “I’m a little taken aback and stunned,” the Virginia lawmaker confided. “I don’t know the facts of this at all. I know that the American people are sickened.”
Massa’s descriptions of the events that led him to the exit door have become a spectator sport with more back-and-forth grunting than professional tennis. And with only one player.
He did, or didn’t, leave because of his health. Did or didn’t grope a male staffer. Did or didn’t jump ship to avoid an ethics probe into sexual harassment claims. Did have a close encounter with a naked Rahm Emanuel. Did decide that Emanuel’s a blood relative of Satan. Did get pushed from office by a White House infuriated over his refusal to back the Obama healthcare reform plan.
Or did he? Hoyer describes only one chain of events leading to Massa’s departure, and relatively speaking, his account sounds pretty realistic if only by virtue of its plainness.
Hoyer’s office learned of the harassment claims on Feb. 8 and strongly advised the young man in question to go to the ethics committee. In fact, Hoyer may have applied some pressure. But not the kind Massa likes to talk about.
Once again, TyC can’t get the message.
The media covers Democratic scandals and ignores Republican scandals, much the same way TyC ignores the facts and repeats his false assertions.
