Washington Extra – Comfort zones
Senators are talking. The president is talking. But whether they are talking at or with each other is another question.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled a Libya resolution so that senators could focus on debt issues this week, which after all was the reason why they cancelled recess.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell invited President Barack Obama to Capitol Hill to hear why a debt deal with tax increases won’t fly. And then he accepted an invitation from Obama to meet at the White House on Thursday with other congressional leaders.
Obama updated his schedule to comment on debt negotiations. He urged both parties to get out of their “comfort zones” and to leave ultimatums and political rhetoric at the door.
That’s a tall order, but herding everyone into the same room is at least a step.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Standing room only at Social Security rally
Social Security rock stars? Senate Democrats held a rally that turned into almost a religious revival-type event on Capitol Hill where they were treated like rock stars by a standing-room only audience.
The crowd, which included the old and disabled, embraced the lawmakers with a prolonged ovation, cries of approval and shouts of “back off Social Security.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a battle with Republican House Speaker John Boehner over how to keep the government running when temporary funding ends April 8, gave fiery defense of the popular retirement program.
“Republicans have shown they couldn’t care less about those who have the least,” Reid said. “Their plan on Social Security is simple, and it’s this: end it. They use words like ‘privatize’ and ‘personalize.’ But they’re all code words for the same thing: ending Social Security as we know it.”
“Give ‘em hell, Harry!” one member of the crowd roared.
Reid stood with fellow Senate Democrats Tom Harkin, Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal and Bernie Sanders, an independent who routinely votes with Democrats.
Polls show Americans don’t support weakening Social Security to help control the $14 trillion federal debt.
Washington Extra – Two weeks
Perhaps the fifth time will be the charm. (Don’t hold your breath).
Looks like legislation to keep the government funded for another two weeks is heading for approval. “I think we’ll have a vote on that in the next 48 hours,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
But then what?
This would be the fifth temporary measure passed by Congress to prevent a government shutdown this fiscal year. The last one is set to expire on Friday.
That’s a half year the government has functioned on continuing resolutions, with another half year to go. (Yes it adds up).
President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner to talk about the negotiations and they spent 10-12 minutes on the phone, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney. Seems like a substantial amount of time to chat between busy men.
Financial regulators and lawmakers came to our Washington bureau for Day 2 of a Reuters finance summit. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh, Senator Jack Reed and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau adviser Elizabeth Warren. See coverage at http://www.reuters.com/summit/FutureFinance11
One Washington day is not like another for Mr. Hu
China’s President Hu Jintao was feted with full fanfare at the White House on Wednesday, with a 21-gun salute, honor guards and a state dinner. Things might not be quite so fancy on Thursday when he goes to Capitol Hill.
There he will see Republican Speaker John Boehner in the House of Representatives, then cross the Capitol to meet Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Neither bothered to attend Wednesday’s state dinner.
Also attending the House and Senate meetings will be several other lawmakers who want a word with Hu about human rights in China, as well as China’s dealings with Iran and Chinese trade practices.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen plans to hand Hu an entire list of complaints in the form of a letter she sent to Obama ahead of the Chinese leader’s visit.
The letter from the Republican complains of Beijing’s “military posturing,” as well as reports that China allowed the trans-shipment of North Korean missile parts to Iran via Beijing aiport. It also calls for the closure of labor camps in China, the release of political prisoners, and “unrestricted religious freedom”.
Also attending the House meeting with Hu will be the former Speaker, now Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The Chinese media once called her a “defender of arsonists, looters and killers” after she visited the Dalai Lama and criticized Chinese “oppression” in Tibet.
Another lawmaker Hu will see is Democrat Sander Levin, one of Congress’s many critics of China’s trade practices. When he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee last year, he pushed a bill through the House that threatened trade sanctions on China in retaliation for Beijing’s currency manipulation.
Washington Extra – Whose bipartisanship?
The feeling appeared mutual when President Barack Obama shook hands with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell after signing the tax cut bill. It looked like the picture of what Obama called a “bipartisan effort.”
McConnell tried not to grin too much over the Republicans winning the war in their efforts to extend tax cuts to the wealthy.
But when it came to Capitol Hill Democrats, there wasn’t much display of unity with even Obama, let alone bipartisanship with the Republicans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were no-shows at the bill signing.
(Lawmakers don’t miss bill signings if they can help it, it gives them a chance to show accomplishment… and get one of those presidential pens).
Vice President Joe Biden got the first mention in Obama’s remarks, McConnell and the Republican leadership in the Senate were second. Then Obama mentioned House Republican Dave Camp, followed by the Democrats on stage, starting with Senator Dick Durbin.
Obama said there were elements of the tax-cut bill that he, Democrats and Republicans each didn’t like, but, “that’s the nature of compromise, yielding on something each of us cares about to move forward on what all of us care about.”
Tackling the deficit will likely be even more difficult than the tax cut bill, Obama said, and he will be looking for more bipartisanship on that.
Washington Extra – Hunkered down
In all the words said over at the White House today about the Afghanistan review, one name was not mentioned — Osama bin Laden.
The al Qaeda leader, who former President George W. Bush once declared wanted dead or alive, has eluded a manhunt and grown nearly 10 years older since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bin Laden was last heard in an audio message aired on Al Jazeera television on Oct. 27 railing against France, and his freedom remains a symbol of how difficult it will be to declare victory against al Qaeda.
Security officials suspect he is in the border region of Afghanistan-Pakistan, but if they knew for sure where he was, they would have found him.
President Barack Obama said the reason why U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan is 9/11, and the core goal is “disrupting, dismantling and defeating” al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He saw “significant progress” in pursuit of that goal, and said: “In short, al Qaeda is hunkered down.”
On the domestic front, the battle over earmarks is wreaking havoc on Capitol Hill and led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use the H word.
A Senate Christmas tale
(UPDATES with new Reid comments).
Christmas bells are ringing. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn’t seem to be listening. Much to the chagrin of staffers and more than a few senators, Reid is threatening to keep the Senate in session until Christmas Eve and beyond to finish all the legislative work that Congress failed to complete before the November elections.
That amounts to just about a whole year’s worth of lawmaking. Congress never got around to passing any of the 12 spending bills that fund the government. So the Senate is expected to take up a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill after senators voted to extend Bush-era tax cuts by two years and extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for a year.
Reid earlier this week said “…we are going to complete our work, no matter how long it takes, in this Congress.”
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to fight the spending bill and Senator Jon Kyl suggested a Christmas reality check.
“It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out … frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff,” Kyl said.
Reid was not about to take questioning of his Christmas spirit quietly.
You can say what you want…and you can spin it, as usual, to your point of view…after all, you are paid for your diatribes…
As you know, this is the worst slaughter for the democrats since the 1930′s. No matter who you spin it, the American people do not want government to intrude in their lives…and they spoke loud and clear…
You have been wrong for over two years. You were so smug and confident for so long. I told you what the American people would do and they did it. They totally rejected this congress and this president. If the American people wanted this progressive agenda, they would have kept this bunch in power…they didn’t…
You are wrong..about everything you have written. I was right and I am right.
So long chump.
Washington Extra – jumpSTART
There are 11 days to Christmas, time for Congress to do the end-of-session roll in which proposals that grew cobwebs for months and months are now heading through the chambers at breakneck speed.
Tax cuts are closing in on the finish line — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer signaled that resistance was waning among Democrats when he said there were “compelling reasons” to back the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today is holding out the possibility that the START treaty will be ratified before lawmakers wrap up the lame duck session. Debate could start as early as Wednesday, and Reid says he’s got the votes.
Asked if he had 67 votes to ratify START and if he was committed to having the vote before this Congress ends, Reid said: “The answer is yes on both.”
When confronted with START, a top Republican says STOP until the bill to fund the government is done.
Republican Senator Jon Kyl says the spending bill is a more urgent priority “given the fact that the current funding runs out at the end of the week.”
The White House says the legislative pace means a replacement for economic adviser Larry Summers may not be named until next year.
Congress playing chicken in lame duck session
What’s going to fly?
That’s the question on Capitol Hill where Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a game of chicken over what legislation gets approved in the final stretch for this Congress.
Everyone wants to extend middle class tax cuts, but when it comes to extending tax cuts for wealthier Americans feathers get ruffled. Republicans are demanding all of the Bush tax-cuts be extended, but Democrats cry fowl, saying the tax cuts for the wealthy are too expensive to continue.
The House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats until the new Congress with a Republican majority is seated in January, will vote Thursday to extend only the middle-class tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year.
But in the Senate, which will still be controlled by Democrats in the next Congress, the squawking is the loudest.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sent Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid a letter signed by every Senate Republican that pledged to block all legislation until the Senate acts on the tax cut extension and a measure to temporarily fund the government. The House passed a short-term spending bill on Wednesday and the Senate was expected to take it up this week.
The message from Senate Republicans to Democrats was clear — don’t even think about getting START or “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” done this year until all Bush-era tax cuts are extended.
The Republicans must do whatever it takes to stop the DREAM amnesty act, even if it means nothing gets voted on during the lame duck. This bill will open the door for endless chain migration and is an attempt to set up a single party state. Citizens have the right to choose their political future. Citizenship for votes is nothing short of treason.
Can Obama launch “peace talks” with Republicans at Camp David?
Camp David may be getting ready for another round of peace talks – of the domestic variety.
President Barack Obama is emphasizing bipartisanship after the midterm election shellacking dealt by Republicans and today decided to wave a olive branch — the possibility of a summit wiith congressional leaders early next year at the presidential retreat. He offered the invite at a White House meeting with leaders of both parties where they discussed tax cuts, the START treaty, and other issues Obama wants to see resolved during the remainder of the “lame duck” session of Congress.
An invitation to Camp David is considered an honor. In fact, Obama said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid mentioned to him that despite 28 years in Congress, he had never been to Camp David.
“And so I told him, well, we’re going to have to get them all up there sometime soon,” Obama said.
Obama has long cast himself as a bridge builder but the post-election call for bipartisanship has been greeted skeptically on both the right and the left. The president himself acknowledged that a “hyperpartisan” environment could make any effort to work across party lines extremely difficult. He also said even the idea of bipartisanship can fall victim to insincerity and showmanship as each side tries to “win the news cycle instead of solving problems.” “A lot of times coming out of these meetings, both sides claim they want to work together, but try to paint the opponent as unyielding and unwilling to cooperate,” he said. The hurdles in convening Tuesday’s two-hour meeting underscore the challenges. Obama had initially proposed a meeting on Nov. 18 that would have included a working dinner, but that fell through when Republicans cited scheduling conflicts. Both sides called Tuesday morning’s session productive but they remained far apart on issues like taxes, though they agreed to put the debate over the Bush-era tax cuts on a fast track. A working group that will include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House budget director Jack Lew along with key lawmakers will convene to try to strike a deal.
As difficult as the tax cut issue will be to resolve, the Camp David meeting is likely to deal with issues that are broader and a lot more challenging. Those include finding a way to jumpstart the economy and rein in the huge U.S. budget deficit.
Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama after meeting with congressional leaders)
