Washington Extra – Same page
Alarm over Japan’s nuclear crisis prompted a slumping stock market to slump some more in a third day of selling.
The United States and Japan weren’t quite on the same page in terms of advice to the public. The State Department recommended that Americans living within 50 miles of the Fukushima nuclear plant evacuate or stay indoors, while Japan asked residents within 18 miles to do the same.
Republicans and Democrats are still not on the same page as far as spending cuts go, which means back to the drawing board with a three-week reprieve from the sixth stopgap spending bill expected to pass Congress by Friday. Talks will get an added kick when the latest temporary funding bill is passed, but in a divided Congress bipartisan deals become a fairly lofty goal.
“I understand the world we live in right now,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas told us in an interview. “I’m going to attempt to work in a very bipartisan way” to slow down the implementation of Dodd-Frank, the Republican said about the financial reform measure named after two Democrats.
House Speaker John Boehner knows it won’t be easy, but he’s confident a bipartisan deal will be found to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year — somehow, some way — congressional correspondent Thomas Ferraro blogs.
Some wise words from Lucas on trying to reach agreements in Washington when you don’t quite see eye-to-eye: “It’s a town where it’s always a challenge to draw the distinction of speaking with each other and to each other.”
Be sure to look at congressional correspondent Andy Sullivan’s special report — On borrowed time: budget delays start to hurt.
Boehner confident on getting budget deal, but admits it won’t be easy
House Speaker John Boehner, facing somewhat of a revolt in Republican ranks, says “it is not going to be easy” to craft and win passage of a bipartisan deal to cut spending and fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year.
But the top U.S. Republican said he remains confident that it will be done — somehow, some way.
“We never thought it was going to be easy,” Boehner said a day after the House passed a short-term funding bill that 54 of his 240 House Republican colleagues opposed.
Many of these Republicans — some veteran conservatives along with a number of newly elected lawmakers backed by the Tea Party — voted no because they felt that the $6 billion in proposed cuts over three weeks are woefully inadequate.
They also worry that the major policy changes they’re hoping to attach to a spending-cut bill this year will be thrown overboard. They include preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and stopping implementation of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
The Senate is expected to give final congressional approval to the House-passed measure by Friday, clearing the way for Obama to sign it into law. The House, Senate and the White House would then have until April 8 to reach agreement on another funding measure or face a government shutdown.
Democrats are hoping that Boehner leaves his Tea Party activists behind and cuts a deal with moderates to fund the government through Sept. 30.
This man makes me sick!! The only cuts that matter to him and the GOP are those that affect the poor and elderly. They take NOTHING from the rich.
Spending cuts an arrow through the heart of cowboy poets
Mean. That’s what Democrats say about Republican efforts to cut spending. They even want to rope in the cowboy poet.
Democrats have decried a spending bill passed by House Republicans that would slash money for education, heating and food assistance for the poor, community health centers, public television and alternative energy sources.
Most people are familiar with federal spending in those areas.
But who knew that federal funding for the arts and humanities helped provide a spotlight for cowboy poets.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid complained on Tuesday that the “mean-spirited” House Republican spending bill for this year would eliminate spending for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“These programs create jobs,” Reid said. “The National Endowment for the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival.” Reid said the festival, held in Elko, Nevada, attracts tens of thousands of people every year.
The next National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is scheduled for January 28 through February 4, 2012. The festival features cowboy poets and western music.
Obama, lawmakers may lose own paychecks in government shutdown
President Barack Obama and members of Congress may soon have added incentive to reach a budget deal and avert a possible government shutdown: their own six-figure salaries.
The Democratic-led Senate unanimously passed a bill on late Tuesday to deny pay to the president and U.S. lawmakers during government shutdowns. The measure now goes to the Republican-led House for final congressional approval, which would clear the way for Obama to sign it into law.
“If we fail to keep the government operating, which is our basic responsibility, then we don’t deserve a paycheck,” said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, a chief sponsor of the bill.
The stakes in the budget showdown are sky high. And they would be even higher for Washington power brokers if the Boxer bill becomes law.
Obama’s annual pay is $400,000. Most members of Congress receive $174,000 a year, while House Speaker John Boehner gets $223,500 and the Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers receive $193,400.
Under existing law, Obama and lawmakers would continue to be paid during a shutdown while hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed without pay.
The president and members of Congress are currently treated differently from millions of other federal employees because they are paid through mandatory spending required by law rather than through the annual appropriations process.
Would Congress swing its spending ax at the war in Afghanistan?
You’d think the war in Afghanistan would be the sacred cow of federal spending. The Republicans now in charge of the House have always embraced “Support Our Troops” and “Defeat Terrorism” as two of the most serious ”Thou Shalts” of their political playbook.
But could the times be a-changing? Two influential conservative voices suggest they might be, as lawmakers search for the right balance between spending cuts and their own job preservation.
Grover Norquist, the influential political hierophant at Americans for Tax Reform, says in a Newsmax interview that the time has come for a serious cost-benefit discussion about Afghanistan.
Norquist says the United States will spend $119 billion this year in Afghanistan, a country with a GDP of just $14 billion. In his view, supporters of the war should not be afraid to debate their position, to come up with good reasons to stay and the benefits of doing so. “Only (conservatives) can convince the country to stay the course or to take a different approach,” he says.
Then there’s House Republican Ron Paul of Texas. He’s long been a voice crying in the wilderness about the need to scale back on America’s overseas military commitments. Except now, with the Tea Party’s ascent, Paul is no longer a political backwoodsman.
“Politically speaking, I think that I can make the case that we should bring our troops home, change our foreign policy, quit these ridiculous wars,” Paul tells MSNBC’s Morning Joe this week.
“I think I could actually sell that politically easier (sic) than saying: ‘Oh OK let’s cut medical care for the elderly’,” he added.
Bachmann for president? Tea Party darling blames media
Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann, champion-in-chief of the House Tea Party caucus, blames the media for all the recent chatter about her status as a potential presidential candidate.
“I’m not concerned about my own personal ambition,” she tells NBC News. “Right now, too many people in the media are concerned about who will be the nominee in 2012.”
That’s a wee bit odd given that the speculation began after her office announced a trip to the presidential field of frolic known as Iowa, with guidance that a White House run is not off the table.
Her denial has a putting-the-country-first sort of ring: “What I’m serious about is focusing on the issues.” Those would be unemployment and rising energy costs.
But then that four-digit number pops right back up: “I’m speaking about the issues that I believe will be important for 2012. That’s why I’m going to Iowa.” Important for 2012. That’s why she’s going.
Bachmann, who was born in Iowa, will be keynote speaker at a fundraiser in Des Moines on January 21. Some of those dang media reports have quoted sources close to her as saying she’ll also meet with party elders to seek their advice about the state’s early presidential caucus. On the whole, it sounds like she really is one of more than a dozen Republicans — including rock stars like Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney — who show every sign of chafing at the bit for a chance to contend against President Barack Obama in the next election. And what about those issues again? Well, first up is the repeal of healthcare. Why? Because during last year’s midterm campaign: “That’s the issue that people really reacted against.” In fact, if Obama fails to heed that voter disaffection, she says: “I think we will also see a rollback and a repeal of President Obama in 2012 as well.” There’s that number again. And the debt ceiling? She doesn’t want to close the government, but… “I don’t think it’s good to see the shutdown of government. I don’t think that’s good for anyone. But at the same time, in the last 10 years, we’ve raised the debt ceiling 10 times.” So? “That’s what people asked us to do in this last election: stop the spending because we can’t continue to raise the debt ceiling.” As for spending cuts, she’s identified $450 billion worth that don’t include vote-repelling reductions in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — though defense is a target.
Photo Credits: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
The announcements about her running in 2012 came from the same places that said Palin was running in 2012 – these are ‘facts’ put out by speculators from the left who want to desparage anyone they think might be a threat to the annointed one. Because they say it, it’s a fact and no matter what she says, she’s obviously lying because the ‘facts’ don’t back her up.
How about somebody get some real reporters who will report FACTS based on what actually happens instead of making the stories up and have the targets deny and try to trip them up…we’re kind of sick of this waste of space. Hire some real reports and we’ll be the judge of what you say….
Bejeebers! A scary fiscal outlook and Tea Party politics
Tackling huge budget deficits and growing debt is essential for the United States to avoid a financial market crisis that would push interest rates higher and severely damage the U.S. economy, many economists have warned.
Compromise and statesmanship will be needed to cut spending and raise revenues to narrow the budget gap, and that might not be possible in the current political environment, says at least one experienced budget expert.
“We’re certainly going to have a more fiscally conservative Congress next year,” Rudolph Penner, a former Congressional Budget Office director told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum. “The Tea Party, if nothing else, has certainly moved both the Republicans and Democratic Party to the right.”
However, that may not translate into a deficit-reducing budget deal that can pass the House of Representatives and the Senate and then get signed by President Barack Obama, he said.
“A real problem here is that the Tea Party is going to scare the bejeebers out of any Republican that is talking about compromise for fear of what will happen in the next primary,” Penner said. “There is no way we’re going to get out of this problem without a compromise between the two parties.”
Tea Party activists are pushing for deep government spending cuts and have threatened to end the careers of Republicans who go along with tax increases. Democrats are reluctant to cut the Social Security retirement program and Medicare and Medicaid health plans for the elderly and poor.
Alice Rivlin, a former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman and member of Obama’s fiscal commission, said U.S. government spending will rise dramatically faster than the economy can grow as the retiring 77 million-strong baby boom generation begins to draw on promised Social Security retirement and Medicare health benefits. Bringing the budget into balance will take compromise, she said.
