What could possibly go wrong? (Roll Call) — House Democrats will decamp Wednesday from Washington to the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa & Marina in Cambridge, Md., to hone their jobs and economy message going into the 2012 election. According to the retreat agenda, Democrats will focus on the theme “Reignite the American Dream”
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MSNBC’s IQ-Deprived Ed Schultz, Jesse Jackson To Help Dems Work On Their Messaging At House Democratic Retreat…
Yesterday, Barack Obama engaged in one of the most unprecedented assaults on the Constitution. He appointed Richard Cordray as the first chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and named three new members to the National Labor Relations Board, even though the Senate did not approve them and is not in recess. Obama employed absurd casuistry to suggest that the Senate has in fact been in recess for weeks: Here are the facts: The Constitution gives the President the authority to make temporary recess appointments to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, a power all recent Presidents have exercised. The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks. In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called “pro forma” sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President’s constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running. Legal experts agree. In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham “pro forma” sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power. You might have been at the golf course on December 23, Mr. President, but here are the real facts. On that day, during a “gimmicky” pro forma session, the House and Senate passed a sweeping tax extenders bill, which granted tax cuts to almost every worker, unemployment benefits to millions of the jobless, and reimbursement payments to hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers. That is much more consequential than a few agency appointments. If Congress can do all that during a “recess,” they certainly have the ability to advise and consent on a handful of executive branch nominations. And if a pro forma session is indeed considered a recess, can we now vitiate the ridiculous two-month extenders package? What if Congress would send you another stimulus bill to sign during a “gimmick” pro-forma session; would you reject it? As you know, Mr. President, many consequential things can occur during those few “seconds.” Update : House Democrats seem to disagree with Obama. They held a press conference calling on Republicans to come back to Washington and join them in working on the conference committee for the extenders package. That’s some recess going on there.
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Obama’s Imaginary Senate Recess
After dithering for almost three years without a budget, Democrats are in a hellfire rush to finish all of the 12 annual appropriations bills. Unfortunately, Republicans leaders are in such a hurry to bury the hatchet on spending fights, they are willing to void all of the House-passed bills, in return for bipartisan conference reports. These conference committee versions – chock full of Senate Democrat amendments – will be forced down the throats of House conservatives without a chance to amend them, even though they never voted on two-thirds of the underlying bill. Worse, virtually all of the conferees are leftists, appropriators, and squishes. Senator Sessions and other Senate conservatives tried to warn Republicans that Harry Reid was manipulating the process to insert $11.1 billion in extra spending to the Agriculture minibus bill . While overall discretionary spending caps have already been set at $1.043 trillion, Democrats still have leverage (thanks to weak Republican leadership) to spend tens of billion more on transfer programs, while compensating for the extra expenditures with massive cuts to –you guessed it – the Defense appropriations bill. They also have the ability to raise spending levels on mandatory programs, which are not subject to the spending caps imposed by the debt deal. Moreover, the Senate stripped out many of the House-passed policy riders, such as a provision to defund most of the FDA food takeover bill ( FDA Food Safety Modernization Act ). The Senate version of the bill, and the inevitable conference report, contains millions more in spending for virtually every domestic and international food program, including WIC. However, the most jarring difference between the two versions is the spending level for Food Stamps. Despite the fact that Food Stamp spending has doubled in just three years, the Senate bill – which passed with 16 Republican votes – appropriates $80.4 billion for this dependency program. That is $12.2 billion above the spending level set in the House version. Take a look at the unprecedented growth of this program, when total appropriations and actual outlays are taken into account. SNAP now ranks as the most expensive means-tested program after Medicaid. If Republicans can’t hold the line on excess food stamp spending, over and beyond the president’s request, then how can they tackle entitlement reform? And who are the conferees for the Ag minibus bill? Senate Democrats Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Tim Johnson (R-S.D.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Senate Republicans Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) House Democrats Norm Dicks (Wash.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), John Olver (Mass.), Ed Pastor (Ariz.), David Price (N.C.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Chaka Fattah (Penn.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.) House Republicans Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (Ky.), Reps. Bill Young (Fla.), Jerry Lewis (Calif.), Frank R. Wolf (Va.), Jack Kingston (Georgia), Tom Latham (Iowa), Robert Aderholt (Ala.), Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.), John Culberson (Texas), John Carter (Texas), Jo Bonner (Ala.) and Steven LaTourette (Ohio) Hmmm, which version do you think will dominate the conference report, the Senate or House? Sadly, we know the answer. Therefore, House conservatives must watch the committee with vigilance. They should not feel obligated or pressured into supporting bad legislation just for the sake of time. After all, wasn’t it House conservatives who passed a budget on time this year? If there is not enough time to draft these bills in a transparent manner, then it is those who came late to the game who should lose out. Then again, Republicans are called the stupid party for good reason. Follow @RMConservative
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Bipartisan Big Spenders Appointed to Conference Committee for Spending Bills
[Posted by Karl] Two stories about the Democrats’ current dire woes suggest that Pres. Obama’s “Son of Stimulus” bill will likely advantage the GOP. First, Politico features general weeeping and wailing from Democrats about House elections: Interviews with more than two dozen operatives and House members in both parties reveal that the cautious optimism of the spring has given way to a more grim view of the hurdles facing Democrats in 2012 — an unpopular president on the ballot; scores of vulnerable Republican incumbents bolstered by redistricting; free-spending, GOP-allied independent groups that will outpace their newer Democratic counterparts; and long-standing historical election trends… “I’m glad the election’s not today,” said Democratic pollster Keith Frederick, a veteran of House races. “Every poll shows independents losing their patience for the president. These House elections tend to get nationalized, and there’s no doubt right now that as a referendum on Barack Obama, House Democrats lose.”… “It didn’t have to be this way,” said another House Democrat who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly. “Obama’s presidency has fizzled. It’s going to be every person for himself in 2012. There just won’t be any coattails, and any effect he does have on the ballot will hurt us.” Their big hope is that the GOP nominates someone “off the edge,” like Rick Perry, instead of Mitt Romney. Presumably, they have not seen the latest Democracy Corps polling : One of the Democratic party’s leading pollsters released a survey of 60 Republican-held battleground districts today painting an ominous picture for Congressional Democrats in 2012. The poll shows Democratic House candidates faring worse than they did in the 2010 midterms, being dragged down by an unpopular president who would lose to both Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney . Pollster Stan Greenberg released the poll with some sugary spin for Democrats, downplaying the results by arguing that the president’s jobs plan will improve the party’s fortunes. So much for Perry as the Great Democratic Hope. Moreover, Greenberg’s argument about “Son of Stimulus” is sugary spin. If you download the charts (.pdf) from Democracy Corps , you will find the argument for Obama’s so-called jobs bill (pp. 34-35) rests on selling the tax cuts and incentives for business. Mediscare and education cuts shift more votes for Dems than class warfare (p. 40). In contrast, tax cuts and attacks on regulations work best for the GOP (p. 43)(more proof that intensity favors the GOP on taxes ). Although Obama has been demanding Congress pass “Son of Stimulus,” Congress seems poised to pass something else. Given the Democratic opposition to Obama’s bill , the most likely product will conatain the payroll tax cuts for businesses and employees, offset by spending cuts, with out the porkulus or the tax hikes on “the rich” (which even Chuck Schumer does not like at the $200/250K level). Obama will then have the choice of vetoing it and looking like a far-left ideologue or going along, which would boost GOP incumbents in swing districts and force him to pivot to Mediscare earlier in the campaign than he might like. Like Dr. Frankenstein, Obama has unleashed a “Son of Stimulus” that likely will not have all the parts he planned and turn into a threat, instead of an achievement. –Karl
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Revenge of the Son of Stimulus
This is not to say Republicans will pick up 50 House seats in 2012. But if, indeed, we are in a national political environment where a D+5 district like New York’s 9th congressional district is “in play,” then it means we will see a whole lot of vulnerable House Democrats in the coming cycle, even after a year in which one might think that the Republicans had picked all of the “low-hanging fruit” in the nation’s House races. Courtesy the good folks at the NRCC , a list of the districts comparable to or more favorable than NY-9: NY-9 PVI = D+5 Read the original: After NY-9, 50 Democrat-Held House Seats Could Be Competitive
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After NY-9, 50 Democrat-Held House Seats Could Be Competitive
