WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked an effort by Democrats to start debate on legislation to tighten regulation of the nation’s financial system, and the two sides traded bitter accusations about who was standing in the way of a bipartisan agreement.

The majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, asked Republicans to agree to begin debating the measure, which would impose a sweeping regulatory framework on Wall Street and big financial institutions. But the Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, objected, saying Democrats were pre-empting negotiations to reach a deal.

In response, Mr. Reid said he would call the first procedural vote on Monday in an effort to stop the Republican filibuster. That vote could test Republican resolve to oppose the measure in an election year, amid public dismay over big Wall Street profits and bonuses even as unemployment remains high.

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Barely 6 1/2 months before the midterm elections, an internal investigation by the Republican National Committee has revealed that the organization is beset with questionable financial management and oversight and is spending more money courting top-dollar donors than it raises.

The investigation found that the Republican Party’s national governing body is losing money on its major-donors’ fundraising program — spending $1.09 for each $1.00 raised, according to RNC members privy to the investigation’s findings. It typically costs about 40 cents for every dollar raised from donors who give more than $1,000.

The investigation also found that the RNC has allowed employees to forge Finance Director Rob Bickhart’s initials on expense-reimbursement request approvals, according to an RNC member who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The RNC’s top elected and appointed management have united in defense of the committee’s practices. RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele can withhold or increase RNC contributions to a state party.

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Stupak’s first congressional district is in rural Michigan—it encompasses the entire Upper Peninsula and the top tier of the Lower Peninsula. How rural is it? I think there’s a spot in the UP’s Keweenaw Penninsula (the birthplace of my grandfather), that is farther away from an interstate highway than any other spot in the continental United States. It’s also big—the biggest congressional district east of the Mississippi, except for a bigger one in Maine. This is a seat Republicans will target and can win.

UPDATE: The likely GOP nominee is Dan Benishek, a Yooper (i.e., from the Upper Peninsula), a doctor, and a political neophyte.

Permalink here.

From the Chairman

Many on the Left seem to think the public debate over health care should end now that the Democrats’ plan has become law. They could not be more wrong. The need for reforms that put patients in charge is now greater than ever. As we look to the future, members of the RSC will be leading the way with a common sense strategy to put individuals back in control of their health care and protect our economy:

1)     Highlight the Real World Consequences – This law will impact Americans’ access to care and place huge financial burdens on employers. Already, companies like AT&T, Caterpillar, 3M, Verizon, Valero Energy, John Deere, and others are predicting they will be hit with higher taxes and could very likely change or drop some of the health insurance plans they currently offer.

2)     Repeal and Replace to Empower Patients – We will work for a full repeal of ObamaCare and replace it with patient-centered solutions like H.R. 3400, the Empowering Patients First Act.

3)     Support Legal Challenges – There are legitimate constitutional concerns about the individual mandate and other aspects of this law. While working to repeal this takeover of health care, conservatives should also support the efforts of governors, state legislatures and attorneys general who seek to block or overturn it.

4)     Restore the Consent of the Governed – No governing majority can last in our Republic if it lacks the consent of the governed. Democrats have flagrantly ignored the will of the American people, and conservatives stand ready to restore your voice to its rightful place in our system of government.

The Democrats’ health care takeover is unconstitutional, bad for patients, and bad for the economy. Let’s fight to repeal it and start over with patient-centered reforms.

Sincerely,

Congressman Tom Price

Chairman, Republican Study Committee

RSC Media Activity – Republican Study Committee members work hard to ensure that the conservative viewpoint is well-represented in all corners of the media. Visit our Media Center for more.

• Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21): Adhere to the Rule of Law on Immigration Policy; Washington Times, March 24.

• Rep. Ed Royce (CA-40): The International Bailout Fund Continues; National Review, March 26.

• Rep. Paul Ryan (WI-01): Repeal, Replace with Real Reform; NY Times, March 26.

• Rep. Mike Pence (IN-06): This Law Will Not Stand; Wall Street Journal, March 26.

House Floor Activity – The following key legislation came through the House of Representatives last week.

• The budget reconciliation portion of the Democrats’ health care takeover returned to the House last week, where it was once again passed with partisan Democrat approval and bipartisan opposition.

Outlook – Here is a preview of upcoming Democrat proposals to advance their big-government, anti-taxpayer agenda.

• The House and Senate will be out of session until the week of April 12. President Obama has taken advantage of this to make 15 recess appointments, including the appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker’s appointment is seen by many as a backdoor attempt to implement Card Check.

• House Democrats have announced a hearing on April 21 to investigate employers like AT&T, John Deere, Caterpillar, and Verizon for announcing that ObamaCare will increase their tax burden and could lead them to change or drop some of the health insurance plans they offer.

RSC Reports

• Each week, the RSC Budget and Spending Taskforce compiles a weekly report on the latest budget and spending news. Additionally, the RSC Money Monitor tracks how bills passed by the House affect authorizations, mandatory spending, and federal government revenue.

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Washington Post Staff Writer

An obscure parliamentary maneuver favored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suddenly ignited Tuesday as the latest tinder in the year-long partisan strife over reshaping the nation’s health-care system, triggering debate over the strategy’s legitimacy and political wisdom.

Republicans condemned Pelosi’s idea — in which House members would make a final decision on broad health-care changes without voting directly on the Senate version of the bill — as an abuse of the legislative process.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called it “the ultimate in Washington power grabs.” Pelosi shot back: “I didn’t hear any of that ferocity when the Republicans used this, perhaps, hundreds of times.”

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Get full story here.

From the Associated Press:

THE CLAIM:

When House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., argued that Republicans had used the same fast-track process to enact major legislation along partisan lines when they were in charge of Congress, Cantor denied it. “There was, in the main, bipartisan support for what was being done through reconciliation in those instances,” he said.

THE FACTS:

Of the 10 occasions between 1995 and 2005 when Republicans were in the Senate majority and used reconciliation to pass bills, seven passed with deep partisan divisions.

In 2005, for example, Republicans used reconciliation to muscle through a deficit reduction bill that restricted Medicaid payments. It passed with 50 Republicans in favor, all Democrats against and Vice President Dick Cheney voting to break a tie — about as divisive as a Senate vote can get.  [3/5/2010]

From Ezra Klein, Washington Post:

“The Sunlight Foundation released a great graphic this morning showing the partisan breakdown of recent reconciliation votes. It’s a bit big to repost here, but take a look for yourself. Contrary to what some Republicans are saying, those blue and red bars don’t overlap very often. But it’s interesting to note that they overlapped a lot more frequently in the Clinton years than in the Bush years.”  [3/4/2010]

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement after the Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy lost 36,000 jobs in the month of February:

“Today’s disappointing jobs report makes the case for scrapping Democrats’ government takeover of health care, which is already keeping people out of work by saddling our small businesses with uncertainty amid the threat of higher taxes and burdensome mandates.  All these job losses certainly validate the American people’s opposition to putting the federal government in charge of one-sixth of our economy.

“Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with, but it’s the blizzard of higher taxes, wasteful spending, and reckless borrowing coming out of Washington that’s destroying jobs in this country.  President Obama and Democratic leaders will come out of the woodwork today armed with rehashed promises to do better, but their top and seemingly only priority remains this unpopular, unaffordable government takeover of health care.  This partisan health care bill has become a national distraction, and it’s not too late to scrap it so we can start over with a clean sheet of paper and a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.

“Taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth from the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ and struggling families and small businesses are rightly asking ‘where are the jobs?’  Republicans have proposed a no-cost jobs plan to help small businesses put people back to work and get our economy moving again.”

NOTE: A new analysis by economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a member of Leader Boehner’s informal “kitchen cabinet” of economic advisors, takes a skeptical view of White House claims that the new national jobs numbers look significantly worse than they otherwise would have due to the snowfall that affected some states last month.

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From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

In the Senate, intense healthcare overhaul negotiations continue in secret at the White House and across the Capitol complex this week, as Obama and the Democrats ignore C-SPANs request to televise the deliberations. Most pundits agree that for the GOP to have a significant impact on healthcare passage at this point, they need to hammer disgruntled rank-and-file Dems into signing the discharge petition for Rep. Buchanan’s “healthcare sunshine” resolution.

Dems are pushing PhRMA to pony up another $10 billion, breaking the deal brokered back in June with the White House, and Dems are likely to extend the Medicare payroll tax to investment income.  Additional funding sources are necessary, since many of the other provisions Dems are pushing to include would add billions to the final package, such as increased subsidies to lower-income individuals and lowering the Cadillac-tax on high-end insurance plans to appease the labor unions.

Incredibly, Dem leaders have even floated the idea of exempting unions altogether from the Cadillac tax – a raw deal for non-union workers that should have senators from Right to Work states screaming at the tops of their lungs. In fact, this single proposal could be enough to derail the government health care bill in its entirety.

It’s also increasingly likely Dems will scuttle the state insurance exchanges in favor of one national exchange, the Health Choices Administration. It would serve as the federal health cop on approving and rationing healthcare packages for Americans.

Amid all this deal-making, the clock is ticking on producing a package before SOTU. Reid has stated his goal is to get the final package to CBO by early next week for a final cost estimate.

Bottom Line: As several GOP leaders noted this week, ObamaCare can still be stopped. Just enough information is leaking out of closed-door meetings to convince more Americans this will irreparably harm healthcare delivery in America. Look for the Obama-union boss deal on the so-called “Cadillac tax” to become a major issue that could spell end game.

In the House, Chairman Barney Frank, apparently not satisfied with only a 10% unemployment rate and flat consumer lending, is aggressively pursuing federal pay mandates on the financial services industry.  Frank has scheduled a hearing next week to explore ways for the federal government to cap executive compensation in the industry.

He openly mocks the industry’s claim that pay caps would harm their ability to recruit and keep top talent.  Oddly enough, he hasn’t required the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie to attend the hearing and they won’t be subject to the caps (Politico has reported that the government agreed to pay $6 million packages to both CEOs).

Bottom Line: Heavy-handed, unconstitutional actions such as these by liberals underscore the fact that they despise capitalism. Federal intervention and mandates imposed on the private sector always serve to increase consumer costs, impair performance and lower quality.  Frank seems to prefer the Russian economic model over the American free enterprise system. ]]> http://washingtonalert.org/2010/01/inside-the-dome-for-january-14-2010/feed/ 0 http://washingtonalert.org/2009/12/politico-rep-parker-griffith-switches-to-gop/ http://washingtonalert.org/2009/12/politico-rep-parker-griffith-switches-to-gop/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:14:45 +0000 Robert Romano http://washingtonalert.org/?p=89 By JOSH KRAUSHAAR | 12/22/09 10:57 AM EST

POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. Get full story here.