December 3rd, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

Today’s Inside the Dome piece is the last one I will write. With a mix of sadness and excitement, I have decided to return with my family to our beloved home state of Texas. Rest assured I will be involved in the political scene down there and remain active in national politics as well. God speed to each of you as we keep up the fight for liberty together. Please keep in touch with me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Now, on to today’s ITD:

In the House, Speaker Pelosi forced a vote on legislation last that would extend the Bush tax cuts to only those families making $250,000 or less, which if signed into law would effectively raise taxes on all individuals and businesses above the $250,000 threshold. The final vote was 234-188, with 33 Democrats breaking with Pelosi and the Democrats to vote against the bill while three Republicans (John Duncan, Walter Jones, and Ron Paul) voted in favor. The vote was completely symbolic, since Republicans have the votes and the will to block it in the Senate.

Members voted overwhelmingly yesterday to censure their colleague Rep. Charlie Rangel for ethical lapses and House rules violations. The House voted 333-79 to censure the 80-year old lawmaker, reportedly making him the fifth member to be censured in the last 100 years. Pelosi read the censure resolution with Rangel standing in the well of the House as required. Following the censure, Rangel stated “I am fully aware that this vote reflects the political tide and… the constituency of this body. I know in my heart that I’m not going to be judged by this Congress… but by my life, my activities and my contributions to society. I just want all of you to know that in my heart that I truly feel good.” Rangel also gave a rather long and meandering press conference following the vote, again striking a defiant and dismissive tone and insisting the Ethics Committee’s findings and recommendation was flawed.

Bottom Line: It is very telling that 33 Democrats voted against the Pelosi-led tax measure, including 9 of them that were defeated in the mid-term elections. Republicans have done a surprisingly good job explaining to the electorate the folly of raising anyone’s taxes in a recession, even on millionaires. Democrats always believed – and still do – that their ace in the hole on this issue was they could always blame Republicans for protecting the rich and make them cower. It hasn’t worked! The average Americans understand it does them no good to have taxes raised on anybody. As Sen. Phil Gramm often stated, “I never got a job from a poor person.”

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid is following in Speaker Pelosi’s footsteps with plans to force a vote this week on only a partial extension of the Bush tax cuts. Reid will reportedly hold two votes on Saturday on the expiring tax cuts, one which would extend the current tax rates only for those making $250,000 or less, and another which would extend the rates only for those making up to $1 million annually. Both votes will fail, since Republicans have vowed to filibuster any bill that raises the tax rates for any segment of the American public. GOP Leader McConnell had been working with Democrat leadership and the Obama Administration on a deal to hold four votes, which would have included the two Democrat-favored votes above along with a full extension and a five-year extension of the current tax rates. Obama is also pushing to include an extension of the federal unemployment insurance in any final deal to extend all the current tax rates.

The Senate did pass the short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) that was passed by the House earlier in the week, ensuring funding for the federal government at least through December 18^th. Before adjournment, Democrats will attempt to pass an omnibus spending bill that will likely fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. Republicans prefer to pass a short-term CR that would last until March so when it comes time for renewal they will be in the majority and have leverage in passing an appropriations package that would cut funding back to FY2008 levels.

Bottom Line: UI extensions passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress have typically not been paid for, thus adding to the deficit, which is why the bulk of Republicans voted against them every time. DeMint, Coburn, and others have repeatedly argued that it is foolish to deem UI extensions as “emergency” spending (as the Dems repeatedly do), instead arguing for cuts in other areas to pay for them. If Republicans strike a deal to extend all the Bush tax-cuts and have to swallow another unpaid for UI extension, it may not be a bad deal, but watch for all the other goodies that BO and the Dems push for in the package. Read the rest of this entry »

December 2nd, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

In the Senate, just a day after a united Senate Republican caucus pledged to block any legislation on the floor unrelated to either funding the government or extending tax cuts for all Americans, Republicans made good by blocking several “jobs” bills that Majority Leader Reid and the Democrats were pushing. Republican members objected to unanimous consent agreements to proceed to several bills, including an extension of unemployment insurance benefits, a bill to provide federal funds for construction of clean-energy homes, and an extension of tax credits already in place for employers that hire unemployed workers.

Interestingly, Sen. Jon Kyl has been saying for a couple weeks that the chances of passing the START arms treaty during the lame-duck session are slim-to-none. Now The Hill is reporting that Kyl told Obama that START could pass by the end of the year if a deal on passing the Bush tax is reached by Monday. Thus, it appears Senate Republicans are offering a quid-pro-quo to Obama and the Democrats: agree to extend all the Bush tax cuts, and we’ll cooperate in passing the START Treaty. Many conservative members and a number of outside organizations are strongly opposed to the START Treaty on its merits.

Bottom Line: I’ve been warning for weeks that extending all the Bush tax cuts is a foregone conclusion and just to watch out for the “deal” that Republicans strike with Democrats for agreeing to go along with it. Now we hear that some Republicans are willing to sell out on major foreign policy legislation to get what they’ve already earned! The lame-duck session cannot end soon enough.

In the House, current Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer are planning to move a “middle class” tax bill today that only extends the Bush tax cuts to those families making under $250,000, effectively raising taxes on individuals, families, and businesses above that threshold. This move comes despite a very public bipartisan meeting at the White House this week where Obama indicated he was working with Republicans to strike a deal on the extending all the expiring tax cuts. In response to the Dems move, Boehner stated, “I don’t know what my colleagues across the aisle didn’t hear during the election. The American people spoke pretty loudly. They said stop all the looming tax hikes and to cut spending. And while we had a good meeting at the White House yesterday about how to resolve the issue of stopping all of the tax hikes, the House leader is going to go down this path of gerrymandering the process so members only have one option, and that’s to vote on only providing some relief for the American people.”

The vote to censure Rep. Charlie Rangel is scheduled for today, ignoring another plea by Rangel to delay the process. Rangel is been aggressively lobbying his colleagues on the Ethics Committee to downgrade the charge from censure to reprimand. Since the resolution on the floor today is for censure, Rangel is hoping enough colleagues either vote against the resolution or choose not to vote so the measure fails to pass. A simple majority is all that is required for the censure resolution to pass.

Meanwhile, the latest iteration of the Dream Act is on the floor schedule tomorrow, even though the bill has virtually no possibility of passing the Senate before year’s end. The Dream Act provides a pathway to citizenship for certain illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S.

Bottom Line: After having the tar beat out of them in the mid-term elections, House Democrats (and their Senate colleagues, for that matter) are hell-bent on pursuing the exact same failed policy strategy that led to the current dismal situation. Momentum has clearly shifted toward Congress enacting a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, but Dems are trying to save face by forcing a vote on the partial “middle-class” extension of current tax rates.

Members of both parties are betting their strategy (of pushing their preferred tax bill) will appeal to the electorate and be remembered in 2012, regardless of the outcome of the vote. One of them is going to be wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

December 1st, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

In the Senate, a vote to impose a three-year moratorium on appropriations earmarks failed yesterday by a vote of 39-56 (it was a motion to suspend the rules and proceed to Coburn’s earmark amendment), with seven Democrats joining the majority of Republicans to support a ban on earmarks. Republicans who opposed the earmark ban were Bennett, Cochran, Collins, Inhofe, Lugar, Murkowski, Shelby, and Voinovich.

Politico is reporting that Senate Democrats violated Article I of the Constitution last night, which stipulates that all revenue measure must originate in the House, with passage of the Food Safety bill. Section 107 of the bill reportedly includes fees which are classed as revenue raisers, which means the bill should have first originated and been passed by the House. House Democrats will now likely “blue-slip” or effectively block the Food Safety bill from coming for a vote in the House. Thus, with the tight lame-duck schedule, this will likely kill the bill for this year.

Meanwhile, the Dream Act may be moving in the Senate, and the pressing issue of the expiring Bush tax cuts is getting steady attention by Republicans. GOP Leader McConnell just released a letter signed by all 42 Republicans sent to Majority Leader Reid stating “we will not agree to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers.” Thus, Republicans will block any legislation not directly addressing either the expiring tax cuts or funding the government.

Bottom Line: While the botched Food Safety bill is a big embarrassment for Democrats, the truth is that the Senate (under both Dems and GOP leadership) have routinely ignored the mandate in Article I to originate spending bills in the House. Typically, the Senate will simply gut an already-passed House bill and replace the text with a wholly different bill which includes revenue provisions. Since it’s an “H.R.,” they consider it in accord with the Constitution’s requirement. It’s just another ridiculous gimmick Congress uses to skirt the rules that should be eliminated.

In the House, Republicans are considering enacting term-limits of six years for all leadership posts. This would mark a stark departure not only from past practices but also with the Democrats in the House, who recently rejected term limits and reelected the same slate of members to leadership that are currently in place.

The House will vote on H.J. Res. 101 later today, “making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2011.” This is the CR that will fund government operations for December 18^th, 2010, consistent with current spending levels, but billions higher than the proposed spending levels of incoming Speaker Boehner and House Republicans. It will easily pass today, but necessitate another vote on a longer-term spending bill before the lame-duck session concludes.

Bottom Line: The CR will easily pass the Senate and setup another vote on appropriations within the next two weeks. With Dems in chaos over what to do about the expiring tax cuts, the question is what promises or provisions will they successfully extract from Republicans for allowing a 2-3 year extension of all the expiring tax provisions? It certainly won’t be moving the Dream Act, but may be something less overt like another significant extension of unemployment benefits that is not paid for. This is just speculation, but the Dems will not go down without a fight.  Read the rest of this entry »