capitol hill

Yes the headline is harsh, but so are the actions of the GOP. Tonight President Obama is to ask for an extension of the payroll tax cuts and even increase them. Hasn’t the right been telling us that tax cuts are what keeps the economy rolling? Well apparently not now:

Congressional Republicans over the past year have threatened to both shut down the government and default on U.S. debt in order to prevent tax hikes. But in January, without congressional action, payroll taxes are set to increase by 50 percent on millions of American workers. The GOP response? A resounding meh.

When President Obama travels to Congress on Thursday to deliver a major jobs speech, he'll be encountering a species previously considered mythical on Capitol Hill: Republicans who don't support tax cuts.

The one-year payroll tax cut was passed as part of the deal that extended Bush-era tax rates through 2012, and Republicans routinely described the potential expiration of that cut as a "tax hike." While the payroll tax cut applies to no more than the first $106,000 in income, the Bush tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy. But the key difference between the two is the author: The payroll tax is Obama's and his alone.

And if you continue reading the article you’ll find quotes from tons of Republicans in Congress, like this one:

"My personal view is that the debt is already impacting the economy," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) "If your debt is this large, I think you've gotta be very careful about adding debt." HuffPost asked whether that view put the GOP in the unusual position of advocating that taxes go up on millions of people in January, when the one-year cut expires.

Only two months into his tenure and one of the GOP’s golden children from the last election is already in a huge ethical investigation that is causing members of his own party to distance themselves from him:

Florida Rep. David Rivera, under an ethical cloud and facing an expanding investigation into his finances, is in a political squeeze from Republicans in Washington and Miami just two months into his congressional tenure.

Republicans are already privately floating the names of potential primary challengers to Rivera, and on Capitol Hill he’s found himself increasingly isolated as leaders try to distance themselves from his troubles back home.

The GOP isn’t innocent in this either. They were very well aware of the ethical questions surrounding Rivera during the campaign, yet they chose to ignore them. They didn’t care if they were brining in another scandalous scum; they only worried about numbers.

George Stephanopoulos asks a great question while interviewing Timothy Geithner today:

Stephanopoulos: How firm is the President's commitment to this proposal? If, for example, the Congress passes an extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy, will the President veto it?

Geithner: Again, what the President believes is the best strategy for the country is to extend the tax cuts that go to more than 95 percent of Americans, more than 95 percent of small business. Keep taxes on capital income low going to moderate. Give people the certainty that's going to be the world they're going to live in. But to do that responsibly, we let those tax cuts for the highest earning Americans expire as scheduled, as they were predicted to do. And I think that's the better strategy.

Stephanopoulos: I know that's what the President believes is a better strategy. What I'm asking is, is he going to veto-- any bill that extends those tax cuts for the wealthiest—

Geithner: He believes this is what makes sense. It's what I believe.  And we're going to make the case for that. I think it's-- and I think it's the best strategy. And I think that we'll get support for this. Again, it's a sensible, practical--

Stephanopoulos: I know you think it's the best strategy. But I talked to some of the President's supporters who agree with him on Capitol Hill. And they say unless the President comes out firmly and strongly and makes that veto threat, we can't hold back—

Geithner: President's going to be firm and strong because he believes this is the best package. Now, of course, Congress—

Stephanopoulos: But no veto—

Toyota doesn’t think the Obama administration likes them:

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly," a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker's top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a "more challenging regulatory" environment under the Obama administration's purview.

This is not good timing for Toyota, as they come under increase scrutiny for their car problems. The stick accelerator problem is a perfect example. It has come out that Toyota and the government knew about this for years and did nothing. That cost people their lives.

And the examples aren’t limited to Toyota. Look at all the food safety problems we suffered through under the Bush administration. They were “industry friendly” and it put American lives at risk.

This isn’t how government is supposed to govern. Their primary responsibility is the safety of the citizens. Republicans even reminded us of this time and time again. Remember how they would defend wiretapping by saying it was to keep Americans safe, Constitution be dammed? Yeah – it applied in that scenario, but not when it came to manufacturers risking the lives of far more Americans than al Qaeda. In that case they protected the “terrorists”.

Very interesting article by the Politico:

Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for calling Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a “K Street whore” in a month-old radio interview that circulated on Capitol Hill Monday night.

“There’s no call for that language. No call for it. That’s absurd. If he was standing here now, I’d say that to him,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)

“He’s out of control,” added Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

Grayson doesn’t fit the mold of the establishment, and that is enough for his colleagues, even in his own party, to start bashing him. Grayson is still in his first year and learning, but I don’t think we want him to learn to much. We actually need more Graysons out there – leaders willing to stand up and say it exactly how it is.

Of course all the right wing blogs are sucking up on this story big time. What’s really funny is how these same blogs back Michelle Bachmann so much. I’m sure if some journalist did the same sort of story, but about her, we would have a very similar outcome.

Yesterday Bob Dole joined a growing number of big name Republicans in supporting the health care bill:

"Sometimes people fight you just to fight you," he said, according to The Kansas City Star. "They don't want Reagan to get it, they don't want Obama to get it, so we've got to kill it..."

"Health care is one of those things," he added. "Now we've got to do something."

Following that Eric Erickson at RedState posted the following:

I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members. Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

That has been followed by a lot of chatter from the right wing blogs, mostly echoing their disgust with the GOP.

The problem is that the GOP spent all their energy on being the party of no, instead of working towards a compromise. Not one single Republican has offered an alternative plan to healthcare, including the man who came in second to become the 44th President. And while the GOP spent the last several months yelling, screaming and stomping their feet like a child unable to talk his parents into buying the latest and greatest toy, the GOP has missed out. They saw a little support in August from the townhalls, but that support is long gone. The public wants change, and while they are still split over exactly what change, most are favoring a public option.

Welcome back to the 90s:

Rep. Darrell Issa is not working from a position of strength. As the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa wants to exercise some, well, oversight when it comes to the Obama administration’s controversial decision to transfer control of the Census Bureau from professionals at the Commerce Department to political aides in the White House. But as a member of the minority party on Capitol Hill, Issa doesn’t have the power to compel the administration to do anything.

So after eight years, we are back to the whole “it’s fine to investigate the President”? I ask that because whenever Democrats said something about investigating Bush, the Republicans would say “oh don’t do that, it really hurt us when we investigated Clinton”.

• Now what are some of the things Democrats wanted to investigate?
• Being lied into a war that has killed tens of thousands and wounded hundreds of thousands
• Our troops being poisoned by contractors in Iraq
• The politicization of the Justice Department
• Outing a CIA agent for political gain
• illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens
• etc, etc, etc

Silly me! None of those are as important as transferring the Census Bureau to the White House.

The economy sheds 533,000 jobs in November, the worse in 34 years:

The report from the Labor Department is sure to raise fresh concerns about the depth and length of an ongoing recession, and could figure into hearings on Capitol Hill today about a proposed bailout of the Big Three Detroit automakers.

The unemployment rate rose from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent, the highest since the recession of the early 1990s. The figure was tempered by the fact that 422,000 workers left the labor market, likely discouraged by their inability to find a job. The unemployment rate only includes people actively looking for work.

Everyone keeps saying how we can’t compare today to the Great Depression since unemployment was hovering close to 30% then. Well if numbers like this keep happening, then we are going to start needing louder alarm bells to sound.