Posts Tagged ‘Harry Reid’
August 10th, 2011 by John Feehery
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell put some real thought into their picks for the Joint Super Committee that will decide the fate of so many spending programs and perhaps the financial health of the country.
Harry Reid? Not so much.
Boehner picked two real deal-makers in Dave Camp and Fred Upton, and a guy who learned how to drive a hard-bargain from the best hard-bargainer in the business (Phil Gramm) in Jeb Hensarling.
Neither Camp nor Upton are partisan bomb-throwers. Upton ran into some resistance from the hard right to his ascension to the Energy and Commerce Committee because he was viewed as too moderate, although Fred has been a very reliable conservative in his role as Chairman.
Upton has long experience in budget politics, having served at OMB under Reagan. He is also an expert on entitlement programs, and his appointment shows that Boehner is serious about getting serious on spending.
Camp has been very thoughtful in his new role as Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He said that he wasn’t going to jam the Ryan Medicare bill through the House only to see it die in the Senate, a signal to the world that Camp was no Kamikaze pilot on smashing the Republican Majority into a Senate cliff. Read more...
Tags: America, Arlen Spector, Barack Obama, Chris Van Hollen, Congress, Dave Camp, election, Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton, Harry Reid, Jan Schakowsky, Jeb Hensarling, John Boehner, John Kerry, John Lewis, Joint Super Committee, Jon Kyl, Max Baucus, Michelle Bachmann, Minority Leader Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, moderate, Nancy Pelosi, Pat Toomey, Patty Murray, Phil Gramm, Politics, Presidential election, Reagan, republican party, Republicans, Rob Portman, Ryan Medicare bill, Senate Majority Leader, spending, Steny Hoyer, Steve Israel, Tea Party, Texas Senator Gramm, Ways and Means Committee, Xavier Beccera
Posted in GOP, Government, History, Politics, Promises, Theory, election | No Comments »
August 2nd, 2011 by John Feehery
John Boehner won a complete and total victory in the House with an overwhelming vote to extend the debt limit.
His victory was so complete, many of his closest allies in the House could safely vote no to avoid primary fights next year.
House Democrats divided almost exactly in half, and their left wing is livid at the deal cut by the President.
The Tea Party, the rambunctious group of mostly second and third term members (and more than a few freshman) could only look on in anger and despair. They looked liked fools, their demands unrealistic, their rhetoric unnecessarily heated, their performance disappointing not only to their base, but also to Republican establishmentarians like me.
They demanded that the Senate pass a balanced budget amendment, but had to settle merely for a vote, a request that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader was more than happy to grant, over the grimace of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Imagine how hard it has been for McConnell to explain to Jim DeMint how he is trying to take back the Senate and that giving Reid a chance to give his moderates cover to vote yes on the balanced budget amendment only hurts the cause. Read more...
Tags: Bush tax cuts, Conservatives, debt limit, Democratic Caucus, Democrats, extend the debt limit, Harry Reid, House Democrats, Jim DeMint, John Boehner, liberals, Michele Bachmann, Mitch McConnell, Politics, Republican, Republican Conference, Senate, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, Tea Party
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Promises, election, spending, taxes, terrorism | 1 Comment »
July 1st, 2011 by John Feehery
'Inappropriate': The White House complained about the slur by Mark Halperin. (photo: Wenn)
Sure it’s disrespectful.
That is the whole point. When someone calls you out for being a dick, they are saying that you are unnecessarily being a jerk, a tool, an idiot.
Mark Halperin got it exactly right yesterday. The President was being kind of a dick at his press conference, although I wouldn’t have added the modifier.
For that sin, Halperin was suspended from MSNBC, and perhaps that was the right decision for the left leaning network, but that doesn’t mean that Halperin didn’t speak the truth.
Obama was being a dick to the Congress. He was showing disdain for the legislative branch, just as he was pumping up his own hard work. It is awfully hard work arranging golf matches with John Boehner. Really
hard raising money for the campaign. And giving the okay to kill Bin Laden? You know how hard that was?
The President did a nice job getting Harry Reid to cancel the Senate’s vacation next week. Talk about a dickish move. There are a lot of Senators who are not going to be very happy next week. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Bin Laden, Congress, Democrats, Government, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mark Halperin, Mike Kinsley, Presidential press conference, press conference, Republicans
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, Media, Politics, Theory | No Comments »
June 29th, 2011 by John Feehery
About a year ago, as I was driving, a small rock that was kicked up by the truck I was following hit my windshield and put a little crack in it.
It wasn’t a big crack. Every morning when I pull out of my garage, I think to myself, “I should fix that crack.” But it just didn’t seem that urgent. The car is working fine, and while the crack has widened here and there, it still doesn’t seem to be that serious.
Every once in a while, I catch the Safe-Lite repair commercial. You know the company. It comes to your garage to fix the cracks in your windshield. Safe-life Repair, Safe-Lite Replace, the jingle goes.
It makes me feel a bit guilty, because I still haven’t gotten the thing repaired. I know that if I don’t take care of this problem soon, it will just get worse. I know that some early action will help make the car safer and will probably save me money in the future.
My inability to fix the crack in my windshield reminds me of the Senate’s inability to fix the Medicare program. Like me, the Senate is doing nothing to fix the problem, and the longer the Senate waits, the more expensive the fix gets. Read more...
Tags: America, Economy, GOP, Government, Harry Reid, health care, House Republicans, medicare, Ryan plan, Safe-Lite, Senate Democrats, spending
Posted in Economy, Politics, health care, medicare, spending | No Comments »
June 17th, 2011 by John Feehery
I heard Congressman Steve Israel, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, on television this morning talking about the real scandal.
His point was that the real scandal wasn’t Anthony Weiner. The real scandal was the fact that Republicans are cutting the kind of government spending that he likes.
He is wrong on a couple of levels.
First, Weinergate was a real scandal. It wasn’t a huge scandal, and it wasn’t a kind of government conspiracy. But by Washington standards, it was nice little summer scandal. It involved lying, a cover-up, sex (kindof), a stripper (always good for Washington scandals), the Clintons (so many scandals), a loudmouth, infidelity and embarrassing photographs. Throw in contact with a minor, and you have yourself a real scandal.
But if you want to talk about bigger policy scandals, Republicans cutting spending is not a scandal. The biggest scandal would be if Republicans didn’t cut spending. They promised in the last campaign to do exactly what they are doing this month.
Somebody once said that a Washington gaffe is when somebody accidentally tells the truth. That may be true, but accidentally sticking with your campaign promises is not a scandal. Read more...
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Barack Obama, Congressman Steve Israel, Conservatives, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democrats, Economy, GOP, Government, Gretchen Morgenson, Harry Reid, housing crisis, Joshua Rosner, medicare, middle class, Politics, Republicans, Ryan budget, scandal, Tom Coburn, United States Senate, Washington, Weinergate
Posted in Bad Decisions, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Promises, Scandals, bad news, spending, taxes | No Comments »
May 24th, 2011 by John Feehery
“Après vous, Monsieur Senate.”
John Boehner should say that to his friends in the upper chamber when it comes to raising the debt limit.
I know the parliamentarians in the crowd will say that because the debt limit is at heart a revenue issue, the House, constitutionally, should go first, but there are plenty of ways to avoid a blue slip on this issue.
It used to be that the House always went first in raising the debt limit, and it usually did that by using the so-called Gephardt rule, a parliamentary device that allowed the lower body to bury an increase in the budget resolution.
Republicans did away with that rule in the beginning of this Congress in the name of transparency, and now they are stuck with the result.
Any debt-limit increase is extraordinarily unpopular with the voters. That is not a new phenomenon. Like a congressional pay raise, an increase in the debt limit is pretty hard to explain to constituents. Members can talk all they want about the need to pay the troops and send out Social Security checks, but if they are talking about this issue as they campaign for reelection, they are in big trouble. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, Gephardt rule, Government, Harry Reid, health care, John Boehner, medicare, Mitch McConnell, Politics, raising the debt limit, Republicans, Senate, Social Security, spending, Steny Hoyer
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Politics, Promises, Theory, election, spending, taxes | No Comments »
March 9th, 2011 by John Feehery
Joe Manchin, the new Senator from West Virginia, put it pretty well. President Obama has “failed to lead”.
I might have put it differently. Obama has failed to even show up.
Woody Allen once said that 9/10ths of any job is just showing up. The President is not currently meeting that threshold.
The President has not only failed to lead on the budget negotiations. He is leaving that job to Joe Biden and Harry Reid. Well, let’s be clear. He is leaving all of the negotiations to Harry Reid, the man who just barely beat Sharron Angle last year.
When it comes to entitlement reform, the President once again was a no-show. His new budget director, Jack Lew, who by all accounts is a nice guy, improbably said that the President didn’t unveil a plan to deal with entitlements because he didn’t want to inject partisanship into the debate.
No offense, Mr. Lew, but I find that explanation to be fanciful. The President didn’t want to unveil a plan because he doesn’t have a plan, and he doesn’t have a plan because he doesn’t want a plan and he doesn’t want a plan because he doesn’t believe that entitlements need to be changed in any way, shape or form. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, Egypt, Government, Harry Reid, Jack Lew, Joe Manchin, Libya, Muammar Ghaddafi, Obama, Politics, Republican, Republicans, the President, Tunisia
Posted in Theory | No Comments »
February 28th, 2011 by John Feehery
Harry Reid
Harry Reid has taken the time this year to criticize the prostitution industry in his home state, but he hasn’t taken the time to finish last year’s budget in the Senate.
Talk about trying to change the subject.
Small towns in Nevada apparently (those under 400,000) can make whatever calls they want on the legality of Cat Houses, and many make them legal so that they can balance their municipal budgets.
I don’t think the Senate Majority Leader has that option at the federal level. And you can legalize every hooker from here to Sunday, and that’s not going to balance the Fed’s budget.
But you also can’t balance the budget if you don’t try. And last year, the Senate didn’t even give the budget a passing glance.
That is why the House Republicans had to clean up the mess. Senate Democrats may not like what the Republicans did in the lower chamber, but they have to respect the process by which they did it.
John Boehner let the House work its will. Members on both sides of the aisle presented their amendments, made their points, and voted their consciences and at the end of the day, the House passed a work product. Read more...
Tags: Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, election, Government, Harry Reid, House Republicans, John Boehner, Politics, Republican, Republicans, Senate Democrats
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, spending | No Comments »
February 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
John Boehner
You win some. You lose some.
Earlier this week, the Senate voted to repeal Obamacare.
The amendment failed, but that is not how either Mitch McConnell or Harry Reid saw it.
McConnell saw it as a victory for his long-term strategy of taking back the Senate. Next year, 23 Democrats are up for re-election, and now McConnell has them on record supporting a law that he thinks is politically toxic.
But Harry Reid also claimed victory. He kept his team unified and stopped the Republican momentum on this big issue.
You win some. You lose some.
Over in the House of Representatives, John Boehner is about to lead his troops into a months-long debate about the fiscal future of the country.
The debate will start with a continuing resolution, which is short-hand in Congress-speak for a law that keeps the government open. That debate will eventually lead into a vote on whether we should keep extending our national debt limit and then conclude with a vote on the budget plans for the next year.
Boehner has promised an open process.
What does that mean? Read more...
Tags: Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Obamacare
Posted in Theory, health care | No Comments »
December 21st, 2010 by John Feehery
For the second year in a row, Harry Reid is keeping the Congress is session for the Christmas holiday. Thanks for that, Mr. Leader, and Happy Holidays to you too.
I was talking to a friend in St. Peter’s Catholic Church basement, and he said “Happy Holidays” to me. I said, “hey, Joe, you can say Merry Christmas, here. We are in a Catholic church.”
During the Christmas season, I say Merry Christmas. It’s not really an act of religious defiance when I say it. It is a statement of best wishes during the most universal holiday in the world. They are even celebrating Christmas in Dubai.
As an article in the New York Times pointed out yesterday, the Christmas holiday precedes Christ’s birth. In the Richard Cohen article, he points out, “Thus, although the New Testament gives no indication of Christ’s actual birthday (early writers preferring a spring date), in 354 Pope Liberius declared it to have befallen on Dec. 25.” The reason: Because the pagans used to celebrate the Winter Solstice on that day in the Saturnalia festival, and well, if you can’t beat them, join them. Read more...
Tags: Catholic church, Congress, God, Grinch, Happy Holidays, Harry Reid, Jesus Christ, lame duck, Merry Christmas, Washington DC
Posted in Government, History, Politics, Theory, health care | 1 Comment »
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell put some real thought into their picks for the Joint Super Committee that will decide the fate of so many spending programs and perhaps the financial health of the country.
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