Here are some questions that I would like to be asked at the next debate:
Posts Tagged ‘House’
Questions That I Would Like To Be Asked During a Debate
September 13th, 2011 by John FeeheryHistory
July 15th, 2011 by John Feehery
I can’t tell if this current Congress is making history, defying history, ignoring history, or will soon be history.
I had dinner last night with a Freshman member of the House, and he told a group of us that most of the new members believe that they have a sacred duty to change the trajectory of American history. They believe that they have to make history now or America will be history as a world leader tomorrow.
That is why so many of them simply don’t trust the leadership on either side of the Capitol or in either party. That is why so many of them are pushing so hard for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in exchange for a debt limit increase, a dubious, if not impossible task. And that is so many of them will vote against a debt limit increase if such an amendment is not included. In their view, we might as well have the crisis now, if such a crisis does happen, rather than later.
Many of these new members simply don’t care whether they come back or not. They believe that they have to do the right thing, no matter what their constituents might say, and damn the consequences.
Reasonable, Unreasonable
July 14th, 2011 by John Feehery
It is altogether reasonable to have grave concerns about our national debt. It is unreasonable to have grave concerns about our debt, and then refuse to do anything about it.
It is reasonable to vote against an increase in the debt ceiling. It is unreasonable to complain, though, when a debt ceiling increase passes and include things that you don’t like.
It is reasonable for conservatives to demand spending cuts to be included as part of the debt ceiling increase. It is unreasonable for them to hold hostage the debt ceiling increase unless the House and Senate both pass a Constitutional amendment to the Constitution.
It is reasonable for the President to ask Republicans to pass a debt limit increase. It is unreasonable for the President to demand that Republicans include a tax increase as part of the debt limit increase.
It is reasonable for the President to make the case for tax increases. It is unreasonable for the President to make that case merely seven months after he signed into law a huge tax cut.
Expect the unexpected (From The Hill)
June 29th, 2010 by John Feehery
If there is any iron rule to the political game, it should be: Expect the unexpected. Things change, and sometimes they change rapidly.
At the beginning of President Obama’s term, the conventional wisdom declared that the Republican Party was going to splinter and collapse. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) even openly mocked the plight of the GOP, saying that she hoped that the Republican Party would be strong again someday. Well, be careful what you wish for, Madam Speaker, because that day is just about here.
The conventional wisdom at the beginning of this year held that while Republicans had a shot at capturing the House, the party had no shot at regaining control of the Senate. But with the sudden passing of Senate President Pro Tem Robert Byrd (W.Va.), the declining health of some other Democratic senators and the fading political fortunes of such stalwart liberals as Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), that assumption has been turned on its head. The Senate has a clear shot, while the House looks like a sure thing.
The conventional wisdom coming from Washington after the Arizona immigration law passed was that the American people would believe it went too far. In fact, many Republican strategists made that exact point.
Revenge Best Served Cold
March 26th, 2010 by John FeeheryRepublicans can learn much from Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
When a bipartisan majority in the House and the Senate passed the prescription drug benefit in 2003 (after a painful three and a half hour vote on the Conference report), Pelosi, who was then Minority Leader, promised immediately to repeal the legislation.
Democrats even briefly toyed with using that as one of their campaign themes, but it got lost in a Presidential campaign that focused mostly on national security and John Kerry’s flip-flopping ways.
But that didn’t mean that Mrs. Pelosi forgot about her pledge.
This health care reform package is notable for many reasons. It took a long time to get done. It spends a lot of money. It will immediately raise premiums. It promises to give better access to health insurance to those with pre-existing conditions. It makes people who don’t want to buy or can’t afford to buy health insurance buy it anyway.
And it repeals two parts of the original and most offensive (from Pelosi’s perspective) portions of the bill. It destroys the Medicare Advantage program, which Democrats irrationally feared would lead to the privatization of the Medicare program. And it makes the prescription drug companies fill in the so-called donut hole, which was put in place to keep the original bill within its budget parameters.
The Corrupt Bargain
March 16th, 2010 by John FeeheryIn 1824, the House of Representatives awarded the Presidency to John Quincy Adams after Henry Clay, who was then the House Speaker, concluded that he wouldn’t be President and cut a deal that landed him the job of Secretary of State.
It seemed like a good deal for Adams and a good deal for Clay. But to supporters of Andrew Jackson, America’s first true populist leader, this was a “corrupt bargain”, a sign of a decadent and untrustworthy political process, and a rallying cry for a new class of American voters.
The “corrupt bargain” would haunt both Adams and Clay for the rest of their careers. Adams became only the second one-term President (the first was his father), losing easily to Jackson in 1828. Clay, although he would prove to be the most powerful Speaker in history, would never become President.
Congressional Democrats are now embarking on their own version of the “corrupt bargain”. House Democrats have dreamed up a parliamentary device to vote on a health care bill that will become the law of the land (for how long, nobody really knows), without actually ever voting on it.
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