President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have little if any power to compel states to dial back "stand your ground" laws the two have criticized in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
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Showing posts with label The Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hill. Show all posts
Obama threatens to veto House GOP 2014 spending bills
The White House sought to pressure House Republicans into a budget conference with the Senate on Monday, warning President Obama would veto any 2014 spending bills based on the House GOP budget.
Extraordinary measures become standard as debt limit hit again
The United States bumped up against its borrowing limit Sunday, forcing the Treasury Department to employ “extraordinary measures” to make sure the government keeps paying its bills.
Senate approves online sales tax bill
The Senate on Monday approved legislation that would for the first time allow states to collect billions of dollars in online sales tax revenue from out-of-state purchases.
The 69-27 vote is a major victory for retail groups and state governments, who for years have fought to close what they see as a loophole that allows as much as $23 billion in annual taxes from online sales to go uncollected.
Reid: More funding needed to prevent ObamaCare from becoming 'train wreck'
Reid warned that people will not be able to choose health insurance plans on government health exchanges if federal authorities lack the resources to set them up and educate the public.
Botched ObamaCare rollout tops Democratic fears for 2014 election
Anxious Democrats fear a botched implementation of ObamaCare could dash their hopes of controlling the House and Senate for President Obama’s last two years in office.At his press conference Tuesday, Obama acknowledged “glitches and bumps” in the law’s rollout, but some congressional Democrats fear much worse.
House conservatives call for new vote to repeal ObamaCare
House conservatives are clamoring for a floor vote on a full repeal of the 2010 healthcare overhaul, saying that freshman Republicans need an opportunity to tell their constituents they tried to scrap the law.
The Democrats’ dinosaur problem
Much post-2012 attention has been focused on identifying weaknesses within the Republican Party, with armchair quarterbacks sounding alarms for a party that still controls one house of Congress, 30 governorships, and a majority of state legislatures across the country.
There are obvious issues that the party needs to address to win future national elections, but is the playing field really as uneven as the postgame analysis has made it out to be? What about some of the looming woes soon to confront Democrats?
With Barack Obama in the White House, it’s easy for Democrats to wear the mantle of “change” and moving “forward,” buoyed by a re-elected president who toppled a giant to become his party’s nominee five years ago. But Barack Obama won’t be on the ballot in 2016.
Three names that might be pose a challenge to the “change” label: Clinton, Biden and Cuomo.
A once-ran for president, twice-ran for president, and son of the Democrat that never ran for president currently dominate 2016 speculation.
Thing is, the last time she was a national candidate Clinton lost to a first-term senator in a brutal campaign that began with near-unanimous conventional wisdom that she would be the nominee. Who’s to say that history won’t repeat itself? The only major political scrutiny she’s endured since defeat at Obama’s hands came in the form of her testimony to the Senate regarding Benghazi, with the actual degree of scrutiny varying depending on who you talk to.
Vice-President, and noted smooth talker, Joe Biden theoretically makes a formidable candidate, but only because of the first two words in this sentence. Incumbency advantage aside, Candidate Biden would be a third-time candidate in his mid-seventies with decades’ worth of Senate votes for opponents to exploit.
The closest to a political newcomer is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He may be the scion of a powerful political family second only to the Kennedys in representing the entrenched East Coast Democratic establishment, but at least he’s never run for president.
Prior to 2012, Cuomo cultivated a center-left image, with a record tailor-made for a general election and bolstered by his stratospheric approval ratings in the Empire State.
Yet since early 2013, Cuomo’s rise to national prominence has been hamstrung by declining approval, negative headlines and a deer in the headlights response to the hoopla of Hillary Clinton’s departure from the secretary of State’s office.
So a perfectly realistic scenario has three baggage-ridden Democrats from equally baggage-ridden political dynasties duking it out in a primary in a few years time.
Add that to the fact that the candidates will be courting a party base that hasn’t faced ideological and personality-fueled infighting in eight years, and will need to appeal to a liberal primary electorate while gearing up to defend the Obama record without the appeal of Obama himself in the general election – likely to be no easy task as polling data shows that support for Obama’s agenda is inexorably linked to his personality.
In 2016, Democrats will be confronted with a relatability problem of their own: the most oft-mentioned candidates to assume the mantle of ”hope and change” are relics of a bygone era of liberal politics, and in most cases have already been rejected by the Democratic voting base.
By Brandon Howell
Senate poised to pass budget
The Democrat-controlled Senate appears set to approve its first budget resolution in four years.
Votes on amendments to the budget began Thursday night, with a final vote set for late Friday or early Saturday.
House approves Ryan budget
Only 10 Republicans voted against the Ryan budget, highlighting GOP unity around the blueprint.
The vote is a victory for House Republicans, who have a narrower majority this year and had to work harder to minimize defections from conservative Republicans. Many conservatives want to approach the budget deficit even more aggressively than Ryan, whose budget would balance in a decade.
The Republicans who voted against the Ryan budget were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Rick Crawford (Ark.), Randy Forbes (Va.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Phil Gingrey (Ga.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Tom Massie (Ky.) and David McKinley (W.Va.).
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House passes $984B funding bill, averts government shutdown
The House on Thursday averted a looming government shutdown by approving legislation that will keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year.
The $984 billion spending bill passed by a vote of 318 to 109.
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Dems no longer fear 'ObamaCare'
Three years after President Obama signed his landmark healthcare law, Democrats are confident they’ve finally played the politically divisive issue to a draw.
Poll: Majority of voters say White House tours should be resumed
A majority of voters believe the White House should resume tours of the White House, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill.
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed in the poll said that the White House should continue the tours of the mansion, while 28 percent said they should not be resumed. The poll found that 18 percent were unsure of whether the tours should be brought back.
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Democrats' budget puts US on path 'straight into debt crisis'
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Saturday said he wants the federal government to cut back on spending, just like an American family would.
Pelosi open to looking at Obama proposal to cut http://thehill.com/homenews/house/288157-pelosi-open-to-obama-proposal-on-entitlement-cuts
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she'll consider Social Security cuts as part of a sweeping deficit-reduction package.
Ryan’s speech to CPAC will provide clues to his 2016 plans
Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) speech to an influential group of conservatives on Friday will provide clues on whether he has his eyes on becoming president or chairman of the House's powerful Ways and Means Committee.
The 2012 GOP vice-presidential nominee is coming off a big week after introducing a plan aimed at balancing the budget within 10 years, and his Friday morning speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be delivered to his biggest live audience since the election. The address gives him an opportunity to discuss his budget in detail or lay out a broad economic vision of the country.
The Budget Committee chairman said on “Fox News Sunday” that he “enjoyed” being a vice presidential candidate and that the experience made the possibility of a future presidential run “more realistic.” He added that if he remains in the House, he’d want to stay as a policy leader and not run for House leadership.
“If I wanted to be in elected leadership like Speaker, I would have run for these jobs years ago. I've always believed the better place for me is in policy leadership, like being a chairman,” he said. “With respect to running for president, I honestly think that we have a problem right now. That's a budget mess. That's a debt crisis coming ... I got to think, do what you think is right, how can I help Wisconsin, how I can close this budget gap? And then we're through that moment, I'm going to give serious thought to these other things, but not until then.”
Those comments suggest he has his eyes on the gavel of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction on taxes, trade, Medicare and Social Security.
Whether Ryan spends more time in his speech focused on explaining his budget or striking a broader theme — like he did during his January speech to the Jack Kemp Foundation — will be telling.
After the 2014 election, Ryan will have to announce publicly whether he will run for president or Ways and Means chairman (should Republicans retain the House). He could run the committee and run for president, but such an effort would be impractical because he would need to constantly be on the campaign trail.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) has more seniority than Ryan on the Ways and Means panel, though Ryan would be the favorite should he opt for that route. The current chairman, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), is term-limited as head of the panel. Like Camp, Ryan voted for the "fiscal cliff" deal in January, another sign that he might remain in Congress for a while.
“There is a tension between whether he wants to be a [Ways and Means] committee chairman or president,” said GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak. “He's going to have to make that decision in January of 2015, after the election, around the same time he would need to be launching a presidential campaign.”
The Wisconsin Republican has time on his side. He is only 43 years old, meaning he could be Ways and Means chairman and run for president in his 50s. But Ryan, a fitness buff, doesn’t think along those lines, noting that both his father and grandfather died in their 50s.
Some political observers believe Ryan’s speech can achieve both goals. After all, Ryan hasn’t ruled out a 2016 bid and keeping his name in the conversation for president gives him a larger platform to argue for his budget priorities.
Ryan appears to have enough support to pass his budget through the House, despite some grumbles that his blueprint doesn’t completely repeal “ObamaCare.”
Conservatives and GOP centrists are publicly backing the measure, which is expected to pass the House next week. Not one House Republican has publicly said he/she will oppose it.
“[Ryan] now has a recognition that a lot of people don't know what goes on inside the Beltway, and to get things done with the issues he's pushing he needs a national platform to do it,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “In some ways the budget may be boring to the media, but it's red meat to these guys.”
Citizens United President David Bossie said, “He’s a welcome voice and I think he’s going to give a wonderful speech about the future of our movement and that’s the same speech whether he’s running for president or [staying in the House].”
Yet, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — a potential rival to Ryan in 2016 — has recently been delivering speeches on a variety of issues, including foreign policy, healthcare reform and education. Rubio, who opposed the fiscal cliff bill, is best known for his effort on immigration reform while Ryan’s niche is his budget blueprint.
Interestingly, Rubio didn’t mention immigration when he addressed CPAC on Thursday. That could be for a variety of reasons, including that the effort might fail in this Congress and because it has divided the GOP for more than a decade.
By Cameron Joseph
House votes 246-181 to block Obama's welfare-work waiver rule
The House voted Wednesday to block the Obama administration's attempt to waive a requirement that people must work or prepare for a job in order to receive federal welfare benefits.
In a 246-181 vote, the House approved the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act. After a partisan floor debate, the bill won the support of 18 Democrats, while three Republicans opposed the GOP bill.
The bill is a reaction to last year's guidance from the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), which told states that the so-called welfare-work requirement can be waived.
Republicans criticized the waiver as an attempt to gut what they said was one of the most important pieces of the 1996 welfare reform law. That law turned the federal welfare program into a block grant to states under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
It also required that within each state, 50 percent of all families receiving help under TANF must be working or looking for work — states can be fined if they fail to hit that target.
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said that reform and others "led to more work, more earnings, less welfare dependence, and less poverty among families headed by low-income single mothers."
"Yet, without any thought of consulting Congress, as is required by law, the administration saw fit to unilaterally waive the work requirements and risk the progress that has been made in the last 16 years," Camp said. "Simply put, this bill would block waivers, so HHS cannot allow States to bypass the work requirements and financial penalties Congress put in place in 1996 for failing to engage welfare recipients in work."
Camp and other Republicans added that they don't believe the Obama administration had any authority to waive the work requirement, especially through a simple guidance document from HHS.
And while both parties have explored the possibility of waiving the rule in certain cases, Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) said the administration's unilateral decision to waive it destroyed the chances of a bipartisan agreement.
"That announcement completely undermined bipartisan negotiations in our committee about ways to strengthen this program," Reichert said.
Democrats defended the Obama administration's policy by noting that HHS has said it would only let states waive the welfare-work rule if they can come up with a plan to boost the number of people moving from welfare to work by 20 percent.
"The President is not dropping welfare-work requirements, he's allowing the states to experiment, and you'd think our Republican friends would be entirely in favor of letting governors experiment in getting people back to work fairly quickly," Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said.
Other Democrats charged that by pushing the bill, Republicans were essentially trying to re-fight their battle against the waiver that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney tried to fight during his campaign.
But Ways & Means ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said Romney's arguments were shown to be inaccurate.
"After the HHS spoke, the Romney campaign decided they might have a campaign issue," Levin said. "So they essentially put together a campaign ad with the fallacious claim that what the Obama administration was trying to do was to weaken welfare reform.
"The instantaneous reaction of fact checkers was four Pinocchios, pants on fire, complete untruth."
House passage sends the bill to the Senate, which is unlikely to consider it.
By Pete Kasperowicz
GOP lawmakers threaten to subpoena Benghazi survivors
Republican lawmakers are threatening to subpoena U.S. survivors of the terrorist attack in Benghazi.
NY judge blocks Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large sugary drinks
“The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban,” the American Beverage Association said in a statement.
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