[Source: Nick Anderson of the Cartoonist Group]
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February 2012 S M T W T F S « Jan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Super Committee Failure
The inability of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, better known as the “super committee,” to come to an agreement on a plan to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion is just the latest turn of events after months of negotiations on deficit reduction.
A review of the major developments in this debate over the past year shows that taxes, especially on high-income households, have always been the major sticking point. While the two parties have been able to agree to various levels of spending reductions (including $1 trillion in spending cuts as part of the deal that created the super committee), negotiators have repeatedly come up against a wall when it comes to including higher taxes for rich people as part of deficit reduction.
The following timeline highlights key happenings in the deficit negotiations.
February 14, 2011: President Barack Obama submits budget for 2012 with about $2 trillion in deficit reduction, half of which come from spending cuts.
April 15, 2011: House passes Ryan budget, which includes $5.8 trillion in spending cuts along with tax cuts for the richest Americans.
May 5, 2011: Vice President Joe Biden begins debt talks.
May 11, 2011: Speaker John Boehner says he will not raise debt limit without spending cuts that match how much the limit is raised.
June 23, 2011: Majority Leader Eric Cantor walks away from debt ceiling talks with Biden after refusing to consider any tax increases. The administration had offered $2.4 trillion in spending cuts for $400 billion in taxes, an 83:17 split.
July 7, 2011: President Obama and Speaker Boehner begin debt-ceiling negotiations.
July 9, 2011: Speaker Boehner walks away from President Obama’s “grand bargain”: $4 trillion in debt reduction comprised of $1 trillion in revenue and $3 trillion in spending cuts, including entitlement reforms.
July 19, 2011: The Gang of Six proposes a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan, including $2 trillion revenue.
July 22, 2011: Again, Speaker Boehner walks away from negotiations after President Obama offers $1.2 trillion in revenues and $1.6 trillion in spending cuts, including entitlements.
July 31, 2011: Debt ceiling agreement is reached, cutting $1 trillion in spending immediately and establishing the super committee to reduce deficits by at least an additional $1.2 trillion.
October 26, 2011: Democrats first super committee offer is $3 trillion in deficit reduction comprised of about $1.3 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans immediately reject it. Republicans’ first super committee offer is $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction that includes no new tax revenues.
November 8, 2011: Republicans’ second super committee offer is $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. It does include $300 billion in new tax revenue, but in exchange for extending the Bush tax cuts and lowering the top tax rate. The plan would ultimately cut taxes for the wealthy and raise them for everyone else.
November 10, 2011: Democrats’ second offer is $2.3 trillion in deficit reduction, consisting of $1.3 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in revenue. The revenue would be split between $350 billion in concrete measures and $650 billion in future tax reform. Republicans reject it.
November 11, 2011: Democrats agree to Republicans’ top lines including just $400 billion in revenues and $875 billion in spending cuts, but refuse to accept the GOP’s tax cut for the rich. Republicans reject it and make their final offer: $640 billion in spending cuts and $3 billion in revenues.
[Source: Center for American Progress]
Not to be forgotten in all this is that the Republicans in Congress also has opposed President Obama’s Jobs Act. Congress must be changed! The only way it is going to be changed is to change the members in it. The only way that is going to happen is for the voters to remove those that are blocking the Jobs Act. Furthermore, voters must ensure that the 1% and corporations pay their fair share of the tax burden.
Congress isn’t watching out for the 99%. The 99% will have to look out for themselves.
Nevada Congressional Delegation Votes
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Posted in Politics
Tagged Dean Heller, Harry Reid, Joe Heck, Mark Amodei, Shelley Berkley
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Nevada’s Democratic Presidential Caucuses
A reminder about the upcoming Presidential Caucus.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
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Time
9:00am until 12:00pm
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Where
Everywhere.
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Description
Las Vegas, NV – Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange released the following statement announcing the date of Nevada’s Democratic Presidential caucuses:
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“We worked too hard to secure Nevada’s early-state status to allow Florida to take that away from us. Therefore, we are joining the fight to ensure Nevada is one of the first three early voting states by setting the date of our Democratic caucuses on January 21, 2012.
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Given that we already know who our nominee is, the purpose of these caucuses will be to bring together the core group of activists critical to mobilizing voters during the general election. This is an important step on the road to re-electing President Obama, electing Shelley Berkley to the Senate, and electing Democrats up and down the ballot that will get Nevadans back to work and protect Nevada seniors from Republicans who want to kill Medicare by turning it over to private insurance companies.”
Romney: Let Nevadans in foreclosure “hit the bottom”
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said recently that nobody should attempt to “stop the foreclosure process” for Nevadans about to lose their home.
Mitt’s just fine letting homeowners be foreclosed on by banks as a solution to the housing crisis. He actually said that instead of help, we should let Nevadans at risk of foreclosure “hit the bottom.”
Join us today in demanding Mitt Romney apologize and hold him accountable for his statements!
By adding your name today, you’ll be sending a message to Mitt that the foreclosure crisis isn’t about a marketplace to be analyzed for potential profits, it’s about families losing their homes and communities paying the price.
http://nvdems.com/pages/w1111/e
Posted in Politics
Tagged Foreclosure, Mitt Romney, Nevada, Nye County, Nye County Democratic Party
2 Comments
Tea Party rakes in over $3,450,000 during the first three quarters of this year
A joint analysis by iWatch News and the Center for Responsive Politics has found that the 15 freshmen members of the Tea Party Caucus have embraced many of the same special interests that have supported Republicans for years. The fifteen combined have received over $3,450,000 during the first three quarters of this year from almost 700 different PACs.
It’s an impressive haul for a group of newly elected House members. But it shouldn’t be surprising that these fresh faces found new friends in Washington.
“Business as usual,” says Mary Boyle of good-government group Common Cause. “The lobbyists and other traditional Washington powers know that the newbies will learn fast that they need them, and their rolodexes.”
It may well be, but some of the freshmen appear to have their eyes wide open.
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., has received more than $252,000 from PACs, accounting for about two-thirds of the money he has raised this year. His chief of staff, Fred Piccolo, was unapologetic for the donations the congressman has received. “One person’s ‘special interest’ is another person’s ‘personal interest,’” he said.
Among the biggest PAC donors to the tea party freshmen are familiar Washington faces, including Honeywell International, which led the way both in number of donations and overall money given. The top five corporate PACs that donated to these freshmen:
- Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 company best known for its defense manufacturing, made 52 donations worth at least $105,000
- The American Bankers Association, one of the major trade associations for the financial sector, made 31 donations worth at least $53,000
- Lockheed Martin, one of the biggest defense contractors in the country, with 30 donations for at least $28,000
- Koch Industries, the company run by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, made 29 donations worth at least $38,000
- The National Association of Realtors, a major trade group for real estate agents, with 29 donations worth $34,000
[Source: Huffington Post]
Gingrich’s Consulting Work
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s work history has come under scrutiny this week as various media outlets have reported on the fees that he and a think tank he founded have collected over the years.
Here’s what’s been reported so far:
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce paid Gingrich about $840,000, people familiar with the arrangement told The Wall Street Journal. Starting in 2001, Gingrich made about $120,000 a year for seven years as a “fellow” on an informal board of advisers to the Chamber’s president and senior staff, according to The Journal.
- The Center for Health Transformation, a think tank Gingrich founded, collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health care companies and industry groups, The Washington Post reports. They paid as much as $200,000 per year for services, including “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. A CHT spokeswoman told The Post that neither the center nor Gingrich engaged in formal lobbying.
- And then there’s the Bloomberg report that Gingrich earned between $1.6 million to $1.8 million from mortgage company Freddie Mac, a company he has blamed for the collapse of the housing market, for consulting. Gingrich, who denies he lobbied for the organization, had previously said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., should be jailed for his association with “a lobbyist who was close to Freddie Mac.”
[Source: National Journal]
Congress Busy Helping Sailboat Race for the Rich
They are just too busy helping the 1%’s sailboat race and don’t have time to pass President Obama’s Job’s Act.
Another week goes by, and still there’s no action in Congress on any reasonable legislation to promote job growth in the United States. Why can’t Congress get a jobs bill together? They’re working on other, more important things…
… like helping rich folks race sailboats.
At the end of last week, instead of passing legislation to create jobs, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3321, the America’s Cup Act of 2011. It’s a bill designed to help people overcome obstacles.
Specifically, it’s legislation to help rich folks overcome obstacles to racing their sailboats.
A bunch of wealthy Americans worried that, if regulations weren’t changed, they might not be able to get together with an international assembly of their chums and have a day of sailboat racing. So, a congressional team led by Wally Herger got together to deal with this crisis of luxury. They introduced H.R. 3321 on Wednesday last week, and by Friday, the legislation was on the floor of the House of Representatives, voted on and approved.
If you’re still wondering what the difference between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is, this legislation ought to provide you with a clear example. While the 99 percent are still waiting for relief from years of government inaction to deal with the unemployment crisis, the 1 percent gets specially rushed service from Congress to deal with its sailboat crisis.
BTW, Wally Herger is a Republican Congressman in California. He represented the Congressional District I lived in for some 20 years. I never voted for him.
[Source: Irregular Times]
Looking for political buttons?
I sort of stumbled across some websites today I’ve never seen before. Some of you might be interested. This one is a part of CafePress called Irregular States. It is a commercial site site selling buttons, lapel pins, etc. Here are some examples, enjoy:
Posted in Politics
Tagged Barack Obama, Dean Heller, Joe Heck, Mark Amodei, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Shelley Berkley
1 Comment
Subscribe to the Nye County Democrats Newsletter
You are invited to subscribe to the monthly digital newsletter of the Nye County Democratic Central Committee. It is free. Here are the details:
- You must be registered to vote as a Democrat in Nye County, Nevada;
- To subscribe, send an e-mail to the Nye County Democrats’ headquarters at office@nyedems.org;
- Include: Your full first, middle, and last name;
- Your street address, Town, ZIP code, telephone number and e-mail address.
Your registration will be verified as being a Democrat in Nye County before you will be added to the newsletter list. The next issue of the newsletter will be sent in December and each month thereafter.
It is a good way to be notified of events and activities of the Nye County Democratic Party. If you are not interested in subscribing but have a Democrat relative, friend, or acquaintance that you think might be interested then forward this blog post to that individual so that they have an opportunity to subscribe.
You are also invited to visit the official website of the Nye County Democratic Party.