Category: Congress

Senate Banking Committee Passes Bernanke

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The vote was 16-7, with 1 Democrat, out of 13 on the committee and 6 Republicans out of 10 on the committee voted against:

Yes
No
Christopher Dodd (D) Jeff Merkley (D)
Tim Johnson (D) Richard Shelby (R)
Jack Reed (D) Jim Bunning (R)
Chuck Schumer (D) Mike Crapo (R)
Evan Bayh (D) Jim DeMint (R)
Robert Menendez (D) David “Diaperman” Vitter (R)
Daniel Akaka (D) Kay Bailey Hutchison (R)
Christopher Dodd (D)
Sherrod Brown (D)
Jon Tester (D)
Mark Warner (D)
Herb Kohl (D)
Michael Bennet (D)
Bob Bennett (R)
Bob Corker (R)
Mike Johanns (R)
Judd Gregg (R)

I’m not sure if the Republican voted against Bernanke because they believe that the economy will suck in 2010, and they want to be able to say that they opposed “helicopter Ben”, or if they are opposing him just because he’s Obama’s nominee, but it’s pretty clear that there will be some number greater than 2 Republicans who will be willing to vote for cloture, so it’s pretty much a done deal.

It sucks, because not only does Bernanke conflate the well being of Wall Street with that of the nation, but he’s also pretty right wing, see his comments earlier on gutting Social security.

Did Nancy Pelosi Just Call Barack Obama a Bitch?

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Why yes, I think that she did just call Barack Obama a bitch.

On a slightly more precise level, what she has said is that if Barack Obama wants Democrats in the house to support him on Afghanistan, that Pelosi will not use her position as speaker to whip votes:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Barack Obama must press his own arguments for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan because she won’t ask House Democrats to pay for the military escalation.

“The president is going to have to make his case,” Pelosi told reporters today in Washington.

The speaker said persuading House Democrats to approve a $106 billion spending bill in June to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was “definitely” the hardest vote of her tenure as speaker. She said she told Democrats her request for their support was the last time “I would ever ask them to vote for it.”

House Democratic leaders will provide briefings on funds for the additional troops, and members “will have the information” they need to make a decision, she said. “But this, for members, is a vote of conscience.”

I’m sure Steny Hoyer, 2nd in command as House Majority Leader, will continue to whip the vote, but this is a big deal.

I expect the bill to pass anyway, since the Republicans will always vote pro war, but much like during our private little war in South East Asia in 1968, it’s the Democrats who are opposing it, and much like that private little war in South East Asia in 1968, they are correct in their opposition to the this private little war in South Asia.

Here is the Video of Howard Dean Disavowing the Senate Bill

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I want him to be my president

Courtesy of the Big Orange Borg.

He makes it very clear: this is a tax on the American people that will be transferred to insurance companies.

He says that it’s not healthcare reform, or even that it’s not even insurance reform. He’s right.

He notes that reconciliation should have been used from the start, and he also notes that this bill will cause the Democrats to lose seats.

He also notes that this is about Joe Lieberman preening for attention.

The Washington press corps went after him hammer and tongs because, hell I don’t know why, in 2004, and he is so much better than anyone else on this it’s not funny.

VPR Audio: VPR News: Dean On Health Care: “Kill The Senate Bill”

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The Plum Line is breaking the story that Howard Dean is calling for the Senate bill to be scrapped, and for the house to push through reform via reconciliation, which only requires 50 Senators (+ Joe Biden) to pass.

VPR has a transcript of the interview:

This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. And, honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill and go back to the House and start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.

Yeah, but Republicans will call it a “Nuclear Option,” and say bad things about Barack….You know?

Great googly moogly.

link to audio

Lieberman and Obama, and the Shark that They Jumped

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Click for full size

This is one big shark that he jumped.
With Frikken Lasers!

It appears that the excessive wankerage of Joseph Lieberman on healthcare has even gotten the Villagers, specifically nepotism affirmative action hire Luke Russert (video at link), and wannabe villager Ezra Klein to admit that perhaps, just perhaps, Joseph Lieberman is not acting out of moral conviction, but instead is acting out of a need for revenge.

When you have guys like this calling Joe Lieberman small and petty, and, well basically evil, Holy Joe has done more than jump a shark, he’s jumped the shark, specifically, he’s jumping C. Megalodon*.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Obama and His Stupid Minions™ are getting a clue on this, or that they understand that Joe just wants to turn the knife, and will keep pulling the football away, because his goal is to punish liberals for not recognizing his brilliance and moral superiority over the past 9 years.

Harry Reid, no doubt wanting to avoid Chris Dodd’s fate, where Dodd was hung out to dry by the administration for doing Geithner’s bidding and putting in a loophole on banker salaries, is now leaking like a seive, with sources who are clearly from his office saying that, Rahm Emanuel personally pressured Reid give in to Lieberman’s extortion. (See also here and here here)

As a result of this, 81% Of Dememocrats want Lieberman’s chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pulled, which to my mind, would be a good thing, because the Senate Democrats would have to start learning to live with 50+ the Vice President to pass a bill, and people like Lieberman (and Lincoln and Baucus) would be told to go pound sand.

If you want any more evidence of bad faith, Lieberman admits that he’s flipped on the Medicare option because liberals like it:

And he said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.

(emphasis mine)

You see, it’s all about pissing off liberals. It does not matter if hundreds of thousands of people die every year because of lack of insurance, Lieberman wants to punish liberals.

Joe Lieberman is a venal sociopath.

*The largest shark, and likely largest predator fish ever. It died out some 1.5 million years ago. The Genus is still in dispute, between either Carcharodon (Great White) or Carcharocles (broad toothed Mako). So in jumping C. Megalodon, you have jumped the biggest shark ever.

The Senate Healthcare Bill Is Worse Than You Thought

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If you follow the news, you are no doubt aware that the Senate proposed a medicare buy-in for people between 55 and 65 as an alternative to the public option.

As I noted at the time, it was very restrictive, the people had to be without insurance already, and they had to be near poverty.

Well, it just gets worse: It turns out that this is not an buy-in to actual medicare, because the program, which could likely cover fewer than 1½ million nation wide, would not be able to use the rates that Medicare has negotiated, instead, it would have to negotiate it on their own, and with those numbers, they won’t get anything close to the cost savings that Medicare has generated.

So the fob the program off on the poor, meaning that it will suck, and the strip it of the 40+ years of cost containment, and they call it “Medicare”.

Harry Reid, tell Senators Baucus, Lieberman, and Lincoln to go Cheney themselves, and pass it with the budget.

Barack Obama Pimps for Big Pharma

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It looks like debate on healthcare reform is foundering on White House opposition to an amendment to allow the reimportation of drugs from Canada

The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.

As a result, the Senate health care debate has come to a standstill: Carper has placed a “hold” on Dorgan’s amendment and in response, Dorgan tells HuffPost, he’ll object to any other amendments being considered before he gets a vote on his.

Note, though that this is not a bid at bipartisanship, as Dorgan’s amendment has a Republican co-sponsor, Olympia Snowe (R-ME),and significant ‘Phant support, John McCain (R-AZ), Charles Grassley (R-IA), John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA).

It appears that the Obama administration is afraid that Big Pharma will oppose the bill, but I don’t recall them actually having anyone electing Big Pharma president…..As we all know, the President of the United States is Olympia Snowe.

House Votes to Tighten Regulation of Financial System – NYTimes.com

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House Votes to Tighten Regulation of Financial System – NYTimes.com thankfully, the CFPA survives, but they voted down cramdown on mortgages in bankruptcy, and voted for the contemptible Melissa Bean’s contemptible preemption language, which allows the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to strike down state consumer protections.

USA Today, of all people was right hen it said that, “The Comptroller of the Currency, for example, behaved much like a banking lobby embedded in the Treasury Department,” so this is simply repulsive.

Bullet points:

  • The Creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) is created.
  • A Financial Stability Council is created.
  • Dissolution Authority, though the way that it is structured, it may be considered a “perpetual TARP”.
  • Shareholders get a non-binding “say on pay”, which means nothing.
  • Increases the SEC’s powers.
  • Regulation of Derivatives, but it’s full of loopholes.
  • Mortgage Reform.
  • Reform of Credit Rating Agencies:a biggie if the reforms mean anything, but they seem to be weak tea.
  • Registration of hedge funds, though it seems weak.
  • Creates an Office of Insurance, which is a big thing, since insurers are likely the to be in the meltdown shortly.

In the least surprising news of the day, it appears that no Republican voted for the bill.

A long list of the amendments is here.

It’s better than nothing, but not by much, and you know that the bad parts will be kept, and the good parts thrown overboard, in conference committee.

Thank You Blue Dogs

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Well, it looks like everyone’s corporate whores, Melissa Bean and Walt Minnick getting deals that are likely to scuttle any and all state consumer protection of financial companies and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, respectively.

What makes it worse is that Bean’s primary challenger has been bounced from the ballot, so the choice of the voters in IL-8 is the Bean, the Green, or the Crazy Mean.* (Republican)

*No, I’m not saying how long it took me to make up that bit of doggerel.

Its a Death Trap, It’s a Suicide Rap*

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Ah, yes, the “centrists” in the Senate. They are what Obi Wan Kenobi was speaking of when he said, “Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”‡

Their latest “gift” to the rest of us? They are proposing a commission in order to create a back door way to defund Social Security and Medicare.

In this case, it’s Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, (DINO-ND) along with Senatior Judd Gregg (R-NH):

The commission’s main goal would be to figure out what the country needs to do to get its budget back on a more balanced track.

Specifically, the commission would suggest ways to curb spending growth — especially in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — and to boost tax revenue.

There is a simple solution: You just raise the maximum income taken for social security, and let it cover everything that is remuneration, and it’s solvent forever.

In fact, it’s solvent enough that it can fix the medicare funding issue too.

Of note is how this committee is structured, with 18 members, 8 of each party appointed by Congress, and 2 appointed by the White House, and that it would require that at least 14 of the 18 members approve any report, which would be submitted to Congress for an up or down vote.

So, for any tax increase, you would need at least ½ of the Republicans to approve, and you won’t get one.

It’s a Trojan horse, and should be left outside the gates.

It fills the gap, and then some, while

*Apologies to the Boss. It’s a line from Born to Run†
†That’s Bruce Springsteen to those of you who are musically illiterate.
‡Star Wars, you remember that? It was a minor film released in 1977 by the director of THX-1138.

Martha Coakley’s Wins Bay State Senate Primary

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This is no surprise, she ran a good campaign, and her main opponent was rather incoherent in his campaign, and allowed her to paint him as being against abortion rights.

She will be running against Republican state Senator Scott Brown in the general, but she is pretty much in a dead girl/live boy* situation.

*Edwin Edwards, when discovering that he would be facing David Duke in the Louisiana governor’s race, said that the the only way that he would lose were if he were, “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy”.

What a Whiny Bitch

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So it appears that Barack “Panders to Wingnuts” Obama, took it upon himself to call call Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers to ask him to stop “demeaning” him publicly disagreeing with him on issues like healthcare and Afghanistan:

President Barack Obama recently called Rep. John Conyers Jr. to express his frustrations with the Judiciary Committee chairman’s criticism.

In an interview with The Hill, Conyers said his opinions of Obama’s policies on healthcare reform and the war in Afghanistan have not sat well with the president.

According to the lawmaker, the president picked up the phone several weeks ago to find out why Conyers was “demeaning” him.

Obama’s decision to challenge Conyers highlights a sensitivity to criticism the president has taken on the left. Conyers’s critical remarks, many of which have been reported on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post, appear to have irritated the president, known for his calm demeanor.

Conyers, the second-longest-serving member of the House, said, “[Obama] called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues. And he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.’”

Note that Conyers was the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Obama, and spent much of 2007 and 2008 campaigning for him, but he is now saying things like, “Calling in generals and admirals to discuss troop strength is like me taking my youngest to McDonald’s to ask if he likes french fries,” which is pretty funny, when you think of it.

Senate Dems Cave on Public Option

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It’s not like Harry Reid and Barack “Status Quo O” Obama were ever really interested in change, so the Senate killing the public option is hardly a surprise, though it is a bummer.

What did they get in response? Well it appears that they got the ability for people aged 55-65 to who are making not more than 150% of poverty buy into Medicare, at an cost per individual around $625/month.

That’s pretty weak tea.

Well, at least the Dems told Ben Nelson to pound sand on his abortion restrictions, and killed his amendment.

My expectation is that this will get a lot worse as time goes on, and it will get a lot worse in conference committee, and Barack Obama will be able to sign his piece of toilet paper.

Sellout

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So, Obama gave a speech to Senators in the Democratic Caucus in order to whip up support for birth control.

I think that what is more interesting is not what he said, but what he did not say:

“Well, he didn’t mention either abortion or the public option,” said Harkin, a strong backer of the public option and a chairman of the health committee. “He just laid out in very stark terms for us what the future would be if we didn’t pass [health care reform]. I think he’s right. I think it would be devastating. Not just for us as a party, I think for the hope that people have that we’re going to actually make these changes. To fail at this would just again be another one of those things where people say, ‘See, Washington doesn’t work. Washington can’t get anything done. We gave the Democrats all that power and nothing happens.’ And it would be depressing to people. We want to be more hopeful, we want to give people hope. So I thought his message on that was right on target.“

I think that the idea of relying on Barack Obama for meaningful healthcare, or for that matter support of abortion strong abortion rights, is a losing proposition.

He is more interested in signing something (keep him away from toilet paper) with the mane “healthcare reform” on it.

On the matter of abortion, as I noted 2 years ago, he is not willing to lend anything more than lip service to defending abortion rights.

He will do the right thing only if the pressure from his own party leaves him no other alternative.

I Love Arlen Specter Since He’s Turned Democrat

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Or, more accurately, I like him since he’s had a primary challenger, thank you Joe Sestak.

It means that we’ll get 18 months of him being a loyal party player….Unfortunately, for the other 54 months of his Senate term, he’s still a contemptible grandstanding untrustworthy jerk.

Case in point, now that he’s running ferociously to the left in order to out-flank Representative Sestak, he dissed Senators Lieberman and Snow regarding their misrepresentations of the public option at a mutual press conference:

“I do not support…a government owned, government run insurance company,” Collins said.

“I have only to look at the experience of my own state in establishing a government run plan to see the problems that arise.”

Collins was referring to the Dirigo health agency, which provides subsidized insurance to poor people in Maine who don’t quite qualify for Medicaid.

“I think we have learned a lot from the Maine plan,” Specter retorted. “We know what not to do. We’re not going to adopt a Maine plan. That experience will stand us in good stead. We won’t make the same mistake.”

Specter went on: “And when Senator Lieberman talks about single payer, I think he’s putting his finger on the pulse of it. That’s what people have concluded [but] the public option isn’t single payer, and it is not going to add to the deficit, it’s going to be a level playing field. So I would like everyone to read the fine print and [for my colleagues] to re-read the fine print.”

(emphasis mine)

By the standards of the Senate, this is actually a pretty nasty slam.

Yet me note that this is not an endorsement of him. When you get 12-18 months of non wankertude out of a 6-year term, and so it’s not really worth it pulling the lever for him.

Hypocrite

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So, Senator Max Baucus (DINO-MT) submitted the name of his former state office director to be US Attorney in Montana to the President.

That’s not so bad, in fact, that’s what passes for normal.

What doesn’t pass for normal is that they are sleeping together, and have been since before both got divorced from their prior spouses. (see also here):

“Senator Baucus is currently in a mature and happy relationship with Melodee Hanes. They are both divorced, and in no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces,” Ty Matsdorf, a spokesperson for Baucus, said in a statement to Main Justice.

Yeah, and Larry Craig has a wide stance.

More significantly, they started “dating” in the summer of 2008, and she was working as Baucus’s state director and counsel until spring of this year, which means that he was Cheneying a subordinate, which is sexual harassment, even if the subordinate is willing, if you are not a Senator anyway.

Pelosi Comes Out in Favor of Tobin Tax

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Hopefully, this will give Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner the vapors:

A proposed tax on financial transactions “has a great deal of merit” and would help Congress raise needed revenue, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

“I believe that the transaction tax still has a great deal of merit,” Pelosi said at a news conference.

The tax would have a “really minimal impact on the transaction, but a tremendous impact on helping us meet our needs,” Pelosi said.

Timmeh….Suck….on…This…

Honestly, I expect Obama to oppose this fiercely in private, though I am not sure what he will do in public.

More Ass Covering by the Fed

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After decades saying that, “It wasn’t their job,” and that it, “Couldn’t be done,” the Federal Reserve is now casting itself as the nation’s premier bubble fighter:

Not so long ago, Federal Reserve officials were confident they knew what to do when they saw bubbles building in prices of stocks, houses or other assets: Nothing.

Now, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke faces a confirmation hearing Thursday on a second four-year term, he and others at the central bank are rethinking the hands-off approach they’ve followed over the past decade. On the heels of a burst housing-and-credit bubble, Mr. Bernanke now calls financial booms “perhaps the most difficult problem for monetary policy this decade.”

The money quote, which follows, is that, “Mr. Bernanke wants to use his powers as a bank regulator to stamp out bubbles, but the Senate Banking Committee, which will grill him later this week, is considering stripping the Fed of its regulatory power.”

Ben Bernanke does not want to stamp out bubbles, he is just trying to give members of Congress an excuse not to clip his wings.