Mitch is holding up the vote on Richard Cordray, the President’s choice to become the Director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The CFPB is part of the larger Wall Street reform and of course the very idea of “consumer protection” is anathema to the Republican Party.
A July poll found 74% of Americans in favor of a single agency protecting consumers from our rapacious corporate overlords.
Last May, 44 Senate Republicans vowed to never vote for any CFPB nominee unless the agency is deeply watered down or outright ripped up.
Mitch McConnell, our dreamy Senator, is the leader of this bunch of dirtbags and is still refusing to let a vote come down. So a bunch of House Democrats wrote big Mitch a letter, asking him to get out of the way and let America move forward:
So yet again, we see an example of how the three million or so voters of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are effectively holding the rest of the country hostage. Thanks, Mitch!
On a related note, the Chamber of Commerce — that anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-America pressure group — put out a poll of their own on the CFPB which foretells how those opposed to the CFPB will continue to work to undermine the agency while Sen. McConnell buys them time.
POLITICO canvassed legislators in DC, questioning both liberal and conservative Dems on their support for the President heading into 2012 Election season. Some, like Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, are pushing Obama to get stronger. Others are toeing the ‘I’m just focused on my own race’ line.
And others refuse to say anything:
Of more than a dozen congressional offices POLITICO contacted in the moderate Blue Dog Caucus, only a handful were willing to comment on whether they supported Obama’s reelection bid.
Others, including Reps. Tim Holden and Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Jim Costa of California, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Jim Matheson of Utah, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina and Michael Michaud of Maine, declined repeated requests for comment on whether they will stump for the president or even support him in 2012.
Even Steve “Get off our backs!” Beshear announced he would be supporting the President — and Steve did that before his own election. So why’s Ben so quiet? Which side is he on?
After taking a stand against keeping cops, teachers and firefighters employed, the Kentucky Senator who said the top priority of Senate and House Republicans was the defeat of the President of the United States of America — rather than, say, putting Americans to work — is getting the attention he deserves, in USA Today and also from Joan Walsh at Salon:
President Obama picks a worthy enemy
If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t want to be portrayed as a “villain,” he should stop acting like one. On Sunday, McConnell complained about President Obama’s efforts to make Republicans the bad guys for blocking his jobs bill. Now Obama’s taking the fight directly to McConnell, and it’s about time.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, McConnell objected to the idea that the federal government should provide the funds to keep cops, firefighters and teachers on the job.
“They are local and state employees,” McConnell said. “The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no.” He went on to whine, “Their story line is that there must be some villain out there who’s keeping this administration from succeeding.”
On his West Coast tour Obama is hitting McConnell directly, and he’s picked a great target. In Las Vegas yesterday, and again in San Francisco, he mocked McConnell for calling the effort to keep first responders on the job “a bailout,” as though they were irresponsible Wall Street banking firms that got taxpayer support. “These aren’t bad actors who somehow screwed up the economy. They didn’t act irresponsibly. These are the men and women who teach our children, who patrol our streets, who run into burning buildings and save people. They deserve our support.” [...MORE...]
And from the news, Obama’s hitting Mitch hard again today. Good stuff, poor Mitch.
Mitch was on CNN yesterday and either he had a hard time expressing the correct Republican talking points, or the Republicans are working on some groovy polling data.
First he said that cops, firefighters and teachers should all lose their jobs as far as he’s concerned because layoffs are a “local” issue and even though the President’s “Jobs Plan” would keep them employed, the federal government has no place in ensuring the safety and education of its citizens.
Mitch then — and this was particularly groovy — pronounced “government regulations” the #1 Problem Facing America.
Seriously.
If you’re a regular reader, you already know this song and dance. If corporations were allowed to pollute our air and water at will, if they were allowed to abuse their workers and their customers, then the entire economy would recover and everyone would have a job.
With reasoning like that, sure, regulations become the #1 Problem Facing America, our “top economic concern”…
“I’m sure Americans do — I certainly do — approve of firefighters and police,” the Kentucky senator told Crowley — leaving out teachers. “The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work — they are local and state employees.”
Crowley hit the minority leader, who famously declared his goal to make Obama a one-term president, with recent polling data (75 percent of the public backs Obama’s plan to aid localities) and a survey of businesspeople by the Labor Department, who who blamed lagging economy on “poor demand” vs. onerous regulation by a 25-to-1 margin.
“Federal regulators are crawling all over the private sector keeping us from coming out of this recession,” McConnell said.
“Are you focusing on the wrong problem?” she asked.
Brett Guthrie reveals the President’s secret plan:
“He goes to North Carolina yesterday and says the Republicans answer is dirty air, that’s not true and it’s unworthy of the presidency.”
Representative Guthrie says he doesn’t want dirty air, but regulating the EPA is very expensive and would affect many Kentuckians.
“They’re trying to put coal-power plants out of business, that’s ninety-five percent of Kentuckians energy, that’s why we have cheap energy.”
There are a couple things wrong with Mr. Guthrie’s reasoning:
1. “They” are not trying to put coal-power plants out of business. This industry claim, parroted by Republicans (and our Governor and Congressman), is couldn’t be more misleading. An energy industry consultancy group released a report on this very subject earlier this month. They studied the Obama administration’s EPA regulations and the purported ‘disastrous’ effects on the industry. They found:
Contrary to some projections that indicate environmental regulations will severely impact U.S. coal production, ICF projects that U.S. coal production and prices will remain stable. In particular, demand for low sulfur Powder River Basin coal and low-cost, high-sulfur Illinois Basin coal is expected to be strong.
Clearly, then, if Mr. Guthrie and company know that the EPA regulations won’t destroy the coal industry, then what other motivation do they have in trying to destroy the EPA? Either it’s about maximizing profits for their cronies, or its about dirtying our air.
It’s Brett Guthrie who’s unworthy of the job of protecting people.
2. The only ones putting the coal industry out of business are the coal industry themselves. Or, depending on how you look at it, G-d.
Coal here is getting harder and costlier to dig — and the region, which includes southern West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, is headed for a huge collapse in coal production.
The U.S. Department of Energy projects that in a little more than three years, the amount of coal mined here will be just half of what it was in 2008. That’s a significant loss of a signature Appalachian industry, and the jobs that come with it.
“The seams of coal that are left in this area are harder and harder to mine, and they’re thinner and thinner and thinner,” said Leonard Fleming, a retired Kentucky miner and union leader in Letcher County who worked in the industry for 32 years.
The fact that Kentuckians get over nine tenths of their electricity from coal is fine and all, but it’s not going to do us much good in a few years. You can’t mine what’s not there… which is one reason the mining companies have their minions, like Brett Guthrie, fight to destroy the EPA. If they would just get off our backs, we could flatten the Appalachians and siphon out what little remaining coal we can find.
And if that dirties the air in the process… let alone all the other health ramifications… then Brett Guthrie is for it.
3. There are actually a lot more than a couple, but Brett seems a little slow so we’ll leave it here for now and keep it simple for him.
Here at home, the coming months will be another season of homecomings. Across America, our servicemen and women will be reunited with their families. Today, I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays.
This December will be a time to reflect on all that we’ve been though in this war. I’ll join the American people in paying tribute to the more than 1 million Americans who have served in Iraq. We’ll honor our many wounded warriors and the nearly 4,500 American patriots — and their Iraqi and coalition partners — who gave their lives to this effort.
And finally, I would note that the end of war in Iraq reflects a larger transition. The tide of war is receding. The drawdown in Iraq allowed us to refocus our fight against al Qaeda and achieve major victories against its leadership — including Osama bin Laden. Now, even as we remove our last troops from Iraq, we’re beginning to bring our troops home from Afghanistan, where we’ve begun a transition to Afghan security in leadership. When I took office, roughly 180,000 troops were deployed in both these wars. And by the end of this year that number will be cut in half, and make no mistake: It will continue to go down.
Meanwhile, yesterday marked the definitive end of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. And there, too, our military played a critical role in shaping a situation on the ground in which the Libyan people can build their own future. Today, NATO is working to bring this successful mission to a close.
Mitch McConnell got outmaneuvered last night in an odd and apparently fiery (for the Senate) battle with Harry Reid. Mitch, as usual, was playing games with the Senate rules — his favorite pastime — and Reid had enough of it.
It’s a confusing series of events based around parliamentary procedures and whatnot, but here’s a patchwork…
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put the hammer down against the GOP today, setting a new precedent that clamps down on procedural motions after cloture has been reached.
The Nevada Democrat warned that allowing unchecked motions to suspend the rules could lead to unending debate, even after 60 Senators have voted to invoke cloture.
“The Republican Senators have filed nine motions to suspend the rules to consider further amendments but the same logic that allows for nine such motions could lead to the consideration of 99 such amendments,” Reid argued before springing his move.
Reid said Republicans could force an “endless vote-a-rama” after the Senate has voted to move to final passage.
He said this contradicts the rule the Senate adopted 32 years ago.
“This potential for filibuster by amendment is exactly the circumstance that the Senate sought to end by its 1979 amendments,” Reid said.
“The Senate must have the ability to move forward on legislation that has broad bipartisan support,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement late Thursday explaining his move to change the chamber’s long-observed rules. “A small minority of senators cannot be allowed to bring bipartisan legislation, like a bill to end China’s job-killing, underhanded currency manipulation, to a grinding halt when 14 million Americans are out of work.”
Thursday night’s history-making vote followed more than seven hours of negotiations between the Senate Republican and Democratic leaders.
….Exasperated Democrats charged that Republicans at the last minute tried to introduce a non-related amendment by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) regarding Environmental Protection Agency regulations on farm dust. Republicans, just as frustrated, shot back that Democrats were the ones who changed the agreed-to plan at the eleventh hour by trying to substitute the Johanns amendment with one offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) regarding the Federal Reserve.
As the negotiations remained deadlocked, Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) got into a rare, unscripted dispute on the Senate floor – with Reid ultimately announcing that the Senate would proceed with a history-making vote.
There’s some video of this back and forth at The Hill… but the best retelling takes us back to the Washington Post:
For much of the ninety-minute floor debate, Reid and McConnell debated the roles of the majority and the minority in the Senate, and even the purpose of the chamber itself.
“I feel very comfortable that what we’re doing and what we did today is the right thing to do,” Reid told the chamber, arguing that “cloture means ‘end.’ It’s over with.”
McConnell, pacing back and forth in front of his desk, shot back: “The majority doesn’t want to take votes.”
He then lobbed what many in the Senate might consider the ultimate insult: “We are fundamentally turning the Senate into the House.”
Reid countered: “The Senate should function like the Senate, and I acknowledge that, but we have major piece of legislation being bogged down.”
Later, in a dig at McConnell, he added: “Let’s get back to legislating as we did before the mantra around here was, ‘Defeat Obama.’”
Now, what’s true is we’ve also got to rein in our deficits and live within our means, which is why this jobs bill is fully paid for by asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share. Some see this as class warfare. I see it as a simple choice: We can either keep taxes exactly as they are for millionaires and billionaires, with loopholes that lead them to have lower tax rates in some cases than plumbers and teachers, or we can put teachers and construction workers and veterans back on the job.
We can fight to protect tax cuts for folks who don’t need them and weren’t asking for them, or we can cut taxes for virtually every worker and small business in America. But we can’t afford to do both. That’s the choice that’s going to be before the Senate.
There are too many people hurting in this country for us to do nothing and the economy is just too fragile for us to let politics get in the way of action.
We’ve got a responsibility to the people who sent us here. So I hope every senator thinks long and hard about what’s at stake when they cast their vote next week.
****ON REPUBLICANS PLAYING GAMES****
[W]ith respect to working with Congress, I think it’s fair to say that I have gone out of my way in every instance, sometimes at my own political peril and to the frustration of Democrats, to work with Republicans to find common ground to move this country forward — in every instance, whether it was during the lame duck session, when we were able to get an agreement on making sure that the payroll tax was cut in the first place, and making sure that unemployment insurance was extended, to my constant efforts during the debt ceiling to try to get what’s been called a grand bargain, in which we had a balanced approach to actually bringing down our deficit and debt in a way that wouldn’t hurt our recovery.
Each time, what we’ve seen is games-playing, a preference to try to score political points rather than actually get something done on the part of the other side. And that has been true not just over the last six months; that’s been true over the last two and a half years.
Now, the bottom line is this: Our doors are open. And what I’ve done over the last several weeks is to take the case to the American people so that they understand what’s at stake. It is now up to all the senators, and hopefully all the members of the House, to explain to their constituencies why they would be opposed to common-sense ideas that historically have been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. Why would you be opposed to tax cuts for small businesses and tax cuts for American workers?
My understanding is that for the last decade, they’ve been saying we need to lower taxes for folks. Well, why wouldn’t we want to do that through this jobs bill? We know that we’ve got roads and bridges and schools that need to be rebuilt. And historically, Republicans haven’t been opposed to rebuilding roads and bridges. Why would you be opposed now?
****ON MITCH McCONNELL****
So the bottom line is this, Ben: If next week senators have additional ideas that will put people back to work right now and meet the challenges of the current economy, we are happy to consider them. But every idea that we put forward are ones that traditionally have been supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. And I think it’s important for us to have a vote on those ideas, because I believe that it’s very hard to argue against them.
And if Mr. McConnell chooses to vote against it, or if members of his caucus choose to vote against it, I promise you we’re going to keep on going, and we will put forward maybe piece by piece each component of the bill. And each time they’re going to have to explain why it is that they’d be opposed to putting teachers back in the classroom, or rebuilding our schools, or giving tax cuts to middle-class folks, and giving tax cuts to small businesses.
****ON CONSUMER PROTECTION AND THE GOP’S PROTECTION OF WALL STREET****
[W]hat we’ve seen over the last year is not only did the financial sector — with the Republican Party in Congress — fight us every inch of the way, but now you’ve got these same folks suggesting that we should roll back all those reforms and go back to the way it was before the crisis. Today, my understanding is we’re going to have a hearing on Richard Cordray, who is my nominee to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He would be America’s chief consumer watchdog when it comes to financial products. This is a guy who is well regarded in his home state of Ohio, has been the treasurer of Ohio, the attorney general of Ohio. Republicans and Democrats in Ohio all say that he is a serious person who looks out for consumers. He has a good reputation. And Republicans have threatened not to confirm him not because of anything he’s done, but because they want to roll back the whole notion of having a consumer watchdog.
You’ve got Republican presidential candidates whose main economic policy proposals is, we’ll get rid of the financial reforms that are designed to prevent the abuses that got us into this mess in the first place. That does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it. And they will continue to be frustrated by it until they get a sense that everybody is playing by the same set of rules, and that you’re rewarded for responsibility and doing the right thing as opposed to gaining the system.
So I’m going to be fighting every inch of the way here in Washington to make sure that we have a consumer watchdog that is preventing abusive practices by the financial sector.
****ON THE GOP “Jobs Plan”****
[W]hat I’ve tried to do is say, here are the best ideas I’ve heard. Not just from partisans, but from independent economists. These are the ideas most likely to create jobs now and strengthen the economy right now. And that’s what the American people are looking for. And the response from Republicans has been: No. Although they haven’t given a good reason why they’re opposed to putting construction workers back on the job, or teachers back in the classroom.
If you ask them, well, okay, if you’re not for that, what are you for? Trade has already been done; patent reform has been done. What else? The answer we’re getting right now is, well, we’re going to roll back all these Obama regulations. So their big economic plan to put people back to work right now is to roll back financial protections and allow banks to charge hidden fees on credit cards again or weaken consumer watchdogs, or alternatively they’ve said we’ll roll back regulations that make sure we’ve got clean air and clean water, eliminate the EPA. Does anybody really think that that is going to create jobs right now and meet the challenges of a global economy that are — that is weakening with all these forces coming into play?
****ON THE “DO-NOTHING CONGRESS”****
And so, Bill, the question, then, is, will Congress do something? If Congress does something, then I can’t run against a do-nothing Congress. If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them; I think the American people will run them out of town, because they are frustrated, and they know we need to do something big and something bold.
The press conference just ended. Went over an hour. That’s basically an hour where President Obama spoke intelligently, candidly and at length off the cuff. There were many strong moments and if we can, we’ll post more through the afternoon.
A month after President Obama’s Jobs speech and his somewhat tepid expression of support, Democratic Congressman Ben Chandler today released this press release — a refreshing (and Awesome!) development:
Congressman Ben Chandler
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – KENTUCKY’S 6TH DISTRICT
_____________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 5, 2011
Rep. Chandler: Congress Must Act Now to Create Jobs
WASHINGTON (October 5, 2011)—Congressman Chandler today called on Congress to take up and debate legislation that will put Americans back to work and help small businesses in Kentucky succeed. President Obama sent the American Jobs Act to Congress last month.
“The American people’s top priority is job creation, and strengthening small businesses, rebuilding America and putting people back to work is a crucial part of growing our economy,” Congressman Chandler said. “This legislation is paid for in full and includes elements – the payroll tax credit, rebuilding our schools, a focus on improving infrastructure, and long-term deficit reduction – which I think both sides of the aisle can agree will get our country on the path to economic recovery. There is no time to waste: Congress must act now to create jobs, strengthen our middle class, and expand our economy.”
In Kentucky alone, the American Jobs Act will deliver tax cuts to 70,000 businesses, put 5,900 people to work rebuilding local infrastructure, support 6,100 teacher and first responder jobs, and offer $1,330 in tax relief to a typical household. The legislation is fully paid for and is based on bipartisan initiatives.
The American Jobs Act will result in hundreds of thousands of construction workers going back on the job to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, rail lines, schools, and airports. American infrastructure now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers, with 119 bridges in Central Kentucky carrying nearly half a million people every day in need of repair. The legislation also includes an initiative to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses, which will strengthen our neighborhoods.
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Our 6th District Congressman today did something wonderful and we send him love and support!
SHE WON'T GO!
KentuckyElection.org
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
