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All the Hill news that fit to blog is over the fold...
Spending Freeze
ZOMFGWTFLOLWUTBBQ: Liberal Outrage Du Jour
Obama to propose freeze on government spending
Under mounting pressure to rein in mammoth budget deficits, President Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a three-year freeze on federal funding that is not related to national security, a concession to public concern about government spending that could dramatically curtail Obama's legislative ambitions.
~snip
The spending freeze would affect only about one-eighth of the nation's $3.5 trillion budget, the bulk of which is devoted to entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are responsible for much of the future increase in spending. It would not restrain funding for the $787 billion economic stimulus package Obama pushed through Congress early last year, nor would it apply to a new bill aimed at creating jobs, which Democrats have identified as their top priority in the run-up to November's congressional elections.
Let's fill out the narrative. First, the budget is a problem and President Obama has been trying to do something about it, but Congress -- surprise -- can't overcome a threatened filibuster to actually do something substantive.
The Senate on Tuesday rejected a plan to create a bipartisan commission to tackle the nation's budget problems this year, leaving it up to President Obama to create such a panel by executive order.
The commission would have had broad powers to recommend changes to the tax code and cut spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Its recommendations, due after the November elections, would have been guaranteed an up-or-down vote in both chambers of Congress before the year is out.
But the measure won just 53 votes in the Senate, not enough to overcome a threatened filibuster. In rejecting the idea, Republicans opposed to tax increases joined Democrats fearful of being forced to cut social programs.
Second, that $25 billion will not affect the stimulus plans. In fact, word is that Senate Democrats are looking at another $82.5 billion package to help the economic recovery.
In fairness, the Washington Independent is reporting that those reports might no be accurate.
The White House says liberal criticism will be muted once we hear all of the details.
A White House official said Tuesday that liberal critics of President Barack Obama's proposed discretionary spending freeze will be "muted" once they are fully rolled out.
Rob Nabors, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), emphasized to reporters that the spending freeze will not affect all agencies and that the White House is still committing to accomplishing its goals.
Nabors could have used better terminology, but his point is taken. Let's see what the President has to say rather than relying on headlines and incomplete information.
Meanwhile, Shadow President John McCain and Evan Bayh have introduced legislation to take the spending freeze a step further.
A bipartisan Senate proposal unveiled Tuesday would take the president's proposed spending freeze one step further and introduce a host of new controls designed to reduce the nation's growing, $1.3 trillion deficit.
The reform package, chiefly sponsored by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), would impose a moratorium on earmarks, create an account purely for deficit reduction, offer the president line-item veto power and establish spending targets, the two lawmakers said Tuesday.
But the most important point is that the current budget path is unsustainable.
The 2010 federal budget deficit will be $1.35 trillion, nearly as large as last year's record $1.4 trillion budget shortfall, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO, in its budget outlook released Tuesday, also projected a "muted" economic recovery over the next few years. The unemployment rate will average more than 10 percent for the first half of this year and then decline at a slower pace than in past recoveries, the CBO said. The jobless rate won't return to a sustainable level of 5 percent until 2014, the budget office predicted.
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Pence Out
Rep. Mike Pence has announced he is not running against Bayh for his Senate seat.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Pence, R-Columbus, said today that he would rather help Republicans retake the House than challenge Sen. Evan Bayh this year.
“I am not going to leave my post when the fate of the House hangs in the balance,” said Pence, the No. 3 member of the House GOP leadership.
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He knows Jack
Remember Jack Abramoff? How about Bob Ney? Well the man who helped take them down is telling his story.
Tom Rodgers preferred to operate strategically behind the scenes as he played a leading role in taking down the most notorious lobbyist on K Street. But now, in an interview with The Hill, he has decided to go public with his story.
“We watched this all unfold and we remained quiet,” he said. “At that time, we were stereotyped as ignorant and greedy Indians. But we knew different … we knew the time to tell this story wasn’t then.”
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Obama to visit GOP retreat
President Obama has agreed to meet with House GOP members at their retreat this weekend.
President Obama will meet Friday with perhaps his harshest critics outside of Fox News headquarters: the House Republicans.
The House GOP invited Obama this year to speak at its annual retreat, which will be held in Baltimore from Thursday to Saturday. Coming only two days after Obama's State of the Union address, the session could herald better relations between the two sides in 2010 -- or lift their tensions to an even higher level.
And my money is on the latter outcome.
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Bugger O'Keefe
The dewd who posed as a pimp to make a film casting ACORN in a bad light is in a lot of hot water today and I am guessing Mary Landrieu is not pleased.
Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.
Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
The link is worth it just for the photo.
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Look. Out there in the Senate. Rich Dems.
Eight of the Ten richest members of Congress are Democrats.
I'm not so sure about the methodology on this, and in fairness neither is Roll Call:
Because Members report their wealth in broad ranges — varying from $1 to $1,000 up to more than $50 million — it can be difficult to determine exactly how much a lawmaker’s finances have declined. Shifting an asset from one category to the next may give the appearance of losses reaching millions of dollars, even if the stocks, real estate or other investment has decreased only a few thousand dollars.
Nonetheless, financial disclosures offer some insight into the cause of such changes.
You can check out your member here.
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David, what's a clay pigeon?
Today Tom Coburn "hijacked" debate on raising the debt ceiling in an effort bankrupt the country slow down the debate.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) used a little-known procedural maneuver Tuesday afternoon to hijack debate on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) debt limit increase bill.
The procedure, known as a “clay pigeon,” splits Coburn’s pending amendment to the debt limit increase into 17 separate parts — a move that will require the chamber to take 17 separate votes and drag out the debate significantly.
How obscure is the "clay pigeon?" It's so obscure that it does not appear on the C-SPAN glossary.
Update: Parlimentarian says no dice. Thanks, CA Berkley WV!
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January 26
In the Most Important News of the Day™ It's my birthday. I'm getting a Kindle!
It's also Australia Day and Xavier Beccera's birthday.
Happy Jan. 26.