Morning Briefing for June 29, 2009
1. Administration Weighing New Middle Class Tax Increase
Obama’s promise to not raise taxes on the middle class came with an expiration date he didn’t tell us about
2. 219-212: Cap and Trade Passes House. On to the Senate
Senate Democrats are already pronouncing it dead on arrival
3. Vulnerable Democrats Due to Cap and Trade
Here now are the swing district Democrats who voted against their districts
4. A Tale of Two Leaders: Boehner v. McConnell
On Friday night, the House GOP sent out a press release blasting the passage of H.R. 2454 and listed the names of all eight Republicans who voted for it. The Senate GOP would never do that.
5. Boehner: ‘where are the jobs?’
None around here
6. DCCC to Republicans: Stop ‘Playing Politics’ with the Troops
Democrats use troops as guise to fund global bailout, then criticize Republicans for ‘playing politics’ with troops after they voted en bloc against funding a mushroomed, pork-laden appropriations bill
7. Debbie Halvorson’s Embarrassing Cave
She Bows to Obama Pressure and Supports Cap-and-Tax
1. Administration Weighing New Middle Class Tax Increase
Obama’s promise to not raise taxes on the middle class came with an expiration date he didn’t tell us about
Top White House aide David Axelrod told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos today that the administration intends to explore a number of means by which it can overhaul the nation’s health care system, but refused to reaffirm then-candidate Barry Obama’s “firm pledge” to not raise taxes on middle class Americans.
“The president had said in the past that he does not believe taxing health care benefits at any level is necessarily the best way to go here,” said Axelrod. “He still believes that, but there are a number of formulations and we’ll wait and see.”
Obama has not always been open to “a number of formulations,” however. In fact, prompted by Republican accusations his tax plan would hurt middle class pocketbooks, Obama was quite adamant he would do no such thing. While campaigning in Dover, NH, Obama said, “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Slow to fulfill campaign pledges or entirely reversing his position on others, the president has come under fire from the most loyal of Democratic Party activists, including the LGBT community and environmentalists, but waffling on his no-middle-class-tax-hike pledge stands to pit the irresolute president against a majority of the American voting public, not just disillusioned splinter groups.
After pressed on whether the president will draw “a line in the sand” by a persistent Stephanopoulos, Axelrod refused to take the bait and align the administration with any such ultimatum.
“One of the problems we’ve had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking to each other. And you don’t get anything done. That’s not the way the president approaches this,” he said.
The reason for President Obama’s now-obvious reticence to pursue campaign pledges—or make intractable ultimatums, for that matter—is quite simple. Keeping promises while juggling the competing interests of donors, activists, and voters is no simple feat. If you don’t make a promise, you can’t break it.
Then-candidate Barry Obama promised impossibilities—of a transparent government, of a new politics, of a hopeful and peaceful American—and performed little. Now-President Barry Obama promises nothing and yet he still performs little.
2. 219-212: Cap and Trade Passes House. On to the Senate
Senate Democrats are already pronouncing it dead on arrival
The Democrats in the House of Representatives have voted to destroy the United States economy unilaterally. The vote was 220-203. 5 people did not vote.
The vote was extremely close. 8 Republicans voted yes. 43 Democrats voted no.
Your persistent phone calls kept the margin very narrow and now make it extremely difficult to pass the Senate.
We must keep up the pressure in the Senate. We also now have a lot of momentum going into the healthcare fight. Democrats cannot expect to hold the same economy destroying coalition together.
Also, several Democrats are now dead men walking. We will clean their clocks next year.
3. Vulnerable Democrats Due to Cap and Trade
Here now are the swing district Democrats who voted against their districts
Based on the votes for cap and trade, we
should start focusing on these Democrats. I’d encourage you to each adopt one or more to follow.
Zach Space – OH-18
Heath Shuler NC-11
Patrick Murphy PA-8
Frank Kratovil MD-1
Baron Hill IN-9
Bart Gordon TN-6
Gabrielle Giffords AZ-8
Jim Cooper TN-5
Allen Boyd FL-2
Leonard Boswell IA-3
Melissa Bean IL-8
Scott Murphy NY-20
4. A Tale of Two Leaders: Boehner v. McConnell
On Friday night, the House GOP sent out a press release blasting the passage of H.R. 2454 and listed the names of all eight Republicans who voted for it. The Senate GOP would never do that.
Not only that, but John Boehner took to the floor of the House to engage in a quasi-filibuster of the legislation. Please note that those criticizing Boehner for not making it a full filibuster are under the impression that he could have done so. Boeher was speaking with “unlimited” time, which actually meant he was speaking for as long as the Speaker would allow him — a big difference and something he cannot afford to abuse.
Boehner tied up the House for an hour by daring to read the legislation and then the House GOP Leadership sent out a release blasting the eight Republicans who voted for cap-and-trade. I dare Mitch McConnell to be so bold.
McConnell’s typical idea on something like this would be to get an amendment allowing drilling for oil in one square inch of ANWR, then declare compromise a success and vote for the thing. Hopefully, in this battle, he will be a fighter not a squish. He should remember what John Boehner did both before and after the vote, then act the same way.
5. Boehner: ‘where are the jobs?’
None around here
In Saturday’s “Weekly Republican Address,” House Republican Leader John Boehner asks, “Where are the jobs?”
It’s a good question. After all, to justify spending trillions of borrowed money on President Obama’s so-called stimulus, energy and health care bills, Obama and the Democrats promised the unprecedented spending would create jobs.
6. DCCC to Republicans: Stop ‘Playing Politics’ with the Troops
Democrats use troops as guise to fund global bailout, then criticize Republicans for ‘playing politics’ with troops after they voted en bloc against funding a mushroomed, pork-laden appropriations bill
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Friday it will launch a series of district-specific radio ads targeting vulnerable Republicans who voted against President Obama’s controversial war supplemental package.
As a matter of national security in years past Republicans have shown tremendous support for similar measures, however last week they voted en bloc against the $106 billion appropriations bill.
The Democratic Leadership and the DCCC would be content to let the public believe Republicans were “playing politics” with the troops, having voted against the emergency legislation out of pure spite for the president.
Over 100 Republicans voted for the bill when the first iteration—before the $83.5 billion bill mushroomed—reached the floor of the House several weeks ago. But after the Democratic Leadership rewrote the bill to include billions in funding for lawmakers’ pet projects, including an additional $5 billion in funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), virtually all Republicans defected, accusing the Democrats of lacing the emergency war-funding bill with billions of extraneous pork barrel spending.
7. Debbie Halvorson’s Embarrassing Cave
She Bows to Obama Pressure and Supports Cap-and-Tax
Check out the video of Representative Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) bragging that Barry Obama could not pressure her into voting for cap-and-trade legislation.
This video is very helpful for several reasons.
First, it makes clear that her general support for higher taxes and spending comes from simple ignorance. She says that she opposes carbon taxes because ‘if you have enough money, you’re just going to pay to pollute.’ She seems not to realize that carbon emissions come from things like generating electricity, and that if electric prices skyrocket, economic activity will grind to a halt, businesses will shut down, and people will use less electricity. It’s disturbing that the people of Illinois are represented by an economic illiterate, who thinks that tax increases have no economic effects. (It does however, explain a lot.)
Second, it has to be incredibly embarrassing to Ms. Halvorson that her bankrupt bragging was caught on tape, and would come back to haunt her after she caved under pressure from Barry Obama.
