Shutdown!! Where is California Now???

For the first time in 17 years, the federal government has shut down. As CalWatchdog.com has previously explained, this doesn’t exactly mean that steel bars have dropped in front of all government buildings. Rather, some programs are temporarily shuttered and non-essential employees go home.

About half of all federal workers are deemed essential and will remain on the job. Also, Congress and President Obama have already agreed on a bill that would continue to pay American troops. If the House has its way, other parts of government like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Park Service will reopen too. The House plan announced Tuesday would also enable the local government of Washington, D.C., to maintain basic services like garbage pickup.

But that doesn’t mean a shutdown still won’t affect California. The Golden State doesn’t rely as heavily on the federal government for employment as Maryland or Virginia, but the shutdown will still have some effect. After all, California employs 150,762 federal workers, more than any other state. (It remains unclear exactly how many of those employees are being furloughed.)

In addition to federal workers, California also supplies the federal government with plenty of politicians. So where do some of the key players in Washington — those that can actually make a difference dealing with the shutdown — stand?

Of course, they all say that they oppose a government shutdown. But the disagreements occur over how exactly to end the stalemate. House Republicans want Senate Democrats to take part in a conference committee to sort out a compromise that would end the stalemate. The House hopes that they can pass a continuing resolution (CR) that might include some changes to Obamacare, such as a repeal of the medical device tax or the removal of special exemptions for Congress. Democrats demand the immediate passage of a “clean CR,” or a bill that would fund the government without any strings attached. Since they’ve been unable to come to a compromise, the government remains unfunded.

All California Democrats have voted with their party on the shutdown-related votes in the past few days, as have Republicans voting with the GOP.

Via: CA Political Review 

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John Boehner will demand concessions from Obama before raising debt ceiling

(CNSNews.com) - Over the past two weeks, a growing number of House Democrats have broken with their party leadership to vote with House Republicans to approve funding for parts of the federal government that do not involve implementing Obamacare.

The number of Democrats voting for funding bills put up by the House leadership that were then blocked by the Democrat-controlled Senate has grown from 2--who voted for a measure to fund the entire government except Obamacare--to as many as 36 who voted to pay members of the National Guard when on inactive-duty training.

However, because the Senate Democratic leadership has refused to support these measures, they have not been passed and sent on to President Obama to see if he would actually veto them to maintain his leverage in trying to force the House to fund Obamacare.

This has created the basic dynamic of the current impasse over funding the government: The Democratic leadership is insisting it will not fund any part of the government unless the Republicans, and those Democrats who have sided with the Republicans, agree to fund Obamacare.

Every one of the spending measures the House of Representatives have taken up in the past two weeks has had at least some bipartisan support--and as the House Republicans have begun putting up bills to target individual parts of the government for full funding (while giving no money to Obamacare), the number of Democrats supporting the Republican measures has increased.

Via: CNS News

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VULNERABLE SENATE DEMOCRATS STUCK WITH OBAMACARE

On Friday, the House is expected to pass a continuing resolution to extend funding for government, but also strip all discretionary spending to implement ObamaCare. If enacted, the House action would allow government to remain open but erect a huge obstacle to ObamaCare. While all of the media is consumed with an internal GOP debate on this issue, the true target of such a move has escaped notice. If the House proceeds with its vote, several vulnerable Democrat Senators face a series of bad choices. 

Over the August recess, Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee built grass-roots momentum to defund ObamaCare through the continuing resolution that must pass by the end of September. Many commentators criticized the move, arguing that the Senate and Obama would never agree to defunding their signature policy achievement. Those commentators are missing the point. While there is no practical way to defund ObamaCare, since most of the spending supporting the law is mandatory and not subject to Congressional appropriations, the House move puts an unwelcome spotlight on several vulnerable Senate Democrats. They will be forced, just a little over a year ahead of mid-term elections, to again take a stand on ObamaCare. 

Republicans needs to pick up 6 seats to take control of the Senate. They are currently favored to pick up three seats, in West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana. Three more Democrat incumbents are endangered, Mark Pryor (AR), Mary Landrieu (LA) and Kay Hagen (NC). With the House action, all three will be forced to go on record, either supporting or opposing ObamaCare. It is not an easy choice. 

The full implementation of ObamaCare begins in two weeks. As the deadline approaches, polls show the health care law even more unpopular than when it was passed in 2010. At that time, problems with the law were abstract. Today, with employers cutting hours, shifting to part-time employees or dropping health coverage, the problems with the law are very real. Taking a vote now to continue with the law is the worst possible choice for Democrats up for reelection next year. 

Which is the entire point of this move by Sens. Cruz and Lee. The target isn't to rally the Tea Party or call out RINOs, it is to force Senate Democrats to again endorse ObamaCare. The media focus on a GOP internal civil war is meant to obscure this fact. Everyone cautioned the House GOP against this move, for the very reason that they didn't want the Senate to have to vote on the issue again. 

After the House vote on Friday, the Senate will have to again debate, and vote on, ObamaCare.  

Via: Breitbart

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Conservatives float new plan to delay Obamacare by one year

House conservatives are coalescing around an alternative plan that would delay implementation of Obamacare by one year and use the money saved to restore the sequester-mandated spending cuts, in exchange for approving either a must-pass budget bill or legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

The concept was hatched by conservative House Republicans disappointed with a GOP leadership proposal that would send to theSenate a budget bill that funds the government beyond Sept. 30 but allows the Democratic chamber to approve that spending while simultaneously voting down an attached amendment stripping all funding for the Affordable Care Act. Conservative activists are pushing House Republicans to leverage a government shutdown as a means to defund Obamacare.

House conservatives are sympathetic to this strategy, which involves passing a budget that defunds Obamacare and attempts to pin the blame for the inevitable government shutdown on President Obama. But even these Republicans recognize the political risk of a government shutdown, and they are now trying to devise an alternative to the leadership proposal that would still cut Obamacare.

“My take is, a consensus is all beginning to build,” Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said Wednesday as he exited a closed-door meeting of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., attended the meeting, but did not address RSC members, those present said.

Republican leaders cancelled a vote on their Obamacare proposal this week, acknowledging that they didn't have the votes needed to clear the House.

RSC meetings can be raucous and emotive, with caucus members occasionally venting their unhappiness with leadership and its various plans. But members exiting Wednesday’s conclave described the discussion as constructive, an attempt to “thread the needle” between GOP leaders’ desire to avoid a politically risky government shutdown and conservative demands that the upcoming fiscal negotiations be used to block implementation of Obamacare, which will accelerate in October.

Via: Washington Examiner

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DCCC Chief: Syria Not Big Issue in 2014 Elections

The House Democratic campaign chief told reporters Tuesday that while Capitol Hill is consumed with debate on Syria, the issue will not affect the 2014 midterms.

“2014 is not going to be a referendum on Syria,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. Instead, he added, the 2014 midterms will be about “solutions,” helping the middle class, extremism and partisanship.

Israel declined to detail the Syria issue in his role as DCCC chairman, reiterating the committee does not endorse policy positions. Instead, he argued that many House Republicans who oppose authorization for intervention in Syria would support the same policy if Mitt Romney were president and proposed it instead of President Barack Obama.

“The level of hypocrisy is what amazes me,” he said.

Israel stated that his personal position — not that of the DCCC — is generally supportive of military intervention, but he is hopeful about reports that the Russian government proposed taking control of Syria’s chemical weapons.

“Now we have to see if that path is credible,” he said.

As for his own incumbents, he stressed that his vulnerable House Democrats must be “communicating” with their constituents on Syria. Israel added that Democrats should not be taking into consideration whether their vote “helps or hurts the president.”

Via: Roll Call

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Becerra Pushes Immigration Overhaul as Deficit Reducer Again

Rep. Xavier Becerra has a plan for dealing with two thorny political problems at once this fall: bring down the national deficit by passing an immigration overhaul.

It’s an idea the House Democratic Caucus chairman has been pushing for years with little success, first during the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission and then in his capacity as a member of the doomed supercommittee on deficit reduction.

“At that point, I think people were still just focused on the budget, the regular tools for fashioning a budget,” Becerra said in a recent interview with CQ Roll Call. “The idea didn’t go very far. I raised it again, and again it didn’t go very far, probably because we weren’t having a very expanded discussion about immigration reform and a lot of people didn’t know what it would mean to have an immigration bill and how it would fit in terms of the economy.”

But things are different now, Becerra continued. There is increasing urgency to avert a government shutdown or debt limit showdown with an aim to also curb spending, and the momentum for an immigration rewrite has grown following the 2012 elections.

“Each issue is looking for some locomotion, and I certainly think any time you can add a trillion dollars of deficit reduction to fiscal negotiations, that’s pretty big,” Becerra said. “And any time you can also give a jump-start to the reluctance of some on the Republican side to move on fixing the economy at the same time, I think that’s gotta help.”

Via: Roll Call

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Senate to Vote on Syria on … 9/11?

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday that House leaders expect the Senate to vote on the Syria resolution on Sept. 11.

Reading an email off his phone from his chief of staff, Culberson indicated that Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., thinks the Senate will vote on the Syria resolution next Wednesday.

While the House may not always have the best idea of what is going on in the Senate, “Cantor expects the Senate to vote on 9/11,” Culberson said, parroting the guidance email.

While the Sept. 11 anniversary might seem like a curious day to hold the vote, Culberson thought it was fitting.

“How could it be any clearer? That’s the perfect day to do it,” Culberson said. “They need to defeat it to honor the victims of 9/11 and we will not give aid and comfort to al-Qaida and the psychopaths that carried out the 9/11 attacks.”

That theory, however, may be complicated Senate rules.

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moves to put the resolution on the floor Sept. 9, a test vote on the resolution would likely occur on Sept. 11. Sixty votes would be needed to bypass any blockade to bringing the measure up. If the measure gets past that Wednesday vote, a vote on final passage could occur on Sept. 12, if all senators agreed. However, any senator could attempt to filibuster, which would push a final passage vote to Sept. 14 — one hour after midnight — unless a time agreement could be reached.

Of course, the night of Sept. 13 is Yom Kippur, and with the House likely needing more time to woo votes, the Senate is unlikely to be in session.

The week of Sept. 16 seems a more realistic target for final passage.

Anything, however, is possible in the Senate with unanimous consent.

Via: Roll Call

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Obama to address Organizing for Action summit Monday

President Obama is scheduled on Monday to address supporters of Organizing for Action gathered for a day-long summit in Washington, an event that kicks off a month of stepped-up campaigning by the advocacy group.

Obama will speak at a “working dinner” of volunteers, donors and staff assembled at a downtown hotel, his second in-person address to OFA  since it launched in January. Other speakers will include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood.

The meeting is part of what OFA has dubbed “Action August” – a month in which it aims step up pressure on lawmakers home for the summer recess over issues such as immigration reform, gun control and environmental protection.

“It’s all about making sure members of Congress hear directly from the people they represent, on the issues that matter to all of us,” OFA executive director Jon Carson wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

Via: Washington Post

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Carney Tells Republicans to ‘Pay Some Attention to Spanish-Language Media’

With the immigration debate ongoing and the House weighing its legislative plans, Jay Carney said Republican leaders need to follow Spanish-language media.

Noting a La Opinión editorial opposing Republicans’ version of the DREAM Act, Carney told reporters that “all of us, but mostly Republican leaders, [need] to pay some attention to the Spanish-language media in this country.” (La Opinión is America’s largest Spanish-language newspaper, and second-most-widely-circulated newspaper in Los Angeles.)

“That media are making clear [sic] they expect action from Congress, and they hold those who oppose commonsense solutions to this challenge responsible,” he explained.

Eric Cantor and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte have reportedly been working on a Republican version of the DREAM Act that provide a path to citizenship for the children who were brought to the U.S. illegally. Democrats have already voiced dissatisfaction with the bill because the children’s parents won’t have a similar path.

Carney reiterated that the administration wants to pass a comprehensive version of immigration reform, rather than taking the piece-by-piece approach preferred by House Republicans. Carney said he believed that, ultimately, the “the consensus is so strong” behind comprehensive reform that “a bill will land on the president’s desk that meets his principles.”

Via: National Review Online

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Obama Orders Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.

According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year

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Members of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little bump, as their annual salary will go from $174,000 to 174,900. Leadership in Congress, including the speaker of the House, will likewise get an increase.

Here's the list of new wages, as attached to President Obama's executive order:

"A new executive order has been issued providing for a new pay schedule beginning 'on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning after March 27, 2013,'" reports FedSmith.com. "The pay raise will generally be about 1/2 of 1%."

Jeryl Bier points to an example of the pay increase for average government executives:

Via: Weekly Standard

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If Economy Is Recovering Why Is Obama Increasing Welfare Spending?

Rising welfare spending has served as a metric for the weakness of the economy, but a new report suggests that will change in the coming years, as Obamacare increases welfare spending even after the economy bounces back.

“As projected by the Congressional Research Service, spending on welfare will continue to rise over the next decade, even as the economy is expected to recover,” the Senate Budget Committee Republicans announced today.

This year, welfare spending was approximately $1 trillion. By 2016, that number will rise by $321 billion, according to figures released by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

“Altogether, the President’s health law would add a new means-tested federal benefit to 30 million more Americans (many of whom do not currently receive means-tested assistance),” Sessions’ office explained. “In total, fully one-third—approximately 105 million—of all non-elderly Americans will receive their health care through the government once the law takes full effect. That figure will be even higher if the economy continues to experience weak growth.”

Mitt Romney has promised to repeal Obamacare if elected. If President Obama wins a second term, he could veto any repeal of the law unless two-thirds of the House and Senate voted to override his veto.

Via: Washington Examiner

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House Republicans scrub climate change concerns from EPA bill

The latest House bill aimed at thwarting climate change regulations drops previous language that acknowledged scientific concerns about global warming and evidence of rising temperatures and sea levels.

The House is slated to vote next week on several bills aimed at battling what Republicans call a White House “war” on coal — a package that includes previously passed legislation to block greenhouse gas rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But the new version of the greenhouse gas bill from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) omits a “sense of Congress” section that describes scientific concerns about climate change while casting it as an international issue.

The earlier version, which the House passed in April of 2011, said the United States has a “role to play in resolving global climate change matters on an international basis.”

The “sense of Congress” in the version of the bill approved last year stated: “There is established scientific concern over warming of the climate system based upon evidence from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”

The prior version of H.R. 910 also said Congress should ensure the United States fulfills its international climate role by developing policies that don’t hurt the economy, energy supplies or jobs. 

Upton, asked about the change, noted there are a “couple little differences” in the revised version of the bill.

“I can’t give you a specific reason why, but we are aware of it,” Upton told The Hill in the Capitol Thursday evening.

The updated version of the bill is available on the House Rules Committee website. 

Republicans are packaging the bill to block EPA rules with several other bills, which have also passed the House, that thwart or delay federal policies affecting the coal industry. The are being rolled into a single bill that lawmakers will debate and likely pass.

Via: The Hill

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TEA PARTY TO GOP: WE BUILT YOUR MAJORITY

Tuesday's theme at the Republican National Convention was "We Built It," but the night's speakers did not reference or mention the Tea Party movement that built the current Republican majority in the House during the 2010 midterm elections and infused a party that seemed all but moribund after the 2008 elections and the latter part of George W. Bush's presidency with enthusiasm, life, confidence, money, manpower, purpose, and a little swagger.

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who, like his father, Ron, is one of the most prominent symbols of the Tea Party movement that revolted in part against the spending habits of Republicans and Democrats during the last decade, addressed the RNC.

But even Paul did not explicitly mention or make note, by name, of the Tea Party movement.

This has left many Tea Partiers to wonder if the Romney campaign and the RNC are deliberately trying to disassociate the Republican and Romney brands on the national stage from the Tea Party brand that has given them momentum against Obama. Tea Party members were also perturbed, to say the least, that the RNC passed rules concerning delegate selection and convention rules that stripped power away from the grassroots on Tuesday.

"Their words and their actions speak for themselves," Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the influential Tea Party Patriots wrote. "The term 'tea party' appears to have been banned from the convention."

This strategy is risky for Romney and Republicans for three reasons.

First, 2012 is going to be a base election, and Tea Party voters need to turn out enthusiastically for Romney for him to win. Second, should Romney win, this strategy could potentially create a rift between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party, making it tougher for Romney to govern and push his agenda. Third, should Romney lose, the feud with the Tea Party could potentially cause an even bigger internecine conflict.

Via: Breitbart

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