Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote for Tuesday morning on a cloture vote on the nomination of far left Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) to be Labor secretary. She has has always been a "shill for Big Labor" and was allowed to pass in the confirmation on major issues like "card check." More disturbing, though, Americans for Limited Government identified that Solis served as treasurer for the pro-labor group, American Rights at Work (ARW). House Ethics Rules dictate that no member of the House of Representatives may “personally supervise” lobbying efforts by lobbyist groups:
“[A member] may sit on the board of an organization which, among other things, lobbies Congress, but the Member should not personally supervise the organization's lobbying activities since such action on behalf of a single private group would appear inconsistent with her responsibilities to the public at large. [p 352]”While she is not paid in her capacity as treasurer, she no doubt “personally supervised” the $169,000 which ARW spent on urging residents of New Hampshire to urge congressional support of the Employee “Free Choice” Act [Card Check] of which she also co-sponsored in the House.
Following that vote, Reid has scheduled cloture on the motion to proceed to the unconstitutional bill to grant House voting rights the delegate from the District of Colombia (Washington.D.C.) (S. 160). While Senate Democrats may get the unconstitutional bill passed with a few compromised Republicans who are willing to pass the bill and then let the Supreme Court decide (forget their reading the US Constitution they swore to uphold). The Constitution says "the several states" shall send representatives to Congress - not the District or Territories. The Republican leadership is expected to try to advance the debate and detail information needed to prepare the groundwork for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court assuming that "alleged constitutional scholar" Pres. Barack Obama signs the bill.
Later this week, President Obama is set to unveil his first budget proposal. As details about the plan are revealed, though, a number of questions are arising about the assumptions in the Obama blueprint.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Obama will promise that he can shrink [the more than $1.9 trillion deficit] to $533 billion, or 3% of GDP, by 2013, primarily through savings from withdrawing combat forces from Iraq and allowing George W. Bush’s tax cuts for families earning more than $250,000 to lapse in 2011.” Of course, raising taxes is where the first problems with this plan begin. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was not enthusiastic about the idea of tax hikes, saying, “I don’t think raising taxes is a great idea and when our good friends on the other side of the aisle say raising the taxes on the wealthy, what they’re really talking about is small business. A vast majority of American small businesses pay taxes as individual taxpayers. So, we got to ask ourselves whether increasing capital gains taxes, dividend taxes and taxes on small business is a great thing to do in the middle of a deep recession.”
And The Journal notes, “The forecast for a sharp narrowing of the deficit will also rest on the assumption that the economy recovers from the current slump.” In an article analyzing the Obama proposal today, McClatchy points out, “While it’s quite possible, this scenario relies on successful efforts to shore up the banking system, recovery in the housing market and a sharp recovery in the global economy to lift U.S. exports.” No one at the moment knows whether the current recession will see a quick recovery or a prolonged slump. Yet the Obama plan assumes “that the U.S. economy will rebound late this year and begin to recover next year, hitting a fast pace in 2011 and 2012,” according to McClatchy.
Further, the plan assumes saving from removing troops from Iraq, but McClatchy points out that that assumes things continue to go well there. It also rests on the assumption that withdrawing troops doesn’t make the situation worse and require some to go back. Finally, McClatchy, writes, “Lawmakers will talk a lot about curbing spending, but history — as well as Congress’s recent actions — suggest that it won’t show much restraint.” Having just passed an unprecedented $787 billion spending bill and beginning work on a $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill, Congress certainly doesn’t seem inclined towards spending restraint.
As Sen. McConnell pointed out that, “We have been on an incredible spending spree, though. We’ve spent, in this new administration, 32 days, $36 billion a day. If you add all that up, that’s as much as the previous administration spent over seven years on both the war on terror and the recovery from Katrina.” It would certainly be a positive step, then, if President Obama works to create some restraints on spending in order to reduce the deficit. However, if the deficit cutting plans rely mainly on rosy scenarios and raising taxes, the administration would do well to give them another look.
On the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already indicated her preference to remove the Bush tax cuts this year and not to wait until they are sunset in 2010. She has also indicated he desire to pass on "Card Check," and to ask the Senate to vote first. This has sparked interests in the position of "blue dog" senators and senators, like Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, who's constituents oppose taking away a workers right to have a secret vote. The Examiner had a great piece last week highlighting the hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats who are pushing for card check in the US yet signed a letter in 2001 chastising Mexico over the same issue saying, "the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose."
Tags: Blanche Lincoln, Card Check, DC, Harry Reid, Hilda Solis, Nancy Pelosi, US Congress, US House, US Senate, voting rights, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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