A Humble Beginning for the 112th Congress

Why Is John Boehner's Gavel So Big?
As outgoing Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi officially handed over her job to John Boehner on Wednesday. In doing so, she gave him the House's symbol of power: the Speaker's gavel. "I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here, but the gavel of choice of Speaker Boehner," Pelosi said, a cheeky remark that elicited laughter from the Representatives gathered in the chamber. She wasn't kidding. Boehner's gavel is so big, it resembles a croquet mallet. Sadly, it won't be the one...

Dems Pounce on Grimm Health Care Comments
New Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm had a pretty good first day on Capitol Hill yesterday, but Democrats are pouncing on his comments explaining why he feels he's not a hypocrite for taking his Congressional Health Care plan while fighting to Repeal Health Care refrom. “It’s clear that Rep. Michael Grimm is the worst kind of hypocrite – one who protects Health Care for himself instead of his constituents,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Je...

Nineteen Democrats Scorn Pelosi in Speaker Vote, WaPo Buries Story on Page A8
The first vote cast by the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007 was for election of Speaker of the House. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) won all 233 Democratic votes (including her own). All 202 Republicans voted for Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio. Two years later Pelosi secured 255 (including her own), and there was only one Democrat, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (N.Y.) who did not vote. Minority Leader Boehner received every Republican vote, save for his own and three other Republicans who didn't vote. By co...

Connecticut inauguration day
Inauguration day frenzy hit the capital city, officially bringing in the state’s newest leaders. January 5thwas a day of parades, speeches, a ball and the beginning of a new political landscape in Connecticut. Leading off the day, Connecticut House and Senate members were sworn in first. Nancy Wyman, Connecticut’s new Lieutenant Governor, was also sworn in then. The House has a new dynamic with Republicans now holding 50 of the 151 seats, an increase of 14 seats. However, that number...

Boehner on Birthers: "It's Not Up to Me to Tell Them What to Think"
House Speaker John Boehner was asked by NBC's Brian Williams today about how much responsibility he feels for an incident on the House floor this morning in which an apparent "birther" yelled out from the gallery while the Constitution was being read. As Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) read the portion of the Constitution mandating that only a "natural-born citizen" may be president, a woman in the gallery shouted, "Except Obama, except Obama." You can watch the video at left. Williams noted tha...

After Railing Against Government Spending, Speaker Boehner Cant Name One Program He Would Cut
After Railing Against Government Spending, Speaker Boehner Can’t Name One Program He Would Cut Campaigning before the recent Midterm Elections, House Republicans were adamant that, if given power, they would cut government spending. However, when pressed for specifics, many were unable to list even one single item they would cut from the Budget. “The line-item will be across-the-board,” Rep. Kevin Mccarthy (R-CA) embarrassingly responded when asked for specific cuts. Speaker...

Speaker Boehner: GOP Will Not Increase Debt Limit Without Spending Cuts
Shouldn't Obama be in 100% agreement with Boehner here? Didn't he promise to reduce the Deficit by going through the Federal Budget line by line and get rid of those programs that do not work? gatewaypundit reported Speaker John Boehner said that Republicans will not agree to increase the Debt Limit without Spending Cuts. Boehner released a statement: Washington (Jan 6) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement on the Debt limit: “ I’ve been notified that the...

Democrats Turned Away From Pelosi in Record Numbers in Ceremonial Vote
The abandonment of Rep. Nancy Pelosi by 19 Democrats in the pro-forma vote for speaker of the House marked a breakdown in party loyalty of historic measure, according to the Washington Post. Not since 1913, when 23 Republicans bolted from the GOP's speaker nominee, has a Party Leader suffered so many defections, Congressional Research Service records show. Of the 19 Democrats who didn't support Pelosi, one voted "present" and the other 18 cast Protest ballots for some other Democratic House memb...

Members of the House try to sit still for a reading of the Constitution.
Inslee was drowned out by laughter and hoots from the teeming GOP benches, full of freshmen who had queued up for the right to read from the Constitution. Some of them rubbed their eyes as the pre-drama drama went on; more of them looked into the pocket Constitutions they'd brought with them. Inslee wrapped up, saying he also wanted a "Bipartisan success," and sat down, but Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Ill., was next at bat to explain just how important it was for the House to read the outdated, rotte...

One Week In...How Motivated are You NOW?
Hi Everyone! We are almost one week into the New Year, and there are lots of things to be happy about, if you think about them. There are also many ways to be motivated to make this year your best ever! Even if you blew all your resolutions in the first 12 hours of 2011, don't let that bum you out. Never give up! I will post some great video's that will hopefully motivate you for the rest of the year. If these don't work, well, don't get stuck in the cute kitteh's predicament above. If that vide...

House Budget Chairman Admits Failure To Raise Debt Ceiling Is Unworkable, But Takes It Hostage Anyway
House Budget Chairman Admits Failure To Raise Debt Ceiling Is ‘Unworkable,’ But Takes It Hostage Anyway A slew of Congressional Republicans — including Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and a handful of GOP representatives — have said that they will flat-out refuse to raise the debt ceiling when the country’s legal borrowing limit is reached in the next few months. Other Republicans, however, have decided that they’d rather hold the credit worthiness of the United Sta...

Historic Constitution reading comes with glitches
WASHINGTON -- In a symbolic move by a new Republican majority, the people who make our laws read the document that is the foundation for our laws in its entirety in Congress. Ga. Politics news, helpful links PolitiFact Georgia » David Wyss: State Governments have little ability to stimulate job growth in the short run. But like lawmaking itself, Thursday's unprecedented reading of the U.S. Constitution by members of the House didn't come without glitches -- including some involving Georg...

Republican bid to scrap healthcare hits snag (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican efforts to scrap President Barack Obama's Healthcare Reform took a hit on Thursday when Budget analysts said Repeal would add billions of dollars to the federal Budget Deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated overturning the reform signed by Obama last year would add about $230 billion to the deficit by 2021 and result in 32 million fewer people having Health Insurance. That was a blow to Republican campaign promises to slas...

Is Congress Listening to the American People?
Elected representatives are clearly talking more and more these days about listening to the American People. This is particularly true for the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner. As Politico put it in their Wednesday morning edition: “John Boehner will take the Speaker’s gavel with a commitment to restoring the House as an institution focused on listening to the American People.” The Washington Post reported that Boehner told reporters outside his apartment on Wednesday ...

Boehner Bullish on Health Care Repeal
New York, NY— January 6, 2011— Representative John Boehner sat down today with NBC News’ Brian Williams for his first interview as Speaker of the House. Below are excerpts from the exclusive interview. If used, mandatory credit: “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.” Additional portions of the interview will air tonight on “NBC Nightly News” at 6:30 PM/ET. The transcript and an extended interview will be available on nightly.MSNBC.com. Photos will be a...

Promises, Shomises
The paint is still drying in new-members’ offices, but Republicans have already broken promises they made on the Campaign Trail, getting themselves in hot water with the American People and their own supporters. Here’s a look at what the media is saying about the Republicans’ not-so-promising first 24 hours in office: AP “PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate”: Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the Hou...

Gov. Brewers Real Death Panel: Two Now Dead
Arizona’s Governor Brewer is really hitting the core of our moral fiber as human beings. Brewer is part of a national war on the poor. The Right of course is no friend of the poor and we need more fight from Neo-Dems for those in Poverty. The Dems have done in the past more on the war against poverty than the GOP ever has establishing things like food stamps, TANF, WIC, Medicaid, Section 8 housing, free school lunches, and the list goes on. The most progressive real Democratic things the H...

Baucus warns GOP against 'playing chicken' on debt limit
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is warning Republicans against "playing chicken" on increasing the statutory Debt Limit. The Finance Committee Chairman agreed with recent GOP calls to reduce the Deficit, but said such efforts should be done in a "serious, Bipartisan Fashion" that "doesn't risk the full faith and credit of our economy and our country in the process," according to a statement released by his office. "Rather than waiting until the last minute, we need to work together with our colleagu...

Oops! Two Republicans Weren't Sworn In -- but Voted Anyway
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. (Credit: AP) This morning, the House Rules Committee started meeting to consider amendments to the Health Care Repeal bill being pushed by Republicans. Aides warned that the meeting would go all day thanks to Democratic opposition and amendments, and indeed, it dragged into the afternoon. That's when members realized they had a problem: One of the Republicans on the committee, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), was not officially a member of Congress. That's because he m...

Reading the Constitution: Education or futility?
Republicans and Democrats took turns politely in a historic recitation of the Constitution from the House floor Thursday, but the decorum hardly meant they were in agreement. In a nod to the tea partiers who put the Republicans in power, GOP lawmakers took time out from their campaign to change the way government works to read the document upon which the government was founded. Democrats went along but pointedly questioned the Republicans’ insistence on omitting sections that show how the ...

Nancy Pelosi: Reader of the Constitution
The sublime irony of having Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) not only participate in a reading of the Constitution, but be assigned Article I, Section 1, seems to have been lost on those who attended the first-ever reading of the august text in the House of Representatives this morning. This, after all, is the same Nancy Pelosi who gave us gave us the now infamous “Are you serious? Are you serious?” in response  to a reporter who had the nerve to ask her which part of the Constitution authorized Congr

Liberals Reacting To Reading The Constitution In House Pretty Much Exactly As You Expected They Would
DATUM: Washington Post headlines article, Notable passages of Constitution left out of reading in the House What the article actually describes: The "notable passages" left out of the reading are the parts of the Constitution which are no longer part of the Constitution -- that is, the parts which have been replaced/written out by subsequent amendments, and are therefore not in fact "part of the Constitution," except in a purely historical way. In the same way that two legs may be said to be pa...

The 112th Congress might have to start all over again (The Ticket)
Here's something John Boehner might feel the need to cry about: Just two days into the 112th Congress, there's a chance that the House might have to do all of its voting — including the roll call to elect a new Speaker — all over again. Per Roll Call's Anna Palmer, House GOP leaders learned today that two of its members — Texas Rep. Pete Sessions and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — weren't on the House floor yesterday during the official swearing-in ceremony. According

Constitution Reading Provokes Political Tussling
Thursday, January 06, 2011 By Jim Abrams, Associated Press House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., holds a copy of a proposal to Repeal the Health Care Bill, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011, during news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Washington (AP) - Lawmakers took turns reading the Constitution on the House floor Thursday, a nod to tea partiers who put Republicans in power. Even the nation's founding tex...

John Boehner Releases Statement On Debt Ceiling
G.I. Wood Shop Inc. Mrs. Peel Oh…My Valve! V The K’s Caption This! An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later. “I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to formally request an increase in the Debt Limit.  The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington.  While America canno...