McConnell: Daley pick a 'hopeful sign'

Sink or Swim: Jobs #s Key For Obama
The uptick was accompanied by a significant drop in the nation’s Unemployment Rate, which slid from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent. “Today’s jobs numbers are proof that our work to bring The Economy back from the brink is beginning to pay off,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. “The Unemployment rate fell by nearly half a percent, more than 100,000 people have gone back to work and we added double the number of Manufacturing jobs expected. ...

Dissecting Speaker Boehner's Big Gavel
What is this? House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio holds up the gavel during the first session of the 112th Congress. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio holds up the gavel during the first session of the 112th Congress. I certainly wasn't the the only one to notice how big John Boehner's gavel was. Even Nancy Pelosi, who became Minority Leader, made a quip when she handed the gavel to the newly minted speaker of the house. She said: "I now pass this gavel — which is larger than most gavels h...

Chamber Not Ready to Hail Daley Pick Yet
President Obama picked William M. Daley, a former commerce secretary, at least in part, for his ability to speak the language of Big Business and repair Mr. Obama’s bruised relations with Corporate America. But the president’s chief antagonist in the business community is not celebrating — yet. Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with The Caucus that he is convinced that Mr. Daley will pursue Mr. Obama’s policies with vigor, even wh

McConnell hopeful on tax reform
In the latest sign of Bipartisan support for Tax Reform, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, signaled Thursday that he hoped the tax code could be revamped this year. The Kentucky Republican called the corporate Tax Rate outrageous and said that President Obama appeared to be open to making changes to that rate. “Beyond that, I think we all know the tax code is a disaster, and we -- any effort to simplify the tax code, to get the rates down, to make it more fair, I think we'd be open ...

Kent Conrad Has Started His 2012 Advertising Campaign Already
At the beginning of the 2010 election cycle, ex-Rep. Earl Pomeroy launched his media advertising campaign at an earlier point than any of his previous campaigns. It was a clear indication of just how vulnerable Pomeroy was feeling (and rightfully so, as we know now). But Senator Kent Conrad, who has been identified repeatedly as one of the most vulnerable Democrat Senators in the 2012 cycle, has done Pomeroy one better. He’s begun his campaign advertising almost two years early in response...

Obama Follows My Advice.
Well, not exactly. But, in line with my recommendations on this blog, the president has nominated -- or renominated -- dozens of judicial nominees: Faced with the prospect of increasingly lengthy court vacancies, the White House on Wednesday formally renominated more than 40 judicial Candidates whose possible appointments were left in limbo during the last congressional session.The Obama Administration sent the dozens of nominations -- 23 of which an official categorized as "emergency" nominees ...

Calls for US tax law reforms echo from both left and right
Stumble This! Top US senators of both major parties called Thursday for an overhaul of the tax code this year with an eye on spurring job growth in a still-sputtering economy. "The country is ripe for Tax Reform," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, saying it would be one of the "first priorities" for his party in 2011 because "our tax system is broken and needs to be fixed." "We all know the tax code is a disaster, and any effort to simplify the tax code, to get t...

Tax Reform Calls Multiply
Bloomberg's Ryan Donmoyer and Rich Miller report this morning that no decisions have been made yet whether President Obama will back Tax Reform. They report Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will meet January 14th with corporate CFOs to continue the discussion. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters, "The country is ripe for Tax Reform...our tax system is broken and needs to be fixed." He said it would be one of his first priorities. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConne...

News links: CBO says health care repeal will add $230 billion to deficit
The Congressional Budget Office says that repealing ObamaCare would add $230 billion to the federal Deficit. CBO>>> In light of a growing federal budget deficit, the Pentagon will have to make the biggest personnel cuts since 9-11, cutting up to 70,000 Soldiers and Marines in order to slow the growth of Military Spending over the next five years. Stars and Stripes>>> Ellen Weiss, NPR’s top news editor, has resigned after an internal review found that the news organiza...

Obama Created More Jobs In One Year Than Bush Created In Eight
This morning, the Labor Department released its employment data for December, showing that the U.S. economy ended the year by adding 113,000 Private Sector jobs, knocking the Unemployment Rate down sharply from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent — its lowest rate since July 2009. The “surprising drop — which was far better than the modest step-down Economists had forecast — was the steepest one-month fall since 1998.” October and November’s jobs numbers were also re...

Few Anti-Reform Dems Riding the Repeal Wave
Fri Jan. 7, 2011 9:33 AM PST Conservative Democrats who voted down health reform aren’t jumping aboard the GOP’s push to Repeal the law. On Friday morning, the House voted 236 to 181 to move forward with its Health Care Repeal bill, clearing the path for a Wednesday vote on the measure. Only four Democrats voted with Republicans on the procedural vote: Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.), Larry Kissell (D-NC), Mike Mcintyre (D-NC), and Mike Ross (D-Ark.). Boren and Ross had already vowed to vo...

Public employees work for less, not more
In the divide-and-conquer assault on Public Employees which the powers-that-be have unleashed in their latest round of class warfare, we've been told repeatedly that government-paid workers make more than private-sector workers. The typical approach is to point to a Bus Driver or a Professor or a garbage collector who made some seemingly outrageous sum. As states struggle with revenue shortfalls and the Unemployment situation remains grim, there is more and more talk about "fixing" this situati...

Public Employees Paid Less than Private-Sector Workers
With the barrage of orchestrated Extremist attacks on Public Employees, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reminds us today of a study it commissioned last year that disproves one of the biggest lies by anti-workers-that public employee make excessive pay.  In short, public employees are paid less than private-sector workers, even when factoring in employer-provided benefits.  The paper by Rutgers University Professor Jeffrey Keefe found: Private-sector workers earned avera

Bloated "Back to Work NJ" project all about Big Business
The Democratic sponsored bill, 'Back to Work NJ', appears to be operating under the guise of a " jobs and Economic Development package," but in reality may just be a giveaway to Big Business. "It's outrageous that a state that ‘can't afford' to fully fund public education can afford to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in Tax Breaks to big business," New Jersey Policy Perspective President Deborah Howlett said. "This is a boondoggle for business disguised as job-creation."...

Mandate Relief Redesign Team Named
…Two State of the State-related redesign teams down (Medicaid and now mandate relief), one to go (SAGE), and perhaps we’ll have that last one, too, before the day is out. The mandate relief team, also created via Executive Order, is tasked with reviewing existing unfunded and underfunded mandates imposed by state government on School Districts, local governments, and other local taxing districts. The 23-member team includes representatives from private industry, education, labor, a...

Bad Poll For Stabenow
Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) starts her 2012 re-election bid on shaky footing, according to a survey out Friday. The Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll found that only 37 percent approve of Stabenow's job performance and less than a quarter -- 23 percent -- would vote to re-elect her. A generic opponent pulled 43 percent against her. Numbers like that could make Michigan a top pick up opportunity for Republicans in 2012. Already, some Republicans are seeing opportunities in other blueish states -- ...

The FishbowlDC Interview With Politicos Keach Hagey
Say hello to Politico‘s media writer Keach Hagey , a native of Evansville, Ind. She came to Washington from The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, where she was covering the business of media in the Middle East. Previously she wrote for CBS.com and the Village Voice. We wouldn’t have guessed this, but she prefers the cuss word, “motherfucker” as well as the word, “pork.” Well done. Read on. If you were a carbonated beverage which would you be? Ginger beer How of...

White House gives data why repealing Affordable Care Act will hurt economy
Even as the Republican House Majority has introduced a "Repeal of the Job-Killing Health Care Bill" Bill, Stephanie Cutter, Assistant to the President for Special Projects, has published a White House blog outlining why repealing the Affordable Care Act will hurt The Economy. Whereas Republicans have offered no actual data to support their contention that access to Health Insurance has actually hurt jobs-creation, and actually have declared they will ignore the reality that repeal will add $148 ...

Is There a Rooney Rule in Politics?
Word is trickling out from the White House that the great mentioning of names to succeed outgoing Press Secretary Robert Gibbs includes several women because new Chief of Staff William Daley would like to see a woman in the job. That's all well and good -- there are several Democratic women with the chops for the job, and it could be good politics heading into an election cycle in which the White House could have to rely even more heavily on female voters -- but why is it necessary to say so? I...

Obamacare repeal vote not enough, GOP needs a broader plan
The House took the first step today toward a symbolic vote to Repeal ObamaCare by a 236-181 vote.  The final Repeal vote is set for next Wednesday. But the 236-181 largely party-line vote is unlikely to amount to more than a political message.  Democrats  still run the Senate and have vowed to block efforts to scrap the law and Obama has Veto power. This opens debate over what the GOP’s next step should be to fight the new Health Care law. One option is attacking ObamaCare p...

Obama sets mission for new team: Accelerate growth (AP)
WASHINGTON – His presidency tied to the fate of The Economy, Barack Obama is revamping his Economic Policy team and signaling cooperation to ascendant Republicans and the business community at a pivotal moment in the nation's recovery and Washington politics. The president is surrounding himself with Veterans of the Clinton Administration. Chief of Staff William Daley, economic overseer Gene Sperling and recently confirmed Budget director Jacob Lew form an inner circle with a history of ...

Senate Dem considering bill to delay EPA climate rules by one year
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is mulling Legislation that would block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse Gas Emissions for one year. The proposal may be more palatable for some on-the-fence lawmakers than the two-year delay proposed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). But Brown has not yet drafted any Legislation and is still reviewing his options, a spokeswoman says. “He is reviewing multiple variations of the Rockefeller bill, such as a one-year delay,” Bro...

SSP Daily Digest: 1/7
• ND-Sen: This may be the earliest the air wars have ever been launched, especially in a Senate race, but there's already a major ad duel going on in the tiny (and dirt cheap) state of North Dakota, probably with an eye toward goading Kent Conrad into Retirement (or backing him up so he doesn't get any ideas). On the GOP side, mysterious Iowa-based IE group American Action Forum fired the first shots (worth only $60K), hitting Conrad over TARP and HCR; Dem group Commonsense Ten fired back (f...

The 2012 Campaign Season Starts...NOW!
Have you finished reflecting on the 2010 election season? We hope so, because 2010 is totally old news already. Outside groups aligned with both parties are already advertising in North Dakota, an early sign of the potential competitiveness of the state's Senate race and of the likely heavy spending by Third Party groups on contests around the country in 2012. Commonsense Ten, a group founded last cycle by Democratic operatives Jim Jordan, Monica Dixon and Jeff Forbes, is spending $30,000 on r...

GOP may lose health care repeal battle, but war will rage on
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House of Representatives will vote Wednesday to Repeal President Barack Obama's Health Care law — and that will settle nothing. Rather, it will be but one more battle in a long political war that will go on for at least two more years, one which either side may win. The Democrats won the first battle when they enacted the sweeping new law last year. The Republicans won the second, when they rode a backlash against the law to take over the House i...