Rep. Elijah Cummings (Dem) confirms the current feud between Pres. Obama's Admin and CBC members with NBC's "Morning Joe" show panel.
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Congresswoman Maxine Waters slammed Rahm Emanuel several months ago for creating the "Blue Dogs" group. She explained how the Blue Dogs are not only helping to eliminate America's Middle Class but refusing to help Poor Black Voters as well.
(Politico) Frustrated Congressional Black Caucus plays hardball with White House
The long-simmering family feud between the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African-American president burst into the open on Wednesday, with members boycotting a financial overhaul vote as a warning shot at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The 43-member caucus — which included Illinois Sen. Barack Obama from 2004 to 2008 — has chafed against President Obama and his top aides since the Inauguration, complaining that the White House takes it for granted and plays favorites with conservative Blue Dog Democrats.
Ten CBC members decided to boycott the House Financial Services Committee vote en masse after a tumultuous morning meeting at the Capitol between Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel failed to yield a deal, according to people familiar with the meeting.
The bill passed easily, but Waters suggested the CBC’s 43 members could vote with the GOP to scuttle a variety of Democratic bills if Obama and Emanuel don’t address what she thinks is a lack of understanding of the CBC’s wide-ranging goals of reducing urban unemployment, home foreclosures and bank failures.
“I think that it is important for us to educate those people around [Obama],” Waters told reporters. “We’ve got to get his people educated and moving. We have not brought these issues to him personally — it is important first to educate those people around him so they understand.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), who recently accused Obama of bowing down to the GOP on health care reform, was more pointed, shouting “Yes!” when asked if he was disappointed with Obama’s level of attentiveness to African-Americans’ needs.
He added that he had an extensive list of issues with the president — a list he said was too long to disgorge in a hallway conversation with a reporter.
“There are those who choose not to speak about African-Americans or the working class,” Waters said. “We can no longer be in denial that certain sectors of our population, including the African-American community, are feeling the recession to a greater extent.”
Waters, a former CBC chairwoman and one of its most outspoken members, clashed often with Emanuel during his days in the House and has also had a rocky relationship with the president, according to staffers.
But the volatile Los Angeles Democrat isn’t the only CBC member to have run-ins with the equally combustible Emanuel.
For years, caucus members have complained that Emanuel worked against their interests by failing to appoint a sufficient number of blacks to senior staff positions when he was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Many still believe Emanuel favors the conservative, mostly white Democrats he helped elect to battleground districts in the South, West and Midwest.
CBC members have long said they would rather deal with Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is black, but have been forced to negotiate with Emanuel, Obama’s point man in the House.
But, increasingly, the members’ grievances have focused on Obama himself.
In the lead-up to February’s stimulus vote, many caucus members grumbled that Obama buckled by allowing the GOP to strip out nearly $60 billion in aid to states to make way for an extension of the alternative minimum tax that will largely benefit the middle class.
CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) is still bothered by Obama’s selection of New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg as commerce secretary — an appointment that ended with Gregg’s voluntary withdrawal over ideological differences with the White House.
And many felt Obama waited too long — nearly two months into his term — to invite them to their first White House meeting.
Waters has been meeting with Emanuel and other officials for weeks with an a-la-carte list of programmatic demands, ranging from pumping more Troubled Asset Relief Program funding into troubled inner-city banks to steering Census Bureau advertising dollars to church newsletters to appointing minority members to a consumer protection commission.
Aides say Emanuel and his staff are aware of the need to address the concerns of predominantly black inner-city districts, which often have 20-plus percent rates of unemployment. “We share the concerns raised by CBC members about struggling minority communities, and that’s why we’ve engaged in a positive way to make progress on these issues,” said Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki. “We have not been informed of the reasoning behind their decision not to vote on the bill, but we continue to think it is important to move financial reform forward to prevent future crises from damaging our economy and disrupting the lives of millions of Americans, including African-Americans.”
Even though no caucus members voted for it, the administration inserted several of the CBC initiatives into the financial overhaul package, including the expansion of the consumer commission and the addition of minority liaisons at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Department.
Until Wednesday, Waters and other CBC members had been reluctant to spell out their Obama wish list, with Financial Services Committee members refusing even to say why they skipped the vote.
The caucus released a2½-page handout to answer those questions on Wednesday, with an emphasis on addressing the economic problems of members’ districts, ranging from the crisis engulfing minority-owned auto dealerships and newspapers to the need for more-targeted foreclosure mitigation programs.
But Waters says the CBC’s point was a larger one — a statement that the group would “use our strength and our influence to better represent our communities.”
(Wall Street Journal)
Black Caucus, White House Clash
A clash between the Obama administration and the Congressional Black Caucus intensified Wednesday, illustrating how lawmakers' unease about the economy has the potential to derail White House priorities.
Ten black lawmakers refused to appear at a House committee vote on financial regulations Wednesday, a move that nearly allowed Republicans to kill a major Democratic bill.
The move was the culmination of weeks of tension, including a testy meeting two weeks ago that included Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. In the meeting, Ms. Waters berated the administration for not doing enough to help minority-owned businesses, mentioning specifically a New York broadcaster that couldn't get a loan reworked.
Less than two weeks after the meeting, the company, Inner City Broadcasting Corp., said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to restructure the loan.
The exchange about the company, which to some administration officials sounded like a bid to have the government intervene in a corporate matter, heightened distrust on both sides, people familiar with the matter say.
Caucus members at the meeting stressed they weren't asking White House officials to do anything improper, people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear whether any government official played a role in having the loan reworked.
The frustrations described by members of the caucus have less to do with the vote on the financial regulations and more to do with broader concerns about a weak economy, mounting job losses and a perception that the federal government has aided Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.
At a news conference Wednesday, Ms. Waters suggested the caucus would oppose other White House priorities on the House floor. Caucus members will "use our power and our influence" to change policies on foreclosures and unemployment, as well as boost credit and federal-contracting programs for minority-owned businesses, among other things, she said.
She didn't specifically address the Inner City Broadcasting matter at the news conference.
Senior White House and other top Washington officials have been engaged in a round of shuttle diplomacy in recent days to placate the caucus, to little avail. Mr. Emanuel met with Ms. Waters and other caucus members Wednesday morning before the House Financial Services Committee vote. Mr. Emanuel declined to comment when he left.
Caucus members decided immediately after the meeting not to support passage of the financial regulations, a vote they had already delayed once. Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) held the vote anyway, and the regulations passed 31-27.
He said he learned the caucus members weren't going to show up five minutes after the vote was scheduled to begin. There are 42 caucus members in the House and 10 on Mr. Frank's committee.
A key clash between the caucus and the administration came during the Nov. 16 meeting between Mr. Geithner, Mr. Emanuel and members of the caucus. Caucus members grew increasingly frustrated at the 90-minute meeting, feeling their concerns weren't registering. Several times, Mr. Geithner told the members he couldn't do what they were asking.
At one point, Ms. Waters cited the example of Inner City Broadcasting. Messrs. Geithner and Emanuel interpreted the exchange to mean CBC members were pressuring them to lean on the bank to help a specific company, people familiar with the situation said. This led to a tense exchange between both sides.
Pierre Sutton, chairman of Inner City Broadcasting, said Goldman Sachs officials on Friday agreed to rework the terms of the loan. He wouldn't specify how much Goldman had lent his firm.
Mr. Sutton said he raised concerns about his company's situation with Ms. Waters several weeks ago, but was unaware that his company was mentioned during the meeting with Mr. Geithner.
When asked whether Goldman agreed to rework the loan because of political pressure, Mr. Sutton replied, "I'm not sure. That's not a position I want to be in, responding to that particular question."
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs said the bank "has been in constructive and mutually cooperative discussions with Inner City Broadcasting."
White House officials plan to continue meeting with the caucus and said they remain focused on the issues that have been raised.
"We share the concerns raised by CBC members about struggling minority communities, and that's why we've engaged in a positive way to make progress on these issues," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
At her news conference, Ms. Waters said minorities and minority-owned institutions had been disproportionately hurt by the financial crisis. She said minority-owned banks haven't had the same access to government capital as other banks. She also said minority-owned auto dealers, newspapers and broadcasting firms were folding because of a lack of funding. Foreclosure rates and unemployment are also higher among minorities, she said.
She didn't outline the group's specific demands. Administration officials say the caucus wants more government contracts for minority-owned businesses and increased lending in minority communities.
The discussions could put the Obama administration in an awkward position if its actions help specific companies. The House Ethics Committee is already investigating Ms. Waters's role in helping OneUnited Bank in Boston set up a meeting with Treasury officials last year. OneUnited, which was on shaky financial footing, secured Treasury bailout funds. Ms. Waters's husband had previously been on the board of the bank and was an investor. Ms. Waters has denied doing anything improper.
Meanwhile, the bill that passed Mr. Frank's committee Wednesday gives the government greater power to wind down failing financial firms, allows regulators to break up large, healthy companies in certain circumstances, and forces the Federal Reserve to face government audits on more of its operations. The full House is expected to vote on that and other financial regulatory issues next week.
(The Hill)
Black Caucus tells Pres. Obama you've done too little for African Americans
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members on Wednesday criticized the Obama administration for not doing enough to help African-Americans through the bleak economy.
Soon after withholding their votes on a wide-ranging financial services bill, 10 CBC members said they are pressuring the White House to do more.
The House Financial Services Committee voted 31-27 in favor of the bill, but the lawmakers’ boycott came on a major financial measure the administration wants to see Congress pass this month.
“We have not been forceful enough in our efforts to protect the most vulnerable of our population,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who represents one of the nation’s poorest districts. “We can no longer afford for our public policy to be defined by the worldview of Wall Street.”
The committee vote came shortly after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was seen leaving the panel’s private staff room.
The lawmakers did not say for sure whether they would withhold their votes when the full House takes up financial overhaul legislation at the end of next week.
The CBC concerns first mounted nearly two weeks ago when the 10 members threatened to withhold their votes on the same bill. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) postponed a vote on the bill at that point.
Waters said on Wednesday that the CBC is meeting with the heads of the nation’s financial regulatory agencies on foreclosure and lending issues. She emphasized members were lining up meetings with President Barack Obama’s advisers to exert their power.
“I think we have got to get his people educated and moving,” Waters said.
The Black Caucus is also working on a proposal to create jobs that it hopes will become part of an effort under discussion among House leaders to bolster the economy.
The CBC efforts underscore the deep anxiety lawmakers have as they face an economy witnessing the highest national unemployment rate in a generation. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 15.7 percent, compared to the national rate of 10.2 percent.
The CBC members laid out a series of policies they would like to see enacted: efforts to reduce foreclosures, including through principal write-downs; better access to credit for African-American-owned auto dealerships; more aid to small and community banks that lend to African-Americans; and more federal money going to support ad buys in minority radio stations and newspapers.
The 10 Democratic members include: Waters, Mel Watt (N.C.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Lacy Clay (Mo.), David Scott (Ga.), Al Green (Texas), Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), Gwen Moore (Wis.), Keith Ellison (Minn.) and André Carson (Ind.).
Jen Psaki, White House spokeswoman, said the administration shares the concerns raised by the CBC members.
“We have not been informed of the reasoning behind their decision not to vote on the bill, but we continue to think it is important to move financial reform forward to prevent future crises from damaging our economy and disrupting the lives of millions of Americans, including African-Americans,” Psaki said in a statement.
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