Super Committee Democrat Picks Very Diverse; GOP Picks All WHITE Men!

Super Committee: Who are these guys?


They are the "super committee" -- and they have a lot of work to do.

Almost all men -- they are the 12-member panel charged with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in debt savings over a ten-year period.

It will be tough work and will likely require political sacrifice on issues like taxes and entitlements if meaningful progress is to be made toward stabilizing the national debt.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi weighed in with her three Democratic picks: James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen.

The panel's six Republicans were named Wednesday to the body, joining three Senate Democrats.

The members have a range of political experience -- from novice to veteran. They are experts in taxes and the budget process. They hail from states as disparate as Texas, Michigan and Arizona.

In a sign that these appointees might not be the most willing to compromise, four of the members -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- served on the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction panel but voted against the plan.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that if the goal is a grand compromise, the appointments "could have been a lot worse," but that this group "is not going to leave me dancing on a cloud."

The committee will have until Nov. 23 to propose ways to reduce deficits. Those proposals must be voted on by Dec. 23.

If the committee process fails to produce a debt reduction plan, as much as $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts would kick in -- evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending.



Here's a little about each member of the committee:

Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas (Republican and committee co-chair): Hensarling -- chairman of the House Republican Conference -- served on President Obama's debt commission but voted against it. What did he object to exactly?

Tax increases.

The debate over taxes is expected to be fierce. If his past positions are any clue, Hensarling is likely to be vocally opposed to any new revenues.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington (Democrat and committee co-chair): Murray is not just a senator. She also chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and it is her job to recruit candidates who can beat her Republican colleagues.

Her appointment has already drawn criticism from the Republican National Committee, which views her as an overly political figure.

She is a member of the Budget and Appropriations committees.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland (Democrat): Van Hollen played a key role in the debt talks led by Vice President Joe Biden earlier this year, and is the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee.

A Pelosi acolyte, Van Hollen frequently appears on television to represent House Democrats on policy issues.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona (Republican): The No. 2 Republican in the Senate behind Mitch McConnell and a staunch advocate for the military, Kyl is a member of the Finance Committee.

Kyl is a reliable conservative vote and is opposed to tax increases. He has said he will not run for re-election and walked out of debt negotiations with Biden earlier this year after an impasse over increasing revenue.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts (Democrat): A former presidential candidate, Kerry is best known on Capitol Hill for his foreign policy experience. He will lend his expertise on national security matters to the debate over cuts to military funding.

He is a member of the Finance Committee and has spent 27 years in the Senate so has participated in his share of closed-door negotiations.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (Republican): Elected to the Senate last year, Toomey was a prominent voice in the debate over raising the debt ceiling, arguing that the United States could prioritize its payments in the event of a debt ceiling breach to avoid a true default.

In the end, Toomey voted against the debt ceiling bill that created the super committee. He sits on the Senate Budget and Banking committees, and is the former president of the staunchly anti-tax Club for Growth.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana (Democrat): Baucus -- chairman of the Senate Finance Committee -- served on Obama's debt commission.

But Baucus voted against the final Simpson-Bowles recommendations because he said they cut too deeply into farm subsidies and would have changed Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in away he found unacceptable.

Those same issues -- changes to those entitlement programs -- are likely to be a central part of any grand bargain to reduce deficits.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio (Republican): A former White House budget director in the Bush administration, Portman is a Senate novice and a member of the Budget Committee.

More moderate that some of his colleagues, Portman could be a key player in a compromise.

Rep. Xavier Becerra of California (Democrat): A senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Becerra served on the Bowles-Simpson debt commission.

But he voted against the plan because he said it cut too deeply into discretionary spending and did not raise revenues to a high enough level.

Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan (Republican): Camp -- the House Ways and Means Committee chairman -- served on President Obama's debt commission, but voted against it. He objected to the plan's tax hikes and said it failed to address rising health care costs.

An expert on taxes -- he will bolster GOP credentials on any tax reform that might be discussed.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina (Democrat): The third-ranking Democrat in the House and veteran of the Appropriations Committee, Clyburn maintains close ties to Pelosi. He also participated in the Biden debt reduction talks.

Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan (Republican): Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has taken some moderate positions in the past, including attempts to decrease tax cuts in the George W. Bush administration that remain contentious today.


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James Clyburn Selected For Super Committee: South Carolina's 2012 Game Changer

Last Three Democrats Named to Debt Committee>

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, on Thursday announced her three appointees to the special Congressional committee tasked with finding ways to reduce federal budget deficits, as a Republican member of the newly formed panel expressed an openness to consider possible tax increases.

Ms. Pelosi’s choices complete the 12-member panel, which is evenly divided between the two parties and the two houses of Congress.

All three members named by Ms. Pelosi hold leading roles in the party: Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat; Representative Xavier Becerra of California, vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus; and Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Ms. Pelosi said in a statement that the committee “has a golden opportunity to take its discussions to the higher ground of America’s greatness and its values.”

Created as part of the agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling, the panel is supposed to recommend ways to reduce federal budget deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If the panel fails to do so by its Nov. 23 deadline, or if its ideas are not enacted, the agreement calls for the government to automatically cut spending across the board.

If even a single panel member crosses party lines to provide a majority vote, the committee can forward its proposals to the floor of the House and the Senate for up-or-down votes without amendments.

One Republican member of the committee, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, said Thursday that he would not rule out possible tax increases –- a central point of contention in the recent debt talks and something many economists contend will be a necessary element to any successful bipartisan proposal.

“I don’t want to rule anything in or out,” Mr. Camp told Reuters. “I am willing to discuss all issues that might help us reduce our short and long-term debt and grow our economy.”

“Everything is on the table, until we as a group rule it out,” he said.

Ms. Pelosi, in her statement, described Mr. Clyburn as a consensus builder with experience on the Appropriations Committee; Mr. Becerra as a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee who “placed the interests of America’s working families first”; and Mr. Van Hollen as a Democratic leader in the deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The three Democratic members will join three House Republicans, Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Mr. Camp and Fred Upton, both of Michigan, on the committee. The Senate will be represented by three Republicans, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio, along with the Democrats Patty Murray of Washington, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana.




Pelosi names three House Democrats to complete debt panel selection

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday appointed Reps. James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen to the special congressional committee on deficit reduction, completing selection of the 12-member bipartisan panel created under last week's debt ceiling agreement.

The three choices bring strong party voices from the House to the new "super committee" charged with crafting a plan to reduce the country's mounting deficits. They join three Senate Democrats -- Patty Murray, Max Baucus and John Kerry -- previously appointed to the committee, as well as six GOP fiscal conservatives from the House and Senate named by Republican leaders.

"We must achieve a 'grand bargain' that reduces the deficit by addressing our entire budget, while strengthening Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security," Pelosi said in a statement announcing her choices. "Our entire caucus will work closely with these three appointees toward this goal, which is the goal of the American people."

Clyburn, of South Carolina, is the No. 3 House Democrat, while Becerra, of California, is vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus. Van Hollen, of Maryland, is the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

In separate announcements Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner and chose Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Dave Camp of Michigan and Fred Upton of Michigan as the House Republican picks, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell picked Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

All six Republicans are known for conservative stances on economic issues. Hensarling is the Republican Conference chairman and will be co-chair of the panel with Murray of Washington state, who was appointed Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"The debt crisis is a legitimate threat to our nation's future, and the American people cannot afford to wait any longer," Hensarling said in a statement after his appointment. "Everyone can agree that we must stop spending money we don't have, and the time to act is now."

He added that the committee "will not be able to solve the crisis in a matter of months, but we can work together to tackle these challenges in order to bring back jobs, hope and opportunity for the American people."

Toomey, despite his credentials of fiscal conservatism, noted Wednesday that he recently voted to eliminate the ethanol tax subsidy and believed there were other subsidies or loopholes that could be ended as part of broad tax reform. Many conservative Republicans oppose any moves that could increase tax revenue.

"The goal should be to broaden the base and lower rates so that we can create an environment that's more conducive to economic growth," he said.

The committee will follow up on negotiations that started last year with the bipartisan debt commission appointed by President Barack Obama, then continued in Congress, including work by the so-called Gang of Six senators -- three Democrats and three Republicans. Both the debt commission and the other group recommended comprehensive packages that included tax reform, changes to politically sensitive entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and spending cuts.

Obama will bring "very specific ideas about" how "the committee could come together in a balanced way to significantly reduce the deficit," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday.

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who co-chaired Obama's debt commission, told CNN on Wednesday that the new special committee has plenty of information to work with and shouldn't need a lot of time for further collecting or analyzing of issues.

Committee members "don't need to sit around here and gather more information," Simpson said, adding that the actual negotiating is "going to be tough."

Among the GOP choices, Camp is the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, while Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upton has taken some moderate positions in the past, including attempts to decrease tax cuts in the George W. Bush administration that remain contentious today.

In a statement Wednesday, Upton said that "much more needs to be done to bring down health care costs, promote economic growth and begin to tame runaway government."

"No one believes this is going to be easy," he added.

On the Senate side, Kyl, the No. 2 Republican behind McConnell, is a staunch advocate for the military, which is targeted for deep spending cuts if the special committee fails to come up with an agreement that passes Congress by the end of the year.

Portman is a former White House budget director in the Bush administration with a reputation for working with Democrats. His fellow Ohio senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, said Wednesday that Portman "has shown a willingness to find common ground by looking at both tax reform and spending cuts in order to reduce the deficit."

Toomey, elected to his first Senate term last year with the support of tea party conservatives, sits on the Senate Budget and Banking Committee. He told reporters Wednesday that he expected the special committee to begin its work soon, and that it would require Republicans working with Democrats to succeed.

"It has to be an exercise in finding common ground between Republicans and Democrats, but it also has to be constructive with respect to reducing our deficit and it has to be pro-growth as well," he said.

Reid went with veteran legislators including a former Democratic presidential candidate in Kerry, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman and the more moderate Baucus, who chairs the Finance Committee and has fought Republican efforts to privatize Social Security.

Reid named Murray, a war critic and champion of benefits for military veterans, the co-chair of the special committee.

In a joint statement after their appointments, the three Democratic senators said that Americans want the committee to operate without "the red-hot partisanship and brinkmanship of the last months."

"This is not going to be easy. Our challenge is to find common ground without damaging anyone's principles. We believe we can get there. This committee was designed to require bipartisanship, and we are going to work hard with our Republican colleagues to attain it," their statement said.

The committee will try to work out $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, after an initial round of more than $900 billion in spending cuts in the debt ceiling agreement. It is required to complete its work by November 23. Congress then has until December 23 to vote on the proposal, with no amendments permitted.

A simple majority on the panel -- seven of 12 members -- is needed to approve whatever package it comes up with, meaning that it will take a lone member of either party to push something through by voting with the other side. The committee's proposal would then need a simple majority in each chamber of Congress to make it to Obama's desk.

If the committee fails to reach agreement or Congress fails to pass whatever package it recommends, a trigger mechanism will enact further across-the-board cuts in government spending, including for the military.

Carney said Wednesday that Obama continued to call for a balanced approach that includes increased tax revenue, entitlement reforms and spending cuts.

"And we are not alone," Carney said. "The American people overwhelmingly support the balanced approach that the president supports."

According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday, 63% of respondents say the so-called super committee should recommend increased taxes on higher-income Americans and businesses, with 36% disagreeing. By a 57-40% margin, respondents say the committee's deficit reduction proposal should include major cuts in domestic spending.

However, further cuts in defense spending get a mixed review, with 47% favoring them and 53% opposed.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose major changes to Social Security and Medicare, while nearly nine in 10 don't want any increase in taxes on middle-class and lower-income Americans.

Months of rancorous negotiations on deficit reduction have failed to resolve a fundamental dispute between Republicans and Democrats involving the size of government and whether to raise revenue while cutting spending. Obama is pushing for a comprehensive plan that includes spending cuts, increased tax revenue and entitlement reforms, while Republicans seek to shrink government by proposing spending cuts and entitlement reforms without increased revenue.

An impasse over the tax revenue issue led to the debt ceiling agreement, which imposed the initial round of spending cuts and set up the special committee to work out further deficit reduction. The agreement also enables the federal debt ceiling to be increased through 2012, allowing the government to borrow what it needs to meet its obligations.

The brinkmanship of the negotiations, with uncertainty over whether the government might default if no deal was reached, was one reason why Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday.

One of the main Republican arguments against tax increases for the wealthy is that they would inhibit job creation. The poll results showed that only a third of respondents agree with that stance, while 62% say taxes on the wealthy should be high so the government can use the money for programs to help lower-income Americans.

The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International from Friday through Sunday, with 1,008 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey was conducted both before and after Friday night's announcement of the S&P downgrade. The poll's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.


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GOP Selects 6 Staunch, Anti-Tax Increase Members For Super Committe: Stalemate Guaranteed!

Republicans name fiscal conservatives to debt committee

Republican leaders on Wednesday named fiscal conservatives for their six picks for a new congressional "super" committee charged with crafting a plan to cut the country's deficit.

In separate announcements, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell filled out the GOP spots on the 12-member bipartisan panel created in last week's debt ceiling deal that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Boehner, R-Ohio, chose Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Dave Camp of Michigan and Fred Upton of Michigan, while McConnell, R-Kentucky, picked Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

All six are known for conservative stances on economic issues. Hensarling is the Republican Conference chairman and will be co-chair of the so-called "super" committee with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, who was appointed Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"The debt crisis is a legitimate threat to our nation's future, and the American people cannot afford to wait any longer," Hensarling said in a statement after his appointment. "Everyone can agree that we must stop spending money we don't have, and the time to act is now."

He added that the committee "will not be able to solve the crisis in a matter of months, but we can work together to tackle these challenges in order to bring back jobs, hope, and opportunity for the American people."

The committee will follow up on negotiations that started last year with the bipartisan debt commission appointed by Obama, then continued in Congress including work by the so-called "Gang of Six" senators -- three Democrats and three Republicans. Both debt commission and the Gang of Six recommended comprehensive packages that included tax reform, changes to politically sensitive entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and spending cuts.

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who co-chaired Obama's debt commission, told CNN on Wednesday that the new special committee has plenty of information to work with and shouldn't need a lot of time for further collecting or analyzing of issues.

Committee members "don't need to sit around here and gather more information," Simpson said, adding that the actual negotiating is "going to be tough."

Among the choices announced Wednesday, Camp is the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, while Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upton has taken some moderate positions in the past, including attempts to decrease tax cuts in the George W. Bush administration that remain contentious today.

In a statement Wednesday, Upton said "much more needs to be done to bring down health care costs, promote economic growth, and begin to tame runaway government."

"No one believes this is going to be easy," he added.

On the Senate side, Kyl is the No. 2 Republican behind McConnell, while Portman is a former White House budget director in the Bush administration. Toomey, who joined the Senate in January, sits on the Senate Budget and Banking committees. Kyl is a staunch advocate for the military, which is targeted for deep spending cuts if the special committee fails to come up with an agreement that passes Congress by the end of the year.

A day earlier, Reid appointed Murray, Max Baucus of Montana and John Kerry of Massachusetts with his three Senate Democrat picks.

In a joint statement after their appointments, the three Democratic senators said that Americans want the committee to operate without "the red hot partisanship and brinkmanship of the last months."

"This is not going to be easy. Our challenge is to find common ground without damaging anyone's principles. We believe we can get there. This committee was designed to require bipartisanship, and we are going to work hard with our Republican colleagues to attain it," their statement said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, has yet to announce her three House Democrat choices.

She has until August 16 to complete the committee that will have six Democrats and six Republicans, equally divided between the House and Senate.

The committee will try to work out $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, after an initial round of more than $900 billion in spending cuts in the debt ceiling agreement. It is required to complete its work by November 23, and Congress then has until December 23 to vote on the proposal, with no amendments permitted.

A simple majority on the panel -- seven of 12 members -- is needed to approve whatever package it comes up with, meaning that it will take a lone member of either party to push something through by voting with the other side. The committee's proposal would then need a simple majority in each chamber of Congress to make it to Obama's desk.

If the committee fails to reach agreement or Congress fails to pass whatever package it recommends, a trigger mechanism will enact further across-the-board cuts in government spending, including for the military.

According to a new CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday, 63% of respondents say the so-called "super committee" should recommend increased taxes on higher-income Americans and businesses, with 36% disagreeing. By a 57-40% margin, respondents say the committee's deficit reduction proposal should include major cuts in domestic spending.

However, further cuts in defense spending get a mixed review, with 47% favoring them and 53% opposed.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose major changes to Social Security and Medicare, while nearly nine in 10 don't want any increase in taxes on middle class and lower-income Americans.

Months of rancorous negotiations on deficit reduction have failed to resolve a fundamental dispute between Republicans and Democrats involving the size of government and whether to raise revenue while cutting spending. Obama is pushing for a comprehensive plan that included spending cuts, increased tax revenue and entitlement reforms, while Republicans seek to shrink government by proposing spending cuts and entitlement reforms without increased revenue.

An impasse over the tax revenue issue led to the debt ceiling agreement, which imposed the initial round of spending cuts and set up the special committee to work out further deficit reduction. The agreement also enables the federal debt ceiling to be increased through 2012, allowing the government to borrow what it needs to meet its obligations.

The brinkmanship of the negotiations, with uncertainty over whether the government might default if no deal was reached, was one reason why Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday.

One of the main Republican arguments against tax increases on the wealthy is that they would inhibit job creation. The poll results showed that only a third of respondents agree with that stance, while 62% say taxes on the wealthy should be high so the government can use the money for programs to help lower-income Americans.

The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International from August 5-7, with 1,008 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey was conducted both before and after Friday night's announcement of the S&P downgrade. The poll's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In announcing his choices for the special committee, Reid said in a statement that Murray would be a co-chair.

"As the events of the past week have made clear, the world is watching the work of this committee," Reid's statement said.

Late Tuesday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus slammed Reid's choice of Murray and asked the Senate leader to withdraw her appointment.

"Harry Reid's appointment of Patty Murray to co-chair the Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is absolute proof that Democrats are not serious about deficit reduction," Priebus said in a statement. "As chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Murray is the Senate Democrats' fundraiser-in-chief. The Select Committee is no place for someone whose top priority is fundraising and politics."


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Harry Reid Selects Baucus, Kerry & Murray For Super Committee; Alan Simpson Disagrees

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Harry Reid's Super Committee Picks: Patty Murray, Max Baucus, John Kerry

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will appoint Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the congressional debt-reduction "super committee" tasked with finding roughly $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade. Murray will serve as one of the committee's two co-chairs, alongside a House Republican.

Reid's office announced the choices, which were first reported by Politico and the National Journal. Reid will make a formal announcement on Wednesday.

In making his picks, the Nevada Democrat becomes the first congressional leader to offer his three appointments to the super committee, who will be granted strong procedural powers to see their recommendations come to a vote. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still must choose three members each, in advance of an Aug. 16 deadline.

Reid's picks suggest that he favored committee chairs and senior members of the party over some of the younger, more progressive-minded senators. Murray chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and will undoubtedly keep electoral implications in mind as she weighs various policy suggestions. Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is a top foreign policy voice in the party and will likely play a central role in carving out the cuts made to defense appropriations. Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, is a leading figure on tax policy, another legislative component that falls within the committee's purview. None of the three were part of the so-called Gang of Six -– the informal bipartisan group of senators who worked to craft a debt reduction plan of their own.

The choices are not particularly trusted in liberal circles either, in part because of concerns that moneyed interests may come in to play when it comes time to negotiate. In FY 2009, for instance, companies in Murray's home state of Washington received $5.2 billion in defense contracts. Boeing Inc. is the fourth biggest contributor to Murray over the course of her career, according to data gathered by the Center for Responsive Politics.

More broadly, good government advocates were concerned that her post atop the DSCC, which comes with significant fundraising responsibilities, would influence her approach to the committee.

“Sen. Patty Murray may be a fine Senator, but putting Senate Democrats’ leading fundraiser in charge of a committee that will see a lobbying push like never before sends the wrong message to the American people,” said Nick Nyhart, president of Public Campaign, in a press release. “Instead of focusing solely on finding a balanced approach to deficit reduction, she will also be focused on raising money from the same interests hoping to influence the committee.”

Baucus, who was a major player in blocking President George W. Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security and was instrumental in crafting the Affordable Care Act, enjoys close ties to the financial sector. According to CRP data, he has received $5.2 million in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate industries since 2005.

In Kerry's home state of Massachusetts, meanwhile, the defense industry has tripled in size since 2000.

Should the committee not come to an agreement (and it would take only seven of its 12 members to reach one) or if its suggestions are not passed by Congress, then a trigger would be hit, resulting in major spending cuts and reductions in the defense budget.

On Monday, multiple Senate Democratic sources told The Huffington Post that Reid was leaning against including Baucus in his final three. Senate Democratic sources, when asked about the change of heart, said that while it didn't initially appear that Baucus would end up being picked, he was always considered an option. The two enjoy a close relationship in the Senate and even if Baucus hadn't ended up on the committee, he would have likely been expected to contribute –- either through suggestions or staff -– to its work on tax reform.

A Democratic source told The Huffington Post that Kerry "made it into the discussion" of who should serve on the committee by delivering "some powerful speeches" to the rest of the caucus. The speeches, the source added, were in defense of Democratic Party priorities, focusing on the need to protect entitlement programs and Kerry's desire to strongly push back against (what the source referred to as) "the right-wing agenda."


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Obama Vs. McConnell: Game On! Who Wins? Jobs, Defense & Taxes (Decision 2012)

Obama And McConnell: Debt Ceiling Gives GOP's Great Dismantler His Moment

If you haven't noticed, this is Mitch McConnell's moment. And if you haven't realized it, this won't be the last. In fact, there will be many more, especially if -- as is quite possible -- he becomes Republican majority leader of the Senate after next year's elections.

In what amounted to a victory speech as the final vote approached on the debt ceiling he brokered, the senior senator from Kentucky reached what has been a career-long goal: to be this century's Henry Clay.

Only instead of being Kentucky's "Great Compromiser," McConnell is and wants to be the Bluegrass's "Great Dismantler."

A handsome portrait of Clay hangs in McConnell's spacious Capitol suite. But the two men represent diametrically opposing traditions. Sen. Clay wanted to be president, and used his eloquence and shrewdness in the service of constructing and protecting the power of the federal government.



He championed the "American System" of national roads and public works, and spent decades trying to keep the Union from flying apart under the centrifugal stress of slavery, economics and ideology.

He inspired another Kentucky-born politician named Abe Lincoln, and infuriated yet another named Jefferson Davis.

McConnell, equally as shrewd if not as eloquent, has a fundamentally different view. He sees his job, as he said on the floor as the vote began, to "rein in Washington" and "slow down the Big Government freight train." He mesaures success in terms of how much he can reduce the power, purse and reach of a federal government he has been a part of since he was elected at the height of the Reagan Era in 1984.

McConnell is a past master of channelling middle-class resentment at the power of government to gain power for himself in government. And he is one of the most patient and canny legislators and negotiators in modern politics: always superbly prepared, never given to rash actions or statements and a potent mix of brains and chip-on-the shoulder disdain for people with fancier pedigrees but fuzzier minds.

With the debt ceiling negotiations, he basically took the president to the cleaners. He used the energy of the Tea Party as a threat, and the weakness and division in the House GOP leadership to make himself the indispensable player in the final days. He proposed a fail-safe route to avoid default that played to the president's vanity (the idea of giving the president the power to decide debt-ceiling raises on his own) and then used the sense of trust to drive a hard bargain that took takes off the table.



McConnnell also used his 26-year relationship with Vice President Joe Biden to smooth the pathway to a deal.

As Rep. Charlie Rangel said, the GOP "mugged the president but let him keep his wedding ring."

The president thinks that the "super committee" that now will be appointed will be able to -- and will -- recommend revenue increases and even tax cuts when it has to report Nov. 23. There may indeed be some loophole closings, but don't count on it.

Was the president listening today when McConnell discussed the "super committee" group of 12, which will include six Republicans and six Democrats? McConnell called it the "cost-cutting committee."

Game on.

McConnell's whole career has been about skillfully tapping anti-government resentment and turning it into deals and power. That is how he began his rise in Louisville and Kentucky.

In 1974, Louisville -- a border city on the Ohio River in the Border State of Kentucky -- was sullen and divided in a way it had not been since the Union Army occupied it during the Civil War. The issues in many ways were the same: race and the power of the federal government. In the summer of 1974, a federal judge had ordered the widespread use of busing to integrate -- in fact not just in law -- the public schools in Louisville and surrounding Jefferson County. Well over 100,000 students were involved, but so were decades of de facto segregation.

In the working class neighborhoods of the city and its suburbs, anger at the order -- even occasional street protests -- was widespread. McConnell, originally born in Alabama, hailed from one of those neighborhoods. He wasn't a protestor or anti-busing leader by any means. He had worked for moderate GOP Sens. John Sherman Cooper and Marlow Cook, and had been an attorney in the Ford administration.

But he knew the neighborhood folks, as well as their fears and resentments. When he ran successfully for County Judge (the chief administrative job) in 1978, he ran strongly in places where he could make the case that government had too much say in local lives, and that services needed to be decided by families and neighbors, not by distant powers downtown or inside the Beltway.

That was the Reaganesque message he took statewide when he ran for Senate and won with the Gipper atop the ticket in 1984.

It is a straight line from there to the floor today.

And we may not have seen anything yet. As patient as he is remorseless, as deeply political as he is lawyerly, McConnell built a machine in Kentucky. It is crumbling now -- the incumbent Democratic governor is up by 25 points in new polls, and Sen. Rand Paul of the Tea Party is hardly a faithful ally -- but Mitch is moving on to do the same thing in the Senate that he did in the state years ago.

Meticulous, tactically focused, he runs a tight ship in the Senate and keeps a very close eye on the GOP's Senate election process. Here's the key statistic for 2012: of the 11 seats considered to be in play by handicapper Charlie Cook, nine are held by Democrats. The Democrats currently hold a 51-47 majority, with two others caucusing with them. Do the math. The GOP is within reach.

The Great Dismantler is on the march.



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McConnell Declares War On Obama Again! Defense & Taxes (Tea Party Terrorism)

Mitch McConnell Vows To Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage In The Future: ‘We’ll Be Doing It All Over’

While a deal has been struck to raise the debt ceiling for now, many progressives have worried that the damaged has been already been done in that Republicans learned that “raw extortion works and carries no political cost,” as the New York Times’ Paul Krugman wrote today. “Irresponsible brinksmanship” is now “a proven effective negotiating tactic,” ThinkProgress’s Matt Yglesias noted.

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confirmed this fear when he told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Republicans will hold the debt ceiling hostage in the future, saying this debate “set the template for the future”:

MCCONNELL: It set the template for the future. In the future, Neil, no president — in the near future, maybe in the distant future — is going to be able to get the debt ceiling increased without a re-ignition of the same discussion of how do we cut spending and get America headed in the right direction. I expect the next president, whoever that is, is going to be asking us to raise the debt ceiling again in 2013, so we’ll be doing it all over.

The debt ceiling has been raised dozens of times in the past without controversy, including 19 times under President Bush alone. President Reagan increasing the debt ceiling by 199.5 percent during his eight years in office — more than any executive to date — while Presidents Bush, Jr. raised it 90.2 percent and Bush Sr. increased it by 48.0 percent.

Progressives should instead push to repeal it. The debt ceiling was intended to check the growth of federal debt, but it has clearly failed in that endeavor.

All spending must already be approved by Congress in the budgeting and appropriations processes, so the debt ceiling serves as nothing more than a redundant yet dangerous roadblock that can be taken hostage by a minority party in Congress.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office have both doubted the value of a statutory debt limit, and even former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan called for its repeal in 2003, saying, “The debt ceiling is either redundant or inconsistent with the paths of revenues and outlays you specify when you legislate a budget.”


Sources: Fox News, Think Progress, Youtube

"Repeal & Replace", "Fire Nancy Pelosi!" Paul Ryan & Michael Steele Team Up

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Paul Ryan Will Push "Repeal and Replace"


Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one of his party’s top voices on fiscal matters, calls the newly passed health reform plan a “fiscal Frankenstein” that will “make insurance more expensive,” providing an opening for the GOP to push for a partial repeal.

Ryan, the top Republican on the House budget committee, said the plan will help “a very small segment of the population,” such as people with pre-existing conditions, but make life more expensive for “the vast majority of the population.”

“What matters to people is: Are their premiums going up or are their premiums going down?” Ryan said in an interview as his Capitol Hill office for the POLITICO video series, “Health Care Diagnosis.”

Ryan, who calls himself “a numbers guy” and resists talking about political strategy, said he’ll be pushing for what he calls a “repeal and replace” approach to rolling back the law Obama signed on Tuesday.

“You’re going to see sticker shock,” Ryan said. “You’re going to see lots of premium increases. You’re going to see people in the individual market losing their premiums, losing their insurance. … All brokers of insurance are gone in a year, in my personal opinion.”

“Obviously we’re not for keeping this law,” he continued. “We should repeal it and replace it with reform … but not just to go back to the status quo that we knew yesterday. That wasn’t sustainable, either. We’ve been saying all along we want to fix what’s broken in healthcare without breaking what’s working in healthcare. So repeal and replace it with something better.”

Asked if Republicans had overplayed their hands with dire claims about the plan, Ryan replied: “The problem I see with this bill is: Is this bill socialized medicine today? No, but it think it clearly puts us on the trajectory for that. ... So what I’m worried about is in our nation, we’re reaching a tipping point in this country where more Americans are more worried about their government benefits and dependencies than they are about their own securities. … They’re more relying on the government for their livelihoods than they do on themselves.”

Ryan said he’s begun laying the groundwork for his role as one of his party’s appointees to President Barak Obama’s newly formed deficit-reduction panel, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

“I’m mailing them my entitlements plan,” he said. “We’re sending them some things that we’ve already written, … just so you know who I am and what I’ve been saying, to be very candid. Anybody who knows anything about me knows I’m not a tax increaser . . . . spending, in my opinion, is the problem.”



Ryan acknowledged speculation that the commission was designed to provide cover for recommendations for tax increases, but he said he’s willing to wait until the group gets going because deciding what he thinks of it.

“I want to get something done, I want to be constructive, I want to approach it with a good attitude,” he said. “If this thing, this commission can help us get spending under control, I want to help, and that’s what I’m going to be offering.”

Last month, Ryan introduced a “2.0” version of his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which includes proposals for health care, retirement savings, job training, and tax and budget reform. The plan made Ryan a convenient target for Democrats, who claim it’s a sugarcoated attempt to partially privatize Social Security and Medicare.

“President Obama kind of elevated it and then [Budget Director Peter] Orszag came after it and the DCCC and the DNC , so now I’m sort of the punching bag,” he said. “I’m OK with that. I’m actually very, very much at peace with it because what the Democrats … are trying to do is win this next election by tearing down Republicans and making us seem worse than they are.

“They don’t want an election as a referendum on their performance; they want an election based on fear and if they can disperse fear into the mind of a voter about Republicans, they can stay in power. So what’s comforting to me: In order for them to attack my plan, they have to completely demagogue it -- meaning mischaracterize it -- and that’s good, in my mind. … [I]t tells me that I put up a viable alternative to the social welfare state they want to create for America.”

Ryan said the “new media economy” makes it easier for a minority party to promote its alternative ideas. “You have a [presidential] bully pulpit that heretofore could kind of concentrate and control the media,” he explained. “This bully pulpit it not as singularly effective, because of all the new media that’s out there.

“So when I get demagogued by the president and the Democrats, … I have avenues where I can get the truth out about this plan. The point I’m trying to make is when people find the facts, they know there’s something wrong, they know debt’s getting out of control and they know we’ve got to do something to fix it.”

“I don’t care if I lose this job for trying to do what I think is right,” he added. “The way I look at this is: Every term you should act like it’s your last term. And what matters to me is that you sleep well at night.”

The congressman paused and grimaced. “OK,” he said. “Last night I didn’t sleep very well because of this health-care bill.”

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10 Reasons To Fire Nancy Pelosi


1.) Pelosi Called Opponents Of Government-Run Health Care Experiment "Un-American." (Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Rep. Steny Hoyer, "'Un-American' Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate," USA Today, 8/10/09)


2.) Last Night, Pelosi Once Again Ignored The Will Of The American People And Voted Again To Pass Their Government-Run Health Care Experiment. (H.R. 3590, Roll Call Vote #165, Approved 219-212; D 219-34; R 0-178, 3/21/10)


3.) Yesterday's Vote Came Just Four Months After Pelosi Rammed Through $1.2 Trillion Health Care Bill On A Saturday Night. (H.R. 3962, Roll Call Vote #887; Approved 220-215; D 219-39; R 1-176, 11/7/09)


4.) Leading Up To The Vote, Pelosi Made Clear Once Dems "Kick Open That Door ... There Will Be Other Legislation To Follow ... We'll Take The Country In A New Direction." (Greg Sargent, "Pelosi: Passing Health Reform Will Set Stage For Great Debate With GOP," The Plum Line, 3/15/10)


5.) Pelosi Claims To Be Unaware Of The Behavior Of Disgraced Former Rep. Eric Massa, And Continued To Defend Rep. Charlie Rangel Despite Ethics Committee Admonishment. (James Hohmann, "Nancy Pelosi Defends Charlie Rangel, Again," Politico, 2/26/10; MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," 3/11/10)



6.) In June, Pelosi "Laid Down The Gauntlet" To Rush Through Cap And Trade National Energy Tax. (Steven T. Dennis and Tory Newmyer, "Pelosi Flexes Muscle," Roll Call, 6/24/09; H.R. 2454, Roll Call Vote #477; Approved 219-212; D 211-44; R 8-168, 6/26/09)


7.) In February Of Last Year, Pelosi Passed President Obama's $862 Billion Stimulus, Promising To Create Jobs; Yet Since Then, America Has Lost 3.3 Million Jobs. (H.R. 1, Roll Call Vote #70: Passed 246-183; R 0-176; D 246-7, 2/13/09; U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 3/5/10)


8.) Pelosi Has Failed To Run House In Spirit Of Bi-Partisanship, With Democratic Members Being "Explicitly Told Not To Work With Republicans." (Rep. Jim Cooper, "Reconciliation Rules - Not Bipartisanship - Will Kill Health Care Reform," The Huffington Post, 6/18/09)


9.) Despite Pelosi Promising "The Most Open And Honest Government In History," Even Dem Member Admits "Caucus Is A Real Disappointment" Because They "Aren't Transparent." (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, "Pelosi: 'We Will Create the Most Open and Honest Government in History'" Press Re lease, 1/18/06; Glenn Thrush, "Sestak Blasts Pelosi, Obama On Transparency," Politico, 1/7/10)


10.) Pelosi Accused The CIA Of Lying To Her And To Congress On Use Of Interrogation Techniques. (David Espo, "Pelosi on CIA: 'They Mislead Us All the Time,'" The Associated Press, 5/14/09)









Obamacare: Time To "Fire Pelosi"


This weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ensured that the 111th Congress will live in infamy. Instead of listening to the people she used every procedural trick at her disposal to pass her health care legislation. She must be stopped.

Over the last year, the American people have witnessed a Speaker who will stop at nothing to achieve her vision of a Leftist government. She believes that she is no longer accountable to congressional rules, and national laws. Those are just guidelines that can be tossed away on a whim if determined they will prevent her from accomplishing her goals.

On Sunday, she cast them aside with reckless abandon and forced through her government takeover of health care.

Nancy Pelosi has no regard for public opinion. Even in a hostile electoral environment, she asked members of her caucus to fall on their swords so that she might add another achievement to her increasingly shameful legacy. Her actions are deceptive, dishonest, and simply unconstitutional, but she shows no remorse. To her, the ends justify the means.

Let there be no doubt: Nancy Pelosi’s sole priority in this entire health care drama has been authorizing a government seizure of the American health care industry and nationalizing a full one-sixth of our economy. She ignored the cold hard facts of the federal budget. Plainly put, you cannot add $1 trillion dollars to the budget and then claim that it’s revenue neutral, cut $500 billion from Medicare, and won’t affect recipients.

The math simply doesn’t work. But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem to have any problem with fudging the numbers when it’s to her advantage.

Worse yet, Speaker Pelosi has claimed that she would preside over the most ethical and transparent Congress in history. She has repeatedly denied Americans their Constitutional right to know what Washington is doing in their name, because she knows that if they find out, they will hold her caucus accountable.

For the sweetheart deals and arm-twisting tactics; for this unconscionable dereliction of her duty; for this gleeful defiance of the Constitution; and for the utter contempt with which she has repeatedly treated the American people, Speaker Pelosi MUST be fired.

The time has come for Americans to speak out. If you believe that American government should be open, honest, and transparent; if you believe that individual Americans, not the federal government, are best equipped to make their own medical decisions; if you believe that the Constitution of the United States – not this radical leftist agenda – is still the ultimate authority in our land, I am asking for your help to fire Nancy Pelosi.

I am asking you to pledge your support to punish her and every Democrat who joined her in this abomination and help Republicans regain the majority in the House.

The voice of the people was ignored on health care, but with your help we will make sure they hear it loud and clear when we remove Speaker Pelosi from her throne this November.


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Sources: Politico, RNC, SWAC Girl, Big Government.com, Youtube, Google Maps