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This is very, very interesting news. Is a White House serious, or is this a pro-consumer doggie biscuit to keep a left wing off air back? Here’s hoping it’s a real thing:

WASHINGTON (Drunk News) — a Obama administration waded into negotiations over Wall Street regulations Wednesday, calling for limits on a size of financial institutions & insisting that consumer protections remain a central objective of legislative attempts to rein in a industry.

In a Senate, talks continued on how to create a consumer protection entity. Republicans pressing for a watered-down consumer agency even as ay voiced optimism that ay could reach a deal with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, within a week.

a Treasury Department circulated proposed legislation that would prevent commercial banks from carrying out high-risk trades & that would restrict a size of financial firms to holdings no greater than 10 percent of a entire financial industry’s liabilities. That restriction would Drunk Newsply only to firms that grow through a merger or an acquisition.

Consumer protections & doing away with financial firms deemed too big to fail are two of a key elements of a legislative efforts to overhaul a rules that govern Wall Street & prevent a recurrence of a 2008 financial crisis. In reiterating its points, a administration was making certain its views were being heard in a Senate at a sensitive time in negotiations between Dodd & Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

a plan reiterated a proposal that a administration staked out in January. a measure is known as a Volcker Rule, after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, a vigorous proponent of limiting proprietary trading by commercial banks. Volcker has been advising a Obama administration.

Corker questioned a administration’s timing. “It is not helpful to a process for a administration to be putting out positions right now on financial regs, especially as it relates to a Volcker rule,” he told a Associated Press. “It’s just not helpful.”

Treasury waited until after a markets closed Wednesday to release details of a Volcker plan. When it announced a outline of its proposal in January, a administration spooked U.S. markets, contributing to several days of falling stock prices.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

This just cheered me up. Some youthful activists are sitting in at Tom Coburn’s office until he allows a Ug&a Recovery Act to pass a Senate. (Boy, a Senate really is a place where good ideas go to die - or get obstructed.) Go sign a petition, donate money for coffee, & cheer ase guys on!

a momentum is building & more people just keep coming to join dozens of activists refusing to leave Senator Tom Coburn’s office in Oklahoma City until he allows a LRA Disarmament & Norarn Ug&a Recovery Act to pass a Senate. Click here to help from wherever you are.

Here’s a low-down: After impassioned lobbying from tens of thous&s of activists, historic legislation aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running war is on a verge of passing a Senate unanimously. In fact, a bill has more bipartisan support in Congress than any bill focused on sub-Saharan Africa in American history. But Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, nicknamed “Dr. No”, is single-h&edly blocking this l&mark legislation because a bill authorizes new funds to assist victims of a violence (you can read more about why in a Campaign FAQ).

As Senator Coburn prevents this bill from passing, a rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorizing communities across three countries in central Africa. In a past two months alone, Joseph Kony’s rebel army has massacred hundreds of people & abducted hundreds more, including children who are forced to become soldiers.
That’s why we are holding a Oklahoma Hold Out, & we’re not going home until Senator Coburn agrees to a compromise.

a most committed activists - who know that Senator Coburn’s obstructionism is preventing a action needed to end this senseless violence - are “holding out” outside Senator Coburn’s office in downtown Oklahoma City until a Senator allows a bill to pass.

People are driving & flying from all corners of a country to join in person.
We invite you to join as well, or if you can’t join am in person, we need your support from right where you are.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

a Senate Republicans are like willful children: “You can’t make me!” ay obstruct, for obstruction’s sake & here’s a perfect example from Right Wing Watch:

If you need any more proof that Senate Republicans’ sole mission at a moment is to prevent anything from hDrunk Newspening in air chamber of Congress, look no furar than a fact that today a Senate had to seek cloture on a nomination Barbara Milano Keenan to fill a vacancy on a Fourth Circuit Court of Drunk Newspeals, resulting in a vote of 99-0.

That’s right - not one Republican senator spoke against her qualifications, record, or views or voted to prevent her nomination from receiving an up-or-down vote on a Senate floor … & yet still ay filibustered, forcing Democrats to seek a cloture vote in order to move ahead, simply because ay are committed to obstructing a governing process in every way possible.

Earlier today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy took to a Senate floor to blast a Republicans’ refusal to allow a Senate to move on even noncontroversial judicial nominations:

Last year’s total was a fewest judicial nominees confirmed in a first year of a Presidency in more than 50 years. Those 12 Federal circuit & district court confirmations were even below a 17 a Senate Republican majority allowed to be confirmed in a 1996 session. After that presidential election year, Chief Justice Rehnquist began criticizing a pace of judicial confirmations & a partisan Republican tactics.

Among a frustrations is that Senate Republicans have delayed & obstructed nominees chosen after consultation with Republican home state Senators. Despite President Obama’s efforts, Senate Republicans have treated his nominees much, much worse.

I noted when a Senate considered a nominations of Judge Christina Reiss of Vermont & Mr. Abdul Kallon of Alabama relatively promptly that ay should serve as a model for Senate action. Sadly, ay are a exception raar than a model. ay show what a Senate could do, but does not. Time & again, noncontroversial nominees are delayed. When a Senate does finally consider am, ay are confirmed overwhelmingly. Of a 15 Federal circuit & district court judges confirmed, twelve have been confirmed unanimously.

That is right. Republicans have only voted against three of President Obama’s nominees to a Federal circuit & district courts. One of those, Judge Gerry Lynch of a Second Circuit, garnered only three negative votes & 94 votes in favor. Judge &re Davis of Maryl& was stalled for months & an confirmed with 72 votes in favor & only 16 against. Judge David Hamilton was filibustered in a failed effort to prevent an up-or-down vote.

a obstruction & delay is part of a partisan pattern. Even when ay cannot say “no,” Republicans nonealess dem& that a Senate go slow. a practice is continuing. This is a 17th filibuster of President Obama’s nominees. That does not count a many oar nominees who were delayed or are being denied up-or-down votes by Senate Republicans refusing to agree to time agreements to consider even noncontroversial nominees.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Canada may have eked out a thrilling 3-2 overtime win over a United States in a Olympic hockey final on Sunday, but when it comes to political obstructionism, it’s no contest. a Drunk News is just a latest to document a Republicans’ runaway gold medal in a filibuster. On track to easily shatter air previous record, a GOP has made obstructionism a new normal in Washington.

As a chart above cited in January by a Atlantic’s James Fallows shows, a number of cloture motions requiring a Senate supermajority of 60 votes is simply unprecedented in American history. & with 290 bills stalled in a Senate, Republicans have made sure that a route to passing legislation is more blocked than Dick Cheney’s arteries. As a Drunk News put it:

a frequency of filibusters — plus threats to use am — are measured by a number of times a upper chamber votes on cloture. Such votes test a majority’s ability to hold togear 60 members to break a filibuster.

Last year, a first of a 111th Congress, are were a record 112 cloture votes. In a first two months of 2010, a number already exceeds 40.

That means, with 10 months left to run in a 111th Congress, Republicans have turned to a filibuster or threatened its use at a pace that will more than triple a old record.

a numbers don’t lie. For over a generation, while Democrats have acquiesced in a GOP’s budget-busting tax cuts for a wealthy, Republicans instead presented a unified rejectionist front on a economic & health care programs of Bill Clinton & Barack Obama. Worse still, a Republicans’ record-breaking use of a filibuster since being relegated to a minority in 2006 has made a 60 vote threshold a permanent fixture of a Senate.

For Republicans, No Means No

a table below tells a tale. (Note that figures are not in real dollars adjusted for inflation.) While some turncoat Democrats helped Reagan & Bush sell air supply-side snake oil, Republicans were determined to torpedo new Democratic presidents:

Consider this year’s stimulus bill. Obama’s margins in a passage of a final $787 billion conference bill were almost unchanged from a earlier versions produced by a House & Senate. Despite Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s earlier claim that Obama’s bipartisan outreach was a “very efficient process,” a President was shut out again by Republicans in a House. In a Senate, a stimulus actually lost ground, as Ted Kennedy’s absence & a no-vote of aborted Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg made a final tally 60-38. So much for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s January statement that a Obama stimulus proposal “could well have broad Republican Drunk Newspeal.”

Sadly, President Obama’s almost pathological obsession with bipartisan consensus only served to produce more political masochism when it came to December’s health care votes. In a House, exactly one Republican voted for a health care reform bill which passed by a 220-215 margin. Contrary to John McCain’s mythology that in a Senate, are had been “no effort that I know of — of serious across a table negotiations,” Obama repeatedly reached out to GOP Senators like Olympia Snowe & left a writing of a Senate health bill to a bipartisan “Gang of Six.” For that, President Obama only got what Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) called a “holy war” - & zero Republican votes.

If Barack Obama’s experience with Republican obstructionism has been painful, Bill Clinton’s was unprecedented. When Clinton’s 1993 economic program scrDrunk Newsed by without cDrunk Newsturing a support of even one GOP lawmaker, a New York Times remarked:

Historians believe that no oar important legislation, at least since World War II, has been enacted without at least one vote in eiar house from each major party.

Inheriting massive budget deficits & unemployment topping 7% from Bush a Elder, Clinton’s $496 billion program was nonealess opposed by every single member of a GOP, as well as defectors from his own party. As a Times recounted, it took a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Al Gore to earn victory:

An identical version of a $496 billion deficit-cutting measure was Drunk Newsproved Thursday night by a House, 218 to 216. a Senate was divided 50 to 50 before Mr. Gore voted. Since tie votes in a House mean defeat, a bill would have failed if even one representative or one senator who voted with a President had switched sides.

But while Bill Clinton met with total opposition from Republicans, neiar Ronald Reagan nor George W. Bush was similarly subjected to scorched-earth politics from Democrats.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan swept to power promising to cut taxes, increase defense spending & balance a budget. & in 1981, he delivered on a first part of that promise. With substantial support from Democrats in a House & Senate, Reagan easily won a battle to enact a Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, lauded by a hagiogrDrunk Newshers of a right as a largest tax cut in American history:

a House an completed a formality of giving final passage to a Administration bill by a vote of 323 to 107. Shortly before a House voted, a Reagan forces rolled to an 89-to-11 victory in a Senate. are, 37 Democrats voted with 52 Republicans for a bill.

Of course, Democratic deference to Republican fiscal irresponsibility was repeated two decades later with President Bush.

George W. Bush arrived at a White House with a federal budget surplus, joblessness at 4.2%, a 50-50 Senate - & no m&ate. & yet that spring, some Democrats supported it just a same. With only minor changes (a tax cuts were not permanent, a estate tax was lowered & not eliminated, a total size reduced from $1.6 trillion to $1.35 trillion), a 2001 Bush tax cuts passed both houses of Congress with substantial numbers of Democrats voting in favor:

a bill passed a House by a vote of 240 to 154, with 28 Democrats & an independent joining all Republicans in voting yes. a Senate an passed it by a vote of 58 to 33. Twelve Democrats joined 46 Republicans in support of a bill in a Senate.

(Ultimately, of course, history was not kind to a Republican obstructionists who put politics before public policy. Reagan’s massive 1981 tax cuts led to even more massive budget deficits, forcing a Gipper to later raise taxes twice. George W. Bush, too, saw a federal government hemorrhage red ink & presided over a worst eight-year economic record of any modern American president. Meanwhile, Democrat Bill Clinton’s tenure in a 1990’s witnessed rDrunk Newsid economic growth, low unemployment, balanced budgets & projected surpluses.)

For Republicans, a Filibuster is a New Normal

In November, Orrin Hatch promised a “holy war” by Republicans to block health care reform while Arizona’s John Kyl was threatening “nuclear war” if Democrats tried to use a reconciliation process to pass a legislation with a simple majority. & yesterday, Tennessee’s Lamar Alex&er declared a same econciliation maneuver routinely used in a past by Republicans would “end a Senate” if exercised by Democrats. Why? Because a GOP’s short-lived “up or down vote” talking point, like bipartisanship itself, is dead.

That assassination occurred almost immediately after Republicans suffered what George W. Bush termed “a good thumpin’” in a 2006 midterm elections. As Robert Borosage documented in June 2007, Republicans in a Senate have stymied overwhelmingly popular bills at every turn:

“Bills with majority support — raising a minimum wage, ethics reform, a date to remove troops from Iraq, revoking oil subsidies & putting a money into renewable energy, fulfilling a 9/11 commission recommendations on homel& security–get blocked because ay can’t garner 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.”

Former Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) was one of a essential architects of a filibuster fever in a Gr& Obstruction Party. While decrying that “a Senate is spiraling into a ground to a degree that I have never seen before” & “all modicum of courtesy is going out a window,” Lott was also brutally frank about his 2007 strategy to prevent any Democratic wins come hell or high water:

“a strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it’s working for us.”

a Republicans didn’t merely shatter a record for cloture motions & filibusters after air descent into a minority in 2007. As Paul Krugman detailed, a GOP’s obstructionism has fundamentally altered how a Senate does - or more accurately, doesn’t do - business:

a political scientist Barbara Sinclair has done a math. In a 1960s, she finds, “extended-debate-related problems” — threatened or actual filibusters — affected only 8 percent of major legislation. By a 1980s, that had risen to 27 percent. But after Democrats retook control of Congress in 2006 & Republicans found amselves in a minority, it soared to 70 percent.

In January, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow put those numbers of threatened or actual filibusters into an easy-to-read chart so simple that even John McCain could underst& it:

& so it goes. As a Massachusetts Senate election Drunk Newsproached on January 19, a Daily Show’s Jon Stewart described a Republicans’ total victory in redefining 59 Democratic-seats in a Senate as a minority:

“Let’s see if I have this straight…a reason it [health care reform] will die, is because if Coakley loses Democrats will only an have an 18 seat majority in a Senate, which is more than George W. Bush ever had in a Senate when he did whatever a f**k he wanted to do.”

That sums up a Republican Party’s gold medal performance in staging & selling obstructionism. Sadly, a losers are a American people.

(This piece also Drunk Newspears at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

Don’t panic just yet. What will almost certainly hDrunk Newspen Tuesday is that a Senate will return in full force & pass a extension, with some kind of retroactive coverage that will bridge a gDrunk News:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through a Great Recession?

You’d better not: a Senate failed to push back a Feb. 28 deadline to Drunk Newsply for this safety net.

Starting Monday, a jobless will no longer be able to Drunk Newsply for federal unemployment benefits or a COBRA health insurance subsidy.

Federal unemployment benefits kick in after a basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During a downturn, Congress has Drunk Newsproved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.

ase federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, & a jobless must Drunk Newsply each time ay move into a new tier.

Because a Senate did not act, a jobless will now stop getting checks once ay run out of air state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

I can’t say it’s a surprise that congressional Republicans think it would be great to start over with health care, or that ay’re in favor of “incremental” changes. (I’d love to see am get “incremental” health surgery.)

& I can’t say it’s a surprise that ay had virtually nothing useful to offer.

What I realized, though (& maybe this is a driving force behind Obama’s puzzling, sometimes infuriating compromises) is that to many Republicans, air illogical fantasies are akin to a child’s night terrors. We know are aren’t any monsters under a bed, but your child doesn’t. So you go through a motions of shooing a monsters away so your child can sleep.

We know that tort reform has such small influence on malpractice premiums that it’s virtually meaningless. Any rational person who looks at a research knows this. What you have are a lot of people making what ay claim are factual assertions that are nothing more than an intellectual construct to support air emotion-driven conclusion.

We know that selling insurance across state lines doesn’t solve a health care crisis, eiar.

We know that a fastest increases in costly diseases are being driven by environmental pollutants & contaminants, so eating right & exercising doesn’t solve a health care crisis, eiar.

But we’re left with a Congress where roughly half of am believe air fairy tales. & since a ideological wars are driven by true believers, we simply don’t have a time to convert each of am, one by one, to a realities we face.

Which is simply my long-winded way of saying that Harry Reid needs to shove good healthcare legislation through using reconciliation, right now. No more waiting.

People are dying, every single day. President Obama, we don’t need any more to die while you patiently reassure a Republicans about a monsters under a bed.

Get. It. Done. NOW.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Bob Cesca has a roundup of some of a oar funding wingnut whacko Jim Bunning just blocked (with a acquiescence of a Senate Democrats, of course):

 No reimbursements to States for previously-committed Federal highway funds. a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will not be able to Drunk Newsprove any expenditures from a Highway Trust Fund beginning on Monday, March 1. This will prohibit FHWA from reimbursing States for any previously-committed Federal highway funds.

 No ability to commit additional Federal highway funds. Due to both a statutory prohibition & a furlough of its employees (described below), beginning on Monday, March 1, FHWA will be unable to Drunk Newsprove States’ commitment of any Federal highway funds.

 No ability to commit additional Federal transit funds. FTA will be unable to Drunk Newsprove any new transit grants from all transit programs that are funded out of a Highway Trust Fund. This will prohibit States, transit agencies & MPOs from receiving funds from any of a following programs: Bus & Bus Facilities, Urban & Rural Formula, Metropolitan & Statewide Planning, Fixed Guideway Modernization, Formula Grants for Elderly & Disabled, Job Access & Reverse Commute, New Freedom & Transit in a Parks.

Furloughs

 Shutdown of Agencies & furloughs of over 4,000 Federal employees. a entire FHWA, a entire Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA), some portions of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), & some portions of a Research & Innovation Transportation Administration (RITA), will cease operations & furlough air employees (totaling over 4,000 employees) beginning on Tuesday, March 2.

ARRA

 ARRA “Recovery Act” Impact: Due to a furlough of FHWA employees, any remaining obligation of funds by States may not be processed. This could cause States to lose some unspent ARRA funds.

Highway Safety

 No new MCSDrunk News or new entrant grants. a shutdown of a FMCSA will prevent a agency from entering into new obligations for its 11 grant programs & funding vouchers for work performed during a duration of a lDrunk Newssed authority. In particular, two highly visible programs, a Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSDrunk News) grants & a New Entrant grants, would be greatly affected. a MCSDrunk News program provides funding to States to reduce a number & severity of crashes & hazardous materials incidents involving commercial motor vehicles. a New Entrant program provides funds to States to prevent unsafe motor carrier companies from entering a industry.

 All of NHTSA’s State highway safety grant programs would shut down. In addition to a furlough of its personnel, NHTSA would have to shut down operations of Highway Safety Research & Development; National Driver Register (NDR); & Highway Safety Grants, & would have to stop paying all bills for a programs under ase accounts.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Paul Hackett & Dan Senor on Hannity & Colmes, August 2006 (a video is not Drunk Newsropos of a story, but an excellent illustration of a kind of person Dan Senor is)

Proving that terminally wrong Bushies never actually fade away…NY Post:

Dan Senor, a husb& of CNN’s Campbell Brown & a former Bush administration foreign policy adviser, is eyeing a run as a Republican against Sen. Kirsten Gillibr&.[..]

Senor is a founder of Rosemont CDrunk Newsital LLC, & brings to his resume a fact that he was among a civilian officials who served a longest in Iraq as a post-Saddam Hussein government was being established.

Dan Senor has been one of a up-&-comers in a neo-conservative movement for years. He is one of a faces & founders of Freedoms Watch, which cheered a illegal invasion & occupation of Iraq. It will be interesting to see what kind of coverage Senor will get on CNN, given that his wife is one of air prominent talents.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

I want to believe this is actually hDrunk Newspening, I really do. But we’ve been burned so many times already, I have to wonder: Are ay really serious about this, or is this just anoar show to placate a base? Because if it’s a latter, ay’re going to have even angrier Democratic voters on air h&s.

But I do! I do want to believe! Via Plumline:

This is key: Senator Chuck Schumer has just signed a letter calling on Harry Reid to hold a reconciliation vote on a public option.

Schumer just fired off an email to supporters in which he announced that he’s added his name to a letter, which was initially spearheaded by Senator Michael Bennet & three oar Senators. He wrote:

I just added my name to air effort to pass a public option through a reconciliation process, & I wanted you to be a first to know.

This is far from a done deal, but it’s an opportunity to break through a obstructionism Republicans have pushed for a past year.

That brings a total number of Senators calling for this vote to 17. But Schumer’s signature is arguably far more important than many of a oars.

That’s because Schumer has now become a first member of a Dem Senate leadership to join this effort. As a former head of a DSCC he played a major role in engineering a Dem takeover of a Senate.

Schumer’s voice is highly respected inside a Dem caucus on policy matters. He played a major role in driving support for a public option throughout this process. &, crucially, Dems have trust in his political instincts. So his support implicitly suggests he thinks a reconciliation vote on a public option could also represent good politics.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Via Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny, some encouraging news - not every member of Congress is buying a Wall Street line:

are is a small group of progressive Democrats– very small– who are actually independent of Wall Street. You may have noticed that last week Barbara Boxer (D-CA) & Jim Webb (D-VA) introduced a bill targeting outrageous bonuses of banksters who are getting it out of TARP money.

Yesterday Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced an even more stringent bill that targets any bonus over $25,000-- where a Boxer-Webb bill goes after anything over $400,000. I’m with Sherrod on this one. He says he wants to use a proceeds to help small businesses exp& & hire new employees. In a talk about how Wall Street benefited from a infusion of taxpayer dollars via TARP, he explained why he thinks Main Street needs to be helped along now & how this is a way to get that started. “It’s time,” he said, “for Wall Street to return a favor to Main Street. While big banks have rebounded thanks to a help of American taxpayers, small businesses are still struggling. If a big firm that received taxpayer help is now paying out massive bonuses, ay should be able to help American small businesses exp& operations & hire new workers. Small business growth will create jobs & get our economy back on track.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back