Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
On a programing note, you still have time to kick in a vote for this series. We are up for a kOscar (it really was an honor just to be nominated). You can vote for this series here nominated in (#7) "News or Political." The other diary for more categories is posted here. Many thanks to Laughing Planet and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse for their work on this.
Below the electronic fold, we have news...
Health Care Reform Summit
In case you haven't heard, President Obama will host a summit on the stalled health care reform bill Thursday at Blair House. Just like the Republicans wanted (for a little while anyway), this will be televised. This is supposed to be a chance for the grown-ups to honestly discuss their differences and hopefully come to an agreement on a bill that can pass, maybe even including some GOP ideas. That's bi-partisanship (okay, technically cross partisanship).
Enter Frat brother and House Minority Leader John Boehner, who plans to crash the party:
Boehner: GOP will 'crash' WH 'infomercial' on healthcare reform
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his colleagues on Tuesday that Republicans plan to attend the president’s high-profile healthcare summit this week in order to "crash the party."
According to a House GOP leadership aide familiar with the top-ranking Republican’s remarks at the weekly closed-door conference meeting, Boehner appealed to skeptical Republican lawmakers, saying, “We shouldn’t let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on ObamaCare. We need to show up. We need to crash the party.”
The last time I crashed a party, I nearly got my ass kicked.
Meanwhile, the adults are discussing some of their ideas. First, President Obama is doing his best Teddy Roosevelt impersonation.
Obama backs repeal of decades-old antitrust exemption for health insurance companies
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to strip health insurers of their decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws — hardening his stand against the industry as he tries to revive his stalled health care overhaul.
The White House announced Obama's support for a House bill that would repeal the industry's antitrust exemption, saying that would foster a more competitive marketplace that benefits consumers. The announcement follows Obama's call for new federal rate-setting powers that would give the Health and Human Services department the power to deny excessive increases in health insurance premiums.
Bart Stupak is still pushing his coat hanger amendments.
Stupak: Abortion Language in Obama's Health Care Plan "Unacceptable"
Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, who opposes abortion rights, has released a statement saying the White House health care reform plan is "unacceptable" because it "encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion."
"The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable," said Stupak. "While the President has laid out a health care proposal that brings us closer to resolving our differences, there is still work to be done before Congress can pass comprehensive health care reform."
Also, the Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted a poll that found most people like at least some provisions of health care reform.
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2010
The poll finds that at least six of every 10 Republicans, Democrats and independents back at least some of the key provisions in the reform bills that have passed the House and Senate. They include measures that would: reform the way health insurance works, such as preventing insurers from excluding people because of pre-existing conditions; offer tax credits to small businesses to help their workers get coverage; create a new health insurance marketplace; help close the Medicare "doughnut hole" so that seniors would no longer face a period of having to pay the full cost of their medicines; and expand high-risk insurance pools for individuals who cannot get coverage elsewhere. Providing subsidies to lower and middle income people also receives strong support from Democrats and independents and near majority support from Republicans.
The Washington Post offered this:
Health care reform: emotions and the road ahead
A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation puts a fresh spin on public attitudes toward health care reform, asking people about their feelings on the elongated process and on the consequences of stopping now.
Majorities of Americans say they're "disappointed" or "frustrated" by the "delays" in the reform process. Fewer, about a third say they're "relieved," "anxious" or "angry." About three in 10 say they're "pleased."
Harry Reid is not completely committed to using reconciliation to pass parts of the Health Care bill, but he is reminding us that the GOP used the process to get their own way when faced with threats of a filibuster.
Reid To GOP On Reconciliation: You Did It Too!
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today he has some instructions for Republicans balking at the probable reconciliation route Democrats will take to pass health care.
"Look at history," Reid (D-NV ) told reporters who asked about GOP complaints.
He said Republicans used reconciliation for Contract with America legislation and major items such as the Bush tax cuts.
"They're the ones who used it more than anyone else," he said.
Finally, the Republicans really do have a "plan" for health care reform. They just don't want to spend money on it. Instead they want to regulate the industry, which I do believe meets their definition of socialism. Anyway, the .pdf is posted here and there are some good ideas. On the surface, however, it does very little for people who do not have coverage.
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They are with us on everything but health care
Nate Silver had an interesting post last night that focuses on actual bipartisanship in the Senate.
Is 56 is the New 60?
The Senate's vote this afternoon to end a filibuster on Harry Reid's scaled-down jobs bill, which passed with not one but five different Republican votes (Scott Brown of Massachusetts; Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and the retiring Kit Bond and George Voinovich) was interesting on a number of levels.
~snip
Hence, the title of this post: is 56 is the new 60? If the Democrats can keep 56 of their own seats in the new Senate -- which will be a bit tough, but is far from out of the question -- then they may frequently be able to cobble together a coalition between the 56 Democrats and the four moderate Republicans -- Brown, Collins, Snowe and Castle. There are other Republican whose votes might be in play on particular issues -- Linsday Graham on climate change, Dick Lugar on foreign policy stuff -- but those the Snowe/Brown/Collins/Castle block should be up for grabs on almost every issue.
The interesting other point that Nate makes is that the 60 vote majority was always tenuous, a point that the Traditional Media tend to ignore, but that the blogosphere has known since the day after the 2008 election.
Does that mean the Democrats will have to genuflect to the Brown/Collins/Snow/Castle coalition? Yeah, probably. It sucks, but it is also political reality. What I find to be particularly interesting is that the traditional Northeast Republicans (fiscally conservative and fairly socially progressive) seem to be making a bit of a come back. Before the national GOP when completely insane, Liberal Democrats and Northeast Republicans were an important coalition. We will probably have to adjust to that new reality soon enough.
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Terror guilty plea "fail"
On Monday, the U.S. judicial system successfully got a guilty plea out of Najibullah Zazi, who was planning a major attack on New York City's subway system. Zazi is also talking to prosecutors, and it didn't even cost us the price of a bag of cookies.
From the New York Times:
Guilty Plea Made in Plot to Bomb New York Subway
The Afghan immigrant at the center of what the authorities described as one of the most serious threats to the United States since 9/11 pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism charges in what he said was a Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb in the New York subway.
~snip
In recent weeks, Mr. Zazi — who was born in Afghanistan, raised in Pakistan and later attended high school in Queens — had begun providing information to prosecutors as part of the initial stages of an agreement that led to his guilty plea on Monday, according to two people with knowledge of the case.
According to the loyal opposition, that proves not a damned thing.
Republicans dismiss new Democratic argument for civilian terror trials
Republicans are hitting back against Democratic claims that a guilty plea from an al Qaeda operative in federal court is proof the criminal justice system is up to the task of prosecuting terrorism suspects.
~snip
Republicans, however, remain steadfastly opposed to trying terrorism suspects in civilian courts and argued that the Zazi case has no bearing on other prospective terrorism prosecutions, because Zazi is a legal permanent resident of the United States, while most accused terrorists are citizens of other countries who are not entitled to the constitutional rights civilian trials afford.
Got that? The United States is out there spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan (or something like that), but American legal protections are not good enough for them brown people. The courts might actually find someone innocent, I guess.
Furthermore, this seems to be GOP evidence that the Department of Justice apparently isn't up to doing its job. This link is a bit dated, but it lists the rather large number of terrorism prosecutions up through last June.
So that brings up the question: Why does the GOP hate law enforcement?
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Toyota President Apologies to Congress
The president of Toyota is on Capitol Hill today to apologize for safety flaws that caused several traffic accidents.
In Statement to House, Toyota Chief to Accept Responsibility
WASHINGTON — In a statement prepared for delivery to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, said he took full responsibility for the safety crisis facing his company.
Mr. Toyoda released his statement as another House committee listened to a Tennessee woman, Rhonda Smith, recount the harrowing moments of Oct. 12, 2006, when her Lexus sedan sped out of control at 100 miles an hour.
~snip
“Safety must come first,” Mr. Waxman said while also faulting investigators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for not aggressively pursuing problems with Toyota vehicles.
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Cat House tax problems
Remember the house on C Street in DC that was at the center of John Ensign's sex-capades? Well, it probably really is not a church and thus does not qualify for tax exemptions.
C Street house target of clergy's IRS complaint
The owners of a $1.8 million townhouse on Capitol Hill that has been home and refuge to conservative members of Congress are wrongly claiming a federal tax exemption reserved for religious establishments, 13 Ohio clergy members contend in a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service.
The clergy suspect that the C Street Center, which rents living space to lawmakers, is "an exclusive club for powerful officials . . . masquerading as a church," according to a request for an investigation addressed to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.
Imagine that. A bunch of conservative legislators don't want to pay their taxes and use religion to get away with it.
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Godwin's Law
Godwin's Law, first articulated by Mike Godwin in the 1990s, states:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
In The Most Important News of the Day™, I offer Casual Wednesday's corollary.
The same principal applies in politics. As debate on an issue drags on, the probably of a comparison involving Nazis approaches 1.
For evidence, I offer these two stories from today:
via Think Progress:
In Effort To Smear The President, Gingrich Suggests Obama Would Have Allied With Anti-Nazi Party
Gingrich’s statement that Obama would fit in with the Social Democratic Party in Germany is interesting. After all, the Social Democrats were fighting to block Adolf Hitler prior to World War II. As Matt Yglesias has explained:
The Social Democrats were the main source of opposition to Hitler at a time when the Communists were bizarrely maintaining that there was no difference between the two and the mainstream parties of the center-right decided that it made sense to form a tactical alliance with Hitler. Social Democrats stand for a generous welfare state and active labor market policies. Nazis try to conquer the world and send people to the gas chamber.
So while so many conservatives have tried to tie Obama and his policies to Hitler, Gingrich is now admitting that Obama would have been been on the front lines in fighting against fascism.
and via Politico:
Bernie Sanders compares climate skeptics to Nazi deniers
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is comparing climate change skeptics to those who disregarded the Nazi threat in America in the 1930s, adding a strident rhetorical shot to the already volatile debate over climate change.
"It reminds me of an event that took place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s," said Sanders, perhaps the most liberal member of the Senate, during a Senate hearing Tuesday. "During that period of Nazism and fascism's growth-a real danger to this country and democratic countries around the world- there were people in this country and in the British parliament who said 'don't worry! Hitler's not real! It'll disappear!"
With that, I wish you a good and Nazi-free afternoon.