This is our top priority over at the DCCC right now -- read on to find out why it should be yours.
ACTION ITEM: KILL THE SLASH AND BURN BUDGET CUTS
Republicans in the House are hoping to slash more than $50 billion from programs like food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches, child support, and student loans. At the same time, they hope to pass $70 billion in tax cuts targeted at the wealthy, actually increasing the deficit. The vote is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
Call Your Republican Representatives and Promise them Hell If They Even Consider Voting For These Despicable Priorities.
Contact Your Republican Representative.
In the wake of Tom DeLay's pseudo-removal from the Majority Leader post, there was an initial flurry of activity as the future of GOP Leadership came into question.
The first two insurgent candidates out of the box seemed to be Zach Wamp, who would be challenging DeLay foot soldier Eric Cantor for the Whip position, and John Boehner, who could take on Blunt himself for the Republican Leader position.
And Blunt knew it. From October 5th in The Hill...
Some sources said Blunt's plea for patience shows deep concern that last week's events have emboldened other ambitious lawmakers considering a leadership challenge. House GOP rules allow for leadership elections to take place if 50 GOP members sign a petition calling for it. Hastert has urged members to hold their fire until the end of the year; if DeLay is not exonerated by January, Hastert has said, the conference could revisit the prospect of holding elections.
Right now, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) is viewed by many in the conference as one of the strongest and best-positioned candidates to challenge Blunt. For that reason, some knowledgeable GOP sources have suggested that Blunt should reach out to Boehner to stave off what could be a bloody fight for a future leadership post.
In fact, Blunt has invited Boehner up to his third-floor whip's office several times during the past few months "just to talk," a source familiar with the meeting said. No aides were in the meetings, so it is unclear what was discussed.
It's no secret, however, that Boehner has spent the past several years positioning himself for a return to the leadership table.
If elections seem likely after the dust settles on the indictment fallout, one GOP lobbyist said, Boehner would base his decision to launch a leadership challenge on whether he thinks the conference is "on the right or wrong track."
At first glance, any sort of partnership between Blunt and Boehner would appear unlikely. Boehner is a vanquished foe of the temporarily dethroned majority leader, and Blunt only ascended to majority whip in 2002 because DeLay chose him three years earlier for the job of chief deputy whip.
The bad blood between DeLay and Boehner dates to 1998, when DeLay recruited and publicly backed former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) to run against Boehner. At the time, Boehner was the chairman of the House Republicans Conference, the fourth-ranking spot in the House GOP leadership team. Watts won that election and knocked Boehner out of the House leadership.
Since then, it's been fairly quiet. From October 25th...
Boehner Bides Time, Aids DeLay [Roll Call]
While Rep. John Boehner's (R-Ohio) allies privately debate whether he should mount a challenge to temporary Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) in January, Boehner quietly cut a $5,000 check earlier this month to the legal defense fund of the man he could seek to permanently replace, indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
The donation from Boehner's leadership political action committee - which has not yet been publicly disclosed, but was confirmed by two sources - illustrates the delicate balance the Ohioan is trying to strike between supporting his old rival DeLay, backing the current leadership team and figuring out his own plans.
[...]
"I think he's playing his cards well," observed a GOP leadership aide. "He's put his nose to the grindstone doing good committee work. ... He's been waiting for seven years and he'll pull the trigger at the right moment."
While Boehner has gone out of his way not to discuss his plans for the future, the question of whether this is "the right moment" is currently the subject of fierce debate among the small group of lawmakers and lobbyists who make up Boehner's informal cabinet.
One school of thought within that group says that, even if a majority of the Conference believes DeLay is finished and moves to hold an election for Majority Leader next year, it would be best for Boehner to wait for a bigger prize whenever Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) decides to retire.
"The job we want him in isn't open in January," said a GOP lawmaker who is close to Boehner. "We want him to be Speaker, not Majority Leader."
The lawmaker argued that a January leadership battle should be avoided, even if Boehner could win it. "It's going to be an ugly fight. It's going to be an ugly year," the lawmaker said.
But some other members of Boehner's circle believe that, regardless of their previous designs on the Speakership, the current environment and the prospect of a January contest mean Boehner must accelerate his timetable.
"If there is going to be a race, he'll run," said a second Member who speaks to Boehner often.
Starting to sound like Boehner might not quite be the breath of fresh air some might want us to believe? Quite right. What has been happening is that he's been building a parallel version of DeLay, Inc. peddling for the same customers. Thus, he ends up voting with DeLay 95% of the time, including on the crucial ethics votes, and...
Boehner can rely on K Street Cabinet [The Hill]
Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), a likely candidate for a position in the House Republican leadership if former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) does not return, has assembled a loyal and effective network of lobbyists.
Boehner formed his alliances on K Street when he served as chairman of the GOP conference from 1995 to 1998, when his portfolio included working with lobbyists on K Street.
"He was a policy traffic cop for the business community," one of Boehner's allies said. "When [former Rep. J.C.] Watts [Okla.] won [the election for conference chairman], DeLay, in the whip position, vacuumed in the policy and business outreach. He added staff and translated business outreach into votes, which is something [Missouri Rep.] Roy [Blunt] is doing now."
Many GOP sources say Boehner would receive strong support from his so-called K Street Cabinet if he decides to run for another leadership post.
The author of that piece, Jonathan E. Kaplan, seems unsurprised that K Street would be determining the future of the Republican Party. I guess I'm less than shocked as well. And in case you're wondering about Zach "New Blood" Wamp, well, he's not so new actually...
New Blood Needed In Third District [Chattanoogan]
Congressman Zach Wamp, fresh from revealing that he has changed his mind and that he "made a mistake" in promising to give up his seat after six terms to encourage new candidates to succeed him, has a new twist on public service.
The Congressman said, "The leadership team (in Congress) could use an infusion of new blood" (seeming to suggest that the age of those in power is the problem). He said that he wants to be that new blood (interesting that he considers himself "new blood" after being in Washington for 12 years).
And not such a rebel after all either...
Voting percentage with DeLay: 94%
Vote to weaken ethics rules: YES
Vote to repeal weakened ethics rules: YES
Votes to table Democratic solution: YES and YES
Wamp went on a little hiatus with his upstart talk as well, so, yes, it's been quiet.
Perhaps a little too quiet.
We have already learned the profound importance of the Republican unity that carried them through the 2004 elections. The divergence of interests between the Republican Congress and the White House has been disastrous. So too, it may be, with divergent interests in the House. You see, for the first time, there are significant factions in the House who may have more to gain from a given bill failing than they do from it passing. This dynamic will be meeting its greatest test on the upcoming draconian budget cuts -- a vote I described yesterday as "the big one."
The fact that these massive cuts to social programs are even on the table is itself the result of some serious power plays. On October 17th, this was the headline...
House GOP Leaders Set to Cut Spending [WaPo]
House Republican leaders have moved from balking at big cuts in Medicaid and other programs to embracing them, driven by pent-up anger from fiscal conservatives concerned about runaway spending and the leadership's own weakening hold on power.
Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts to pay for the soaring cost of hurricane relief.
[...]
The abrupt shift reflects a changed political dynamic in the House in which a faction of fiscal conservatives -- known as the Republican Study Committee, or RSC -- has gained the upper hand because of DeLay's criminal indictment in Texas, widespread criticism of the Republicans' handling of Hurricane Katrina, and uncertainty over the future of the leadership, according to lawmakers and aides.
Now, cutting the budget -- which only months ago seemed far from possible -- is at the center of the agenda in the House. "No one wants to have an argument with friends, but that argument facilitated the debate that led to the package [of cuts] that [House Speaker J. Dennis] Hastert has now put out there," said Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), chairman of the RSC and a leading proponent of cuts to offset new government spending.
[...]
DeLay may continue to exercise power informally, as he did Oct. 7 in working the floor to help narrowly pass an energy bill. But DeLay and his leadership allies are mindful that the rank and file could demand new elections to permanently fill the majority leader's post -- temporarily being held by Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.) -- if members grow impatient with GOP policies.
"Our real leverage has come from the fear that DeLay will not have a post to come back to," said Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz), another RSC leader. "They are deathly afraid of a leadership election in January."
[...]
After several meetings, Hastert emerged from a closed Republican session the night of Oct. 6 to announce that he had gotten the message. Cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and farm supports would be raised from $35 billion to $50 billion in the massive budget bill that will be compiled in November. Republicans would push an additional across-the-board spending cut for 2006 and would try to trim programs already funded.
"We went from being in the doghouse to being feted as the heart and soul of the party," Flake said jokingly.
This, in turn, made the choice easy for Democrats: Fight.
Hoyer: Democrats United Against Reconciliation Cuts [Congress DailyAM]
House Minority Whip Hoyer said Thursday that Democrats are unanimously opposed to reconciliation spending cuts, and they can defeat the measure during a floor vote if they are joined in their opposition by 14 or 15 Republicans.
Responding to a question, Hoyer added he thinks Democrats can win on a close floor vote, even if GOP leaders use the tactic of holding open the vote until they can change enough votes to prevail.
He said moderate Republicans are distancing themselves from their leadership and from the White House, in light of a string of ethics controversies.
"A lot of Republicans are very nervous," he said. "As a result, that is going to be a much more difficult task -- when 20 minutes, 25 minutes have passed -- for moderate Republicans switching their votes from nay to yea."
Indeed, DCCC Press started firing as soon as it passed the Budget Committee...
For Immediate Release November 4, 2005
Garrett Budget Vote Hurts New Jersey Families
Republicans in Congress are Looking for $50 Billion to Cut From the Budget in All the Wrong Places
More than 982,000 people in New Jersey depend on Medicaid.
More than 124,000 New Jersey students depend on federal loans for their higher education.
More than 159,000 New Jersey families depend on home heating assistance to be able to heat their homes.
(Washington, D.C.) - Yesterday, Congressman Scott Garrett voted on a budget bill that is part of the $50 billion slash and burn Republican budget cuts aimed at eliminating priorities to New Jersey families. Garrett supported nearly $10 billion in Medicaid cuts yesterday and more than $14 billion in cuts to student aid and opposed an additional $2 billion for critical home heating assistance.
"Congressman Scott Garrett paved the way for special interests while turning his back on the families he represents by voting yesterday for cuts in health care and student aid and by voting against critical home heating assistance," said Bill Burton, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "New Jersey families deserve a member of Congress who sides with their needs and not the special interests."
1. Medicaid Cuts - The Republican proposal to cut Medicaid by nearly $10 billion could raise health care costs for many of the 25 million children in this country who rely on Medicaid while leaving in place the $5.4 billion "slush fund" giveaway to insurance companies and HMOs.
982,676 people in New Jersey depend on Medicaid. [Based on data reported to CMS in the Medicaid Statistical Information System, as of Feb. 17, 2005, as computed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.]
2. Student Aid - At a time when college tuition is skyrocketing, the Republican budget slashes student loans by more than $14 billion. This includes raising student loan interest rate caps and raising interest rates and fees on student borrowers who consolidate their loans.
More than 124,000 New Jersey students depend on federal loans for their higher education.
3. Home Heating Assistance - As another cold winter approaches, the Republican budget fails families struggling to heat their homes. The vote yesterday was against an effort to increase the amount of funding provided in the bill for home heating assistance (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program). Combined with the $2 billion allocated by Congress earlier this year, the motion would have brought total LIHEAP funding to $5 billion - the amount experts have said is necessary to meet the need. Home heating prices are expected to explode this winter. Meanwhile oil and gas companies have posted record profits. The effort to increase home heating assistance was rejected 15-21.
More than 159,000 New Jersey families would lose out on home heating assistance because of this vote. Home heating costs in the Northeast are expected to go up 48% for natural gas homes in a cold winter and 59% for heating oil homes.
And so we see various factions lining up. As an important note, though, this should not be viewed through the prism of conservative "budget balancers" vs. moderate "bleeding hearts" -- the package actually increases the deficit by tens of billions of dollars because of more tax cuts aimed at the wealthy. If the cuts pass, the RSC -- which I've previously described as the Wingnut Caucus because of their support of such preposterous positions -- will claim total ascendancy and will continue to hold DeLay, Blunt and the rest hostage. It will also be one more humiliation for the "moderates," who this far have been able to muster little more than saying it raises "questions of fairness." It also raises questions of whether they will be in the 110th Congress.
And for DeLay and his seatwarmer Blunt, the headlines have been rolling out like ominous storm clouds hangin over this vote...
House leaders face test on spending cuts [FT]
Spending cuts seen as test of GOP leaders [Washington Times]
This one got right to the point...
Blunt's future could hinge on budget vote [The Hill]
A failed vote on the budget-reconciliation package could threaten the already shaky House leadership structure if Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and his whip team cannot find 218 members willing to support it.
And as has been suspected from the beginning, this test is not going well...
GOP Budget Cuts Face Varied Opposition [WaPo]
A full-court press by liberal activists, coupled with conflicting regional interests, is threatening to sink a far-reaching Republican budget bill in the House that was designed to slice $54 billion in federal spending over the next five years.
House GOP leaders said yesterday that they will push for a vote on the measure Thursday, and that they are prepared to do what it takes to put them over the top. That may mean temporarily ditching a provision opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling or throwing aside an offshore oil drilling provision to win balking Florida Republicans.
But for now, Republicans concede they are well short of the votes needed to pass a bill that would require longer work hours to qualify for welfare, allow states to impose new costs on Medicaid beneficiaries, cut assistance for child support enforcement, trim student loan spending, cut back agriculture supports, and curb eligibility for food stamps.
The Senate last week narrowly approved legislation that would trim about $35 billion from the budget over five years, but that bill largely avoided the direct cuts to beneficiaries of federal anti-poverty programs contained in the House budget measure. Those proposed cuts have created strong misgivings among some Republican moderates, especially since a five-year, $70 billion tax cut is awaiting action that would more than offset the savings in the budget cuts.
[...]
House Democrats have compiled lists of committee votes for cuts to agriculture, student aid, child support and health care programs, as well as for oil drilling in the Alaska refuge, that Democratic leaders vow to use in next year's midterm congressional elections.
"This is going to test whether moderate Republicans are really moderate," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "There are a ton of people who will have a day of reckoning coming."
Or put more simply:
The votes are not there for spending cuts [The Hill]
ON THE FENCE
The following Republican lawmakers, based on discussions with aides and research into past records, were still on the fence by press time as the budget-reconciliation vote draws near.
Representative Position toward reconciliation
Mike Castle (Del.) Generally lukewarm
Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.) Package as a whole
Heather Wilson (N.M.) Medicaid cuts
Charlie Dent (Pa.) Generally lukewarm
Tim Johnson (Ill.) ANWR, food stamps
Tom Osborne (Neb.) Opposes Education Committee savings
Todd Platts (Pa.) Opposes Education Committee savings
Judy Biggert (Ill.) Opposes Education Committee savings
Chris Smith (N.J.) Food stamps, Medicaid, ANWR
Jim Leach (Iowa) ANWR, foster-care cuts
Joe Schwarz (Mich.) ANWR
Jim Gerlach (Pa.) ANWR, general cuts
Connie Mack (Fla.) Offshore drilling
Mark Foley (Fla.) Offshore drilling
Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) Offshore drilling
Bill Young (Fla.) Offshore drilling
Katherine Harris (Fla.) Offshore drilling
Gil Gutknecht (Minn.) Voted against April budget
Walter Jones (N.C.) Voted against April budget
Mark Green (Wis.) Voted against April budget
Steven LaTourette (Ohio) Generally lukewarm
Rob Simmons (Conn.) Generally lukewarm
Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.) Medicaid cuts
Jeb Bradley (N.H.) ANWR
Nancy Johnson (Conn.) ANWR, against April budget
Mark Kirk (Ill.) ANWR
Jim Saxton (N.J.) ANWR, against April budget
Jim Ramstad (Minn.) ANWR, against April budget
So if it fails, will the "Lord of the Flies" melee begin? Let's see what we heard on NPR yesterday (via Roy Temple), painstakingly transcribed by yours truly.
From Zach "New Blood" Wamp:
Wamp: The one thing I do think is that we're going to have to move beyond Tom DeLay. I mean to be honest with you, that's the bottom line.
[...]
Wamp: Not hanging on to the prospect that he's going to come back. I think it's time to move on with the thought of who the leaders are going to be and how they are going to carry out the agenda. And in order to do that we've got to take the cloud out of the sky and that continues to be a cloud... I mean let's face it
From Wingnut Caucuser Jeff Flake:
Flake: Well, we want a leadership that will commit to fiscal responsibility and I've mentioned and others have certainly intimated that if this leadership can't produce savings in the budget than we need a leadership election in January, so I think that's the bottom line.
So, as Hoyer says...
"If they lose this battle, if they can't get the votes, they're going to continue to look like they are in disarray," said Steny Hoyer, a top Democrat in the House,
Mr Hoyer said he was confident all House Democrats would oppose the spending cuts. Speaking to a group of liberal political activists from across the country who helped derail President George W. Bush's Social Security reform plan, Mr Hoyer last week called for help in getting 14 Republicans to oppose the spending cuts - enough to block them.
"We can win this fight," he said.
Blood in the water. Kill this disgrace now, and let them tear each other apart.
ACTION ITEM: KILL THE SLASH AND BURN BUDGET CUTS
Republicans in the House are hoping to slash more than $50 billion from programs like food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches, child support, and student loans. At the same time, they hope to pass $70 billion in tax cuts targeted at the wealthy, actually increasing the deficit. The vote is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
Call Your Republican Representatives and Promise them Hell If They Even Consider Voting For These Despicable Priorities.
Contact Your Republican Representative.
