GOP House And Senate Team Targets Democrats
Roll Call reports that House and Senate Republicans have worked closely together across both chambers, to target Democrats on the health care bill. “This is a vast improvement over several years ago, when in the fall of 2006, Republican House Members were literally running against Republican Senators over the immigration issue,” said Senate GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN). “So that’s a dramatic change from four years ago when we were deeply divided. Institutionally we don’t really mesh easily.”
Obama’s Day Ahead
President Obama will receive his daily briefing at 9:30 a.m. ET. He will sigh the HIRE Act, commonly known as the jobs bill, at 11:20 a.m. ET in the Rose Garden. He will meet with senior advisers at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Biden’s Day Ahead
Vice President Biden will travel to Durham, North Carolina, and will deliver remarks at 12 p.m. ET at Cree, Inc., a manufacturer of energy-efficient LED lighting product, which recently received a $39 million tax credit under the stimulus program. Later, Biden will meet with small business owners and local officials to promote the stimulus program. He will return to Washington in the evening.
Hillary Clinton In Moscow
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Moscow for two days of talks with Russian leaders on nuclear arms control and other security issues. She met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the two then had dinner with their U.N. and E.U. colleagues.
Stupak: Debate Has Been A ‘Living Hell’
In an interview with The Hill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) said that the debate over abortion and the health care bill has been a “living hell” for him, and that his wife has even disconnected the phone in their home in order to avoid harassment. “All the phones are unplugged at our house — tired of the obscene calls and threats. She won’t watch TV,” said Stupak. “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.”
WaPo: Obama’s Planned Overseas Trip As Health Vote Nears Draws Criticism
The Washington Post reports that some Congressional Democrats are critical of President Obama’s upcoming Asia trip, which is coming in the home stretch of debate on the health care bill. The trip has already been postponed once, but is set to go ahead this Sunday. “The timing is ill-advised. We need all hands on deck,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). “If nothing else, the atmospherics it creates by being on the foreign trip when we’re doing the heavy lifting on this is wrong. If I were asked, I’d tell him to postpone it.”
NYT: Deficit-Hawk Alan Simpson Talks Taxes, Spending, ‘Rush Babe’ And ‘Bow-Wows’
The New York Times profiles former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), now co-chair of President Obama’s fiscal commission, a Republican moderate with an acerbic wit about his right-wing detractors and the need for strong decisions on both taxes and spending: “Former Senator Alan K. Simpson, the co-chairman of President Obama’s bipartisan commission for reducing the mounting federal debt, figures that with the country in danger of ‘going to the bow-wows,’ he has bigger things to worry about than whether ‘Rush Babe’ and other conservative critics are ‘babbling into the vapors’ that he is not Republican enough for the job.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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