Budget

Defense Experts Press Congress for Smart, Targeted Cuts

Brian Fung | October 1, 2011, 1:59PM

Many congressional Republicans are refusing to address defense spending as part of the bipartisan negotiations on deficit reduction, but some members of the defense community are calling for proactive and fundamental changes to the Pentagon's budget, anyway. Why? The alternative, they say -- automatic cuts should the supercommittee fail to reach a deal -- would be much worse by comparison.

Although automatic cuts would be relatively mild by historical standards in dollar terms, they would likely fall the hardest on spending categories such as procurement and military R&D, experts said in a Thursday conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Immediate cuts in these programs would hinder the military's long-term competitiveness and affect the kinds of missions it could undertake in the future, they argued. They would also leave major structural problems, such as ballooning personnel costs, unaddressed.

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Solyndra

Boehner Pushes For Energy Department Loan For Home District Company Amidst Solyndra Scandal

Ryan J. Reilly | September 30, 2011, 5:30PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

With the solar energy company Solyndra going belly up, some Republicans have started to question the Energy Department's entire loan program. Not House Speaker John Boehner (R), who on Friday called for the Obama administration to send some of that federal cash back to a company in his Ohio district.

Boehner's office wants the Energy Department to approve USEC, Inc.'s application for a loan to construct a uranium enrichment plant for the American Centrifuge Project. They say that USEC's proposal is solid and would "bring thousands of good-paying, long-term jobs," which they said stood "in stark contrast to the 'stimulus'-centric Solyndra saga."

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Wisconsin Recalls

Scott Walker's Chief of Staff Resigns -- To Prepare For Possible Governor Recall

Eric Kleefeld | September 30, 2011, 2:30PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) is gearing up for a potential recall election in 2012, with his chief of staff, Keith Gilkes, now departing in order to become a lead adviser to Walker's campaign.

It's a return of sorts to Gilkes' previous role as campaign manager in the regularly scheduled election that Walker won in 2010.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

Gilkes disclosed his plans to top Walker aides during a cabinet meeting Friday at a Madison hotel. In an interview, he said he would serve as lead adviser to Walker's campaign, but also take on other clients for campaign work. He said he would not go into lobbying.

His departure comes at a time of strain for the administration, with Democrats poised to try to recall the governor next year and a widening John Doe investigation of current and former Walker aides.

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Warren Buffett

Timeline: How The Buffett Story Was Oversold On Twitter

Ryan J. Reilly | September 30, 2011, 12:10PM

Warren Buffett didn't really "disagree" with the so-called "Buffett rule" on Friday, but Republicans were quick to pounce on early reports that he did.

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Warren Buffett

Did Warren Buffett Really Disown The Buffett Rule? Not Really (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | September 30, 2011, 11:40AM

Oops!

Ideally, if you've gotten permission from Warren Buffett to use his name to describe your tax plan, you want him to be affirmatively on board with all of it.

But asked by CNBC whether he supports President Obama's tax plan, Buffett hedged quite a bit.

"Well, the precise program, I don't know what their program will be," Buffett said. "My program would be on the very high incomes that are taxed very low -- not just high incomes.... If they make a lot of money and pay a low tax rate, like me, it would be changed by a minimum tax."

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Barack Obama

Euro Crisis: The Biggest Story In American Politics And Nobody's Talking About It

Brian Beutler | September 30, 2011, 6:15AM

Image From Olinchuk / Shutterstock

It could easily force the United States back into recession and become the issue on which the 2012 elections turn. But the national political press has all but ignored it, and none of the GOP's Presidential hopefuls have been asked about it in any of their endless series of debates.

The European monetary union is on the verge of collapse. In the wake of 2008's global financial crisis, several countries on the Euro have amassed crushing debt burdens and seen their economies stall or buckle. And now the severity of their problems, combined with political paralysis in the union's more stable countries, threatens to bring the whole system down.

If that happens -- and many analysts say its a question of when, not if -- it will plunge all of Europe into financial crisis. But that will have far reaching consequences around the globe, including in the United States, and it hasn't widely sunk in that it could break our meager recovery and weigh heavily on Presidential politics next year.

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Social Security

CNN Poll: Majority OK With Partial Privatization Of Social Security

Kyle Leighton | September 29, 2011, 6:38PM

Gunnar Pippel / Shutterstock

Just a month ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry touched the Third Rail of American politics by calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme." There was some real data that showed it hurting him with independent voters and even some Republicans. But on Thursday some data from CNN came out showing Americans going a few different directions on the program: namely, a majority that favored a partial privatization and a fifth that believe the program is actually unconstitutional.

The most traditional number was familiar. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said the program has been good for the country, which held across all parties and ideologies. People still showed concern however: 71 percent of those polled said that the system was either in a state of crisis (22 percent) or had major problems (49 percent), something which all party subgroups agreed on again.

Then results started to get crossed, or at least counter-intuitive.

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Government Shutdown

Dems Fuming Over GOP Threats To Planned Parenthood, Health Care Law

Brian Beutler | September 29, 2011, 4:58PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Republicans are attaching controversial cuts and policy measures to legislation required to run the biggest domestic department in the federal government, and if they don't back off there will likely be, you guessed it, another government shutdown fight.

Already, Democrats in both chambers are saying a draft of the House's Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill is dead on arrival, because it contains deep cuts to heating assistance for the poor, requires the repeal of a major provision of the health care law that will help provide assistance for disabled people, halts implementation of the entire law until the Supreme Court determines the constitutionality of its individual insurance mandate, and slashes Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting. Just for starters.

A Senate Dem aide familiar with appropriations issues weighs in with the following statement.

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The Onion

The Onion Roils Capitol With Fictional Congress-Perpetrated Hostage Situation

Eric Kleefeld | September 29, 2011, 12:49PM

The Onion may have just struck a raw nerve with the latest article to come from the satirical newspaper -- narrating a hostage situation at the U.S. Capitol perpetrated by members of Congress. In fact, the Capitol Police are now responding.

The Onion's article, and the accompanying tweets, appear to satirize the wave of standoffs that have occurred in Congress over potential government shutdowns, the issues of the deficit and the national debt, the debt ceiling, and possible default on U.S. debt, all of which were narrowly averted. Along the way, various politicians and media outlets have often accused one side or another of holding Americans "hostage." To which The Onion has created a fictional, literal hostage situation -- and a bipartisan one, at that!

As of the latest update on Twitter: "BREAKING: Congress demanding $12 trillion ransom or "all the kids die" #CongressHostage"

Shortly after the story began being posted, the Capitol Police released this statement to the press, from spokesperson Sgt. Kimberly Schneider:

It has come to our attention that recent twitter feeds are reporting false information concerning current conditions at the U.S. Capitol. Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal. There is no credibility to these stories or the twitter feeds. The U.S. Capitol Police are currently investigating the reporting.

When contacted by TPM, Sgt. Schneider declined to comment on what the Capitol Police might be doing to investigate the matter, saying that the police do not discuss the preliminary stages of a law enforcement investigation.

The Onion has not immediately responded to TPM's request for comment.

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Barack Obama

Just The Facts: Republicans Falsely Claim Obama Seeks Biggest Tax Hike In History

Brian Beutler | September 29, 2011, 11:19AM

President Barack Obama

After President Obama unveiled his jobs and deficit reduction plans, he took to the road to draw a contrast between himself and the Republican politicians who want to end his political career. Obama's proposes to spend money now on hiring people and cutting taxes temporarily to spur further job growth, and pay for it in just over a year, in large part by raising taxes on wealthy Americans.

The Republican vision -- phasing out safety net programs like Medicare in order to maintain low tax rates on the same group of affluent people -- is far less popular. So in their own tried and true way, Republicans recast Obama's plan for "shared sacrifice" as "the largest tax increase in history."

What a difference! But also untrue.

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Health Care

Obama Administration Moves Aggressively To Put Health Care Law Before Supreme Court

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 4:13PM

The Obama administration has taken its aggressive legal defense of the new health care law to a new level.

In an unexpected twist, the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to swiftly overturn an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the law's mandate requiring people to buy insurance is unconstitutional -- the only Circuit Court to rule this way so far.

"[T]oday, the Obama Administration will ask the Supreme Court to hear this case, so that we can put these challenges to rest and continue moving forward implementing the law," wrote Stephanie Cutter, a senior Obama adviser, on the White House blog. "We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. We are confident the Supreme Court will agree."

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Wisconsin State Legislature

Wis. Election Officials: Waukesha County Clerk Failed To Follow Election Laws -- But Did Not Tamper With Court Race

Eric Kleefeld | September 28, 2011, 3:40PM

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R), April 7, 2011.

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections in the state, has released its report on the controversial April election for state Supreme Court -- where vote-counting problems in Waukesha County resulted in the announced discovery of un-tabulated votes, putting incumbent conservative Justice David Prosser ahead in the state Supreme Court race against his liberal-backed opponent JoAnne Kloppenburg. The report finds probable cause to believe that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R) violated the laws and procedures for administering the count -- but that her actions were not willful, criminal misconduct.

Notably, the report concludes that Nickolaus could not have possibly manipulated vote totals, as some members of the public came to believe -- because the City of Brookfield, the center of the vote-counting controversy, had in fact independently reported its correct vote totals to local media sources on election night. However, Nickolaus may have violated the law requiring county clerks to post all detailed results that night, when she made the mistake in calculating the county's spreadsheet.

From the GAB's publicly released report:

As a result of the investigation, the G.A.B. has issued an order requiring Clerk Nickolaus to conform her conduct to law and take certain steps to ensure accountability and transparency in her Election Night reporting practices prior to the February 2012 spring primary. Those steps include releasing detailed results on Election Night, instead of only county-wide figures. Had Clerk Nickolaus reported all results separately on Election Night, her failure to include numbers from the City of Brookfield would have been apparent immediately, rather than the next morning when she discovered the problem.

"Your actions following the April 5, 2011 Spring election did not conform to the legal requirements imposed on county clerks," G.A.B. Chairperson Thomas H. Barland said in a letter to Clerk Nickolaus. "When one election official fails to act consistent with those responsibilities, steps must be taken to correct the failure in order to prevent it from recurring, and to restore public confidence and trust in the administration of elections."

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Super Committee

Super Committee Dems Avoid Trap That Skewed Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 2:41PM

'Super Committee' members Sen. Patt Murray (D-WA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), September 7, 2011.

Democrats on the new deficit Super Committee are determined to be better negotiators than their predecessors in earlier deficit discussions leading up to the debt limit fight.

According to aides with knowledge of the discussions, they're trying to keep the panel's early focus on revenues, to avoid falling into a familiar trap of agreeing to a bunch of spending cuts only to have Republicans freeze up when they try to change the conversation to taxes.

A bit of background is appropriate here.

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Grover Norquist

Norquist To Buffett: Send Government Your Money -- Here's The Envelope, You Pay For The Stamp

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 1:03PM

Grover Norquist

Republicans and conservative operatives have become obsessed with the idea that wealthy liberals should prove their largesse not by making public arguments for higher taxes on people like themselves but by donating money to the U.S. Treasury.

This is the fiscal equivalent of the old critique that environmentalists should just buy hybrid cars and never fly anywhere instead of fighting for laws meant to combat climate change. It's silly, but it's combustible, and it exploded on Twitter and elsewhere after an Obama supporter in California this week asked the President to raise his taxes.

Anti-tax warrior Grover Norquist has turned this talking point into world class snark.

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FEMA

How Congress Could End Up In Another Fight Over Cutting Programs For Disaster Aid

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 6:00AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

The government won't shut down this week over a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over whether emergency supplemental funds to support disaster relief should be offset with budget cuts.

And when the new fiscal year starts October 1, disaster relief funds will not need to be offset pursuant to an agreement the parties struck as part of the August debt ceiling deal. That's why the $2.65 billion for FEMA's disaster relief fund the Senate just passed didn't have to be offset, and the House is expected to pass the same bill without putting up another fight.

But what happens if things get really bad: if assessments of damage from Hurricane Irene and the fires in Texas turn out to be much worse than expected, or if another unforeseen disaster strikes a major city. Does the debt ceiling deal provide an unlimited guarantee that House Republicans won't try once again to pair disaster funding with partisan budget cuts?

The answer is no.

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China

China Stealing U.S. Jobs? Not Quite What You Think, Experts Say

Brian Fung | September 28, 2011, 5:59AM

Americans in recent years have taken to wringing their hands over leakage of U.S. jobs to China and other developing nations. But on this side of the Pacific, Chinese businesses are quietly making deep investments in the United States that could play a significant if little acknowledged role in the American economic recovery.

That's the message coming out of the Global China Summit, a day-long event at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) involving former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, among other statesmen, scholars and officials Tuesday.

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FEMA

Cantor Presses FEMA On Status Of Disaster Aid For His District

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2011, 3:47PM

Here's a story that's delighting Democrats.

"House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, is pushing for information on the status of Gov. Bob McDonnell's request for federal disaster assistance for Louisa County residents in the wake of an earthquake there last month," reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

On Friday, Cantor held a conference call with Federal Emergency Management Agency and Louisa County officials. A readout of the call provided by Cantor's office indicates that he asked FEMA officials about the timeline and process for determining whether the agency would grant federal assistance. 'FEMA said they have received the Governor's request and sent it to the White House for a decision but could not provide any specific information on timing," the readout said. "Even when asked for an estimate based on past applications they were unable to do so.'

Clearly it's a bit rich that Cantor is trying to make sure disaster relief funds get to his district as quickly as possible given that he was perhaps the key actor in the Capitol Hill showdown which threatened to halt all of FEMA's activities.

There's another implication here, though, that Cantor may ultimately be responsible for the delay. If he'd just said nothing -- never insisted for emergency supplemental funds for disaster relief be offset -- then disaster aid wouldn't have gotten mired in a budget fight, and the funds might have been easier to come by.

In multiple discussions, no executive branch officials would confirm that these issues were related, suggesting that if there's a funding delay in Cantor's district it isn't the result of the recent skirmish on Capitol Hill.

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Polls

Poll: 73 Percent Support 'The Buffett Rule', Including 66 Percent Of Republicans

Kyle Leighton | September 27, 2011, 3:41PM

Ever since President Barack Obama proposed raising taxes on millionaires as part of a debt reduction package, Republicans have been refining their defense for resisting the change. These are the job creators, they argue, and economic growth will be hampered if they have to pay more income to the government. But it looks like they may have to find something more effective.

In the first public polling available on the so-called "Buffett Rule" specifically -- the proposal to raise taxes on millionaires advocated by billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- Daily Kos/SEIU's weekly "State of the Nation" survey asked the following: Do you support or oppose ensuring that people who make over a million dollars a year pay the same percentage of taxes or more on their total income as those who make less than a million dollars a year?

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Mint

House Republicans Want To Replace $1 Bill With Gold-Plated Coins

Ryan J. Reilly | September 27, 2011, 3:08PM

Some House Republicans have proposed a bill which would kill the 1-dollar bill and replace it with a mandated dollar coin, The Hill's Peter Kasperowicz reports.

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) and two other House Republicans introduced the Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act last week, saying the U.S. would save $184 million a year by moving to the dollar coin.

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Medicare

Ryan: Republicans Should Double Down On My Budget

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2011, 2:06PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) wants Congress to retain control of the fees that the United States Patent and Trademark Office collects and divert them to other government programs.

In a speech at Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) offered a recitation of his controversial, alternative vision for the country's social safety net.

But despite the backlash Republicans have faced taken since they voted overwhelmingly in the spring to adopt his approach, Ryan says now's the time for conservatives and GOP candidates to renew their support for that vision, not to walk away from it.

[W]e took a few dings at first, we survived," Ryan admitted. "The Democrats' tried the same old scare tactics for a few months, and in the first special election that took place after our budget passed, we learned a costly lesson. We learned that unless we back up our ideas with courage, and defend them in the face of attacks, we will lose. But once we learned that lesson and started to get our message out... well, a funny thing happened: People listened. They learned that our plan did not affect those in or near retirement; that it guaranteed coverage options like the ones members of Congress enjoy; and that choice and competition would drive costs down and quality up. They also learned more about the Democrats' plans for Medicare, and they didn't like what they heard."

Ryan went on.

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Government Shutdown

Shutdown Fight Ends Quietly On Capitol Hill

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2011, 10:27AM

President Barack Obama meets with Republican and Democratic leaders

Word comes from the Democratic Whip's office that the House of Representatives will quietly extend government funding on Tuesday, and then again, for a longer stretch, when the House returns from recess next week.

No muss, no fuss. Though House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will lose a big chunk of his caucus on the vote, the fight, for all intents and purposes, appears to be over.

On the Senate floor Monday night, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the whole exercise a "fire drill [that] was completely unnecessary."

But a Senate Democratic aide suggests McConnell knew full well who'd caused the fire drill, and it wasn't Democrats.

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Barack Obama

Heckler Screamed 'Anti-Christ' At Obama Before Being Whisked Away

Susan Crabtree | September 27, 2011, 8:40AM

President Obama, then a senator, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO

A heckler disrupted opening remarks President Obama was giving at a House of Blues event in Los Angeles Monday night.

Obama had just told the event's master of ceremonies Tyler Ferguson, an actor on the TV show Modern Family, that "Michelle and the girls love them some Modern Family," and Ferguson responded by thanking him for ending the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy governing gays in the military.

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Sheldon Whitehouse

Sen. Whitehouse On Disaster Funding: Take That, Tea Party!

Susan Crabtree | September 27, 2011, 6:04AM

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Democrats are hoping Republicans' more conciliatory spirit displayed Monday night to avert a government shutdown over disaster aid is a sign of shifting political winds after August's debt showdown that resulted in Standard & Poor downgrading the nation's creditworthiness.

After the vote last night to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency through November, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told TPM he hopes the Senate's agreement to pass a compromise bill sends a message to Tea Party House GOP members that the do-or-die brinkmanship has got to go.

"I think we were less close to the precipice this time," he said. "I think there was a little bit more anxiety on the part of the GOP to go there, and I hope it sends a message back to the House and the Tea Party that the Senate is not going to be amenable to this stuff anymore."

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Government Shutdown

Senate Averts Government Shutdown Threat, Funds FEMA

Brian Beutler | September 26, 2011, 6:40PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

The threat of a government shutdown, and the possibility that FEMA will run out of money this week, will both be averted, thanks to some clever accounting and the GOP's lack of will to keep holding disaster relief funds hostage to budget cuts.

On the Senate floor late Monday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced an agreement by which the Senate (and presumably the House) can dispense with all the sturm und drang about offsetting disaster aid and pass legislation that will keep the entire government -- including FEMA -- open after September.

The measure passed 79-12.

What ultimately broke the impasse was FEMA's announcement Monday that it won't run out of funds early this week -- a presumption House Republicans had hoped would force Senate Democrats to accept a partisan budget cut, on the threat that disaster victims would otherwise be deprived of assistance for days or even weeks.

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Deficit

No Confidence Men: 62 Percent Have Little Or No Confidence In GOP Leaders On Debt

Kyle Leighton | September 26, 2011, 6:28PM

House Speaker John Boehner said that he got 98 percent of what he wanted in the final debt ceiling deal this summer. But the percentage of Americans that trust the GOP to do what's right on the deficit is significantly lower than that -- nearly three times lower.

As Americans' stomachs turn at the possibility of a government shutdown over yet another spending battle, everyone seems to be at fault. On Monday morning Gallup released the news that more people are dissatisfied with the way government is being run than they were after Watergate, a very high (or low) bar that Washington has hit a few times during the last decade or so. Later on Monday the Pew Research Center released some delineations about that sentiment.

Pew conducted a survey on how Americans feel about political leaders' ability to handle the deficit, an issue that has been eclipsed as the highest priority by jobs, but is still a major concern. The data showed that only 35 percent of Americans have confidence that GOP congressional leaders will do the right thing on the deficit, 43 percent thought the same about congressional Democrats, but a majority of 52 percent felt that President Obama will do the right thing on the issue.

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Government Shutdown

Dems Float Resolution To Government Shutdown Fight

Brian Beutler | September 26, 2011, 4:42PM

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

The food fight between the parties continues. But Democrats see a way out of the latest government shutdown fight -- it's just a question of timing, and, of course, Republican cooperation.

Earlier Monday, we learned that FEMA's disaster relief fund had a bit more money in it than officials expected it would late last week. It's possible, even, that the agency will be able to make it through September 30 (the end of the fiscal year) without needing an emergency cash injection.

If it can, then the grounds for this fight disappear. Here's why:

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LinkdIn

Rich Silicon Valley Man Begs Obama To Raise His Taxes, Please (VIDEO)

Susan Crabtree | September 26, 2011, 3:25PM

UPDATE - 3:30 p.m. Eastern: White House reporters have identified the man as Doug Edwards, former director of communications and marketing at Google. Here's his Twitter profile.

An unidentified man who made a killing in Silicon Valley implored President Obama to "please raise my taxes" at a LinkedIn Townhall event Monday.

"Mr. President. I don't have a job, but that is because I have been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small startup company down the street who did quite well," he said. "So, I am unemployed by choice. My question is -- would you please raise my taxes?"

The question drew stunned laughter and then applause from the small audience.

"I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants and infrastructure and jobs training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am," he said.

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FEMA

FEMA Extends Disaster Funds By Days, Strengthening Dems' Hand In Shutdown Fight

Brian Beutler | September 26, 2011, 1:55PM

President Barack Obama meets with Democratic and Republican leaders

A key reason Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) delayed a vote on legislation to fund the government and re-up FEMA's disaster relief account until Monday is that, as of last week, FEMA was set to run out of funds late Monday or Tuesday. Schedule a vote so close to the deadline, and it focuses peoples' minds (Republicans, specifically) on just how reckless their political tactics are.

But it turns out FEMA's got a bit more money than expected, and may be able to hold out until Thursday or Friday, according to a Department of Homeland Security aide. And that changes both the policy urgency of the ongoing government shutdown fight, and legislative politics more broadly on Capitol Hill.

As of today, FEMA has $114 million in its disaster relief account. Divide that by the agency's daily burn rate, and it looks like FEMA will be in the black until Thursday.

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Super Committee

Super Committee Members Raked In $41M From Wall Street

Susan Crabtree | September 26, 2011, 1:31PM

Members of the deficit-reduction super committee have received a combined total of $41 million from the financial and real estate sectors during their time in Congress, according to a new report from Public Campaign and National People's Action.

The report also found that at least 27 current or former aides for members of the super committee have traveled through the revolving door between K Street and Capitol Hill and have lobbied on behalf of financial firms.

"Wall Street bought the deregulation that led to our economic collapse and the American public has paid the price," Nick Nyhart, president of Public Campaign said in a release. "The super committee should not give Wall Street and big banks another free ride because of their campaign cash."

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Government Shutdown

Republicans Hold Disaster Aid Hostage As Government Shutdown Looms

Brian Beutler | September 26, 2011, 5:50AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were supposed to spend the weekend breaking an impasse over emergency disaster assistance that threatens not just to cripple FEMA but also to shut down the entire government.

According to a top congressional source, they've gotten nowhere, with both parties unwilling to cave. But one eventually must.

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