Is Komen's Planned Parenthood Reversal For Real?

Jillian Rayfield | February 3, 2012, 5:24PM

Though Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced a reversal of its decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, the language of the statement suggests the foundation could still refuse to fund the women's health care provider in the future.

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Chuck Schumer

Schumer: GOP Has Lost Its Obstructionist Mojo

Sahil Kapur | February 3, 2012, 3:16PM

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Does the Senate's passage of the STOCK bill suggest the Republicans have lost their obstructionist mojo? Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seems to think so.

The third-ranked Senate Democrat made the taunt hours before the chamber's overwhelming 96-3 approval of the President Obama-backed STOCK Act Thursday, which aims to crack down on congressional insider trading. He accused GOP lawmakers of inelegantly dragging their feet on STOCK as well as the payroll tax cut in an effort to sink the measures.

"Haven't they learned the lesson?" Schumer told reporters. "Their obstruction, which they did more artfully last year, is now becoming clear to the public. Their idea of blocking bills with no fingerprints on them is gone. Everyone sees loud and clear what they're doing."

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Komen Foundation

Komen Reverses Position On Planned Parenthood, Pledges To Continue Funding

Jillian Rayfield | February 3, 2012, 11:26AM

The Susan G. Komen foundation announced that it will reverse its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, apologizing for "recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives."

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Defense Spending

Bait And Switch: GOP Leaders Renege On Debt Limit Deal Defense Cuts

Brian Beutler | February 3, 2012, 5:57AM

House Speaker John Boehner with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the foreground.

Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue.

Relations between the Obama administration and the congressional GOP were already just about as bad as can be. But even so, this sets a precedent future Congresses and White Houses will remember when partisan mismatches force them to strike deals and govern.

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STOCK Act

Senate Votes To Ban Its Members From Insider Trading... Kind Of

Sahil Kapur | February 3, 2012, 5:50AM

The Senate reacted Thursday to a public uproar over the awkward reality that insider trading laws don't already apply to members of Congress. With lawmakers fearful of being painted on the wrong side of the issue, the STOCK Act passed 96-3. Senators from both sides of the aisle practically fell over themselves to herald the bill's passage and tout the importance of restoring the public's trust in Congress.

But does this bill really help with that? Critics say it's heavy on grandstanding, but short on substance.

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Komen Foundation

Komen Foundation In Contortions Over Justifying Planned Parenthood Decision

Pema Levy | February 2, 2012, 5:35PM

Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure defended her organization's decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood on Thursday in a testy interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

Though the Komen Foundation announced that it would award no new contracts to Planned Parenthood clinics, Brinker denied that Komen was actually "defunding" Planned Parenthood, a technical point based on the fact that a few grants have yet to expire.

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Birth Control

Boehner: Birth Control Mandate Is Unconstitutional

Sahil Kapur | February 2, 2012, 2:55PM

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) speaks to the press during his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2011.

As religious groups freak out over the Obama administration's contraception mandate, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) piled on by claiming that the policy is unconstitutional.

The mandate, authorized under the Affordable Care Act, holds that employer-provided health insurance plans must provide birth control to women without co-pays. Houses of worship are exempt, and religious nonprofits are allowed an additional year before they begin complying. But conservative religious organizations and their allies on Capitol Hill say that's not enough.

"I think this mandate violates our constitution," Boehner told reporters on Thursday. "I think it violates the right of these religious organizations. And I would hope that the administration would back up and take another look."

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Minnesota

Minnesota GOP Legislators Eye 'Right-To-Work' Constitutional Amendment

Eric Kleefeld | February 2, 2012, 2:30PM

The Minnesota State Capitol

Republican legislators in Minnesota are now setting out to make their state the newest front in the push for "right-to-work" laws hindering labor union organization. But can they pull it off?

State Sen. Dave Thompson (R) and state Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R) announced the proposal Thursday, calling it the "Employee Freedom Constitutional Amendment."

In order to pass an amendment to the Minnesota constitution, both houses must pass the proposal under a simple majority threshold, then send it to the voters in November -- thus bypassing the state's Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, but also triggering what would likely be a very heated referendum campaign. The Republicans currently have a 72-62 majority in the House, and a 37-30 margin in the Senate.

Right-to-work laws are very common in the South and the West. This week, Indiana became the 23rd state -- and more importantly, the first Rust Belt state -- to adopt such a measure. Interestingly, Indiana Democrats had proposed a compromise of sending the bill to a referendum, which the majority Republicans rejected in favor of sending the bill directly to Gov. Mitch Daniels. In this case, Minnesota Republicans are seeking a referendum, in order to pass the bill over the head of a governor who opposes it.

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Defense Spending

The GOP's Plan To Avoid Defense Cuts Without Raising Taxes

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2012, 12:00PM

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) walks from his office to a policy lunch with fellow GOP members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 2011.

Senate Republicans unveiled a proposal Thursday to avoid or delay looming, automatic cuts to defense and security programs by reducing the federal work force by five percent and freezing federal pay for two and a half years.

In a bid to recruit Democratic support for their legislation, the authors of the plan say it saves enough money to forestall automatic cuts to domestic programs, also set to kick in on January 2013. But they continue to oppose using any new tax revenues to offset any of these costs -- and in so doing they exposed a contradiction at the heart of their fiscal policy. They oppose tax increases, they say, because of their impact on economic growth -- yet their plan to avoid tax increases involves deliberately shrinking demand for jobs.

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CNN

CNN: Takeaway From Obama Prayer Breakfast Speech Is He's Still A Christian

David Taintor | February 2, 2012, 11:32AM

Apparently we're back to casting doubt on President Obama's Christian faith.

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Komen Foundation

Where The Komen Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood Will Hit Hardest

Pema Levy | February 2, 2012, 10:59AM

The Komen Foundation's decision to cease providing grants to Planned Parenthood will soon take its toll on local communities unless the lost funding is made up. Nowhere is that more true than in Waco, Texas.

For almost 15 years, the Planned Parenthood of Waco, Texas has relied on grants from the local Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliate to provide cancer-related care to uninsured women. But Waco is a unique case; the funding is more than just a boost -- it's actually the sole reason thousands of women receive cancer screenings and care.

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Defense Spending

Why Dems Think They Have A 'Sword Of Damocles' In Tax Fight

Sahil Kapur | February 2, 2012, 5:43AM

Democrats believe they finally have a cudgel strong enough to force Republicans to relent on their absolutist opposition to tax increases: the $500-$600 billion in across-the-board military spending cuts due to kick in next year as part of the self-inflicted "punishment" for Congress's inability to battle the debt with savings elsewhere. Republicans are eager to reverse course on that and shift the cuts to non-defense programs, but even top military Democrats say they won't let that happen -- unless the GOP budges on its identity-defining resistance to new taxes.

The defense cuts -- along with an additional $600 billion in reductions to domestic spending -- were part of the "sequestration" that was meant to encourage the Deficit Super Committee to strike a deal on cutting by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. It failed. And Republicans, after initially signing off on the cuts, now say they're unacceptable.

Not so fast, say Dems.

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Mitt Romney

Why Florida Was A Dangerous Test Case For Romney's General Election Prospects

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2012, 5:41AM

Mitt Romney

The fight for Florida's fifty delegates was more than just a key test for the four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls. It also took the GOP's three year experiment with far-right politics into a more appropriate laboratory -- a state where the voters didn't reflect the party's base as neatly as they did in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

And though Mitt Romney trampled his opponents and solidified his status as the nominee-in-waiting, Florida was also a wake-up call. To win so resoundingly, Romney had to inch away from conservative movement dogma for the first time since he began his candidacy.

It wasn't easy.

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CLASS Act

Long-Term Care On Life Support As House GOP Passes Repeal Of CLASS Act

Sahil Kapur | February 1, 2012, 7:06PM

Shutterstock /stefanolunardi

"Where is your heart?" cried Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ). "Have you no heart?"

Despite the congressman's plaintive objections during Wednesday's House debate, his Republican colleagues passed a bill 267-159 to repeal the ill-fated CLASS Act. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, championed by the late Ted Kennedy, aimed to provide a long-term care insurance program. Wednesday's party-line vote deepens a partisan stalemate over how to fill that major hole in the U.S. health care system, as the legislation now goes to the Senate where it's expected to perish.

The impasse in a nutshell: The Obama administration conceded last October that it saw no viable path to implement CLASS within its statute, citing financial solvency problems. But the President and his Democratic allies oppose repealing the program and would rather repair it. Republicans, who decry CLASS as costly, unworkable and predicated on a budget gimmick, have no intention of letting that happen. They're insisting on outright repeal and say Congress must start from scratch on the long-term care problem -- although they haven't yet offered an alternative.

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Planned Parenthood

What's Really Behind Komen's Cuts To Planned Parenthood?

Pema Levy | February 1, 2012, 6:15PM

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL)

Who is responsible for the Susan G. Komen Foundation's controversial decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood? When the Komen Foundation made the announcement Tuesday it pointed to Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).

Stearns, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, launched an investigation last year into Planned Parenthood's finances, after House Republicans voted to defund the organization that provides a wide range of womens health services, including abortion services.

Stearns' investigation, which Planned Parenthood and its supporters consider an attempt to intimidate and harass the organization, was the basis for the Komen Foundation's decision. In their announcement they said the move was based on a new policy that prevents it granting funds to organizations under investigation.

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Sean Duffy

'Struggling' Sean Duffy Now Advocating Congressional Pay Freeze

David Taintor | February 1, 2012, 2:26PM

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI)

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) has come a long way since a town hall meeting last year where he said he was "struggling" to get by on his $174,000 congressional salary.

In fact, Duffy is doing so well that he introduced a bill last week to extend a current pay freeze for federal employees -- and freeze salaries for members of Congress. The military is not included in the pay freeze.

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Affordable Care Act

Did Health Care Reform Hurt The Private Insurance Part Of Medicare? Apparently Not

Sahil Kapur | February 1, 2012, 1:15PM

President Barack Obama

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that the Medicare Advantage program, which allows seniors to receive health coverage through a private insurer, is enjoying lower costs and more customers as a result of the health care reform law.

Medicare Advantage enrollment has risen 10 percent over the last year while average premiums have fallen by 7 percent, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She also pointed out that similar improvements were seen the previous year.

The figures bolster President Obama's defense of his signature achievement, and for Democrats it has the added bonus of refuting earlier Republican warnings that "Obamacare" would gravely undermine the choice provisions in Medicare.

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Mitt Romney

Romney Team Silent On Key Offshore Tax Avoidance Question

Brian Beutler | February 1, 2012, 5:37AM

Mitt Romney

Just over a week ago, Mitt Romney's top campaign and financial aides held an on-the-record press call to walk reporters through the former governor's 2010 tax return.

The briefing cleared up several questions, but left others unanswered -- including one from TPM that will either exculpate Romney from allegations that he's used investments in offshore entities to avoid U.S. taxes, or reveal that his campaign has not fully addressed those allegations.

On the call, Romney's trustee pledged get back to us with this information. But despite multiple inquiries in the days since the conference call, the Romney camp has not set the record straight one way or another.

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Keystone XL

Hoyer Sees Potential For Cooperation On Keystone

Brian Beutler | January 31, 2012, 2:07PM

Steny Hoyer speaks at press conference with House Ways and Means Committee Democrats. November 30, 2011.

If Republicans drop their political motivations for pursuing the Keystone XL pipeline, they'll find a sympathetic ear in House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer.

The second most powerful Democrat in the House suggested on Tuesday that both the will and the legislative vehicles exist to move forward on Keystone in a bipartisan fashion if Republicans attach it to forthcoming infrastructure legislation in away that allows the administration to fully assess the project's merits as required under existing law.

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Debt Ceiling

Uh-Oh... Looks Like We'll Hit The Debt Limit Again This Year

Brian Beutler | January 31, 2012, 1:09PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama sacrificed an awful lot last year to take the debt limit off the legislative table until his second term, or some lucky Republican's first term. More importantly, he wanted it off the table until after the 2012 elections, to prevent a replay of last year's debt limit fight from playing out in the middle of election season, when the political consequences would be farther-reaching. And by "farther-reaching" we mean the doomsday scenario of legislators succumbing to a collective action problem and allowing the country to default on its debt.

Well, it looks like Obama will probably get his wish, but it will be an awfully close call.

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Economy

CHART: How Deficit Cuts Are About To Hurt The Economy

Sahil Kapur | January 31, 2012, 1:08PM

The U.S. economy will suffer over the next few years as a result of fiscal austerity measures including the recent spate of spending cuts, according to the Congressional Budget Office's latest forecast issued Tuesday.

Economic growth and the employment rate will be reduced for many years to come as a result of the August debt limit law's steep $2.4 trillion in spending cuts and expiration of expiring tax provisions including the Bush-era tax cuts, the budget office report concluded.

To illustrate this point, CBO made separate projections pegged to two baselines -- current law, in which the spending cuts and tax increases go into effect, and an alternative fiscal scenario in which these fiscal policy changes are voided.

Without the austerity measures, deficits are higher, but real GDP growth is projected to be as much as 0.8 percent higher this year and up to 2.9 percent higher next year, when the debt limit law's sequestration cuts kick in and the Bush-era tax breaks expire. The baselines even out after a decade but the near term hit to the economy is salient.

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Mitch McConnell

McConnell's Revisionist History: Congress Gave Obama Everything He Wanted!

Sahil Kapur | January 31, 2012, 5:36AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has embraced the argument that President Obama was able to pass every bit of his legislative agenda in his first two years thanks to large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. It's intended as a counterpoint to the President's re-election strategy of attacking the congressional GOP as do-nothing obstructionists. But it's also a revisionist history of the 111th Congress, during which McConnell more than any other Republican in Washington stood athwart Obama's agenda to great effect.

The White House has "been trying to pretend like the President just showed up yesterday, just got sworn in and started fresh," McConnell declared Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. "In fact, he's been in office for three years. He got everything he wanted from a completely compliant Congress for two of those three years... We are living in the Obama economy."

This isn't a new claim for McConnell, but it's audacious even by Washington's lax standards. It was McConnell, after all, who led Senate Republicans in serial filibusters -- a record-setting number -- successfully thwarting large chunks of Obama's agenda.

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Keystone XL

The GOP's Plan To Corner Obama On The Keystone Pipeline

Sahil Kapur | January 30, 2012, 1:02PM

Republicans are pushing full speed ahead to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline via congressional action after President Obama rejected it on the grounds that the narrow time window he had was insufficient to evaluate the environmental consequences. The strategy is aimed at exploiting Democratic divisions and pushing Obama into a corner politically.

Most Senate Republicans -- along with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) -- are now backing legislation to approve of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline. House Republicans intend to attach it to their upcoming infrastructure bill, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday.

Even if both chambers of Congress vote to approve the project, Obama can veto the legislation, and it's unlikely he'll get overridden. But that's what Republicans want him to do: repeatedly take a position against the pipeline so they can bludgeon him with it politically.

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Mitt Romney

CHART: How Romney's Tax Rate Stacks Up To Recent Presidential Candidates'

Brian Beutler | January 30, 2012, 5:27AM

Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann.

When Mitt Romney tries to avoid scrutiny for his exceptionally low effective tax rate by noting that, in absolute terms, he's paying "a lot" in taxes, he won't be fooling most of his political colleagues. It takes a special kind of affluence to reduce one's tax burden so dramatically. And despite their significant wealth most recent Presidential candidates have paid significantly more in taxes as a percentage of their incomes in the year (or two) before their campaign.

The exception is John Kerry. Though Kerry himself had a modest income (for a politician) his wife, Teresa Heinz, comes from great wealth and, like Romney, made millions in investment income in 2003 -- the year she and he both released their tax returns. Together, their effective tax rate was a bit lower than Mitt and Ann Romney paid in 2010.

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