Bipartisanship

2010 'Most Polarized' For Congress In A Generation

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 25, 2011, 7:52AM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Shocking news...

A new report shows Congress in 2010 was the most divided it has been in nearly 30 years.

National Journal's annual congressional vote ranking survey shows the House and Senate hit "a new peak of polarization."

Yeah, you read that right: the year that saw the rise of the tea party and the end of the epic health care debate turned out to be one of the most partisan in history. Who woulda thunk it?

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Bipartisanship

McConnell: If Obama Acts Like A Republican, We Can Negotiate With Him

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 25, 2011, 10:30AM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took a stab at reaching across the aisle this morning, saying he'd like to work with President Obama on what he called "the really serious, seemingly intractable problems" in the country today. His advice to a president who's signaled he's willing to come to the center and make deals with the new Republican-heavy Congress? Become one of us, and bipartisanship should be no problem.

"If the president is willing to do what I and my members would do anyway, we're not going to say no," McConnell told an audience of journalists and political insiders at a breakfast meeting hosted by Politico in Washington today.

Moderator Mike Allen asked McConnell if there are any concessions he'd be willing to grant the White House in the course of negotiating solutions to Social Security and other large-scale topics dividing Washington these days.

"It depends on the issue," McConnell said. "We can't negotiate sitting here this morning."

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Scott Brown

Scott Brown: Forget The 'Itty-Bitty' R After My Name

Eric Lach | January 18, 2011, 9:46AM

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)

Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial breakfast in Boston yesterday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) expressed support for bipartisan seating at the State of the Union. The one-time Tea Party poster boy minimized the importance of political affiliation, saying "people need to forget about the little itty-bitty letter behind my name and other people's names."

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Bush Tax Cuts

Polls: Plurality Want Bush Tax Cuts On Wealthiest Americans To Expire

Marc Kilstein | December 1, 2010, 11:53AM

President Obama holds a bi-partisan meeting at the White House on July 27, 2010.

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, Democrats and Republicans are squaring off in Washington over how best to handle the issue-- extend the middle-class tax cuts while allowing the cuts for the wealthy to expire, or extend the tax cuts for all Americans, regardless of income.

And as the divide in Washington has become more clear, two new national polls suggest the American public is also split. Both polls, however, show a plurality of Americans don't want tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to be extended.

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Bipartisanship

USA Today/Gallup Poll: Dems Favor Compromise, GOPers Prefer Holding Firm To Beliefs

Marc Kilstein | November 10, 2010, 10:11AM

President Obama speaks at a bipartisan White House gathering with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) in the background.

There's a partisan divide over the issue of political compromise versus ideological steadfastness, according to a newly released USA Today/Gallup poll.

When asked about the "best approach for political leaders to follow in Washington," 41% of Republican respondents maintain that "it is more important for political leaders to stick to their beliefs even if little gets done," while only 18% of Democratic respondents express the same sentiment. This contention is put in opposition to the claim that "it is more important for political leaders to compromise in order to get things done," which 59% of Democrats support versus only 32% of Republicans.

Overall, the findings suggest Americans generally prefer their political leaders to compromise (47%) rather than sticking to their beliefs (27%).

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John McCain

McCain: Why Can't Obama Be Bipartisan Like Me?

Jillian Rayfield | April 30, 2010, 5:20PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Just one month after saying that Republicans will not cooperate with Democrats for the rest of the year, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) lamented in an interview that the Obama Administration has not been bipartisan enough.

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Bipartisanship

Dodd: Republicans Are Getting Tired Of The 'Just Say No' Strategy

Rachel Slajda | March 25, 2010, 11:25AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

With the final health care reform bill about to pass, and a financial reform bill already out of committee, some Republicans are rethinking their party's "just say no" strategy to legislating, according to Sen. Chris Dodd.

Dodd (D-CT) told reporters this morning that "The health care thing kind of changed the atmospherics around here."

"I think, frankly, there are a number of Republicans who went along with the strategy of 'just say no' who were never really happy with it, but if it worked they would go along," Dodd said. "They saw it fail. And now they've had enough of it. and they really want to be involved in crafting things."

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Health Care

Mechanics Of The Health Care Summit

Rachel Slajda | February 24, 2010, 5:05PM

Amid all the talk of what might result from tomorrow's health care summit, here's a rundown of what will actually happen tomorrow.

The summit is being held at the Blair House, an official guest house of the president, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There are lots of places to watch the summit: It will be streamed live on whitehouse.gov and broadcast on C-Span 3. The RNC and DNC are both planning to run their own live streams, as are the major cable networks. And TPM will have a live wire on the front page, as well as posts from TPMDC throughout the day.

The White House released a sketch of the schedule to the Huffington Post yesterday. President Obama will make open remarks, and so will the Democrats and the Republicans. The discussion will then focus on four issues: controlling costs, insurance reforms, reducing the deficit and expanding coverage.

Bipartisanship

Ahead Of Bipartisan Health Care Summit, GOP Has One Plan: Start Over

Rachel Slajda | February 24, 2010, 4:05PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

At tomorrow's White House health care summit, lawmakers from both parties will sit down for six hours and, ostensibly, try to come up with a bipartisan compromise. But for the Republicans, only one compromise is acceptable: Scrap the bills we have and start over.

Minority leaders in the House and the Senate have both called for a total do-over, and other members of the Republican contingent are echoing the line.

"I and my Republican colleagues have called for the White House discussion on Feb. 25 to begin with a clean sheet of paper, rather than starting with the massive (and massively unpopular) bills passed by Congress," House Minority Leader John Boehner wrote in an op-ed yesterday in the Hamilton Journal News. "Republicans welcome discussion, a chance to start over and an opportunity to offer our ideas."

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Health Care

McConnell Announces Senate GOP-ers To Attend Health Care Summit

Rachel Slajda | February 23, 2010, 2:10PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today which Senate Republicans will attend Thursday's bipartisan health care summit at the White House.

McConnell will attend with Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mike Enzi (R-WY), John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John Barrasso (R-WY).

The Senate Democrats attending the meeting were also announced this week: Sens. Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Patty Murray, Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller and Kent Conrad.

House leadership from both parties will also attend.

Health Care

Boehner: Obama's Health Care Proposal Is Too Short

Rachel Slajda | February 23, 2010, 9:19AM

President Obama speaks at a bipartisan White House gathering with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) in the background.

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner today ridiculed President Obama's health care proposal because it's too short.

"The White House's 'plan' consists of an 11-page outline, which has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office or posted online as legislative text. So they want to reorganize one-sixth of the United States' economy with a document shorter than a comic book, and they're complaining that they can't find our plan on their own website? C'mon," said the spokesman, Michael Steel, in an email to reporters.

Boehner and other Republicans have attacked the Democrats' health care bills in both the House and the Senate for being too long.

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Health Care

Reid Announces Senate Dem Attendees For White House Health Care Summit

Rachel Slajda | February 22, 2010, 2:51PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon announced which Senate Democrats will attend the bipartisan health care summit at the White House this Thursday.

Reid will attend, joined by Sens. Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Patty Murray, Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller and Kent Conrad.

The White House invited Democratic and Republican leadership in both houses, and allowed the leaders to invite a handful of colleagues.

Reid also praised President Obama's health care proposal, released today.

"The President's health reform proposal brings together the best of the Senate bill and the best of the House bill in a fiscally responsible way," he said in a statement.

Health Care

Barrasso: Senate Should Only Pass Health Care Reform If It Can Get 70 Or 80 Votes (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | February 22, 2010, 10:21AM

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told Fox News this morning that the Senate should only pass health care legislation if it can get 70 or 80 votes.

He also called reconciliation -- a process by which Democrats could pass legislation with a simple majority -- a "trick."

"If you're gonna pass something that's gonna impact everyone in this country personally, their own personal health care, and impact one sixth of the economy, you ought to get something like this passed with 70 or 80 votes in the Senate," he said. "That's the way you get the American people to say, yes, this must be a good idea.'"

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Bipartisanship

Cantor: 'We Will Say No To The Health Care Bill'

Ben Frumin | February 19, 2010, 10:24AM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) isn't exactly laying the foundation for the bipartisan part of next week's bipartisan health care summit at the White House.

At CPAC this morning, Cantor declared that "we will say no to this health care bill because no is what the American people want."

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Debt Commission

GOP-ers Likely To Show Up At Debt Commission

Rachel Slajda | February 18, 2010, 2:28PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Despite reports that Congressional Republicans may boycott President Obama's bipartisan debt commission, it seems that the minority leaders likely will participate by appointing members to the group.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office confirmed to TPM that he will make appointments to the 18-member commission. (Congressional Republicans are allowed to appoint six members to the panel.) McConnell also released a statement today on what he hopes will be the goals of the panel.

"After trillions in new and proposed spending, Americans know our problem is not that we tax too little, but that Washington spends too much -- that should be the focus of this commission," he said.

House Minority Leader John Boehner's office would not confirm that he will appoint anyone, but a statement from his press secretary makes a point of saying Boehner hasn't ruled it out.

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Polls

Poll: Obama Trying Harder Than The GOP To Be Bipartisan

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 9, 2010, 5:47PM

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), President Obama, and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Republican leaders warned today that they might skip the White House's bipartisan health care meeting Feb. 25 because they think President Obama isn't trying hard enough to be bipartisan on the controversial issue. But a new ABC News poll out today shows that Americans think it's Republicans who need to try harder to reach across the aisle. Overwhelmingly, they support efforts to find a compromise in health care, rather than scrap reform efforts entirely.

Just 30% of respondents to the poll said that Republican efforts at bipartisanship are "about right." Fifty-eight percent said the GOP is doing "too little" to work with the their Democratic colleagues. Respondents were more approving of Obama's attempts to be bipartisan -- 45% said his efforts were "about right," and 44% said they were "too little."

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Bipartisanship

House GOP-ers: Start Over And We'll Come To The Table. White House: No.

Rachel Slajda | February 9, 2010, 9:33AM

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), President Obama, and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Congressional Republicans have been calling for more bipartisanship for months, decrying closed-door Democrats-only meetings on health care reform. So President Obama invited GOP leaders to the White House Feb. 25 for a televised, bipartisan summit on reform.

In response, House Republicans leaders yesterday sent a letter to the White House listing a series of "questions" they want answered before they participate.

"Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people?" write the leaders, Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor.

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Ben Nelson

Nelson: Public Option May Be Popular, But Opt-Outs Are Really Popular

Brian Beutler | October 20, 2009, 3:49PM

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE).

For weeks now, Greg Sargent has been making the point that, though polling shows the public wants health care reform to be bipartisan, what it really shows is that people think bipartisanship is nice, they'd happily scotch it if that's what it takes to secure a public option.

That doesn't exactly square with the pronouncements of some conservative Democrats--particularly Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)--who say bipartisanship is a crucial part of health care reform's legitimacy with the public. I caught up with Nelson earlier today and asked him to speak to the poll's findings.

"Well, there are different kinds of public options.... What was interesting in the poll numbers that I saw, that while there's support for public option generally, generically, when you start talking about it specifically as it relates to states being able to opt out or opt in, have their own, the support overwhelmingly goes up to 76 percent."

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Barack Obama

New Poll Finds Americans Down On Dems' Health Care Plan

Brian Beutler | October 8, 2009, 10:06AM

President Barack Obama

A new Quinnipiac poll has some mixed news for Democrats and President Obama. Though the public supports elements of Obama's health care proposal, only 40 percent approve of his health care plan, while 47 percent disapprove.

This nugget was particularly interesting:

By a 57 - 37 percent margin, voters say Congress should not approve a health care overhaul with only Democratic votes. Democrats are OK with a one-party bill 63 - 29 percent, but opposition is 88 - 9 percent from Republicans and 62 - 32 percent from independent voters.

That's in almost direct contrast to the findings of a recent Research 2000 poll, commissioned by Daily Kos. It asked "Which of the following scenarios do you prefer/ do you prefer? (ROTATED): Getting a health care bill with the choice of a strong public health insurance option to compete with private insurance plans that's supported only by Democrats in Congress, OR Getting a health care bill with no public option that has the support of Democrats and a handful of Republicans?"

When put that way, it turns out the public is perfectly fine with partisanship: 52-39, with nine percent undecided.