Jim DeMint

DeMint Attempts To Kill Economic Development Program He Once Supported

Brian Beutler | June 8, 2011, 3:30PM

Jim DeMint

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is fighting Democratic efforts to direct more federal money to local development projects by pushing to eliminate a jobs program that he's praised and benefited from in the past.

Created under the Johnson administration, the Economic Development Administration, an agency in the Commerce Department, uses its small budget to help fund local initiatives around the country. Democrats to increase its operating budget to $500 million a year.

That's driven DeMint to the warpath. On Wednesday, he called EDA a "wasteful stimulus slush fund that must end," and yesterday introduced separate legislation that would eliminate it altogether. But his antipathy to the program is relatively newfound.

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Lindsey Graham

Graham Plans to Grill Obama's Commerce Secretary Pick On Labor Issues And Service On Boeing's Board

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 5:25PM

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) plans to question President Obama's choice for Commerce secretary on an issue related to union bargaining rights and Boeing.

John Bryson, who Obama tapped Tuesday to replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, serves on Boeing's board of directors though he will be forced to step down and recuse himself from any matters dealing with the defense giant, if confirmed by the Senate.

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Barack Obama

Obama Taps Bryson As Commerce Secretary

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 1:27PM

John Bryson

President Barack Obama announced the nomination of businessman John Bryson to head the Commerce Department at the White House on Tuesday.

Bryson's name has been mentioned as a potential cabinet post since Obama won election in 2008. As a former chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, and a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, he has straddled business and environmental activist circles. He also has served as a member of the United Nation's advisory group on energy and climate change.

During his tenure as the head of the California Public Utilities Commission in the early 1990s, Bryson angered some in the environmental community by arguing against renewable energy construction projects and defending the state's reliance on nuclear power.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bryson would replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke who Obama tapped as the next ambassador to China.

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john bryson

Obama To Nominate John Bryson As Commerce Secretary

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 11:46AM

John Bryson

President Barack Obama plans to nominate businessman John Bryson to head the Commerce Department, according to a White House official.

Bryson's name has been mentioned as a potential cabinet post since Obama won election in 2008. As a former chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, and a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, he has straddled business and environmental activist circles. He also has served as a member of the United Nation's advisory group on energy and climate change.

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Recession

The Democrats' Recession Problem (And Why It Won't Get Fixed Anytime Soon)

Brian Beutler | August 27, 2010, 10:51AM

According to the Commerce Department this morning, the country's gross domestic product this spring grew at an anemic 1.6 percent. But that's just the latest in a series of indications that the economy isn't really improving. Forget mosques and immigration and health care reform -- they may split the country and bedevil Democrats politically, but it's the economy that's really to blame for all of it. The good news is, there are steps the government can take to improve the situation. The bad news is they're not gonna. And that's why Democrats are suffering.

"It's very difficult to envisage any significant policy response to current economic problems in the near term," said Mark Zandi, one of the nation's top economists, earlier this week.

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