Richard Trumka

After Rocky Period, AFL-CIO Backs Obama's Jobs Plan

Susan Crabtree | September 9, 2011, 10:59AM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hasn't been shy in recent weeks about speaking out against President Obama's willingness to compromise with Republicans on everything from the super committee to the so-called Gang of Six's approach to deficit reduction, but last night he seemed elated over Obama's jobs plan and his pledge to "go to the mat" for workers.

"The President took an important and necessary step tonight: he started a serious national conversation about how to solve our jobs crisis," Trumka said in a lengthy statement. "He showed working people that he is willing to go to the mat to create new jobs on a substantial scale. Tonight's speech should energize the nation to come together, work hard and get serious about jobs."

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Debt Ceiling

Pelosi: Boehner Was Supposed To Have 218 Votes For Debt Limit Deal

Brian Beutler | August 4, 2011, 3:10PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

In her most candid assessment to date, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Democrats should have fared better in the debt limit fight. And she was unable to defend the final deal from the suggestion that it will cost the country jobs.

But in a new wrinkle, she also said the deal was crafted with the expectation that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) would be able to marshal a majority for the bill on his own -- a mark he fell far short of.

Pelosi convened a handful of new media reporters to discuss the Democrats' plans for legislative action on jobs. I asked whether she believed the new law, which will ultimately result in at least $2.1 trillion worth of austerity measures, would cost jobs, and if so, how many.

Her response is worth quoting in full.

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Debt

It Begins: Top Republicans Push Away From Gang Of Six Plan

Brian Beutler | July 20, 2011, 3:22PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

As time goes on, and conservative interest groups and members of Congress rip into it, support among Republicans for the Gang of Six plan to reduce deficits will begin to wane. In fact, that's already happening.

In a publicly released memo meant to undermine support for the Gang of Six plan in its current form, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) laments, "it increases revenues while failing to seriously address exploding federal spending on health care, which is the primary driver of our debt. There are also serious concerns that the proposal's substance on spending falls far short of what is needed to achieve the savings it claims."

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AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO Slams 'Gang of Six' Proposal For 'Goring' The Poor

Susan Crabtree | July 20, 2011, 3:09PM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka doesn't share President Obama's enthusiasm for the so-called balanced approach to deficit reduction set forth in the much ballyhooed bipartisan 'Gang of Six' proposal. In fact, he's dead-set against it.

Despite all the talk of tough choices and shared sacrifice and taking on sacred cows during difficult economic times, Trumka says the Gang of Six proposal appears to balance the budget on the backs of middle-class workers and the poor.

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Mitch McConnell

Despite Bipartisan Support, Senate Leaders Say Don't Get Ahead Of Yourselves On Gang Of Six Plan

Brian Beutler | July 19, 2011, 3:26PM

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Harry Reid (D-NV)

The alacrity with which Democratic and Republican senators have thrown themselves behind the Gang of Six's framework for deficit reduction -- including cuts to entitlement spending and major tax reform -- illustrates how desperate the Senate is to put the debt ceiling brinksmanship behind them.

But the leaders of both parties are well aware there's no time to ram this through the House and Senate before the United States defaults on its payment obligations early next month -- and increasing the country's borrowing limit has to be Congress' top priority.

Here's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), addressing reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday.

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Tom Coburn

Back From The Dead? Obama Hugs Gang Of Six, Aides Caution Not To Conflate With Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | July 19, 2011, 2:41PM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

President Obama likes it. A wide array of Senators, including influential conservative Tom Coburn (R-OK), have given it their blessings. Out of nowhere, the Gang of Six's bipartisan plan for addressing the country's fiscal imbalance has returned from legislative hinterlands -- and has become the only viable, publicly available framework by which Congress can make good on its supposed desire for a grand bargain on deficit reduction.

But according to an aide briefed on the Gang of Six's negotiations, the fledgling framework is still too new and incomplete to be included in a package to raise the debt limit before August 2nd -- and it's more likely to become the basis for a bigger-deal in the weeks and months ahead.

"It will play into getting us through August 2nd in absolutely no way," the aide said. Senators on Tuesday, according to the aide were given "a briefing on a framework of what could become a plan," but the imperative now is to get the debt limit raised one way or another.

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Barack Obama

Obama Embraces 'Gang of Six' Deficit Plan

Susan Crabtree | July 19, 2011, 2:16PM

President Obama heaped praise on a deficit-reduction proposal produced by bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of Six," calling it a "significant step" and arguing that members on both side of the aisle are beginning to coalesce around a balanced approach involving cuts to entitlements and tax increases.

"We're in the same playing field and my hope is that we start gathering everybody in the next couple of days" on an agreement, Obama told reporters in a brief appearance in the White House briefing room Tuesday.

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Medicare

Top Dems Reject Coburn, Lieberman Plan To Raise Medicare Retirement Age

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2011, 5:35PM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Republicans may be suffering politically for voting to phase out Medicare. But they moved the needle on the policy debate way to the right, and, as such, cutting Medicare now is basically a fait accompli.

The latest plan comes from Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). This is an interesting political coalition for a few reasons. Recall that Coburn left the Gang-of-Six Senate debt talks for proposing dramatic cuts to Medicare, and has now found comfort in the arms of liberals' darkest bete noire.

What they propose doesn't seek to replace Medicare with a private insurance scheme as does the GOP budget. Nonetheless it has already been rejected by the top Democrats on Capitol Hill -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

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Tom Coburn

Coburn: Revenue Increases Still Must Be Part Of Debt Reduction Agreement (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | May 20, 2011, 9:25AM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

If you thought Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) dropped out of the Gang of Six deficit talks because of all the heat he's taken from anti-tax zealots in the conservative movement, think again. The Oklahoma Republican -- and one of the only Republicans with enough credibility among conservatives to sell the idea of higher revenues to rank and file members of his party -- still says higher revenues have to be part of any consensus package to reduce deficits and debt over the long term.

"[R]ealistically we cannot solve our problems unless we generate growth in this country, and the only way we're going to do that is back off on a lot of regulations, create a tax structure that's going to cause investment to happen, and get dynamic returns that actually increase the revenues coming to the federal government," Coubrn said on CNBC Thursday evening. "We can't do it all by eliminating large sections and duplicate spending and waste. We can do a large portion of it, but there has to be some revenue component to that, and anybody that says that's not the case, I think they're just wrong and they're not thinking about the long-term health of our country."

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Gang of Six

Source: Coburn Ditching Gang Of Six Over Plan To Cut Medicare

Brian Beutler | May 17, 2011, 5:30PM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Not since David Lee Roth left Van Halen has a defection augured so poorly for team success. On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told reporters he was stepping away from the Gang of Six negotiations -- a bipartisan working group of senators putting together a plan to reduce the deficit and debt -- over their inability to agree on entitlement spending cuts.

After a bit of confusion over Coburn's status in these talks, his spokesman John Hart confirmed the departure in a statement, "He has decided to take a break from the talks."

A source with knowledge of the negotiations says Coburn ultimately broke ranks after members of the group rejected his proposal to introduce a global cap on Medicare spending that would have cut $150 billion from current beneficiaries.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Lieberman Wants To Start A Bipartisan, High-Income Tax Cuts Gang

Brian Beutler | September 21, 2010, 1:55PM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

TPM noted yesterday that, in direct conflict with President Obama's agenda, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is organizing Senate Democrats and Republicans to temporarily extend Bush tax cuts for high-income Americans.

This afternoon, on his way into a weekly Democratic caucus policy lunch he explained that he'd like to head up another bipartisan "gang" to reach a tax cut compromise.

"All I'm saying now is that this is a place where we really do need -- it's an awful word --but we need another gang. We need a bipartisan gang to come to a bipartisan agreement on tax cuts," Lieberman said.

I asked Lieberman whether he's organizing such a bloc. He claims he's working on it: "I'm talking -- as always it'll be a 'group' -- but that's what I'd like to see happen."

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