Payroll Tax Cut

Last-Minute Fights Slow Down Payroll Tax Cut Deal

Brian Beutler and Sahil Kapur | February 15, 2012, 11:31AM

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Barring an unexpected collapse in negotiations, a broad deal to extend the temporary payroll tax cut and other expiring measures will be finalized Wednesday. But with time winding down, top Democrats and Republicans are still fighting over key details -- particularly how to pay for over $50 billion of the approximately $150 billion package.

One of the likely financing provisions would require federal workers to provide greater contributions to their own retirement packages.

"I'm very unhappy with the projected pay-fors which hit average working Americans, otherwise known as federal employees, pretty hard," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told TPM and one other reporter in the Capitol Wednesday. "I don't know the exact details and the exact details are being worked on. So from that standpoint I'm not happy."

Hoyer represents a Maryland district that's chockablock with federal workers, which underlies his concerns. Asked if he himself planned to vote for the measure, Hoyer proclaimed "I don't know."

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House Democrats

Democrats Emerge From White House Meeting Determined Not To Cave On Medicare, Taxes

Susan Crabtree | June 2, 2011, 6:28PM

House Democrats emerged from a White House meeting with President Obama confident that the GOP Medicare plan has Republicans on the ropes and more determined than ever to ensure that tax increases on the wealthiest Americans are included in any long-term debt-reduction package.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the meeting was "very productive" and a "great exchange of ideas."

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Budget

Democrats Also Vowing To Fight Obama Budget

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 15, 2011, 1:48PM

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

Add prominent House Democrats to the list of critics of President Obama's budget. At a press conference Tuesday morning to attack the GOP's budget proposals, it didn't take much to get two longtime members of the House Democratic team to vow that the president's cuts to progressive-friendly programs won't go through without a fight in his own party.

TPM asked several Democrats gathered at Tuesday's presser to comment on progressive attacks on the president's budget, outlined nicely here by Mother Jones' Suzy Khimm. The left has knocked Obama for offering up a budget plan that makes cuts to programs like energy assistance payments for the indigent and Pell grant funding, which helps the poor attend college. Others on the left like Paul Krugman have said the budget cedes the notion that government spending can create jobs to the GOP, which has generally said the best way to make jobs happen is to cut taxes on the wealthy and businesses.

The answer from Democrats to those attacks? The Republican budget is so bad that Obama's budget looks good. Also, they're not going to let that Obama budget go through without a fight, either.

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Gabrielle Giffords

House To Hold Bipartisan Caucus Meeting For Post-Shooting Safety Info

Brian Beutler | January 9, 2011, 4:00PM

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting spree, House Republican leaders have cleared the legislative calendar for next week, which means that for the most part U.S. politics will slow to a crawl. Instead, members -- Democrats and Republicans -- will participate in a joint caucus meeting Wednesday, to be briefed on security precautions in the wake of the shooting.

Because of the preponderance of freshman and other junior members, who were not on the Hill during the 9/11 and anthrax attacks, many haven't been briefed on how to prepare for and handle emergencies. They will try to rectify this Wednesday, according to Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Dems Square Off With White House Over Tax Cut Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 9, 2010, 1:59PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama

House Democrats will not silently accept the White House's edict that Congress pass the Obama-GOP tax cut compromise unchanged, touching off a brinksmanship that could kill the plan.

At a private meeting of the Democratic caucus this morning, members overwhelmingly rejected the idea that the plan is inviolable by passing a resolution agreeing not to bring up the tax package without changing it first. However, the White House and Republicans insist that the plan is in stone -- and any changes would likely prompt a GOP backlash.

The Senate could adopt the proposal as early as tonight, leaving House Democrats a choice between swallowing it, modifying it, or rejecting it and starting from scratch.

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Barack Obama

Senate Democrats Slam Obama-GOP Tax Cut Framework

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2010, 4:05PM

President Barack Obama

It's been less than 24 hours since President Obama announced he'd reached agreement with Senate Republicans to temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts, but already it's clear that it faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill within the President's own party. Some Democrats criticized the plan in withering terms, and most Democrats refused to take an unequivocal position in favor of the plan.

Butt there were many other signs of uncertainty: Senate aides suggested that Republican members will have to provide the bulk of the votes for the plan; and one top Democratic aide worried that the President's hastily-announced press conference indicated that the plan "may be taking on too much water," and might sink.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Hoyer: No Dem Agreement On Tax Cuts; Deal Could Still Change

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2010, 12:49PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today expressed serious reservations with the tax cut framework President Obama reached with Senate Republicans, and declined to say whether his caucus would support the plan or even whether the leadership time would whip votes to ensure that it passes. However, Hoyer also chastised Republicans for their willingness to let all the Bush tax cuts expire, suggesting Democrats will figure out a way to assure the President's plan doesn't fail entirely -- including, perhaps, by making some changes to it.

"There was no consensus or agreement reached by the House leadership," Hoyer told reporters this morning, reiterating the broad view of the Democratic caucus that "giving tax cuts to high-income Americans is not appropriate."

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Steny Hoyer

As Whip Decision Nears, Members Clamor For Resolution To Leadership Fight

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 3:59PM

James Clyburn and Steny Hoyer

House Democratic leaders are on the cusp of a deal to resolve the short-lived, but intense, leadership fight between Reps. Steny Hoyer (MD) and Jim Clyburn (SC).

The two camps have gone silent all day, as they negotiate a resolution that satisfies the full leadership team. An announcement could come at any moment, and it come as a great relief to supporters of both men, who really see no reason for either to be removed from the table.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) came out quickly for Hoyer on Friday, and the Hoyer camp cited him early on as one of the progressives who'd thrown his support to the majority leader. But in an interview with TPMDC this afternoon, he said that it's important that both men stay in leadership, and he's pressing the leadership to reach an agreement.

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James Clyburn

Pelosi Quiet As Hoyer And Clyburn Battle It Out For Minority Whip

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 10:44AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Top Democrats in Washington wish their big electoral defeat Tuesday hadn't been followed by a divisive leadership fight in the House. But that's what happened Friday when, minutes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would run to be the Dems' Minority Leader, her vote-counter James Clyburn announced he would run for Minority Whip, touching off a leadership race between himself and Steny Hoyer.

Over the weekend, both men and their allies worked the phones relentlessly to shore up support. But publicly, the two camps picked very different strategies for managing public expectations of the outcome. Team Hoyer has been working the media, rolling out ever-longer lists of members who've publicly committed to backing their guy.

"Hoyer's going to win," one source close to Hoyer told TPM.

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House Democratic Whip Race

Inside The Bruising Democratic Leadership Fight: Pelosi Moves To Box Out Hoyer

Brian Beutler | November 5, 2010, 4:57PM

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer with other House Democrats

Here's what we know about the brewing House Democratic leadership struggle, and how the situation emerged.

The short version is this: By losing the Speakership, Democrats lose a leadership position. If the hope is to transition the current leadership team over into the minority, somebody's gotta go. Nancy Pelosi's apparently angling for that person to be current Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

At a long meeting between Pelosi and Hoyer after the election, Hoyer and Pelosi discussed the issue of Democratic leadership extensively, according to a democratic aide and a member of the Democratic caucus.

As recently as last night, Pelosi was saying publicly that she hadn't even really had time to think about whether to fight for the top slot in the House Minority. But clearly that wasn't quite the case.

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Bush Tax Cuts

House Dems Also Punt On Upper-Income Bush Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler | September 23, 2010, 12:10PM

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), President Barack Obama, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

The Senate's decision not to address the Bush tax cuts until after the election is the strongest indication yet that the game is over. After a House Democratic caucus meeting this morning -- but before the news broke on the Senate side -- key legislators were mum, and aides pessimistic, that the House will do what Speaker Pelosi wants to do: force a vote on tax legislation that will put Republicans on the record backing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Pelosi herself had earlier canceled a scheduled press conference, another sign that her attempt to rally the caucus was coming up short. With House Democratic leaders still insisting that they will follow the Senate's lead, it seems more and more likely that they too will drop the tax cut issue until after the election.

Pelosi's effort to wrangle her caucus into voting on middle-income tax cuts before the election appears not have dislodged conservative and politically vulnerable Democrats who either wanted to extend all the Bush tax cuts, including for high-income earners, or to avoid any kind of risky vote s close to the elections.

In what would be a surprising twist, one member of the Democratic leadership team suggested Dems might pivot away from the argument over upper-income tax cuts and press ahead with a separate raft of cuts before adjourning.

At a press availability after the meeting, TPM asked Majority Whip James Clyburn whether the House will "take up the issue of the Bush tax cuts" before adjourning next week. Clyburn puzzlingly responded by noting that the caucus stands behind a full extension of tax cuts in the stimulus bill. Those cuts are popular among Democrats and Republicans, but are ultimately a different issue than the Bush cuts.

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Democrats

Fancy Footwork: The Many Steps Between The Democrats And Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2010, 9:30AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

We're less than a week away from the House vote that could seal the deal on health care reform, but a number of key procedural hurdles still stand in the way, as does the related, but more fundamental task of actually rounding up the 216 votes Speaker Nancy Pelosi will likely need to succeed.

So let's walk through all the (complicated) steps: The ultimate goal remains for the House to pass the Senate health care bill along with a series of amendments, which will be fast-tracked using the budget reconciliation process. Yesterday, the House Budget Committee approved a shell bill and sent it along to the Rules Committee, where its language will be stripped and replaced with the language of the reconciliation fix. That fix is still being tweaked behind the scenes as leadership goes back and forth with the Congressional Budget Office in search of a score that does not drastically alter the cost-estimate of the Senate health care bill.

Still with me?

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Health Care

Raw Deal: What Were Dems Thinking When They Let Neil Abercrombie Retire?

Brian Beutler | March 12, 2010, 3:00PM

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI)

It all comes down to votes now. Assuming total opposition on the part of the GOP, President Obama can only enact comprehensive health care reform if 216 Democrats vote for the legislation. That will require pleading, promises, and arm-twisting, and it will also mean Democrats can't afford to lose any more yes votes between now and the end of next week.

But they already let one slip away.

Neil Abercrombie resigned at the end of February to pursue the governorship of Hawaii, and took with him an assured "yes" vote on health care reform.

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Budget

Dem Leadership Rips 'Republican Plan' To Privatize, Slash Medicare, Social Security

Brian Beutler | February 4, 2010, 4:58PM

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

You thought Republicans were going to be able to wiggle away from their historic support for privatizing Medicare and Social Security? Think again.

Leading Democrats aren't letting the GOP put much distance between themselves and a new, long-term budget proposal written by their top budget guy, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

"That's their budget plan," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)--chair of the House Democrats' reelection committee--told me in a brief interview. "He's the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee. That is their so-called roadmap. And it's a roadmap right into the economic ditch that we got ourselves to begin with.... Put it this way. For seniors on Medicare, it's a dead end."

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Anthony Weiner

House to Senate: We're Ready On Health Care If You Are

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2010, 9:43PM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Rep. George Miller (D-CA)

Leading Democrats in the House still insist that "all options are on the table" to move ahead on health care. But for the first time since last Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts, it's clear that they're coalescing around the most widely discussed option: moving ahead with the Senate bill once it's clear that it will be changed through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process. Before they can move ahead, they need the Senate to make some real headway on their end of the bargain--and they're not getting the signs they need.

"I thought we could get the votes in the House to pass the [Senate] bill if fixes to the Senate bill can be done," House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told reporters today.

"That would be a good option as far as I'm concerned," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), leader of the House progressives' health care task force. "I could support it. Reconciliation. Majority rule."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA)--one of the key architect's of the House health care bill--gives it the high sign. "I think reconciliation's an appropriate way to proceed on reconciling the budget requirements," he said. "It's available to us. That was very specifically handled that way when we passed the budget."

The hang up, they now say, is not on their end, but that they first need a high sign from the Senate that the two chambers can work in lockstep.

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