John Podesta

Podesta: Not Raising Debt Limit Is Suicide ... For Republicans

Brian Beutler | April 12, 2011, 1:01PM

John Podesta, former transition Chief of Staff for President Obama

One of the most influential Democratic operatives in Washington says the GOP plan to extract enormous conservative concessions from President Obama in exchange for raising the debt ceiling will backfire. If Republicans push ahead with this tactic, they'll be forced to backpedal quickly.

"That that's like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. I think that gun's actually pointed at the Republican leadership's head, not so much at the White House," John Podesta told me after a presentation at his think tank, the Center for American Progress. "I think they will find soon enough that if they try the same tactics they used in the 2011 [spending] battle with respect to the debt limit, you're going to see markets react to that in a very, very negative way and there's going to be a lot of pressure on them to get realistic, and at least with respect to the debt limit, to move forward in a more cooperative way."

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | January 21, 2011, 4:15PM

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT)

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

• Fox News Sunday: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL).

• NBC, Meet The Press: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Assistant House Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-SC), former George W. Bush adviser Karen Hughes, former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta.

Bush Tax Cuts

Dems: The Real TARP Is Republicans' 'Tax Assistance for Rich People'

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2010, 5:32PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-MD) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

Dems are ready to take a new punchline out for a test drive.

In a debate last night with former McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, influential Democrat John Podesta described the GOP plan for the permanent extension of President Bush's tax cuts for wealthy people as "TARP": Tax Assistance for Rich People.

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Budget

FLASHBACK: Last Week, Dems Called Spending Freeze 'Fiscal Snakeoil'

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2010, 1:02PM

President Barack Obama

Influential Democrats--including SEIU President Andy Stern, and Center for American Progress CEO John Podesta--are beginning to react to last night's big news that the White House will propose a temporary freeze on non-defense discretionary spending in its 2011 budget. By and large, so far, the reaction is: let's withhold final judgment until the entire proposal is on the table.

But just last week CAP tax and budget expert Michael Linden put things rather more starkly.

"We face a very large budget gap over the coming decade, and the scale of the problem is such that no one solution is going to solve it all," Linden wrote in a piece called How to Spot a Deficit Peacock.

"It is going to take a mix of increased revenues, spending reductions, and improved government efficiency to get our fiscal house in order. Those who claim that we could get the budget back to sustainability if we only cut out earmarks, or say that the solution is to simply freeze discretionary spending, are just peddling fiscal snake oil."

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Health Care

Podesta: Forget The House; Health Care's On The Senate

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2010, 11:13AM

President Barack Obama and Former Chief of Staff John D. Podesta

The man who chaired Barack Obama's transition to the presidency, and who runs the most influential Democratic think tank in Washington has a message for the Senate: The House won't pass your health care bill until you take action first--so it's on you.

"My own view...is that you have to insure that the Senate goes first," John Podesta told me after an event with leading union figures at the Center for American Progress this morning. "You have to have the fix before the package can pass the House. I just didn't see any way, if you will, that the House was going to bet" on the Senate acting later.

"It seems me that asking the House to take a flier on what the Senate can do--we've kind of watched that move all along the past year, it hasn't worked out that good. So it's incumbent upon the Senate to really go first," Podesta added.

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John Podesta

Podesta Pushes Plan B For Health Care

Laura Colarusso | January 26, 2010, 10:13AM

President Barack Obama and Former Chief of Staff John D. Podesta

John Podesta, the president and chief executive officer of the Center For American Progress (CAP), offered tacit support today for having the House pass the Senate's health care bill but only with guarantees that it could later be amended through a reconciliation bill.

Podesta described this as the "consensus" approach. He was speaking at a CAP event on jobs, health care and the state of the American worker.

TPMDC reported yesterday that (CAP), the most influential Democratic think tank in Washington, had been silent on where it stands as House Leadership tries to navigate a path ahead for health care reform. The political calculus had become even more difficult since Republican Scott Brown (R-MA) won the Massachusetts special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy's seat. Brown became the 41st Republican and vowed to help filibuster the legislation.

(Reporting by Brian Beutler)

Editor's Note: This post has been revised since it was originally published.

Center for American Progress

Where's CAP? Dems' Top Think Tank Silent On Health Care Logjam

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2010, 12:54PM

President Barack Obama and Former Chief of Staff John D. Podesta

The Center for American Progress is the most influential Democratic think tank in Washington. It's president, John Podesta, led the Obama administration's transition effort, and the organization--which provides legislators and politicos everything from policy analysis to messaging and strategy--is tightly linked with the White House and Democratic members of Congress. So it may come as a surprise, that with Democrats on the Hill struggling to find a way out of the health care mess, CAP itself isn't chiming in.

In the days since last week's special election in Massachusetts, which cost Dems their 60th, filibuster-breaking vote in the Senate, TPMDC has tried to answer a simple question: How does CAP, as an institution, think House and Senate Democrats should proceed. We still don't have an answer. Numerous calls to CAP officials over the last several days went unreturned.

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Health Care

Obama Confidant Podesta Says Lieberman Threat Will Renew Push For 51-Vote Health Care Bill

Brian Beutler | December 14, 2009, 12:52PM

President Barack Obama and Former Chief of Staff John D. Podesta

John Podesta, President of the influential Center for American Progress, and head of President Barack Obama's transition effort, says that Sen. Joe Lieberman's filibuster threat likely has Senate Democrats pulling their files on passing health care reform through the 51-vote reconciliation process off the shelves.

"I suspect musty folders on reconciliation got dusted off this morning," Podesta told USA Today's Susan Page. "If you don't have Lieberman and you don't have Nelson, the question is whether you can get Snowe and Collins."

Podesta is, of course, referring to Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME).

The Democrats will be discussing this question--how to get 60 votes for a health care bill without Lieberman's support--at a 5:30 p.m. caucus meeting tonight. Emotion's are expected to be very raw.

Visitors Logs

Andy Stern Appears Most Often On WH Logs Released Tonight

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 30, 2009, 7:22PM

SEIU President Andy Stern

Who are the most frequent guests at the White House? It's impossible to tell from tonight's massive dump of White House visitors logs. The lists are based on media requests, meaning names that weren't specifically asked for by reporters don't appear.

Still, there are some interesting findings in the partial list.

SEIU president Andy Stern appears most often on the list. He visited the White House around 20 times in the past nine months, according to the logs. Former Obama transition director John Podesta appeared about 17 times. NOW president Kim Gandy was the third most popular with about 15 visits.

It makes sense that Stern would be a popular guest -- beyond leading a group key to the Democratic base, Stern's SEIU has been a leading voice on behalf of health care reform.