Payroll Tax Cut

GOP Drops Demand For Offsetting Payroll Tax Cut

Brian Beutler | February 13, 2012, 2:10PM

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Facing emboldened Democratic negotiators and a quickly thinning legislative calendar, House Republican leaders have offered to extend the payroll tax holiday through the end of the year without paying for it. The development represents a dramatic reversal for GOP leaders, who nearly allowed the payroll tax cut to lapse in December in part because of their insistence that the package be financially offset.

"Because the president and Senate Democratic leaders have not allowed their conferees to support a responsible bipartisan agreement, today House Republicans will introduce a backup plan that would simply extend the payroll tax holiday for the remainder of the year while the conference negotiations continue regarding offsets, unemployment insurance, and the 'doc fix,'" said GOP leaders in an official statement Monday afternoon.

That's a huge concession to legislative and political realities, and a tacit admission that Republican leaders desparately want to avoid another no-win fight over renewing a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the middle class.

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Government Shutdown

Top Republicans: Government Shutdown Over Disaster Aid Will Fall On Reid's Shoulders

Brian Beutler | September 20, 2011, 1:13PM

From left: Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

The more Republicans and Democrats insist they're not interested in another government shutdown fight, the more they show themselves to be fighting their impulses.

Now, two of the top Republicans in the House say the Senate has little choice but to pass their federal funding bill -- including its controversial disaster relief provision -- or risk a shutdown, and a lapse in government services for people in need of help from FEMA.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said he'll send legislation to avoid a shutdown back to the House, with additional disaster relief money, and no controversial spending cuts, and dare Republicans to vote it down. They may very well do that that.

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John Boehner

House GOP To Obama: Thanks For Ideas On Jobs, We'll Pick It Apart And Get Back To You

Susan Crabtree | September 9, 2011, 4:28PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republicans leaders officially put President Obama on notice -- in the kindest language possible -- that they don't intend to accept his marching orders on the jobs bill and take up the entire package all at once.

Instead, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and the rest of the the GOP leadership team, said they'd be much more amendable to the plan if it was offered to them in smaller, separate bites -- no doubt so they can push the tax cut provisions for small businesses and jettison the plan's costliest spending proposals like school renovation and extending unemployment insurance.

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Debt Ceiling

COLLAPSE: Boehner Pulls Debt Limit Bill Again, With Days Left Before Default

Brian Beutler | July 28, 2011, 10:48PM

What was originally described as a brief snafu has turned into a stunning rebuke of House Republican leaders, who were unable Thursday to round up the minimum number of votes to pass Speaker John Boehner's debt limit bill.

The vote, originally scheduled for 6 p.m., was delayed at the last minute, when Boehner and his leadership team finally faced the harsh reality: despite a swing of momentum in their direction over the previous 24 hours, they didn't have the votes. And with no Democrats there to help them, they needed 217 Republicans to be on board. They were not.

Boehner and his leadership team met for hours, in various leadership offices, with reluctant members, and persuasive supporters, hoping to cobble together a majority. Meanwhile, leadership aides insisted for as long as possible that a vote was still planned late Thursday.

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Debt Ceiling

Hope For Boehner? Some House Conservatives Closing Ranks On Debt Limit Bill

Brian Beutler | July 27, 2011, 11:26AM

On Tuesday, conservative Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) predicted defeat for House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) plan to raise the debt limit.

"I am confident as of this morning that there are not 218 Republicans in support of the plan," he said.

He was counting on the opposition of dozens of House conservatives who have in the past pledged not to raise the debt limit on terms that compromising with Democrats would require.

Twenty-four hours later, after taking a beating from the GOP establishment and party leadership, and after watching Democrats grow more and more confident in their ability to split the Republican coalition, those conservatives are reconsidering their rebellion.

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Debt Ceiling

Boehner Calls Reid Plan 'Full Of Gimmicks' -- Silent On Whether His Own Can Pass House

Brian Beutler | July 25, 2011, 4:44PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's recently released plan to avoid a debt default "full of gimmicks" at a brief press availability Monday afternoon. But conservatives in his party aren't happy with it, and it's unclear whether it has enough support to pass the House.

Boehner deferred a question about a vote count on the bill to his Whip, Kevin McCarthy (D-CA), who didn't address the question head on. "We have just laid it out to our members," he said. "We believe that we laid out our core position, that we were not raising more than we have in cuts, and we will not have revenues."

Senate Republicans are gearing up to oppose Reid's plan as well -- it could come to a vote as early as Wednesday morning. The outcome of the debt limit standoff depends in large part on the ordering and the outcome of the votes in both chambers. I'll game that out in a forthcoming post.

Citizens United

Republicans Push Back On Obama Plan To Force Disclosure Of Political Contributions

Susan Crabtree | May 6, 2011, 1:56AM

GOP Leaders

Republicans are predictably pushing back against President Obama's proposed executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations to third-party groups.

House GOP leaders and 19 other Republicans sent a letter to Obama Friday urging him not to issue the executive order, arguing it would introduce politics into the federal-government contracting practice and stifle political speech.

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Gas Prices

House GOP: Great News On OBL -- Now How About Those Gas Prices?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 3, 2011, 2:13PM

GOP Leaders

The two-week congressional recess that just ended was, it's fair to say, a little less than quiet. Rowdy townhalls focused on the GOP's plan to end Medicare, the release of President Obama's long-form birth certificate, capped off by the killing of Osama bin Laden. So on their first official day back to business on Capitol Hill, House Republican leaders attempted to shift the focus back to where they want it: gas prices.

Or, more succinctly, to shift the focus to the ways they say Democrats and President Obama are making Americans pay more at the pump. En masse, top leaders from the House GOP stood before the mics on Tuesday morning and tried to get the legislative session back on track by focusing on the issue they've said is a winner for them. Drilling, baby, drilling.

And after some talk about the bipartisan victory that is the death of bin Laden, the Republicans went right back to hammering Democrats over the cost of fuel.

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Andy Card

GOP's Tortured Logic: How We Got Osama Bin Laden

Brian Beutler | May 3, 2011, 8:42AM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Former President George W. Bush.

Like so many memes that persist in politics, this one started on the Internet. The morning after President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan, conservatives started crowing that credit should be given to President George W. Bush -- specifically, for having the foresight and courage to torture the people who provided the initial scraps of intel that ultimately led the CIA to a giant compound just north of Islamabad.

The most prominent of these conservatives was Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who took to Twitter to ask sardonically, "Wonder what President Obama thinks of water boarding now?

About two hours later, the Associated Press published a brief story claiming that the CIA obtained the initial intelligence it needed to find bin Laden from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the so-called mastermind of 9/11 -- and his successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi at CIA black sites in Poland and Romania.

Those secret prisons, which the Obama administration contends to have abandoned, were the facilities where Mohammed and al-Libi were waterboarded. There, the detainees supposedly identified by nom de guerre a courier who would years later be located by American intelligence officials, and lead them to bin Laden's compound.

"The news is sure to reignite debate over whether the now-closed interrogation and detention program was successful," the AP wrote. "Former president George W. Bush authorized the CIA to use the harshest interrogation tactics in U.S. history. President Barack Obama closed the prison system."

There's just one problem. The key bit of intel wasn't acquired via torture, according to a more fleshed out version of the same report.

But the myth provided a brief opening. Thus have Republicans constructed a version of events by which they -- and Bush in particular -- deserve some of credit for bin Laden's death. Not all of it. Indeed they have by and large acknowledged Obama's role, and congratulated him on it. And most have not been as brazen as King or the Tea Party Express in attributing the success of the mission to Bush's interrogation policies. But Bush, they argue, played a big part as well, akin to the husband who loosens the lid to a Mason jar only to watch his wife open it effortlessly.

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Gas Prices

Obama's Targets GOP Divisions On Oil Subsidies

Susan Crabtree | April 26, 2011, 4:46PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and other members of the GOP leadership

President Obama knows all too well what it's like to feel the wrath of rankling his base by embracing compromise with Republicans on one of their ideological positions. That's why he didn't hesitate when House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) appeared to open the door -- just a crack -- to the idea of ending payments to oil companies in an interview with ABC News released Monday afternoon.

Boehner's office spent all day dialing back the bosses' comments.

"We have pointed out for years that raising costs for energy producers will raise costs for consumers," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told TPM. "And we want to 'take a look' at anything that lowers gas prices - but the President's proposal won't do that."

But the damage was already done and the rest of the GOP leadership team was forced to quickly putty over any cracks appearing on the surface -- real or perceived -- while Obama did his best to exploit any divisions.

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Budget

Three House GOPers Switched Their Budget Votes After Dem Trick

Susan Crabtree | April 15, 2011, 4:04PM

Cathy Rogers

A Democratic trick on the House floor today forced exactly three Republicans to bow to pressure from their leadership and switch their vote in a last-ditch attempt to save the preordained, less conservative GOP budget plan.

In a stroke of parliamentary genius, Democrats decided to jam a more conservative budget plan through the House in order to hang it around Republicans' necks.

The vote, if successful, would have forced Republicans to formally endorse the more conservative option-- a GOP plan on steroids -- providing deeper cuts for the wealthy and more severe entitlement rollbacks. Democratic campaign ads slamming Republicans for voting for extreme, draconian cuts would have inevitably followed.

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Blue Dogs

Senior Blue Dog Says House GOP 'Talked Down' To Them On Budget

Susan Crabtree | March 30, 2011, 5:03PM

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN)

Any attempt -- real or imagined -- by House Republican leaders to court enough Blue Dog Democrats to their side on the budget talks to avoid a government shutdown, may have backfired.

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), a founding member of the Blue Dogs, told TPM he didn't think the talks were "all that effective" because House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had "talked down to them" during a recent meeting.

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Government Shutdown

Congress Expected To Avert Government Shutdown -- At Least This Week

Brian Beutler | March 14, 2011, 12:40PM

President Barack Obama meets with Democratic and Republican leaders

Barring an unexpected turn of events, Congress will avoid a government shutdown again this week, by passing stopgap legislation to keep the government funded for another three weeks. But patience is wearing thin across Washington -- in the Republican and Democratic conferences on the Hill, and at the White House, where officials are frustrated about having to run the government on piecemeal, inefficient budgets.

The House will vote Tuesday on yet another "continuing resolution," which cuts several billion more in spending from the government's current operating budget. It will likely pass both the House and the Senate, but it's not clear they'll be able to pass another, if they don't bridge the budget impasse by early April.

"We may not be able to fully resolve this and meet next week's deadline for the continuing resolution, which means that there may be potentially one more short-term extension," President Obama said at a Friday press conference. "[W]e can't keep on running the government based on two-week extensions."

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Patriot Act

Dems To GOP After Patriot Act Fail: Welcome To The Big Leagues

Brian Beutler | February 9, 2011, 12:00PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

On Tuesday night, House Republican leaders suffered an embarrassing setback when members of their own party scuttled an attempt to extend key provisions of the PATRIOT Act. The way it unfolded suggested that the GOP didn't see the rebellion coming -- that they weren't aware that a meaningful chunk of their own party opposed their efforts, and wouldn't have their arms twisted.

The bill required a two-thirds super-majority to pass under rules required to expedite legislation. Leaders thought they had it in the bag. They came up seven votes short.

Under the Democratic leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, this rarely happened -- if legislation, including PATRIOT Act reauthorization, came to the floor, it was because they had the votes. And today, Democrats are relishing in Tuesday's mishap.

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State Of The Union

House GOP Whip McCarthy Likes Mixed Seating At SOTU

Eric Kleefeld | January 14, 2011, 1:17PM

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)

The proposal by Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) that Democrats and Republicans sit together at the upcoming State of the Union address, rather than the separate seating normally practiced by the two parties, has now picked up at least some support from a high-ranking member of the Republican leadership: House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

"I like the idea," McCarthy told reporters. He did not say that GOP leaders were instructing Republicans to sit with Dems, only pointing out that in fact there is no assigned seating: "people can always sit by one another."

CNN reports:

But when asked by CNN if he planned to sit next to a Democrat for the speech in the House chamber, McCarthy said he has a good rapport with the House Democratic Whip, telling reporters, "Steny Hoyer and I try to talk quite often. I would enjoy sitting next to him."

Hoyer previously endorsed the mixed seating idea yesterday.

Pete Sessions

Pete Sessions Declines Run For Whip, Will Stay Head Of NRCC

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 9:18AM

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions announced this morning that he will not make a run for Majority Whip and will instead remain head of the NRCC for another term. The announcement means the GOP will avoid a tough leadership fight with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, according to ABC News.

That was soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner's preference, and, as GOP sources predicted just before the election, the GOP leadership is transitioning fairly smoothly into the majority.

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2010 elections

Will The GOP Be Riven By Power Struggles Post Election?

Brian Beutler | October 29, 2010, 8:37AM

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) with members of the GOP leadership

In the early days of the 111th Congress, many observers assumed that between repeated electoral defeats and an angry constituency, the existing guard of GOP leaders would not survive into the 112th -- that a power struggle would ensue and new top dogs would emerge. But in the days before the election, that doesn't appear to be the case. Over the course of the last two years, John Boehner has, against expectations, consolidated his power. And GOP sources say they expect a more or less ordinary transition if the Republicans win back the majority.

"The leadership races operate without the same pressure of external forces that normal campaigns and elections operate under," says a former GOP leadership aide. "Blog posts, articles, public profile with the media, etc., don't impact the folks voting in the conference on leadership the way they might in a normal election setting."

Translation: the right flank of the caucus, and conservative activists, might be clamoring for new blood, but this decision will be made transactionally, via secret ballot, and the current leadership team will likely survive.

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Pledge To America

GOP Young Guns: Balance Budget With Cuts To Amtrak Sleeper Cars, Child Nutrition (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 7, 2010, 2:00PM

On the one hand, the GOP wants to extend the Bush tax cuts indefinitely, at a cost of $4 trillion over the next 10 years. On the other hand they hint at -- but ultimately shy away from -- Medicare or Social Security cuts, the biggest chunk of domestic federal spending. Then on the third hand, they say they want to balance the budget.

As we've pointed out, the broad non-specific cuts they do propose would necessitate slashing federal spending on schools, cops, and medical research. But on PBS last night, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), a Young Gun leader, and rising star in the GOP, laid out some budget items.

"Anybody who rides a first class ticket on Amtrak...when you buy that sleeper car, the tax payer spends $364 subsidizing your ticket, so you can have your bed drawn down," McCarthy said, proposing to save much less than one percent of the federal budget by skimping on high-end train service.

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Paul Ryan

Kevin McCarthy: Paul Ryan Will Outsmart President Obama Every Time (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | September 24, 2010, 4:26PM

Republicans have an extremely high opinion of Paul Ryan.

In an appearance on Fox News last night, Kevin McCarthy -- one of the co-authors of Young Guns -- once again raised the possibility of Republicans defunding the health care bill if the GOP retakes the House in November.

In doing so, McCarthy imagined a standoff between Congress and the White House over the federal budget, with Republican budget maestro Paul Ryan staring down and outsmarting President Barack Obama.

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America Speaking Out

House GOPers Want To Know What America Thinks...Kind Of

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 25, 2010, 11:53AM

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republicans are looking for a few good ideas from Americans -- as long as they're Republican ideas. At a flashy media event at the Newseum this morning, House GOP leadership formally introduced AmericaSpeakingOut.com, a new campaign that the leaders said will invite average Americans to submit their ideas for legislation, and that the leaders said they'll bring to the floor as soon as next month.

The project is funded by taxpayer dollars and run by the House GOP. That has raised criticism from Democratic circles, who claim the program amounts to campaigning on the public dime. House Republicans pushed back at the event today, saying the program was designed to create legislation for this Congress, and that campaign-focused policy initiatives will come later.

"We are looking for ideas today to face the challenges of today," Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) told reporters.

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