Keystone XL

How Republicans Killed Their Own Pet Oil Pipeline Project

Brian Beutler | January 19, 2012, 5:30AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Houser Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

At the peak of December's payroll tax cut showdown on Capitol Hill, two top Republican aides discussed with me the pros and cons of making the Keystone XL pipeline a centerpiece of the debate.

They relished the idea of forcing President Obama to take a public stand on the pipeline early in an election year, instead of after the election as he had wanted. And they were eager to force him to choose between supporters in the labor movement, some of whom are pushing for the pipeline, and others in the environmental movement who vehemently oppose it. So they decided to go for it.

At the same time they knew he'd likely have to reject the project, and for them that created a dilemma.

"It's a question of whether we'd rather have the pipeline or the issue," said one of the GOP aides. Black or white.

In the end they chose the issue.

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Payroll Tax Cut

Dems Kick Off New Year With Tougher Stance

Sahil Kapur | January 18, 2012, 6:23PM

Nancy Pelosi

For Democrats, the new year has brought a new, tougher negotiating posture -- buoyed by their payroll tax cut victory last month, tired of the politics of kowtowing to Republican demands and eager to draw a clear contrast between the values of the two parties.

Instead of starting off by compromising to narrow the divide with Republicans on how to fund the payroll tax package beyond February, Democratic leaders are beginning 2012 by staking out a firm stance on their left flank: fund a full-year extension of the tax cut, unemployment benefits and Medicare "doc fix" with a millionaire surtax and war savings -- two offsets they know won't go over well with Republicans.

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Affordable Care Act

How To Easily End The 'Doc Fix' Problem -- And Why House GOP Is Opposed

Sahil Kapur | January 16, 2012, 5:32AM

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) And House GOP Doctors Caucus

One of the items Congress extended for two months in the December payroll tax package is current Medicare payment rates to physicians, averting a steep 27.4 percent cut. Although a yearlong "doc fix" is seen as likeliest when lawmakers return to town this week and begin negotiating pay-fors, even that would merely be punting an issue in need of a permanent fix.

Over the last few months there's been serious talk in Congress of buying out the "doc fix" issue once and for all with war savings from troop withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimated at over half a trillion dollars.

The idea has been championed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and multiple other key senators including John Kerry (D-MA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Tom Harkin (D-IA).

But even though this plan could remove for free the $300-billion-and-growing albatross from the nation's neck, it faces fierce resistance from House Republicans. In fact, some of the vocal opponents are doctors in the caucus, whom Leadership tends to give the first bite at the apple on health issues.

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Recess appointments

Republicans Press House GOP Leaders To Pick Public Fight Over Obama Recess Appointments

Brian Beutler | January 11, 2012, 1:00PM

House Speaker John Boehner with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the foreground.

This post was updated at 1:21 p.m. to reflect comment from House GOP Leadership.

President Obama's recess appointment of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray could create another internal headache for Republican leaders in the House, many of whose members want to pick a public fight with Democrats over the controversy.

Scores of House Republicans have signed on to a non-binding resolution disapproving of Obama's four winter recess appointments -- Cordray, and three members of the National Labor Relations Board -- all fodder for conservatives, who are furious about the existence of these agencies, let alone the recess appointments themselves.

"It's astounding to me that the president is claiming these are recess appointments and within his authority, when Congress was not in fact in recess," said Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) who authored the resolution. "These appointments are an affront to the Constitution. No matter how you look at this, it doesn't pass the smell test. I hope the House considers my resolution as soon as we return to Washington so we can send a message to President Obama."

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Payroll Tax Cut

Dems Warn GOP: Don't Strangle Recovery By Screwing With Payroll Tax

Brian Beutler | January 6, 2012, 12:24PM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Top Democrats pulled a little stunt Friday morning, when they tried to upend the House's pro forma session to confer about and debate the payroll tax cut.

But in their remarks to the press afterward, they parlayed today's positive jobs figures into a serious political warning to the GOP: Don't threaten the recovery by playing games with the economy. In essence, today's positive economic news raised the stakes of the payroll tax cut fight -- if Republicans can't get their act together and the tax cut lapses, it will muffle the recovery just as it's finally starting to turn economist's heads.

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Payroll Tax Cut

It's Unanimous: All Stakeholders Say It's Time For House GOP To Cave On Payroll Tax

Brian Beutler | December 22, 2011, 1:42PM

President Barack Obama

If there's one thing that House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, political strategists of both parties and the White House all agree on, it's that House Republicans need to cave in and end the payroll tax stand off.

Speaking at the White House Thursday, President Obama gave a sloppy wet kiss to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's suggestion that House Republicans fold, with only the thinnest of covers. Essentially, all of the principals involved, except House Republicans, now agree that House Republicans should do what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) proposed all along -- pass the Senate's stopgap bill to extend the payroll tax cut (and other expiring provisions) for two months with the promise that Democrats will work with Republicans on a year-long agreement.

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Payroll Tax Cut

In Gamed Vote, GOP 'Rejects' Senate Payroll Tax Cut Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 20, 2011, 1:03PM

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)

Thanks to a complicated manipulation of House rules, Republicans Tuesday rejected a broadly bipartisan Senate stopgap plan to extend the current payroll tax cut and other key provisions for two months.

The final vote was 229 - 193. In effect, those voting "yes" were voting to nix the Senate bill and to instead move ahead with House-Senate negotiations to pass a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut, emergency unemployment benefits, and Medicare physician payments, all of which are set to expire on January 1.

After staging a dramatic rebellion from GOP leadership, and putting the payroll tax cut at real risk of expiring, House Republicans are now taking an enormous leap of political faith. By nixing the broadly bipartisan Senate plan, they're hoping to force Senate Democrats' hand and bring them back to Washington to negotiate a 12-month extension of the payroll tax cut, in the final days of the year.

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Barack Obama

More Backlash For Wyden Than For Ryan On Controversial Medicare Plan

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2011, 3:35PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Sen. Ron Wyden wants to assure his colleagues he hasn't undermined them politically. In a head-turning move, Wyden announced Wednesday that he's teamed up with House GOP budget chair Paul Ryan on a policy framework to partially privatize Medicare -- a move that stunned his fellow Democrats.

Setting aside the policy -- which would in essence turn Medicare into ObamaCare with a robust public option -- the very existence of the plan has deep implications for the 2012 elections, most of them bad for his own party.

Speaking to reporters Thursday after an event with Ryan, Wyden said the political ramifications are overblown.

"Nobody ducks their past votes and their previous statements," Wyden said. "That's just a given."

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Government Shutdown

Pelosi To GOP On Funding The Government: You're On Your Own

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2011, 11:31AM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warns her GOP counterparts that they'll have to pass legislation to fund the government on their own, unless they quit playing hardball, return to negotiations and meet Democrats halfway on a number of key issues.

"I hope they have the votes for it," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly Captiol briefing, "because if they don't they won't be getting any cooperation from us."

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Payroll Tax Cut

GOP Pushes Dems To Accept Medicare Cuts For Current Retirees

Brian Beutler | December 14, 2011, 3:35PM

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) speaks to the press during his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2011.

Senate Democrats are under pressure to adopt the payroll tax cut bill House Republicans passed last night -- or something very close to it. President Obama has threatened to veto it, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has declared it dead on arrival in his chamber.

But as explained here and here the issue has now become tied up with funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year. If appropriations legislation doesn't pass by Friday night, the government will shut down. And even if Congress manages to avoid that mishap, the current payroll tax cut -- along with extended unemployment benefits and a patch to prevent Medicare doctors from experiencing a big pay cut -- all expire on January 1. Hamstrung by the GOP's filibuster powers, Dems can't pass an alternative version without GOP help, and so the heat is on them to cave.

Despite all that, here's one reason Democrats might hold firm:

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Payroll Tax Cut

GOP's Keystone Pipeline Gambit Distracts From Other Measures

Brian Beutler | December 9, 2011, 1:28PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and President Barack Obama

In a bid to consolidate support within their caucus -- and to flip the bird to President Obama -- House Republicans have tacked a provision on to their payroll tax cut bill that would force the administration to decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days, instead of after the election next year as the administration currently plans.

Though controversial outside of Washington, the pipeline has bipartisan support in Washington, and Republicans -- itching for this fight -- are banking on the idea that some Democrats will cross the aisle and put Senate Dems and Obama in a tough spot.

And to some extent they've been successful. Obama strongly suggested he'd veto the bill over the provision, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has called it dead on arrival, and many in the media have painted the GOP's bill as providing Dems a choice between passing the payroll tax cut and blocking the Keystone pipeline.

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Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi Games Out The Long Fight Over Medicare And The Rest Of The Safety Net

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2011, 4:45AM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Eight months is a long time in politics, but it will be eight months ago next week that House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for a budget that envisioned a massively scaled-down social safety net -- a smaller, privatized health care system for old people, to replace traditional Medicare; Medicaid financially constrained, and handed over to state governments; cuts to various other support programs that benefit the poor, the young, and the elderly.

That didn't sit well with voters. And in the months that followed, Republicans tried to contain the fallout by making federal deficits a central political issue while forcing Democrats to agree to real cuts to these programs -- all while refusing themselves to raise taxes, even on the very wealthiest Americans.

This too didn't go according to plan. The GOP upheld its vow not to raise taxes; Democrats insisted new tax revenue was a criterion for cutting benefits; and Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security avoided the scalpel.

At least for now.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi: Occupy Movement Enhances Dems' National Message

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 5:33AM

Despite some unfavorable polling, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi still thinks the Occupy movement has been politically helpful to Democrats.

In an interview with TPM on Friday, she said there's no recent precedent for the sort of election House Democrats are going into. In 1994 and 2010, Congressional Republicans ran against Washington controlled by Democrats. In 2006, Congressional Democrats ran against Republican corruption and President George W. Bush. This time around, President Obama will carry the national message for the party while individual candidates use it as they see fit to win in their districts. That national message, Pelosi said, has much greater salience thanks to the Occupiers.

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Nancy Pelosi

Democrats Gleeful At Prospect Of Running Against Gingrich

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 5:05AM

Newt Gingrich

There's no better illustration of how ecstatic Democrats are about Newt Gingrich leading the GOP primary pack than Nancy Pelosi's strategic silence.

Pelosi knows more about Gingrich than perhaps any other major national political figure. She was a senior Democrat when Gingrich was House Speaker, served on the ethics committee that investigated Gingrich for tax cheating and campaign finance violations, and even cut a 2008 ad with him on the importance of addressing global climate change.

But when TPM asked her to talk a bit about his recent ascent and the possibility that he'll be the GOP nominee, she mostly demurred.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Puts The Kibosh On GOP Payroll Tax Cut Strategy

Brian Beutler | December 2, 2011, 5:15PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says Republicans can forget about using the looming expiration of a year-long payroll tax holiday for workers to squeeze a host of unrelated conservative priorities through Congress, and projected confidently that her party has the GOP cornered on the issue.

In an exclusive interview Friday with TPM, Pelosi sketched out the Democrats' strategy for renewing (and possibly expanding) the payroll tax cut, which most economists say would promote job creation next year -- when persistent unemployment will be at the center of the election debate.

"It is really a stalling tactic," Pelosi said of recent reports that Republicans want to use the lapsing tax cut as leverage to pass key GOP priorities, including construction of a major oil pipeline from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, and rolling back Obama's health care law. "It's unworthy of the needs of the American people for them to go all around the mulberry bush with this stuff. If they want to do something for the American people -- to remove the uncertainty as to whether these payroll tax cuts will be extended, whether [unemployment insurance] will be extended ... let's just get about doing it."

"They know that this stuff isn't going to fly, that the President's not going to sign it -- so why are they doing this," Pelosi says. "It's about votes at the end of the day, and some of their people are never going to vote for anything, so they're going to need our votes, we're going to have to work together, and they're going to need the President's signature -- and they're going to need it to pass the Senate."

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Bush Tax Cuts

Pelosi To Hensarling On Medicare: You've Got To Be Kidding Me!

Brian Beutler | November 17, 2011, 12:44PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

With just six days left until the Super Committee deadline, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) acknowledged Thursday that the panel is unlikely to agree on the sort of broad deficit-cutting bargain she and other Democratic leaders have pushed for. And she made a strong case that the GOP's allergy to taxes is the reason her expectations have diminished.

Specifically, she responded to Republican Super Committee co-chair Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) who on Wednesday said Democrats would have to agree to dramatic steps -- such as partially privatizing Medicare -- before Republicans would agree to substantial new tax revenues.

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Barack Obama

Hill Democrats Pleased With Daley's Diminished Role

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2011, 1:10PM

Congressional Democrats weren't surprised Tuesday to learn, in a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley had handed a big chunk of his portfolio over to senior adviser -- and former acting Chief of Staff -- Pete Rouse. Indeed, they've been living under the new regime for several weeks, and according to one highly placed Senate Democratic aide the improvement has been self evident.

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Abortion

Dems Slam GOP For Pushing Abortion Bill Instead Of Job Creation

Susan Crabtree | October 13, 2011, 12:32PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Democrats are condemning a House GOP attempt to prevent President Obama's health care law from paying for abortions as an assault on women and a waste of precious legislative time when Americans are demanding action on the economy and job creation.

"First of all, it's not a jobs bill. What are we doing but wasting time?" Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters Thursday. "Every woman in America should be concerned about this assault on women's health."

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Quote Slamming Obama Advisers Is False

Susan Crabtree | October 3, 2011, 3:33PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Some tough words from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about President Obama and his team's communications strategy were raising eyebrows in Washington Monday morning, but that was before Pelosi disavowed the quote and Newsweek's Daily Beast admitted a mistake and retracted it.

"I think you need to talk about how poorly they [the White House] do on message," Pelosi is quoted as saying in a story by Howard Kurtz. "They can't see around corners; they anticipate nothing."

Pelosi's office quickly denied having ever made the comments, and Newsweek/Daily Beast has since issued a broad correction.

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Eric Cantor

Cantor To Obama: Let's Chop Up Your Jobs Act

Brian Beutler | October 3, 2011, 1:49PM

Hours after President Obama insisted both the House and Senate vote on his entire jobs bill, a top Republican says that's not gonna happen.

Asked by a reporter for a yes or no answer, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) says the jobs bill, taken as a whole, is kaput.

"The $447 billion jobs package as a package: dead?" the reporter asked.

"Yes," Cantor replied.

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Government Shutdown

Reid: Obama Will Call House Back From Recess If Necessary Over Shutdown Fight

Brian Beutler | September 23, 2011, 2:55PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Harry Reid has an offer for John Boehner and Senate Republicans to keep FEMA's disaster relief efforts funded and avoid a government shutdown. It goes like this: Democrats will accept the House GOP's lower funding total disaster aid, if Republicans drop the extraordinary demand that funding recovery from natural disasters be offset with partisan budget cuts.

Republicans now say the only way to keep the entire government funded after September 30 is if Democrats agree to slash a successful manufacturing program to pay for disaster aid included in the House's federal funding bill.

Speaking for his caucus at a Friday press conference, Reid categorically rejected the idea disaster aid should be offset. After the Senate rejected that proposal on a bipartisan basis, Reid urged Boehner to sit down with himself, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to review his offer, in the hope of avoiding a government shutdown. And he said if House Republicans continue intransigently to demand that the Senate swallow their bill, President Obama will call the House back into session from its week-long recess.

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Government Shutdown

Cram It! Senate Dems And Republicans Reject Holding Disaster Aid Hostage

Brian Beutler | September 23, 2011, 12:50PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

By a bipartisan vote of 59-36 Friday, Senate Democrats and several Republicans tabled (read: effectively killed) House-passed legislation to fund the federal government beyond September 30. The development escalates a new round of brinkmanship with disaster aid for FEMA and a government shutdown at stake.

Democrats are enraged by a provision of the GOP legislation, which holds disaster aid hostage to partisan budget cuts.

They're also unhappy with the amount of disaster relief money House Republicans included in their bill. Last week, the Senate passed legislation on a bipartisan basis that provided FEMA about twice as much disaster aid as the House bill, without requiring any offsets.

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Government Shutdown

CRUNCH TIME: House GOP Jams Senate With Government Funding Bill, Partisan Budget Cuts For Disaster Aid

Brian Beutler | September 23, 2011, 12:14AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republicans closed ranks just after midnight on Friday morning, and passed legislation to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. The vote tally was 219-203.

But the bill received almost no Democratic support and faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate because Republicans have used the funding bill as a vehicle for disaster relief money, and insisted it be paid for by slashing funds for jobs programs Democrats support. Dems say the GOP legislation provides insufficient aid, and sets a dangerous precedent by requiring those funds to be offset with partisan budget cuts.

"The bill the House will vote on tonight is not an honest effort at compromise," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in a statement anticipating its passage. "It fails to provide the relief that our fellow Americans need as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and it will be rejected by the Senate."

A livid Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters Thursday night "We're fed up with this...we're sick of it, we're tired of it."

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Government Shutdown

GOP Ups Ante Big Time In Government Shutdown Fight

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2011, 5:49PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

We should know tonight whether Congress is in genuinely the throes of another government shutdown fight, or whether Democrats and Republicans will figure out a way to avoid their impulses.

Instead of cutting a deal with Democrats to keep the government funded, and re-up FEMA's disaster aid fund, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is trying to build support by dangling carrots before reluctant Republicans and whacking Democrats with sticks.

As reported, about four dozen House conservatives don't support the existing government funding bill or "continuing resolution" because it does not, in their minds, slash enough money from federal programs. Democrats oppose the bill en masse because it also includes a requirement that federal disaster aid be twinned with cuts to particular federal programs, in order to offset the cost -- a highly unusual, and controversial requirement

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Government Shutdown

Republicans To Go It Alone On Government Funding, Disaster Aid Offsets

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2011, 4:10PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Looks like House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will try to close GOP ranks around existing legislation to fund the government rather than scrap a controversial requirement that disaster relief funds be offset with an unrelated budget cut. And that means they'll be moving ahead without Democratic support -- a risky gamble that could lead to a government shutdown if it fails.

"The Speaker's seeking more Republican votes," Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who led a House conservative rebellion on Wednesday, told reporters after an impromptu Thursday GOP meeting.

According to other Republicans, Boehner will swap out the existing disaster relief offset -- a hybrid vehicle manufacturing incentive -- with new cuts.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi: Super Committee Doing A Disservice If It Doesn't Consider Employment Impact Of Its Deficit Plan

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2011, 3:16PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Members of the Super Committee might be reluctant. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- who's a close ally of three Democrats on the panel -- says they would be doing a disservice to advance deficit reducing legislation without knowing its impact on economic growth.

"What the possibility is, of taking every initiative and passing it through the CBO for its job creating potential I think is a great idea," Pelosi said at her weekly Capitol briefing Thursday. "I don't know why anybody would want to make a judgment without that evaluation, especially at this time."

Pelosi noted that Democrats insisted that the panel focus on employment -- and the committee's rules reflect that to some extent.

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Government Shutdown

House Dems Whip Against GOP Government Funding Bill Over Disaster Relief

Brian Beutler | September 21, 2011, 2:21PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Dem leadership is urging all caucus members to oppose the Republican legislation to continue funding the government past September 30 on the grounds that it cuts a popular manufacturing program to pay for federal disaster aid.

"Democratic Members are urged to vote NO on the previous question and the bill -- as disasters are an emergency and we should not have to cut good-paying American jobs to provide essential disaster relief for families, small businesses, and communities," reads a memo from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office.

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John Boehner

Shutdown Chances Increase Over Disaster Relief, Program Cut Disputes

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2011, 5:43PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Two separate but related Republican efforts are increasing the odds that the government will shut down at the end of September, despite repeated assurances from both GOP and Democratic leaders that neither party has an appetite for another round of brinksmanship.

In a Thursday letter, over 50 House Republicans, led by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to make steep cuts to discretionary spending in the next fiscal year, reneging on the agreement the parties struck to resolve the debt limit standoff. That legislation set a cap on discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion and both Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) are committed to funding the government at that level for the coming year.

But many House conservatives want to go lower, and if they defect then House Democrats will have to pitch in to make sure it passes and avert a shut down.

There's just one problem.

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Barack Obama

Pelosi: Dem Opposition To Obama Jobs Plan Trivial

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2011, 12:25PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday said Democrats overwhelmingly support President Obama's jobs bill, despite opposition from a handful of loud party conservatives.

"Let me just say that what you're suggesting is anecdotal. ... the plural of anecdote is not data," Pelosi said in response to TPM's question at her weekly Capitol press conference. "Our caucus is very unified in support of the American Jobs Act and the fact that it is paid for. It may differ with some provisions within it, or the pay-fors, but they do not differ in the fact that we must get behind it."

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Barack Obama

"Childish!" Dems, GOP Snipe Publicly Over The Timing Of President's Job Speech

Brian Beutler | August 31, 2011, 6:38PM

For the first time in history, a U.S. House Speaker has publicly rebuffed -- or at least moved to rebuff -- a request from the President of the United States to address a joint session of Congress.

The unexpected request, and unprecedented diss, have touched off a round of public partisan sniping so bitter, it's been at least since debt limit negotiations broke down waaaaay back in July that we've seen anything like it.

The White House confirms to TPM that it gave Congressional leadership the heads up before announcing its request publicly and no objections were raised at the time. Republicans say they never signed off, and were never asked to sign off.

"No one in the Speaker's office - not the Speaker, not any staff - signed off on the date the White House announced today," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner. "Unfortunately we weren't even asked if that date worked for the House. Shortly before it arrived this morning, we were simply informed that a letter was coming. It's unfortunate the White House ignored decades - if not centuries - of the protocol of working out a mutually agreeable date and time before making any public announcement."

A senior Democratic aide, granted anonymity to explain the sequence of events honestly, does not dispute that the White House acted hastily.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Names Clyburn, Van Hollen, Becerra To Deficit Super Committee

Brian Beutler | August 11, 2011, 1:04PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

The roster's now complete. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has named her picks to the deficit Super Committee, and they're a familiar bunch: Reps Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Each of the three has served at her behest on different fiscal working groups in the recent past. All are loyal members, current or former, of her leadership team, all with fairly liberal voting records.

But here are a few caveats...

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Harry Reid

Dems, GOP Demand: If You're Gonna Slash Medicare, Raise Taxes, Can You At Least Do So In Public?!

Brian Beutler | August 10, 2011, 6:00AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) appointed three Democrats to a 12-member deficit Super Committee Tuesday, giving observers and advocates an early indication of how the committee will function as it seeks over a trillion dollars in further deficit cuts by the end of the year.

Just as important as who serves on the panel, though, is the question of whether it will function like most Congressional committees do -- open to press and voters, with conflicts of interest disclosed publicly, if not always swiftly or conveniently.

So often, high-stakes negotiations like these are conducted in private, where members feel free from accountability, and, to a lesser extent, from special interest influence. And because the debt ceiling statute that created the panel included no significant transparency requirements, the expectation has been that it will operate away from public scrutiny.

But there is growing pressure on Congressional leaders to pull back the curtain on the panel, including from influential members of their own parties. And now it seems as likely as not that the proceedings will take place in a way that makes it difficult for members to hide deal-making from the public.

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Harry Reid

Reid Picks Murray, Kerry, Baucus For Super Committee -- Here's The Upshot

Brian Beutler | August 9, 2011, 6:15PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Max Baucus (D-MT) will serve a new deficit Super Committee. Murray will be the Democrats' top member.

"I have great faith in Senator Murray as the co-chair of the committee," Reid said in a statement. "Her years of experience on the Senate Budget and Appropriations committees have given her a depth of knowledge on budget issues, and demonstrated her ability to work across party lines. Senators Baucus and Kerry are two of the Senate's most respected and experienced legislators. Their legislative accomplishments are matched only by their records of forging strong bonds with their Republican colleagues."

Entitlement defenders were hoping for a more progressive bunch than this. But the key on the Democratic side of the new committee isn't so much whether members will agree in principle to some entitlement cuts -- most say they will -- it's whether they'll require as a concession that Republicans agree to increase tax revenues.

And through that prism, there's some reason for optimism.

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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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Nancy Pelosi

She Has A Plan: Pelosi Says There'll Be No More Hostage Crises

Brian Beutler | August 4, 2011, 1:30PM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Without disclosing details, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she has a plan for dealing with the Republicans' legislative hostage-taking strategy. In a meeting with a small group of reporters in her office Thursday morning, she said the dynamics of the debt limit fight -- where Democrats were forced to accept deep cuts to government programs on the threat of default -- will not happen again.

"Suffice to say that you won't see a repetition of what happened last week, taking us to the last minute when they didn't even have the votes -- they didn't even have the votes -- and then saying to us 'You will be responsible for a default," Pelosi said in response to a question from TPM.

Pelosi was reluctant to spell out just how she would stave off this situation, however. "I would say that if I were to tell you...it would be defanged," she said, after being pressed for details. "In terms of what we -- how we would approach where they go from here. And that may be a House Democratic position.... Our members were very unhappy about that vote the other day. Very unhappy."

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Deficit

Pelosi: No Lines In The Sand On Super Committee Deficit Cuts

Brian Beutler | August 4, 2011, 12:39PM

While Republicans race to set the expectation that they will reject any proposal from a powerful new fiscal committee if it includes higher tax revenues, don't expect Democrats to be nearly as adamant about entitlement programs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says her caucus will be broadly united in a fight to protect Medicare and other successful programs from cuts when the committee convenes to reduce deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. But neither she nor the people she appoints to that committee will publicly draw bright lines.

"I'm not drawing any lines in the sand because I think it plays into their hand," Pelosi told a small group of reporters invited to her office on Thursday morning. "When 12 clowns are in a ring and a sane person jumps into the ring he looks like the 13th clown.... It is part of their plan to keep the attention on this, and the debt and the who and the rest and I'm simply not going to do it."

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Harry Reid

Pelosi: My Deficit Committee Members Will Oppose All Entitlement Benefit Cuts

Brian Beutler | August 2, 2011, 2:32PM

The debt limit fight is over, but the fight over entitlement programs will continue for months. In the weeks ahead, the leaders of both parties in both the House and Senate will name three members each to a new committee tasked with reducing the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion.

The ultimate makeup of that committee is key. It will determine whether this Congress will pass further fiscal legislation, and, thus, what the major themes of the 2012 election will be.

At a pre-recess press conference Tuesday afternoon, TPM asked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) whether the people she appoints to the committee will make the same stand she made during the debt limit fight -- that entitlement benefits -- as opposed to provider payments, waste and other Medicare spending -- should be off limits.

In short, yes.

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Debt Ceiling

The New Default: A Sad History Of The Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | August 2, 2011, 12:49PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Barack Obama

Well, we didn't default.

That's the most a lot of Democrats can say about the legislation that just passed in the Senate, by a vote of 74-26. Those voting against were 19 Republicans, 6 Democrats and one independent - Vermont's Bernie Sanders.

Although some Democrats are relieved to have at least avoided the doomsday scenario of default, they're also deflated by the fact that the GOP has leveraged its control of one house of Congress into complete dominance of the policy debate.

Democrats lost this fight for many reasons, but chief among them is the fact that the consequences of default are as unfathomable as they are unnecessary. That's why, in the past, raising the debt limit has been a matter of routine, or at worst an occasion for harmless partisan preening. If borrowing authority ever lapses, the country would initially face a major problem, and, soon thereafter, a deadly one.

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Gabrielle Giffords

Post-Giffords 'New Tone' Already Long Gone

Benjy Sarlin | August 2, 2011, 10:39AM

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), May 17, 2011.

After Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was nearly killed in a January shooting spree, talk of a "new tone" was all over Congress as lawmakers from both parties hoped the traumatic event would calm America's increasingly violent rhetoric. Instead, Giffords returned on Monday to find things as bad as ever.

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Debt Ceiling

Will Liberal Dems Swallow Debt Deal Slammed As A 'Satan Sandwich'?

Susan Crabtree | August 1, 2011, 5:20PM

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

Some of the most senior and well-respected members of the Democratic caucus are simply disgusted with being force-fed the debt deal President Obama, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hashed out with GOP Congressional leaders, but many will likely hold their noses and vote for it anyway.

The anger and disappointment is painfully obvious when you talk to some of the liberal stalwarts of the caucus. Pelosi told ABC News' Diane Sawyer earlier Monday that she planned on voting for the deal, even though she considered it a 'Satan sandwich with a side of Satan fries" simply because there were no other viable options.

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