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.

Read more »

Health Care

Now Is Our Health Care Moment, House Democrats Say

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 20, 2011, 8:39AM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

In the basement of the Capitol Wednesday, House Democrats gathered to do something that would have been almost unheard of in, say, October of 2010: openly discuss the health care law they passed last March. But he House vote to repeal the law, which came courtesy of the newly-crowned Republican majority Wednesday, has turned the minority Democratic caucus into a lean, mean, health care bill-defending machine.

It was quite a change from the party of election 2010, which seemed more interested in discussing just about anything else than the landmark law that was at the center of President Obama's domestic policy agenda and dominated political discussion for more than a year.

Reporters in the room Wednesday afternoon -- part of a "bloggers row" set up by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to set the stage for the Republican-led repeal vote -- noticed the change in tone on the health care law, and we asked the Democrats to explain what happened.

The simple answer, from multiple Democrats today: The law that was just a vague plan to improve the nation's health care delivery system for much of 2010 is now beginning to go into effect, meaning that Democrats now have something tangible to defend. And thanks to the voters in November, most of the Democrats who were really wary of reform (and voted against it when it came up) are now gone.

Read more »

Oversight Committee

New York Congressmen Back Towns To Take On Issa

Brian Beutler | November 18, 2010, 2:22PM

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY)

New York House Democrats, including members who lost their seats on November 2, want fellow New Yorker Edolphus Towns to keep the top spot on the Oversight Committee next year.

"As members of the New York delegation, we are supporting our colleague Rep. Edolphus Towns, current Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to become the committee's Ranking Member," the 25 Dems wrote in a letter to colleagues.

More on the brewing battle between towns and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) for the ranking member position here.

Read more »

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."

Read more »

House of Representatives

House Leaders Dig In Against Disappointing Health Care Concessions

Brian Beutler | January 6, 2010, 1:36PM

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

House Democrats know they're going to have to sacrifice many of their priorities when they amend and adopt the Senate health care bill in the coming weeks. And in the last couple days they've started taking off the gloves.

"In my view, the House bill is so far superior to the Senate bill, that I would appreciate hearing [President Obama] say that," said House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY) this morning.

Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ribbed Obama for backtracking on campaign pledges as the health care debate has dragged on.

As much as the concessions sting, though, House leaders and health care principals continue to hash out just which issues they plan to press hardest for in negotiations with the Senate and the White House.

Read more »

Health Care

House Leaders Meet To Set Top Health Care Priorities

Brian Beutler | January 5, 2010, 1:34PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Democratic leaders and key committee chairmen are meeting this afternoon with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set the stage for future negotiations with their Senate counterparts, where they will shape a final health care reform bill in the coming days and weeks.

Those in attendance include Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), George Miller (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), John Larson (D-CT), and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

These principals will be fielding input from rank and file members to enter negotiations with a series of issues on which they'd like to see the House bill prevail over the Senate's.

"That's what we're going to [be meeting about] right now," Van Hollen said.

Rosa DeLauro

DeLauro: Full Speed Ahead To Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | January 5, 2010, 12:02PM

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

A leading pro-choice progressive in the House is taking a fairly optimistic view of the looming tug of war over health care, brushing off concerns that liberal members are getting short shrift, and suggesting that, despite restrictive abortion language in both the House and Senate bills, reform will be a major step forward for women.

"An informal conference process will still achieve the same goal as a formal conference committee: passing health reform," Rep. Rosa DeLauro tells TPMDC.

Yesterday, Democrats confirmed that they would circumvent the formal channel by which many House and Senate bills are combined--a move many progressives have opposed, suspecting a streamlined process would cut them out of negotiations. DeLauro says there's nothing to fear.

Read more »

Joe Lieberman

DeLauro: Lieberman 'Ought To Be Recalled' (Which Can't Be Done)

Eric Kleefeld | December 15, 2009, 4:50PM

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) has delivered one of the strongest breaks with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) from among Congressional Democrats, saying that Lieberman should even be recalled -- which isn't possible.

"No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled," DeLauro told the Politico.

Of course, it should be noted that there is no such thing in the Constitution as the recall of a member of Congress.

DeLauro spokesperson Kaelan Richards alleged to us that the Congresswoman's full response had acknowledged that a recall might not be a feasible option, but that DeLauro was instead "merely trying to convey her passion about the issue."

Richards gave us this paraphrasing of DeLauro's full response: "No one should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled-- I know that may not even be an option in Connecticut, but 45,000 people die every year because they don't have health care. We don't have the luxury to hold up a bill that could make a difference in people's lives. This is what we were sent here to do."