TPMDC Scott Brown: December 2011
Scott Brown
GOP Fractures Further Over Payroll Tax Mess
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)
House GOP aides basically admitted this to reporters yesterday, but it bears repeating. The reason they fashioned a Rube Goldberg-esque procedural device to kill the Senate payroll tax cut compromise is that they know they're now in political free fall on the issue. By doing things the way they did, at least vulnerable House Republicans can say that they didn't vote against a tax cut for the middle class.
This was probably the only way House GOP leaders were ever going to get the minority of their caucus on board with the vote. And if you want proof, look no further than the handful of Republicans who defected from their leadership Tuesday. Or, better yet, vulnerable Senate Republicans who are in cycle in 2012.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Charlie Bass, Chris Gibson, Dean Heller, Frank Wolf, Harry Reid, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Jeff Flake, John Boehner, Payroll Tax Cut, Scott Brown, Tim Johnson, Walter Jones, White House
Payroll Tax Cut
GOP Goes To War With Itself Over Payroll Cut
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) conducts a news conference along with fellow GOP members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 2011.
A civil war between House Republicans and their Senate counterparts had gone public over the possibility that the GOP will be held to blame if the current payroll tax cut expires on January 1. The Senators feel abandoned after having voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to pass a two month extension of the holiday -- only to have conservatives in the House GOP conference reject it publicly, and insult the legislation itself.
GOP Leaders on both sides of the Capitol are trying to contain the fallout, but with vulnerable Senate Republicans exposed, and the payroll tax cut set to lapse in less than two weeks, that's a tall order.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Allen West, Dean Heller, Dick Lugar, Doc fix, John Boehner, Marco Rubio, Olympia Snowe, Payroll Tax Cut, Scott Brown, Tom Reed, Unemployment
Richard Cordray
GOP Filibusters Top Consumer Protection Nominee
This post was updated at 11:55 a.m.
As they promised they would, the overwhelming majority of Republicans on Wednesday filibustered Richard Cordray, the uncontroversial former Ohio Attorney General whom President Obama tapped to be the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- an agency tasked with mitigating fraudulent and dangerous financial products.
The final vote was 53-45, with one Senator, Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voting present and one, John Kerry (D-MA) not on hand to vote. GOP Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) -- running for re-election against the CFPB's godmother Elizabeth Warren -- joined the Democrats in supporting Cordray.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Financial Reform, John Kerry, Olympia Snowe, Richard Cordray, Scott Brown, White House
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