E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS“The Senate voted 59 to 39 Wednesday to restore emergency jobless benefits to millions of people who have been out of work for more than six months,” the Washington Post writes. “House leaders said they will ratify the measure Thursday and send it on to the White House, where President Obama plans to immediately sign it.”
Dick Lugar is the second Republican senator to announce he’s supporting Elena Kagan. Per the AP: “The Indiana Republican’s announcement could lead to a trickle of support among the Senate’s band of GOP moderates.”
“Republican members of the new Tea Party Caucus on Tuesday committed themselves to promoting smaller government, lowering taxes and making sure Congress operates within its constitutional limits. But this is not the first time these Members have joined a group dedicated to these principles,” Roll Call points out. “In fact, each member of the Tea Party Caucus is also part of the Republican Study Committee and several other task forces and caucuses focused on limited government.”
Roll Call profiles the caretaker senators: The Senate has four members holding seats they do not expect to run for: Carte Goodwin (D-WV), Roland Burris (D-IL), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), and Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL). “There haven’t been this many since 1954,” the paper writes. “But it’s certainly not unprecedented: Of the 188 appointments since 1913, more than a third of the appointed Senators did not go on to seek the seat they held.”
“Democrats are considering a plan to delay tax hikes on the wealthy for two years because the economic recovery is slow and they fear getting crushed in November’s election,” The Hill reports. “It could mean a big reprieve for families earning $250,000 and above annually. President George W. Bush’s tax cuts will expire at the end of the year unless Congress acts to delay their sunset.”
The Wall Street Journal adds, “Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts. Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said in an interview Wednesday that Congress shouldn't allow taxes on the wealthy to rise until the economy is on a sounder footing. Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) said through a spokesman that he also supported extending all the expiring tax cuts for now, adding that he wanted to offset the impact on federal deficits as much as possible.”
Question: How are these folks proposing to pay for these tax cuts so they don’t add to the deficit?
“As they fight to keep their jobs past November, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his third-ranked lieutenant, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), find themselves battling each other in the Capitol over the fate of a controversial nuclear waste site in Reid’s backyard,” Roll Call writes. “Reid has worked for years to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository and now has the support of the Obama administration. But Murray announced plans this week to offer an amendment that would resume the process of readying the site -- 100 miles from Las Vegas -- to accept the nation’s nuclear waste.”
Leave a Comment:
Today's sad news that more people have joined the ranks of the unemployed should be a stark reminder that our Bushwhacked economy has lost too many jobs and isn't out of the woods yet. While the dopes of nope whine about President Obama not doing enough to get more people employed they've done nothing but kill every job creating bill in hopes that the more unemployed there are coming ionto November the more votes they'll get because too many voters will be too stupid to remember that it was Clueless George Bush and the repugnant ones who created this economic disaster and lost millions of jobs.
Where are all the jobs at that the Bushwhacker's tax cut welfare for the rich and greedy was supposed to create? They never got created here because the dopes of nope outsourced our manufacturing labor jobs to China and that's where the jobs growth that tax cut welfare for the rich and greedy creates jobs.
What happen to include extensions for the longer than expected unemployed..the 99ers which according to the percentages outweigh the newer unemployed..total kick in the belly..as if we havent suffered enough now we are called the new street people..with tent as addresses...new bill even states 6 months or longer..double standard with reporting but nothing was mentioned about the longer unemployed..Im a scared man..
extremely dis satisfied with both parties with their deaf ears..and to treat the American people this way is totally devilish..WHY/ What did we do to deserve this treatment..DEFICIT my butt when OBAMA took office it was a huge mess..He is trying but I simply cannot believe it all and when the Democrats rule and we still cannot get approvals but will not be forgotten..
Maybe its about time the American people get off their as... and start fighting back its time for a do-over in this country, vote out all the sen. and congress change the whole party. When the big-wheels lose their job by the vote of the American people( this would send the biggest message yet) . Enough is Enough! I am one of the longtimers on unemployment and not by choise. The only problem is I cant afford to buy the tent.
It is July, 2010. The Stimulous was passed more than a year ago. Unemployment is STILL climbing-despite the fiddling around with the numbers at BLS, which shows reductions in the rate by moving larger and larger numbers of workers into the 'out of the labor force' pool-652,000 last month.
The public is not buying Obama's rhetoric anymore-but the media response is to ignore, totally, his ineptitude.
So much for the Fourth Estate.
Companies found out that by running on low wage skeleton crews they can make equal profit as they did before the recession. This is a tough genie to put back in the bottle. Why risk expansion when they are doing just fine, thank you. The GOP would like to see wages for the working class remain low, so when companies do expand they will rake in huge profits on the backs of hard working American citizens. The last thing they wanted to see was unemployment benefits extended. Now their unpatriotic money hoarding big business owners, and campaign donors will wait even longer to expand. They will wait until desperate unemployed people are forced to take any job at any wage!.........The GOP is the new China.
All Americans should support the 99ers. I am not in their situation, but I would rather see my tax dollars go to them above extending tax cuts to the rich. The rich are not using the tax cuts to employ anyone anyhow!!!
Question: How are these folks proposing to pay for these tax cuts so they don’t add to the deficit?
The Questions isn't how to pay for tax cuts; it is how to pay for all the governement spending. "How are we ever going to pay for tax cuts (people actually keeping the money they make)?!" You guys are so bass-akwards with your thinking on economics and government, but oh so good at spending other people's money. The answer is to restrain government spending.
All these Republican "BUMS " need to go ..We paid into this in the event we lost our jobs and then these idiots keep it from us ..They didn't want it unless it was paid for !!!! IT WAS YOU IDIOTS you looked the other way as your other congress and senate people raided the accounts !!! and looked the other way when John McCain voted to DE REGULATE the banks and looked the way when the OIL COMPANY'S found we had to many safety rules... it would cost to much for them to adhere to !!!!