Tag Archive » congress
Political Maneuvers Delay Bill After Bill in Senate
The Senate went home yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday to face voters, having failed repeatedly to address critical economic issues from skyrocketing gas prices to climate change to the nation’s housing crisis. Leaders in both parties have vowed to tackle those problems. Yet the Senate has been unable to move forward even when there is broad agreement about what to do. Take the housing rescue bill that collapsed this week: On a test vote, 83 senators supported provisions intended to halt the steepest slide in home prices in a generation. Still, the measure stalled, undone by a dispute over whether to add tax breaks for renewable energy production, an idea supported by 88 senators. Lawmakers, lobbyists and independent analysts say that bill and other major legislation have been derailed by political maneuvering for an election likely to consolidate Democratic control over Congress and in which the sputtering economy tops the agenda. With each side using the Senate’s byzantine rules to gain advantage, work in the upper chamber, always balky, has ground to a halt. Senate Democrats accuse Republicans of adopting intransigence as a strategy to produce a “do-nothing” Congress. Senate Republicans acknowledge using delay tactics but say they are reacting to a heavy-handed Democratic majority that has denied them a voice on the Senate floor.
Read the story from Washington Post | No Comments | Posted June 28, 2008 at 9:50 AM by Sam Bear
Word arrived today that Barack Obama would not be accepting public financing for his campaign. The news is far from shocking in the context of the campaign — in fact it makes sense in almost every political way — but that doesn’t change the historical fact that Obama now becomes the first candidate of a major party to reject public financing since the system was created in 1976.
As the New York Times explains:
Under the federal presidential financing system, a candidate this year would be given $84.1 million from the Treasury to finance a general election campaign. In exchange, the candidate is barred from accepting private donations, or from spending more than the $84.1 million.
McCain will accept those funds (and thus the limits imposed by them) and Obama will not. It makes sense for his campaign because Obama can easily raise more than the $84.1 million public financing would have provided, and it makes sense practically because Obama’s campaign is not accepting the lobbyist, PAC, and 527 money that will pour into McCain’s war chest. Just as importantly, as the Times notes, contribution limits to political parties — where Republicans still hold an advantage — are so convoluted that it puts the entire public financing system into question. That is exactly what Obama himself argued today saying,
The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system. John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.
Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Explores Bid for Congress
Digital rights crusader Larry Lessig said Tuesday that he’s considering a bid to take over the late Rep. Tom Lantos’ (D-Calif.) congressional seat. He has given himself a March 1 deadline to make the decision. In a video released on the web late Tuesday, the Stanford law professor formally launched what he calls the “Change Congress Movement,” and he put out feelers to check support for his candidacy. The professor’s goal is to tackle a problem that has dogged politics since perhaps the beginning of time: the corrupting influence of money. In the video, Lessig called on members of Congress to form a bipartisan coalition whose participants would take three pledges he says would change the system: Take no money from political action committees, ban earmarks and agree to public financing of campaigns.
Read the story from Wired | 2 comments | Posted February 20, 2008 at 10:43 PM by Sam Bear
Tax Rebate or Payment? A Policy Debate Begins
As President Bush and Congressional Democrats begin negotiations on a package of measures to stimulate the economy, the big fight will be over whether to put extra money in the hands of tens of millions of low-income families who paid little or no income tax last year. Nearly 40 percent of Americans owed no federal income tax last year, though even low-income workers paid taxes for Social Security and Medicare. While Mr. Bush has refused to disclose specifics of his $145 billion plan, administration officials and Republican lawmakers favor a proposal that would offer rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for families — but only if they paid that much in taxes last year.
Read the story from NY Times | 1 comment | Posted January 20, 2008 at 4:57 PM by Sam Bear
