House Democrats Can't Agree on Jobs Bill

House leaders have scuttled plans to vote on a $15 billion jobs bill Friday due to objections from several Democratic factions, according to a senior aide.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the moderate Blue Dog Coalition and the Transportation and Infrastructure have all trashed aspects of the bill, which the Senate passed Wednesday with great fanfare — and a surprisingly easy 70-28 vote.

But liberals say the measure is a poor imitation of the $154 billion companion the House passed late last year. Conservatives worry that its costs are not fully offset. And transportation-minded lawmakers say it misallocates a small basket of highway dollars.

Members of the Black Caucus say the tax-break heavy bill shouldn't even be referred to as a "jobs" measure.

Democratic leaders are anxious to show voters they are serious about job creation. But it appears that will have to wait at least until next week. - Politico Story

The Government's $1 Billion Dollar Embassy

The State Department has unveiled its plans for an extravagant new embassy in London, an expensive crystal cube that features a 100-foot moat among its defenses -- but the hi-tech hive is already facing angry salvos from fuming taxpayer watchdogs.

The new structure, reported by the Times of London to cost $1 billion, would set a glittering jewel in the crown of American presence abroad, even as soaring deficits and unemployment continue to threaten the economy at home.

"It's fun to build something when it's not your money," said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, who called the plans a "blank check" for government spending and excess.

"Some of the amenities really seem kind of ridiculous and almost medieval," said Williams, criticizing plans for the moat, which will be dug as a security measure to separate the embassy from a busy road nearby. "Are they going to have turrets and sword fights?"

Click here to see images of plans for the new embassy. - FOX News Story

Ronald Reagan Speaks Against Socialized Medicine

Obama's Housing Plan Not Working - Sales Plunge to new Low

(AP) Sales of new U.S. homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records going back nearly a half century. The big drop was a surprise to economists who had expected sales would rebound to an annual rate of 360,000 units.

The January decline will heighten fears about the fledgling recovery in housing. Economists were already worried that an improvement in sales in the second half of last year could falter as various government support programs are withdrawn. - CBS News Story

Dems Angry with Retiring Senator

Sen. Evan Bayh handed Republicans plenty of ammunition to use against Democrats when he announced his retirement last week — and some of his colleagues are none too happy about it.

In explaining his decision not to seek reelection, the Indiana Democrat has complained publicly about legislative gridlock, saying that Congress hasn’t done enough to prop up the economy and hasn’t created a single private-sector job in the past six months.

While many Senate Democrats share Bayh’s frustration with Washington partisanship and stalling on major bills, some are angry that he’s stepping all over their 2010 message: that the 111th Congress has been one of the most productive in a generation, that the stimulus stemmed the tide of job losses and that Republicans, not Democrats, deserve most of the blame for the paralysis afflicting Capitol Hill.

“I just have no idea what he’s doing,” said one Democratic senator, whose face turned red as he threw up his hands after being asked about Bayh. - Politico Story

White House Preparing for 2012 Re-Election

President Barack Obama’s top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.

The planning for now consists entirely of private conversations, with Obama aides at all levels indulging occasionally in closed-door 2012 discussions while focusing ferociously on the midterm elections and health care reform, the Democratic sources said. “The gathering storm is the 2010 elections,” one top official said.

But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.

David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, may leave the West Wing to rejoin his family in Chicago and reprise his role as Obama’s muse, overseeing the campaign’s tone, themes, messages and advertising, the sources said.

David Plouffe, the Obama for America campaign manager, described by one friend as "the father of all this," will be a central player in the reelect, perhaps as an outside adviser.

"The conversations are beginning, but decisions haven't been made," a top official said. "If you look at David Plouffe's stepped-up level of activity with the political organization [as an outside adviser on the 2010 races], that is obviously the beginning of the process." - Politico Story

Democrats Attempt to Force Through Health Care - Repubs Vow to Stop It

Democratic leaders confronted the reality Wednesday that they may not be able to pass the comprehensive health care overhaul sought by President Obama, while Republican leaders prepared to do everything in their power to make sure they can't.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor declared in a memo that if the Senate goes ahead with plans to use a controversial legislative tactic known as reconciliation to pass the bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "will not be able to muster the votes" to pass it in the House.

Speaking ahead of Obama's upcoming televised health summit, House Minority Leader John Boehner also told fellow Republicans in a closed-door event Tuesday: "We need to show up and crash the party," an aide told Reuters.

"We shouldn't let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on ObamaCare," Boehner said, suggesting the meeting was no more than a White House publicity stunt.

Both parties saw the president's revised, far-reaching proposal, released Monday, as a chance for Democrats to try to pass the legislation on their own under Senate rules that would bar Republican delaying tactics.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Obama administration appears determined "to try to jam it through under a seldom-used process," or budget reconciliation. The process would allow Democrats in the Senate to pass part of the bill with a simple, 51-vote majority.

But Cantor, in his memo, ran through the numbers in the House and estimated that Pelosi would only be able to hold together 203 votes at best -- far fewer than she needs. The bill originally passed the House last year by a narrow 220-215 vote. - FOX News Story

Young Adults Jumping Ship on Democrats

(AP) Whither the youth vote? A year after backing Barack Obama by an overwhelming 2-to-1 ratio, young adults are quickly cooling toward Democrats amid dissatisfaction over the lack of change in Washington and an escalating war in Afghanistan.

A study by the Pew Research Center, being released Wednesday, highlights the eroding support from 18-to-29 year olds whose strong turnout in November 2008 was touted by some demographers as the start of a new Democratic movement.

The findings are significant because they offer further proof that the diverse coalition of voters Obama cobbled together in 2008 - including high numbers of first-timers, minorities and youths - are not Democratic Party voters who can necessarily be counted on.

While young adults remain decidedly more liberal, the survey found the Democratic advantage among 18-to-29 year olds has substantially narrowed - from a record 62 percent identifying as Democrat vs. 30 percent for the GOP in 2008, down to 54 percent vs. 40 percent last December. It was the largest percentage point jump in those who identified or leaned Republican among all the voting age groups.

Young adults' voting enthusiasm also crumbled.

During the presidential election, turnout among 18-to-29 year olds was the highest in years, making up roughly 20 percent of the voters in many states including Virginia and New Jersey, due in part to high participation from young blacks and Hispanics.

That percentage, however, dropped by half for the gubernatorial races in those states last November where Republicans celebrated wins as black groups pushed Obama to do more to soften the economic blow from mortgage foreclosures and Latinos saw little progress on immigration reform. Young adults were also the least likely of any age group to identify themselves as regular voters.

"This is a generation of young adults who made a big splash politically in 2008," said Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center and co-author of the report. "But a year and a half later, they show signs of disillusionment with the president - and, perhaps, with politics itself." - CBS News Story

Pelosi Back at War with CIA

Prodded by the release of dozens of declassified CIA documents, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reasserted her longstanding position about what she knew regarding the agency's use of harsh interrogation practices.

"I have never been briefed by the CIA or anyone else on the subject of those interrogations, to the extent that they were being used," the California Democrat told reporters Tuesday. "We were only briefed that there were lawyers in the Justice Department that thought they were legal, period."

The comments marked Pelosi's first foray into the controversy in nine months that pitted the top House Democrat against the nation's premier spy agency. Responding to a lawsuit filed by Amnesty International and two other human rights watchdog groups, the CIA released several dozen documents detailing how the CIA handled suspected terrorism suspects and briefed lawmakers about it.

The documents show Pelosi was briefed about "ongoing interrogations of Abu Zubaydah" on April 24, 2002, just weeks after the top Al Qaeda suspect was captured in Pakistan. Previously, Pelosi asserted the 2002 briefing covered only "interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future."

Last May, Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to her and other lawmakers about enhanced interrogation techniques used by the agency on terrorism suspects known as high-value detainees. Waterboarding, a simulated form of drowning, is one of the tactics interrogators used to coax information out of the suspects. Its use drew severe criticism because the United States has abstained from it in past conflicts.

Last year, Pelosi said she was only briefed once on the advanced interrogation methods, in September 2002. At the time, Pelosi was the House Minority Whip and top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She said in May 2009 that CIA briefers told her that "the use of enhanced interrogation techniques were legal," and added that waterboarding "was not being employed."

CIA records show that during the September 2002 briefing, Pelosi and others were given "a description of the particular enhanced interrogation techniques that had been employed" on Zubaydah. The U.S. was already waterboarding Zubaydah by that point. CIA officials said they believed agency briefers had indeed informed Pelosi that Zubaydah was undergoing waterboarding sessions. - FOX News Story

Democrats Plan to Ram Through Health Care

An idea that seemed toxic only weeks ago — using a parliamentary tactic to ram health reform through the Senate — is gaining acceptance among moderate Democrats who have resisted the strategy but now say GOP opposition may force their hands.

The implications of the subtle shift among this small group of centrist senators could mean the difference between success and failure for health care reform — giving Democrats a potential road map for passing a bill that had been left for dead after the Massachusetts Senate defeat.

That mood in the Senate was matched Tuesday by a growing momentum for President Barack Obama’s health care proposal in the House, where Democrats were beginning to coalesce around the view that passing a flawed bill is better than passing none at all.

These shifts couldn’t come at a better time for Obama ahead of Thursday’s health care summit. The White House has signaled he’s prepared to use reconciliation, which would require just 51 votes to pass health reform. - Politico Story

GOP Leading By 9 in Wisconsin Governors Race

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker remains the strongest Republican for now in the race against likely Democratic candidate Tom Barrett in the contest for Wisconsin governor.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Walker leading Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, by nine points – 49% to 40%. Last month, in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey of the race, Walker posted a 48% to 38% lead over Barrett.

But the other prominent GOP hopeful, former GOP Congressman Mark Neumann, is now in a virtual tie with Barrett. He leads the Democrat 44% to 42%. Last month, Neumann led Barrett by a 42% to 38% margin. - Rasmussen Reports Poll

This is a big race in Wisconsin. Democrat Mayor of Milwaukee Barrett doesn't really have anything that he can hang his hat on as far as accomplishments in the city and has pretty much been the Missing Mayor for much of his tenure. Walker has been front and center with ideas to cut cost and taxes, though much of his ideas have gone down in defeat by the Democratic County Board.

This race will really heat up over the summer.

DOT Worked with Insurers to Deflect Criticism?

The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee is calling for an investigation into senior Transportation Department officials, claiming contact with an insurance agency may have unduly influenced a congressional investigation into faulty Toyotas.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is asking for a probe into the work of employees including Jill Zuckman, the Department’s top public affairs official and a former newspaper reporter, after subpoenaed e-mails show her conferring with a State Farm official about congressional testimony.

Issa wants the agency to investigate whether Zuckman's e-mails "acted outside the bounds of appropriate professional conduct."

In a letter to Calvin L. Scovell III, DOT’s inspector general, Issa said that the Transportation department’s conduct “may have influence[d] a third party’s communications with Congress during an active investigation.”

Zuckman, in the e-mails, which were obtained by POLITICO, told State Farm's senior director of external affairs that she “[wanted] to be sure I understand what you plan to say" in Congressional testimony "and that it’s consistent with the facts.”

A second DOT official also e-mailed State Farm writing to advise that, if questioned by the press, “it would be great if you could echo the fact that we were being responsive to complaints of safety problems." - Politico Story

RNC Chairman Taking Heat on Lavish Spending

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.

Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.

A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.

“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”

Louis M. Pope, who chairs the RNC’s Budget Committee, defends Steele’s expenses, arguing that a bump in costs is unavoidable for a party that lacks control of any of the levers of government. “Michael Steele does travel more, but he’s in far more demand. He’s a huge part of the fundraising apparatus,” said Pope. “Nobody is living it up at the RNC. There are a number of upscale events, but those are all profitable.” - Politico Story

In such an important election cycle, it is imperative that this guy not spend lavishly and not appear to spend lavishly. This is a time when funding for campaigns is going to be of the utmost importance.

$25 Million Spent on Airport Scanners that are still Not Deployed

President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan included $25 million for airport screening machines capable of detecting explosives like those carried by the Christmas Day bomber.

But more than a year after passage of the stimulus, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to install a single scanner paid for by the bill.

"We have not outlined our deployment schedule as yet," said Amy Kudwa, a DHS spokeswoman. "We're very actively working on a deployment plan. That process has not been completed."

Records show that it took the department almost seven months just to order the 150 Advanced Imaging Technology units covered by the stimulus bill. A spokesman for Rapiscan, the California-based company that builds the machines, said the company has since delivered more than 100 of them to the Transportation Security Administration.

And that’s where they remain. - Politico Story

Obama Approval in Free Fall once Again

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That matches yesterday’s result as the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends).

The only day that Barack Obama’s Approval Index ratings were lower than today was last December 22. Like today, that came at a time when the President was making a strong push for his proposed health care legislation. Most voters have consistently opposed that plan. - Rasmussen Reports Poll

Rahm Emanuel in the Hot Seat

Critics left and right are accusing Rahm Emanuel of disloyalty-by-proxy after a Dana Milbank column in Sunday’s Washington Post defended the White House chief of staff – while trashing reputed Emanuel rivals Valerie Jarrett and Robert Gibbs.

There’s not a shred of proof that Emanuel fed Milbank the Rahm-friendly intel included in the piece – or that he was the source of a tart comparison of President Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter. But critics from MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to widely-read D.C. blogger Steve Clemons see telltale signs of Emanuel’s involvement.

On Monday’s “Morning Joe,” Scarborough, an Emanuel opponent of long standing, all but accused him of blaming Obama for not following his advice to move ahead more aggressively on jobs and recovery bills after health reform stalled in the Senate.

"Dana Milbank wrote a story where he said: 'If only the president had followed Rahm everything would be okay.' It certainly sounds like Rahm was leaking like a sieve to Dana Milbank,” said Scarborough. “It appears that Rahm has become quite promiscuous in telling anybody who will listen to him about how he tried to coach the president."

He added: “Rahm was right, but it's also Rahm's job to keep his mouth shut. Well it is, to serve the president and keep his mouth shut."

The reaction from Democrats was swifter and less measured, with many progressives still blaming Emanuel for counseling the president to ditch the public option on health care reform – and smarting over the revelation that the chief of staff called liberal attacks against moderate lawmakers “F—-ing retarded.” - Politico Story

Obama Trying to Fast Track Health Care Bill

WASHINGTON -- President Obama's newest proposal for health care reform includes much of the provisions of the Senate's bill that passed on Christmas Eve, but excludes the special deal arranged for Nebraska to have its Medicaid bills covered by the federal government.

The latest plan is expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums. It would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. The expected price tag is around $1 trillion over 10 years.

Administration officials said Monday that the president's proposal does not include a so-called public option because that did not make it into final Senate language.

It does eliminate the "cornhusker kickback" and includes additional series of measures proposed by Republicans to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. It also closes the donut hole for prescription drug coverage and increases the exemption rate for taxes on "Cadillac plans" held by high-risk workers.

Language on abortion funding restrictions remain part of the bill, but more stringent language that passed the House on the urging of Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak did not make the cut. - FOX News Story

Recap of 2009 for President Obama

So, Let's Recap
"2009".........what a year!

1. The American people inaugurate a president with a total of 142 days experience as a US Senator from the most politically corrupt city/state in America whose governors have been ousted from
office, and his first official act is to order the close of Gitmo and make sure terrorists civil rights are not violated.

2. The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm a black Attorney General, Eric Holder, whose law firm we later find out represents seventeen Gitmo Terrorists.

3. The CIA Boss appointee, Leon Panetta, has absolutely no experience, has a daughter Linda, we find out, who is a true radical anti-American activist and a supporter of all the Anti-American regimes in the western hemisphere.

4. We got the second most corrupt American woman (Pelosi is #1) as Secretary of State; bought
and paid for. (You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still stinks!)

5. We got a Tax Cheat for Treasury Secretary who did not properly file his own taxes for 12 years. (He misspoke!)

6. A Commerce Secretary nominee who withdrew due to corruption charges. (Another honest mistake???)

7. A Tax cheat nominee for Chief Performance Officer who withdrew under charges. (Hmmm... another screw-up?)

8. A Labor Secretary nominee who withdrew under charges of unethical conduct. (Ok, maybe this person was just plain stupid.)

9. A Secretary HHS nominee (Daschle) who withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes. (I'm running out of excuses for these idiots!!)

10. Multiple appointments of former lobbyists after an absolute campaign statement that no lobbyists would be appointed. (Dear God, I am getting a headache!)

All this occurred just during the first three weeks. . . but who's counting?

America is being run by the modern-day Three Stooges; Barry, Nancy and Harry and they are still trying to define stimulus..."it's spending!!!"

The congress passes the $800,000,000,000 (that's $800 billion) pork-loaded spending bill where the government gives you a smidgen of your tax dollars ($13 per week), making you feel so good about yourself [stimulated], that you want to run out to Wal-Mart and buy a new Chinese-made HDTV!

Here's the good news though:

1. Obama took Air Force One to Denver to sign the stimulus package, and failed, wasting as much as 10,000 gallons of fuel OR 24 JOBS FOR ONE YEAR.

2. Obama went to the International Olympic Committee to have them choose Chicago for a host city
and failed.

3. Obama went to Copenhagen to lecture them on global warming and failed.

4. Obama went to new Jersey to promote the Democratic candidate for governor and failed.

5. Obama went to Virginia to promote the Democratic candidate for governor and failed.

6. Obama went to Massachusetts to promote the Democratic candidate for senator and failed.

7. Speaking of praying, Obama has now been president for a full year and yet he & wife (first
lady) Michelle, the Christian family they claim to be, have not attended church since the inauguration.

8. Obama is the 1st president in history who did not attend any Christmas religious observance.

9. He must miss Reverend Wright!

10. And finally, he is the 1st president to remain on vacation after a terrorist attack.

Anyone that supports this insanity can keep "THE CHANGE".

Got this via email, had to share. Makes you kind of wonder what the hell is going on in America today doesn't it.

Stimulus Did Save Jobs - Overpaid Government Ones

Tiger Woods and John Edwards had a better year than the stimulus bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday, arguing that the $787 billion spending bill passed a year ago saved some jobs -- government ones.

Comparing the golfer and former presidential candidate, who both suffered public scandals in 2009, to the recovery bill, McConnell, R-Ky., said the legislation was sold on the claim that unemployment wouldn't go above 8 percent. Unemployment peaked late last year at 10.2 percent and now is 9.7 percent.

McConnell said the stimulus bill has done "little or nothing" to stimulate the private sector.

"It probably did save a lot of state government jobs, and I'm sure the governors were grateful to have it. They don't have the luxury we have of borrowing money from future generations to deal with short- term emergencies," he said.

But Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, said the stimulus has created short- and long-term investment that has helped the auto industry in her state invest in the electric vehicle, creating a whole new sector for the economy.

Granholm said 15 companies in Michigan, where unemployment is 14.6 percent, are working on electric vehicles and the stimulus bill saved 42,000 jobs there. She added that it also has helped people with unemployment benefits. - FOX News Story

Obama's Wants Bipartisanship? BS

President Barack Obama has billed Thursday’s health care summit as a chance for lawmakers to “seek common ground” to solve a decades-old problem.

He doesn’t want political theater, he insists, but a serious effort to forge bipartisan consensus.

And yet Obama is unveiling a health care bill just days before the six-hour summit that wouldn’t require a single GOP vote, with plans to short-circuit the Senate rules and push it through without Republicans if necessary.

That’s left some Republicans angrily questioning whether the summit is a sham and even Democrats uncertain and noncommittal.

“I’m not terribly heartened by what I’ve heard over the past week,” said Georgia Rep. Tom Price, a conservative Republican who wasn’t invited to the health care talks at Blair House on Thursday. “I’m not certain what the White House is up to, but it appears they are trying to meld a bill together without, again, any input from Republicans. It doesn’t sound like bipartisanship. ... I’m afraid it’s just another photo op.” - Politico Story

Obama's Save The Election Plan

President Barack Obama, after weeks of private talks, is putting the finishing touches on a new election-year strategy that replaces sweeping "change" with incremental reform, according to senior White House officials.

“Reform is the new change,” a senior aide told POLITICO.

The revamped 2010 plan focuses extensively on new reform efforts, starting with a “competitiveness” push, a call for tighter campaign finance laws and renewed attention to Obama’s open-government agenda.

The strategy involves heavy use of presidential statements and Obama's White House platform to position him as an agent of popular change, with less reliance on a complicated legislative agenda. It represents a downsizing from the heady days just a year ago when he hoped to rack up legislative achievements of a scope not seen since the Great Society triumphs of President Lyndon Johnson.

It acknowledges implicitly something Obama aides make explicit in background conversations - the president is unlikely to pass the most expansive parts of his agenda this year and is too tied in public perceptions to a messy legislative process and unpopular congressional leaders.

Presidential aides say they recognize that there’s not enough time before the 2010 elections to transform the toxic political environment that has given Republicans a real, albeit remote, chance of winning control of the House or Senate. Instead, the White House is going to try to mitigate the damage by reminding voters, especially independents, of the reasons they voted so eagerly for Obama in 2008. - Politico Story

Obama's New Low in Approval Poll

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That is the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President.

Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. The Approval Index has been lower only on one day during Barack Obama’s thirteen months in office (see trends). The previous low came on December 22 as the Senate was preparing to approve its version of the proposed health care legislation. The current lows come as the President is once again focusing attention on the health care legislation. - Rasmussen Reports Poll