CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing: Boehner Calls
Friday, December 9, 2011
Today In Washington
THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama received his daily global intelligence briefing at 10 but otherwise has nothing on his public schedule.
THE SENATE: Not in session. Next convenes at 2 on Monday.
THE HOUSE: Not in session. Next convenes at noon on Monday.
A HAND TO PLAY: Next week will test whether Boehner is better than Reid (or Obama) at legislative endgame brinkmanship.
The House Republican leadership version of the Christmas tree bill looks at least initially like a way for the GOP to get back into the game on the jobs-and-economic-populism front. It also looks as though it’s going to galvanize a solid majority of Republicans, who have so far been deeply split over the virtues of keeping the Social Security payroll tax cut going.
Republicans had been set back on their heels a bit by the president’s rhetorical formulation of the past few weeks — that the GOP is so in the pocket of millionaires (and committed to shielding them from a tiny tax increase) that it was abandoning its support for a tax cut that has put $1,000 in the pocket of essentially everyone else. But now it seems as though Obama may be squandering that winning hand — by declaring he’ll say no to a bill extending that payroll break if it also calls for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline across the Great Plains. That decision to side with environmentalists, over the likely creation of several thousand jobs, has left the GOP a huge opening to call his bluff. And they seem to be united by the chance to do that.
The desire to bait the president should prove sufficient, almost by itself, to get the bill through the House as soon as Tuesday night. At that point, of course, it will be spurned by almost every one of the Senate Democrats, and the first test vote on the north side of the Capitol (maybe as soon as Thursday) will look like another big standoff. Instead, what it will signal is that the final round of bargaining is about to begin. And when it does, Boehner may well have done what he needed to show the others in the room that he’s got the strongest hand. And, when he still doesn’t get to hold on to many of the sweeteners, he can sell his by-then-exhausted troops on the notion that they scored a victory anyway — by forcing Obama to swallow the pipeline language, by getting the words “tax cut” in the last big headline out of Congress for the year, and by positioning themselves for a solid start for a 2012 that will be almost all about positioning and hardly at all about legislating.
THE OTHER SWEETENERS: Under the House bill, the jobless benefits would continue, but states would get back the power (taken away in the 1960s) to insist on drug tests for applicants for those benefits. And the measure would shorten the time period for receiving jobless aid from the current 99 weeks to 59 weeks by the middle of next year. The Democrats will object to those moves so strenuously that they may be the first to go in conference. Similarly, the GOP may be forced to give up on the generous “doc fix” that’s in their bill: It would prevent a reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates for two years, not the customary one, and would actually boost the spending by 1 percent.
The bill also would eliminate the child tax credit for those in the country illegally, would dictate an end to the research-and-development tax credit for green energy endeavors and would repeal nearly $43 billion already approved for the health care overhaul. And it contains the “boiler MACT” language that stops the EPA from setting new limits on toxic emissions from industrial incinerators. Those provisions, too will cause Democrats to blanch. But not some others, including an extension of accelerated depreciation of new equipment bought by small businesses, and two more years of frozen pay for federal employees — members of Congress included.
SMALLER GAP: The nation’s trade deficit (how much more gets imported than exported) narrowed 1.6 percent in October to its lowest point this year: $43.5 billion for the month. Exports slipped 0.8 percent to $179.2 billion, the first drop after three months of gains mainly because of declines of shipments of industrial supplies such as natural gas, copper and chemicals. Exports of cars and farm equipment also slipped. But imports fell 1 percent to $222.6 billion, reflecting a 5 percent decline in oil imports and also a decline in purchases of foreign cars.
WAS THERE ANOTHER? Before the plaque memorializing Gabe Zimmerman is mounted next to the doors of Room H215 in the Capitol Visitor Center, it looks as though the official rationale for the honor needs to be reviewed and perhaps amended.
The House resolution ordering the tribute described Zimmerman — who organized the Tucson constituent meet-and-great where his boss Gabby Giffords was shot — as “the first congressional staffer in history to be murdered in the performance of his official duties.” But that assertion was based on a report by the Congressional Research Service, which found no other comparable incident but conceded its study “cannot with authority be said to compromise all of the attacks on members of Congress or staff that have ever occurred.” And the CRS report makes no mention of Harold Rosenthal, a top aide to GOP Sen. Jake Javits of New York who died in August 1976 during a Palestinian grenade attack at the Istanbul airport — while headed to a “staff-del” fact-finding mission in Tel Aviv put on by the Israeli government. (There’s now an international relations Hill internship in his honor.) However, Rosenthal was apparently burning some vacation time in Turkey on his way to Israel, whereas Zimmerman was unambiguously on the job, and there’s no evidence the PLO members knew a Hill staffer was on the plane they attacked.
TRAIL TIPS: (1) Rick Larsen’s already unsettled prospects for winning a seventh term representing Puget Sound in the House have grown more complicated thanks to the three legislative aides he fired yesterday. The mind-bogglingly unprofessional and undeniably puerile behavior by Seth Burroughs, Elizabeth Robbee and Ben Byers — daytime bourbon-shot drinking games and can-you-top-this insults of the boss while at their Cannon Building desks — were all described in a series of tweets by the staffers themselves, which were leaked to a conservative political website in the Pacific Northwest. It’s just the sort of ammunition that will allow Republican political veteran John Koster — who came within 2 points of winning last year — to mount TV ads accusing the incumbent of countenancing fraternity parties on the government dime. So Larsen’s best shot now is hoping that Washington state's independent redistricting commission puts more Democrats in his district before finalizing its congressional map next week.
(2) Joe Walsh, the tea party freshman with by far the biggest YouTube audience, has decided to pursue his considerable ambitions by switching districts and running in a different part of the Chicago suburbs next year. Rather than make good on his initial post-redistricting plan, which was to challenge fellow Republican newcomer Randy Hultgren in the March primary, Walsh announced last night that he would move to a much more politically competitive district next door. The move means Hultgren has a much surer path to a second term — and that two prominent Democrats, who thought winning their primary in the northeastern suburbs would be tantamount to a ticket to Washington, cannot count on that anymore. Those two are Tammy Duckworth, the former VA official and disabled Iraq War veteran who’s been a hot Democratic prospect for years now, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a former deputy state treasurer who’s raising millions from the Indian-American community. If Walsh wins, he’ll be hailed as a giant-killer and his national profile among conservatives will soar. If he loses, he’s already sending signals about running for governor or senator (against Dick Durbin) in 2014.
(3) The House Democratic campaign operation is either getting nervous, or not taking any chances, about the special election in Oregon in eight weeks to fill David Wu’s old seat. The DCCC has reserved another $300,000 in airtime on Portland TV stations between now and Jan. 31, essentially tripling its commitment to helping state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici ward off a spirited, tea party-infused challenge from sports business consultant Rob Cornilles, who took 42 percent against Wu a year ago. Still, the district voted 61 percent for Obama, and national Republicans have so far given no indication that they intend to spend heavily to try to win.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Today, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (45) and GOP Rep. Pete Olson of Texas (49). Tomorrow, Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas ( 61) and a pair of House members, Democrat Luis Gutierrez of Chicago (58) and freshman Republican Austin Scott of Georgia (42).
— David Hawkings, editor
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