George Wenschhof
White House Changes Set To Begin - President Obama met yesterday with William Daley who is expected to be named Chief of Staff. David Plouffe will be changing places with David Axelrod, as he becomes Senior Adviser and Axelrod takes over the reelection campaign effort. Gene Sperling will most likely take the place of Larry Summers as Economic Adviser and a replacement for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is expected to be named soon. You can read more here.
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Repeal of Health Care First Up for GOP - the 112th Congress is now official and new speaker of the house John Boehner (R-Ohio) has scheduled a vote next Wednesday to repeal the recently passed health care law. The NY Times has more here.
The repeal is expected to easily pass the House with as many as 40 Democrats likely to support. In the Senate, the job will be more difficult, but some Democrats, such as Senator Claire McCaskill (La.) have signaled they may support repeal. However, it is unlikely to receive a vote in the Senate, making it a wasted effort on the part of Republicans.
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GOP Passes New House Rules - interestingly, the new rules which were easily passed in the new House by a strictly partisan vote, will allow the national debt to increase. One example is the upcoming vote on repeal of the health care bill. There will be no requirement to show how to make up the estimated 140 billion in savings over 10 years the health care bill provides. The Washington Post has more here.
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Latest Poll by Gallup Highlights Displeasure with Partisan Politics - Democrats and Republicans dropped in voter identification and Independents are now the largest political identification in the country.
Democrats are now at 31% down 5 points from two years ago and Republicans are only at 29%. Independents now make up 38% of the public. Gallup.com has more here.
An interesting trend, and one that would show the possibility of a strong third political party to surface once again in American politics.
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Thursday, January 6, 2011
Daily Political Wire 1-6-2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Daily Political Wire 1-5-2011
George Wenschhof
112th Congress Set To Begin - at noon today Vice President Joe Biden will swear in the incoming Senators and preside over the opening session. The House will also convene about the same time and by 2:00 PM, the incoming members will be sworn in by new House Speaker John Boehner.
The composition of the Senate will be 51 Democrats and 2 Independents (Sanders and Lieberman) who caucus with Democrats. 46 Republicans and 1 Independent (Murkowski) who will caucus with Republicans.
The make up of the House will be 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats.
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Incoming House Majority Leader Promises to Offer Weekly Cuts in Spending - Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wants to keep campaign promises by cutting spending by 100 billion this year.
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Will White House Press Secretary be the Next to Go? - Rumors are strong that Robert Gibbs will be leaving to go work on the reelect campaign for President Obama or enter the private sector. The Washington Post has more here.
10:05 AM Update - White House confirms Gibbs is leaving after the State of the Union address later this month. Gibbs will be working as a consultant to the reelection campaign for the president.
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Private Sector Adds 297,000 Jobs in December - as job creation becomes the focus of the incoming congress. The job increase marks the 11th consecutive month of gains. Some of these gains, however, could have been fueled by the service industry which ramped up over the holiday season. CNN.com has more here.
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Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Daily Political Wire 1-4-2010
George Wenschhof
Obama Returns to White House after Vacation in Hawaii - he began to set the tone he intends to set in the new year as he spoke with reporters on the return flight home. He said he hopes Republicans realize Americans want them to govern and not play politics. You can read more here.
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House Republicans Set January 12 as Date to Repeal Health Care - their first vote will be to repeal the signature bill passed by the Obama administration. A mostly symbolic vote to play to their base as the bill will never pass the Senate. The NY Times has more here.
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson says the only appropriate Democratic response is "make my day". He spells out why this theatrical based move will backfire on Republicans. You can read his column here.
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Democratic Filibuster Reform will Be Brought up When Senate Meets later in the Month - and not tomorrow as had been expected, due to a lack of consensus as to what changes will be made. The new Senate will convene for one day tomorrow and then come back probably on the 23rd or 24th of the month. At that time, Democrats are expected to use the "constitutional option" to force changes to the filibuster rule. TheHill.com has more here.
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Darrell Issa (R-Calf.) to Begin 6 investigations - the incoming Republican chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said he intended to conduct inquiries into the release of classified diplomatic cables by Wikileaks; recalls at the Food and Drug Administration; the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the foreclosure crisis; the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's failure to identify the origins of the meltdown; as well as business regulations and alleged corruption in Afghanistan. The Washington Post has more here.
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William Daley as New White House Chief of Staff? - He is the youngest child of former long time Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Currently, an executive with JP Morgan Chase & Co.. he would replace Rahm Emanuel who is currently running to replace his brother as mayor of Chicago. Bloomberg.com has more here.
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No Surprises in Republican Debate - between the candidates running for chair of the Republican National Committee. While, current chair Michael Steele is receiving the most heat, drawing 4 competitors, he did the best in the debate yesterday. Reince Preibus is considered the most likely to replace Steele. Chris Cillizza has his take on the debate here.
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Monday, January 3, 2011
Daily Political Wire 1-3-2011
George Wenschhof
Sunday morning "Talking Heads" Highlights - below, CNN has a quick recap.
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Majority of RNC Members Oppose Steele - the embattled chair of the Republican National Committee has 88 of the 168 members of the committee saying they will not vote for him. These numbers from a survey taken by Politico.com. You can read more here.
Today, Americans for Tax Reform will host a debate between the candidates for the chair of the RNC. It begins at 1:00 PM and you can watch it here.
While, it looks bad for Michael Steele to continue, do not count him out, as he won after six rounds of balloting two years ago.
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Mooney in Good Position to Run for Congress - the new chair of the Maryland Republican Party has put himself in a great position to run for Congress. Republican Roscoe Bartlett, who represents the 6th district in Maryland, is 84 and is likely to retire during the four year term held by Alex Mooney.
Mooney was defeated last November by Democrat Ron Young, for the Maryland district 3 state senate seat. Mooney will continue to keep a high profile and maintain his financial support during his four year term as chair of the Maryland Republican Party. He will be well positioned to run for congress in either the 2012 or 2014 election. The Washington Post has more here.
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Raising the Debt Ceiling will be one of the first battles of the Incoming Congress - Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) wants this to be their line in the sand and to say no more. White House Economic Adviser Austin Goolsbee says it would be a financial disaster if the debt ceiling was not raised. TheHill.com has more here. Stay tuned...
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Change in Filibuster Rule Coming? - after watching the unprecedented use of the filibuster by Senate Republicans during the first two years of the Obama administration, Democrats are scheming for changes. Unfortunately, 67 votes are needed to change Senate rules, unless rule changes are brought up at the time the new Senate convenes, before the new composition of officers has been established. Vice President Joe Biden would be in charge at that moment and some Democrats want to reduce the number from 60 votes needed at that time. The last time a change was made was in 1975 when the required number of votes needed for a filibuster was reduced from 67 to 60. The New Yorker has more here.
The attempted change to reduce the number of votes needed when Biden was in charge would be a simple majority is not likely to succeed as that is too radical a move. However, look to see changes made to require Senators to actually filibuster. For political junkies, here is a quick historical time line to changes made to the filibuster rule.
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