George Wenschhof
Obama to deliver statement on impact of health care - President Barack Obama on Friday afternoon will deliver a statement "on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the health, lives and pocketbooks of women and their families," the White House announced.
Obama will give the remarks at 2:40 p.m. ET in the East Room of the White House. TPM.com has more here.
---
Lt. Gov. Brown to announce run for Governor in Maryland - When he announces his candidacy for governor on Friday, Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown is expected to lay out several priorities, including a stepped-up focus on fighting racial and other disparities in health care, education and employment.
With a speech that also underscores plans to continue spending on state infrastructure and strengthen vocational training, Brown (D) will become the first major candidate to officially join the race to succeed Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) next year.
If successful, Brown would be Maryland’s first African American governor and only the third black candidate to be elected governor in U.S. history. The son of a Jamaican father and Swedish mother, Brown said he is “mindful” of that but said it won’t define his campaign.
“I think Marylanders are looking for leaders who are going to get results,” Brown said in an interview. “It will be more about results than race.” The Washington Post has more here.
---
Senator Stabenow unveils farm bill - Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on Thursday released her draft 2013 farm bill.
The bill saves $23 billion, by the committee's unofficial estimate, over the next 10 years by replacing the existing farm safety net with new crop insurance and price-based supports and by restricting some eligibility for food stamps.
Next Tuesday, the committee will mark up the measure, which governs farm subsidies and food stamps as well as rural energy, trade, conservation and development programs for five years. The full Senate is expected to take up the bill this month.
“The current Farm Bill expires Sept 30. A new Farm Bill must be passed this year to provide farmers the certainty they need to keep driving our economic recovery. Sixteen million jobs hang in the balance,” the committee says its press release. TheHill.com has more here.
---
DCCC launches program to recruit candidates -The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched a new program aimed at cultivating strong candidates in targeted districts for the 2014 elections.
The Jumpstart program “provides early financial, communications, operational and strategic support to help top-tier candidates get a head start in these highly-targeted races,” according to a memo that will be sent to donors and supporters today.
Eight Democrats have been tapped for the program so far based on recent polling: RollCall.com has more here.
---
Pakistan election may result in fractured parliament - The failure of the major parties to capture a commanding lead raises the risk
a weak government will emerge, clouding optimism over the first transition
between civilian governments in a country that has been ruled by the military
for more than half its history.
The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif looks set to win the most
seats, returning Sharif to power 14 years after he was ousted in a military
coup, imprisoned and later exiled.
Former Pakistan
cricket star Imran Khan's party was enjoying a late surge of support on Friday,
the eve of a landmark election, raising the prospect of a fragmented parliament
that could lead to weeks of haggling to form a coalition government. Reuters.com has more here.
---
Your financial contributions to Air-it-Out with George Wenschhof are appreciated -Click here to donate. Thank You!
Friday, May 10, 2013
Daily Political Wire
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Daily Political Wire
George Wenschhof
Congressional Hispanic Caucus says Heritage Foundation Immigration Study "Ugly Racism" - The Heritage Foundation came under fire Wednesday from Hispanic lawmakers after reports that the author of a controversial immigration study previously wrote a dissertation warning of the lower intellectual capacity of immigrants.
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the group’s study “ugly racism and xenophobia dressed up in economic hyperbole” after learning of the dissertation. TheHill.com has more here.
---
Colorado Moves Closer to Legalizing Marijuana - For the first time in the United States, lawmakers in Colorado are poised to approve a set of rules and taxes regulating the sale of marijuana for recreational use.
On Wednesday, both the state Senate and House passed a bill creating a sales and excise tax on marijuana that now awaits Gov. John Hickenlooper's (D) signature. The Senate also passed legislation creating rules for stores selling marijuana that is now awaiting final approval in the House. The Denver Post has more here.
---
Markey Leads Gomez in Massachusetts Senate Race - US Representative Edward J. Markey heads into the general election with a significant advantage over Republican nominee Gabriel E. Gomez in their Senate race, according to a poll released Wednesday that shows the Malden Democrat with a 17-point lead.
Markey pulled 52 percent support to Gomez’s 35 percent in the Suffolk University/7News survey of 500 likely voters who showed some knowledge that the election is scheduled for June 25. The poll, which Suffolk said had an error margin of plus-or-minus 4.4 percent, was conducted May 4-7. The Boston Globe has more here.
---
G7 Finance Chiefs Meet To Discuss Bank Reform - Some of the world's most powerful finance chiefs will
meet in an English stately home on Friday and Saturday to try to speed up
banking and finance reforms, with Cyprus' near meltdown fresh in their minds.
Officials from two of the G7 economies said the talks - on Friday and
Saturday at a 17th-century country house 40 miles northwest of London - were
likely to focus more on the slow progress of reforms to banking and finance
around the world. Reuters.com has more here.
---
Your financial contributions to Air-it-Out with George Wenschhof are appreciated - Click here to donate. Thank You!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Daily Political Wire
George Wenschhof
* He ran in a Republican district. Mitt Romney won the 1st by 18 points in 2012. Sanford carried the seat with more than 60 percent in each of his gubernatorial campaigns. The district hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since the early 1970s.
Chris Cizzilla has more on how Sanford won here.
---
Obama to dine with House Democratic leaders tonight - President Obama will have dinner with senior House Democrats on Wednesday night, a White House official told TPM on Tuesday afternoon.
"In the evening, the President will have dinner at the Jefferson Hotel with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and members of the House Democratic Leadership," the White House official said. "The dinner will be closed press."
The attendees will be Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) and Reps. James Clyburn (SC), Xavier Becerra (CA), Joe Crowley (NY), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Rosa DeLauro (CT), Rob Andrews (NJ), Steve Israel (NY) and Mike Thompson (CA). TPM.com has more here.
---
Air Force strips 17 officers of authority to launch ICBMs - The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control — and, if necessary, launch — nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit’s launch skills. The group’s deputy commander said it is suffering “rot” within its ranks.
“We are, in fact, in a crisis right now,” the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force. The Washington Post has more here.
---
Inflation rate about half of Federal Reserve's 2% target - With the inflation rate about half of the Federal Reserve's 2.0 percent target, the central bank is facing a major test and some experts wonder whether it will eventually need to ramp up its already aggressive bond buying program.
The Fed cut official interest rates effectively to zero in late 2008 during the financial crisis. Since then, it has bought more than $2.5 trillion in bonds to bolster an anemic economic recovery and speed up the decline in unemployment.
Despite those actions, its favored inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, has fallen to a 3-1/2 year low of 1.0 percent.
Further, by the Fed's own forecasts, inflation is likely to remain short of the central bank's target for years. Reuters.com has more here.
---
Delaware legalizes gay marriage - Delaware became the 11th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage when Democratic Gov. Jack Markell signed a gay marriage bill into law just minutes after its passage by the state Senate on Tuesday.
"I do not intend to make any of you wait one moment longer," a smiling Markell told about 200 jubilant supporters who erupted in cheers and applause following the 12-9 Senate vote barely half an hour earlier. Politico.com has more here.
---
Minnesota to vote on gay marriage this week - A bill that would legalize same sex marriage in Minnesota passed a major hurdle in the House Ways and Means Committee, last night... and now, some state lawmakers expect it to clear another.
It passed yet another hurdle, earlier today, after the Senate Finance Committee reviewed its version of the bill's fiscal impact and decided to send it back to the floor for a full Senate vote.
These votes come six months after the state voted against a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage in Minnesota.
House Majority Leader Paul Thissen has said he would not bring the bill to a full House vote unless he was confident the votes were there to pass the legislation.
Governor Mark Dayton has also said he would sign the bill into law, which would allow same–sex couples to get married starting August first. Northlandsnewscenter.com has more here.
---
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Daily Political Wire
George Wenschhof
Obama continues cautious approach to Syria - The White House insisted Monday that it would not be thrown off its cautious approach to Syria, despite Israeli military strikes near Damascus and new questions about the use of chemical weapons in the civil war there.
The administration cast doubt on an assertion by a United Nations official that the Syrian rebels, not the government of President Bashar al-Assad, had used the nerve agent sarin. And it backed Israel’s right to strike Syrian targets to disrupt shipments of weapons from Iran to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
For President Obama, both developments muddied a crisis that is already rife with complexity. But there was little evidence that they did anything to affect what his aides say is a deep reluctance to be drawn further into a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people. The NY Times has more here.
---
Will Sanford's comeback bid be successful? - Voters in South Carolina’s first congressional district head to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether to offer former Gov. Mark Sanford a chance at political redemption, or instead send the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert to Congress.
Sanford, the Republican former governor whose time in office ended in a scandal triggered by a nationally-publicized extramarital affair and subsequent divorce, is seeking to once again win the district that elected him to Congress for three terms. A special election was called for this solidly Republican seat following GOP Rep. Tim Scott’s resignation to become the state’s next senator.
But while Sanford entered the special election as a modest favorite, he’s run into stiff opposition from Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Clemson University administrator whose famous sibling has helped elevate what might otherwise be a mundane congressional race into a national media spectacle. NBC News has more here.
---
Emily's Lists endorses Hanabusa in Hawaii senate race - EMILY’s List announced on Tuesday its support for Hawaii Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in next year’s Democratic Senate primary in the Aloha State.
Hanabusa, who officially entered the race last week, will face appointed Sen. Brian Schatz in the special election to fill the remaining two years of the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s term.
The endorsement is not a surprise. The group, which backs female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, has supported Hanabusa for years. It also comes on the heels of an endorsement from Inouye’s widow, Irene Hirano Inouye. RollCall.com has more here.
---
What to look for in the latest debt showdown - The 2013 debt-limit fight has begun.
Powerful policymakers on both sides of the aisle are jockeying for position in what will be a defining moment for the 113th Congress.
Economic experts have recently said the debt-limit hike could wait until the fall, though the Treasury Department has not committed to a specific date.
But if a bill doesn’t need to be passed until after the August recess, that would benefit the GOP, which is trying to tie tax reform to the debt limit.
The following is a list of 10 players to watch on the debt-limit battle. TheHill.com has more here.
---
Internet sales tax bill passes senate, doubtful in House - Traditional retailers and cash-strapped states face a tough sell in the House as they lobby Congress to limit tax-free shopping on the Internet.
The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass a bill that empowers states to collect sales taxes from Internet purchases. Under the bill, states can require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes when they sell products over the Internet, in catalogs, and through radio and TV ads. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
Current law says states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the merchant has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are tax-free.
The bill faces opposition in the House, where some lawmakers regard it as a tax increase. TPM.com has more here.
---
Your financial contributions to Air-it-Out with George Wenschhof are appreciated -Click here to donate. Thank You!
