Washington (135)
AT&T has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years to charities affiliated with top lawmakers — several of whom oversee telecom policy — as part of a broader effort by the company to win favor on Capitol Hill
These relationships, which cross party lines in both chambers, could prove valuable for the Dallas-based telecom giant as it seeks federal approval of its $39 billion merger with T-Mobile. The resulting company would be by far the largest wireless provider in the United States.
AT&T’s money has flowed to charities connected to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission; Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat. Mignon Clyburn, his daughter, is a member of the Federal Communications Commission.
Surprise Victory in N.Y. Gives House Democrats Hope in 2012
Written by Alias Authorby Carl Hulse
Sal Pace, the Democratic leader of the State House in Colorado, was already preparing to run for Congress in a district captured by Republicans last year, but his party’s special election win last week in a conservative district in upstate New York made the decision all the easier.
“The New York race confirmed what I thought citizens would feel about Medicare,” said Mr. Pace, who is expecting to soon begin a campaign to oust Representative Scott Tipton, a freshman Republican, in southwestern Colorado. “People are very hesitant to end Medicare as we know it.”
In the aftermath of the New York victory, which hinged on a Republican plan to reshape the health care program for older Americans, members of both parties and independent analysts now predict a more competitive race next year for control of the House, with expanded opportunities for Democrats to reclaim seats they lost in the Republican wave of 2010.
Democrats Put G.O.P. on Spot as Medicare Plan Fails
Written by Alias AuthorBy JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Less than 24 hours after their surprising victory in the race for a vacant House seat, Democrats forced Senate Republicans on Wednesday to vote yes or no on a bill that would reshape Medicare, signaling their intent to use the issue as a blunt instrument against Republicans through the 2012 election.
Democrats staged the vote to press their advantage coming out of their victory on Tuesday in the contest, fought in large part over Medicare, for a House seat in upstate New York that had long been in Republican hands. Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, brought the legislation to the floor so that Senate Republicans would either have to vote for it, exposing them to attacks from Democrats and their allies, or against it, exploiting growing Republican divisions on the issue.
Five of 47 Senate Republicans voted against it — four because they said it went too far, one on the ground that the budget measure that contained it did not go far enough fast enough to address the budget deficit.
No, it's not Paul Ryan.
In the escalating fight over the budget and deficit in Washington, all eyes have been trained on GOP golden boy Rep. Paul Ryan. But though the Wisconsin Republican's controversial plan to gut Medicare has dominated the headlines, another House GOPer has been quietly doing the dirty work of making the budget cuts that actually have some chance of passing.
Two weeks ago, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, made the GOP's next big move to slash spending for social programs. In a little-noticed proposal, Rogers detailed how the GOP wants to inflict the pain of more than $1 trillion in unspecified discretionary spending cuts contained in Ryan's 2012 budget, which passed the House in April. Rogers has now divided up the cuts into 12 different areas, each of which will be considered as its own spending bill. Under his proposal, the poor and the working class will be hardest-hit.
by Jerry Zremski
Democrat Kathy Hochul bounded to the stage of a union hall in Amherst, just northeast of Buffalo, late Tuesday as the newly elected congresswoman from the ruby red congressional district that brought us Jack Kemp, Bill Paxon and Tom Reynolds. After all the requisite hugs and thank yous, she mentioned her plans to fight to close corporate tax loopholes and make millionaires pay their fair share. "We can do all that," she said, "and not decimate Medicare." Hearing that single word, the crowd erupted with the mantra of the Hochul campaign. "Medicare! Medicare! Medicare!"
The Hochul message — the one that was a winner for her — could be seen on signs all around New York's Twenty-Sixth District, from the sprawling strip malls of Buffalo's wealthiest suburbs to the faded farms of Genesee County to the lawns of neat old houses to the west of Rochester. "Save Medicare/Vote Hochul," the signs said. Six and a half months after Republicans regained the House and three months after the seat's most recent occupant, Republican Chris Lee, resigned after flexing his biceps for the wrong other woman on Craigslist, Hochul showed congressional Democrats that they have some reason for hope in 2012.
Secretary Clinton, Please Call Time on the Keystone Kochs
Written by Alias AuthorThe fate of a hugely destructive tar sands oil pipeline, from which the Koch brothers will profit, hangs on Hillary Clinton's decision
A battle is raging in the US over whether we use our resources to benefit the haves or to protect those who don't have as much as the most wealthy among us. We see this where tax cuts for the millionaires are required in order to continue giving unemployment benefits to the out-of-work. It took place around the attempt to reform Wall Street. We see it in cuts to education, and attempts to bust unions. The latest battle over whom our country chooses to protect goes straight to the heartland, in the form of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, currently under review by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
by Steve Kornacki
It's funny how random events line up in politics sometimes.
Three months ago, a married Republican member of Congress was caught using an email address in his own name to send shirtless pictures of himself to women he'd never met before; almost immediately, he resigned in shame. Two months later, in a seemingly unrelated development, virtually every Republican member of the House of Representatives -- and not a single Democrat -- voted for a budget plan that would turn Medicare into a voucher program.
But now, that Medicare plan has become the central issue in the special election campaign to fill the shirtless congressman's vacated seat -- a campaign that will end when the polls in Western New York's 26th District close at 9 p.m. tonight. And just like that, we may have our first test of whether Republican candidates in 2012 will be haunted by a Medicare vote as badly as Republican candidates were in 1996, when the Republican Congress' embrace of steep Medicare cuts helped cost nearly 20 House GOP members their jobs.
Koch, GOP fire back at Waxman over oil sands pipeline inquiry
Written by Alias Author
Koch Industries and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are criticizing Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) probe of whether Koch stands to gain from a proposed pipeline to import Canadian oil sands – a project that Republicans hope to expedite with legislation.
“Waxman's decision to question a single company rather than looking at the broader effects for the energy sector, U.S. workers, and families reveals his blatant disregard for the 7 in 10 Americans who are struggling to fill up at the pump,” a GOP committee aide said.
Waxman, the energy panel’s top Democrat, on Friday urged committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to press Koch – a refiner helmed by billionaire brothers active in conservative politics – about whether it’s invested in oil sands projects that would benefit from TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
'How long do you have to give corporate welfare to oil companies?' asks Democrat Barbara Boxer. GOP senators in turn will push for an expansion of offshore drilling, a measure also likely to fail.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic effort to scale back oil industry tax breaks, underscoring the difficulty of getting Congress to agree to any significant measures aimed at bringing down gas prices.
All but two Republicans - along with three Democrats - voted against bringing the repeal measure up for debate, even though the $2 billion a year in additional tax revenue from five major oil companies would have been steered into reducing the federal budget deficit, a Republican priority.
"This bill is just pure political demagoguery," said Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from oil-producing Louisiana. Democrat Mary L. Landrieu, also from Louisiana, added, "It might make us feel better to beat up on Big Oil ... but it will not lower prices at the pump."
The following is a statement from Fabien Levy, Director of Communications for Kathy Hochul for Congress: “Jane Corwin’s desperation has never been more evident than it is today. “In an effort to distract voters from her support for the Republican-endorsed Ryan budget that the Associated Press has said ‘would cut billions of dollars from Medicare and recast it as a voucher program,’ while at the same time giving massive tax breaks to multi-millionaires and billionaires, Assemblymember Corwin has distorted Kathy Hochul’s plan to protect Medicare and Social Security. “The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle says Kathy ‘Hochul strongly opposes GOP plans to replace Medicare with vouchers for private insurance.’ Meanwhile Jane ‘Corwin remains a staunch supporter of the GOP plan, though some Republican leaders are wavering. It’s also unsettling that this could be a sign that Corwin is a strict GOP partisan.’ “And the Buffalo News has said Jane Corwin ‘supports the Republican proposal for Medicare, which would turn it into a voucher system.’ The paper agrees that Kathy Hochul has the right approach to fixing and protecting Medicare for future beneficiaries and that “she understands health care for seniors to be an appropriate federal issue, while Corwin does not.’” “Kathy Hochul is the only candidate in this race to be endorsed by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, a non-partisan, multi-million member organization that fights to ensure the survival of Social Security and Medicare.” More information about Kathy Hochul can be found at www.KathyHochul.com.