You've got to like logic behind this. If Cheney thinks he is not part of the Executive Branch, then why should his office get any Executive ?:
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois isthreatening to defund the office of the vice president in response torevelations that Dick Cheney is locked in a dispute with the NationalArchives over the preservation of classified documents.
Emanuel plans to offer an amendment to a spending bill next week todefund Cheney's office. The vice president's office contends that, aspresident of the Senate, he and his staff are not a part of executivebranch but rather an office in the legislative branch.
"The Vice President has a choice to make," Emanuel said in astatement. "If he believes his legal case, his office has no businessbeing funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demandsexecutive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules."
This could just be something to fire up the blogosphere. But ifCongressman Rahm Emanual (D-IL) follows through and presses hard forthis, it will be the most significant effort to restrict Cheney's power.
That today is really raising the pressure on the Vice President's office.
The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington () found that since 2001, 72 members of the House of Representatives spent a total of in election campaign money on their relatives or their relatives' employers:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) foundnearly $3.5 million in campaign payments to relatives during the pastthree election cycles, from 2001 to 2006. Campaigns paid about $1.6million to firms owned by or employing the lawmakers or theirrelatives, the group found.
Both parties had a hand in this -- though, there were . Ron Paul, of all people, was also involved:
Even Ron Paul, the darling of the Netroots, openly dispenses more than$175,000 in campaign funds to his daughter and other family members.
The fact that these actions are not illegal might underscore the need for tougher campaign finance laws that enforce ethics.
By a , not enough to override a likely veto, the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed a $37.4 billion Homeland Security budget bill aimed at strengthening national defense. The White House is upset because the bill Bush's request by $2.1 billion. He is planning to veto it.
So what will Bush be vetoing? Here is what the contains:
Funds the hiring of 3,000 additional border agents.
Ignores the Bush request to cut funds for first responders.
Doubles the amount of air cargo that is screened.
Doubles the amount of grants given to local communities for port security and mass transit.
Increases in medical funds for veterans.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer cannot quite understand why the bill with a straight face:
"We are spending $10 billion a month in Iraq," said House Majorityleader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "Given our continuing homeland securityvulnerabilities, we can surely find $2 billion to keep the Americanpeople safer at home."
Maybe Bush's veto promise came as a result of the unified pressure this week from , who asked for the White House to curb spending by vetoing more bills. Now it appears the White House will do just that.
By analogy, if you believe we went to war just for the sake of going to war, then this is an example of vetoing bill just for the sake of vetoing one.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow -- the kind that actor Michael J. Fox candidates to take a stand on last campaign cycle. President Bush is promising a if it passes the Senate. In order to override the Bush veto, it will need to pass the House and Senate by a two-thirds majority.
Congressional sources have indicated to me that Senate Democrats need just one vote to override the veto and pass the stem cell legislation.
The Democrats also have another option. With the temporary vacancy of the Wyoming Senate seat, following the unfortunate , the Democrats are now in a position to pass it by two-thirds majority. Senator Thomas was a strong opponent of stem cell research, which means Republicans might raise a fuss if Harry Reid tries to force a vote.
We can debate the ethics of using stem cells that will be until we are blue in the face. Though, strategically speaking, as political analyst points out, Democrats only gain from bills like this. So they may ultimately try to push this through:
In particular, the Democrats have a chance to peel away a critical blocof independents and moderate Republicans who are growing more and moreuncomfortable with the anti-science, anti-tolerance, borderlineantediluvian agenda of today's conservative movement.
Look for this to be a hot topic in the coming weeks.
The 110th Congress certainly is the most diverse in American history. We have a Speaker of the House for the first time. James Clyburn is the black House Majority Whip. The in the U.S. Congress was elected. There is a lot to be proud about.
When you read some of the other , Congress is still demographically miles apart from average taxpayers:
Males - As of the 2006 congress, 83.7% of the Congress is male,while the percentage of males of the voting age population (18 plus) isonly 48.4. If this is further evaluated to include theover-representation of white males, the figure is even more staggering:36.3% of the voting age population are white males, yet there are 79White Male senators making up the Senate (79%).
Older age groups (55 and older) - The average male and female age inthe United States is 35.9 and 38.4 respectively compared to the averageage of Congresspeople at 56 years old — 55 in the House ofRepresentatives and 60 in the Senate. The age demographic breakdown inthe United States is as following: 20-34: 20.9%; 35-44: 16%; 45-54:13.4%; 55-64: 8.6%; rounded out by people of age 62 years and over inthe US population at 14.7%. In the US Senate, 63% of the members areover 62 years old, topped off by Robert Byrd of West Virginia who is 90years old.
The Wealthy/Educated - In the Senate, fifty-six senators holddegrees in the law, seven have MBA’s, and four have MD’s. The majorityof COngress members come from upper-middle class to upper class incomebackgrounds, and the jobs themselves as Representatives and Senatorspay $165,200 per year putting them in the top 5 percent of Americanhousehold incomes, which does not reflect spouses income either (top 5%is deliniated by $157,000 per household).
Women - Women of voting age represent 51.6 percent of the voting agepopulation yet are 16.3% of the Congress, putting America below theglobal average of 17% female representation at parliamentary level. Asof 2007, the US ranks 68th in terms of women holding office in thelegislature — this puts the US just above Turkmenistan, and just belowEl Salvador and Panama.
Latinos - Hispanics represent over 14% of the U.S. population, whiletheir Congress representation is 3% in the Senate and about 5% in theHouse.
African-Americans - The Senate is 1% African American and the Houseis roughly 9.2% African American compared to the 12.3 percent ofAmerican population that are of Black or African-American descent
The education level is obviously understandable. We want smart people running the country. In general, most of this information is not something to be upset about. It just shows how Congress is on a whole different plane than most Americans.
One week after declaring a six-week leave of absence to fight her cancer, Congresswoman (R-CA) earlier today:
"California and the nationhave lost a great friend and public servant," said CaliforniaDemocratic Party Chairman Art Torres, who served withMillender-McDonald in the California state Legislature. "She was achampion for the consumer and fought injustice wherever she saw it. Shealways valued public service and served her state and nation with graceand honor."
It was not disclosed what form of cancer Millender-McDonald had.
She represented the 37th congressional district in the state of California since 1997. After the Democrats' victory in last November, Speaker Pelosi appointed her as Chair of the . Millender-McDonald was the of that committee:
We encourage all of you to her congressional page, and tell the page to send along your prayers and well wishes to her family.
While Bush made reference to Congress's Easter vacation during a time whenthere was some important business still on the table, perhaps his memory was ona bit of a vacation of it's own.
"The Democrats in Congress … have left Washington for spring recesswithout finishing the work," said Bush. "They need to come off theirvacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it's got strings and mandates andwithdrawals and pork, I'll veto it and then we can get down to business ofgetting this thing done," he said.
But getting into a spat over vacation time is risky business and Democratsinsist Bush's criticism is misleading.
"We acted quicker than the Republican Congress has ever acted on asupplemental request on Iraq," said Drew Hammill, spokesperson for SpeakerPelosi, arguing that the Democratic leadership is continuing to work on thesupplemental through the Easter recess.
Hammill also said it was ironic that Bush criticized the congressional Easterbreak only days before taking an Easter vacation of his own.
This will be Bush's 63rd trip to his ranch since taking office. He has spent405 days, either entirely or partially, at his ranch in Crawford, according toMark Knoller, a CBS Radio White House correspondent known for keeping meticulousrecords of the president's vacation days.
In 2005, Bush was roundly criticized for taking a lengthy vacation of nearlyfive weeks away from the White House -- one of the longest presidential retreatsin at least 36 years -- when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and left NewOrleans engulfed in floodwater.
The complete article can be found at , and Bush can be found on his ranch.
Once upon a time on an enchanted Hill there was The pharmaceutical industry,the congressmen and the lobbyists, but this isn't a fairy tale. This is thestory of how the Medicare Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003(better known as ) was passed.
The bill made it to the house in the morning, but wasn't voted on until 3:00AM so it wouldn't attract any media coverage. It was supposed to have been a 15minute vote, but voting was left open for almost 3 hours until it received thevotes it needed.
60 Minutes did a story on this .
(CBS) If you have ever wondered why the cost of prescriptiondrugs in the United States are the highest in the world or why it's illegal toimport cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico, you need look no further than thepharmaceutical lobby and its influence in Washington, D.C.
Referring to the frenzy to pass the bill, Representitive Walter Jones (R NC)said "I've been in politics for 22 years, and it was the ugliest night Ihave ever seen in 22 years."
15 of the staffers and politicians that worked on this bill to get it passed,were eventually employed by pharmaceutical companies making as much as $2million salaries.
digs deeper into what they call . There is a lot of information on their web site.
On Monday evening, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Senate's version of a bill that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, and also give tax cuts to businesses. The tax cut portion of the bill had created a disagreement between the two parties. Once it became clear that the only way a minimum wage increase could get passed was if tax cuts for businesses were also included, then Senate Democrats caved in and ultimately agreed to the compromise, and it was passed by an overwhelming majority in the Senate.
Now that the House panel has cleared it, the bill will head to the House floor for a formal debate, followed by a vote. It is expected to pass by an overwhelming margin. The White House will not veto the minimum wage bill because it includes tax cuts for the more larger corporations.
According to the , the tax cuts in the bill will cost the U.S. Treasury roughly $1.3 billion over the next ten years. That might be problem. Back in January, Pelosi's Democrats passed a rule that institutes a pay-as-you-go system. In other words, no new deficit spending. Though, it is rumored that the Democrats could find extra revenue by passing legislation that cracks down on unpaid taxes for big businesses. The Senate Budget Committee was by a government official that a renewed effort to seek unpaid taxes could result in billions of dollars worth of new revenue.
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