WASHINGTON—U.S. senators took a major step toward passage of a broad revamp of U.S. financial markets Thursday as Democratic leaders were able to secure support from both sides of the aisle to put a close to debate.
The Senate voted, 60-40, to limit debate on legislation that would change the way mortgages and credit cards are regulated, financial firms interact with regulators and boost the government’s ability to deal with systemwide failures. A handful of Republicans voted with Democrats to invoke what is known in the Senate as “cloture.”
The vote puts a hard cap on the amount of time the Senate has to debate the 1,500-plus page piece of legislation, and clears the way for the Senate to take a final vote on the measure as soon as Thursday evening. Senate Democrats would need to clear a handful of procedural hurdles for that to occur, but leadership was discussing the possibility, according to several congressional aides.
This is the massive hidden problem that no one in the Beltway is talking about; Republicans included:
I am currently reading this bill and wanted to drop an interesting tidbit on you. For those interested in reading the 114 page Manager’s Amendment, go here. I am only a couple hundred pages into this POS but starting on page 60, a new government office is to be established. The “Office Of Financial Research” will be part of the Treasury, and will have a Director appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This office will also have a data collection center to keep track of all financial and nonbank financial institutions so as to be able to report to Congress on companies that ‘threaten’ the economy. It is unclear how big or how many new government employees this office will create, but considering how events are unfolding now with Obamacare, I’m assuming pretty large.
The interesting tidbit pertains to the Financial Research Fund that is to be established and the ability of the Office that is providing Congress with reports to invest monies they aren’t using. Let me know if you think that’s a conflict of interest, and if you would like to know exactly how much money that is?
“Funds obtained by, transferred to, or credited to the Financial Research Fund shall be immediately available to the Office, and shall remain available until expended, to pay the expenses of the Office in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Office.”
“Shall not be construed to be Government Funds…”. Whose money is it then?
The arctic ice is returning, the bears are happy, and we are still stuck at “who can you trust?”, and the answer would be, “not very many people in positions of power.”
We all know that progressives have totally infiltrated and corrupted all levels of government, education, and industry. We also know exactly what it is going to take to flip this congress and clean out the rat’s nest (and they GOTTA GO!)
Ladies and Gentlemen, these asshats are WASTING our hard earned tax money while writing bills (they don’t read) in order tax us more instead of WORKING ON JOB CREATION! We all know they really don’t want any of us to be prosperous in the future, and that they are trying to create a lord/serf paradigm. Are you keeping your list of traitors up-to-date? Here are a few more names to add to the list.
(Reuters) – Some prominent Republican senators expressed openness on Tuesday to a U.S. climate change bill that might be introduced next week and that would need bipartisan support to have any chance of advancing.
Senator Lamar Alexander, a member of the Republican leadership in the Senate, praised the sector-by-sector approach in a compromise bill aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
“I think a sector-by-sector approach makes a lot more sense for dealing with carbon,” the Tennessee senator told reporters.
Winning Republican support would be big breakthrough for Democrats and the Obama White House, especially as some Republican lawmakers have been sharply critical of climate legislation because of concerns industry would be hurt and also due to skepticism over the science behind global warming.
The sector-by-sector approach contrasts to an economy-wide approach taken by a bill passed last year in the House of Representatives that was also sharply criticized by Republican lawmakers.
Alexander said he “would consider a cap on utilities only if we could figure out the right way to do it that didn’t drive costs up substantially over the short term.”
Republican Senator Scott Brown, whose election in January robbed Democrats of their 60-seat supermajority, told Reuters, “I’m open to reading anything that’s being proposed” for climate change legislation.
A trio of senators — Democrat John Kerry, independent Joseph Lieberman and Republican Lindsey Graham — are trying to put the finishing touches on a climate change bill that aims to reduce carbon pollution by capping emissions, starting in 2012, from electric power utilities.
And when Obamacare is added to the mix, CO2 emissions are greatly reduced as Americans die off.
The transportation sector would see a new tax, probably after oil is refined, instead of a carbon cap, although the fee would be linked to pollution permits traded in the utility sector.
As for the third sector — manufacturers — Kerry, Graham and Lieberman have been weighing a cap-and-trade scheme like the one for utilities, but phasing it in starting in 2016. Alexander voiced opposition to capping factory emissions.
Kerry would not say whether he has succeeded yet in winning the support of any Republicans other than Graham for the bill he hopes to unveil next week.
RALLY AROUND A BILL
Graham told Reuters that the goal was to “put a bill out there the three of us can rally around” and see “the kind of reception it gets once it’s rolled out.”
But before being introduced, Kerry, Graham and Lieberman still have difficult issues to resolve.
Graham said the trio is “revisiting” how to allocate future carbon pollution permits for electric power companies, a thorny issue that has brought criticisms from various senators, including Democrat Carl Levin from Michigan.
“Things are coming together but there’s still some hurdles,” Kerry said, without specifying. He said more meetings were needed this week with senators and industry.
Some liberal Democrats attacked the bill’s planned inclusion of expanded offshore oil and gas drilling.
“Without very significant alteration of the drilling issues, they’ll probably lose my vote,” New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez told reporters.
Senator Frank Lautenberg, also from New Jersey who last year voted for an Environment and Public Works Committee climate bill that Kerry’s effort builds upon, said expanded offshore drilling could jeopardize his state’s beach resorts and related businesses if there was an oil spill.
“I’m not comforted by a 50-mile limitation,” on drilling offshore, he added.
The three senators writing the climate bill are hoping to introduce it early next week, according to sources, around the April 22 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an event that sometimes draws derision from some Republicans.
“We’re not going to do it on Earth Day,” Graham said, adding, “It’s going to be offshore drilling day when it’s introduced.”
Remember kids, Scott Brown is running for re-election soon; find a Tea Party candidate to oust his a**.
Newly-seated Republican Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) on Monday joined Democrats in voting to end debate on their $15 billion jobs bill.
Brown crossed the aisle after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) nixed an $85 billion, bipartisan plan in favor of a more narrowly-focused bill.
“I came to Washington to be an independent voice, to put politics aside, and to do everything in my power to help create jobs for Massachusetts families,” Brown said in a statement. “This Senate jobs bill is not perfect. I wish the tax cuts were deeper and broader, but I voted for it because it contains measures that will help put people back to work.”
Democrats needed to poach Brown and and least one other Republican to reach the 60 votes necessary to votes. Centrist Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) also voted for cloture on the proposal.
Reitiring GOP Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) also voted for cloture.
Brown was elected to the Senate with the backing of conservatives largely because of his pledge to serve as the 41st vote to uphold a filibuster of the Democrats health reform bill.
But Brown has expressed willingness to work with Democrats on other issues.
For those that wish to watch the proceedings on C-Span2, go here. I am looking for the bill number and text right now.
H.R. 2847 – Hiring Incentives To Restore Employment Act, (not to be confused with the original H.R. 2847 – Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. Don’t you just love how they slip language in and take other language out because the original was already on the schedule?
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director
U.S. Congress Washington, DC 20515
February 18, 2010
Honorable Harry Reid Majority Leader United States Senate Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Leader: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have prepared the enclosed table showing the estimated effects on revenues and direct spending for the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, as introduced in the Senate on February 11, 2010. The legislation has been introduced as Senate Amendment 3310, in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 2847. The legislation contains several tax provisions, including temporarily exempting from payroll taxes paid by employers the wages of certain individuals hired in 2010, providing an additional business tax credit for firms that retain such individuals for at least one year of employment, increasing allowable expensing in 2010 for certain depreciable business assets, amending the treatment of interest paid in connection with issuances of certain tax credit bonds, and modifying rules applicable to foreign accounts and the allocation of interest expenses on the part of corporations with worldwide activities. In addition, the legislation would extend through December 31, 2010, the authorization for surface transportation programs and would increase the budgetary resources for those programs by $20.8 billion in fiscal year 2010 and $12.2 billion in fiscal year 2011, relative to the amounts assumed in CBO’s baseline. Finally, the bill would provide for the transfer of $19.5 billion from the general fund of the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund. Spending from the trust fund, however, is generally controlled by appropriation actions; as a result, the transfer may facilitate future spending but would not, by itself, increase such expenditures.
Obama’s Chief Minister of Propaganda is de-lus-ion-al. Robert Gibbs is definitely applying the rule that if you tell a lie often enough, it may just be accepted as truth. He would like you to believe that Scott Brown was elected on the same anger and frustration that sent Barack Obama to the White House according to a Washington Post poll. Mr. Brown’s stance against the current policies of this administration has absolutely nothing to do withhis capture of the people’s seat in MA.
NOW would be the time to hammer your congressmen and senators about how much you OPPOSE Team O’s agenda. They are a bit more receptive to listening after the loss Coakley took last Tuesday.
Yes, we are all paranoid sheep who have been scared to death by TV ads, and Massachusetts didn’t mean anything. He is doing what we knew he would; suffer a defeat – run out on the campaign trail.
If 7 presidents and 7 congresses haven’t been able to achieve universal healthcare, maybe the rational thing to do is something else that Americans actually approve of? The definition of insanity….
Is the President out of touch? Should we be watching the other hand? Does history matter? According to Barry, he hasn’t gotten his message across and Brown’s win in Massachusetts is because of anger about George Bush.
Part 2, Keith Ablow:
Part 3, Other news stories and the Debt Ceiling – why not buy 422 air craft carriers?:
Part 4, The Revolutionary Holocaust – Live Free…Or Die:
Part 5, Progressives, Liberal Fascism and Jonah Goldberg: (Author’s Note: For those that don’t know – Hitler was a leftist.)
It is never-ending with Queen Nancy and the progressive agenda to take over healthcare and thereby control every American’s choices. Jim Webb is stating that no more health care votes should be taken until Scott Brown is seated in the senate and even Barney Frank believes congress needs to start over.
Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a strong supporter of the health care legislation, said Brown’s victory means Congress will have to “start over on health care.” He said he will vote against any bill rushed to the floor before Brown can be sworn in.
Is the message from the dem base stopping Nancy Pelosi from achieving the her parental progressive goal of taking over your lives because you are too stupid to know better? I guess not, if the quote in this article is anything to go by. (As always, emphasis mine)
And already Tuesday night, Democrats were being forced to come to terms with the prospect that their decades-long goal of health reform might once again fall short, despite getting closer to becoming law than ever before.
Pelosi insisted Democrats could still make it happen. “We will get the job done. I am confident of that. I have always been confident of that,” she told reporters as she left the Capitol at 11:30 p.m.
“Massachusetts has health care and so the rest of the country would like to have that too,” Pelosi said, referring to the state’s health care program. “So we don’t [think] a state that already has health care should determine whether the rest of the country should.”
At some point I know I will have to stop saying Are You Freakin’ Kidding Me?! but I know we haven’t gotten their yet because Obama is still in the White House, San Fran will still re-elect the Botox Queen, and Barney Frank’s political carcass isn’t in danger. We all know it is going to get a #10 can of whoopass worse before it gets better considering the number of issues these fools are tinkering with at the moment. The Progressives are so close to putting you and your descendants in chains they can taste it. They won’t be letting go anytime soon.
“Shall not be construed to be Government Funds…”. Whose money is it then?
