Strange bedfellows may defeat the Cromnibus Bill...

[Yonivore]

Another Government Shutdown Countdown
Boehner had to pull some chicanery just to get the bill through some procedural vote earlier today...

[Yonivore]

Oh, the irony...

How the Media Is Covering Elizabeth Warren's Plan to Shut Down the Government

This year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to reject the bipartisan spending compromise to get rid of business-friendly deregulatory provisions.
But this year, it's not about "Elizabeth Warren's plan to shut down the government."

No, the media can't bring themselves to go there. Instead of "Why Democrats Want to Shut Down the Government," we get "Warren tells House Dems not to support omnibus." Instead of "Elizabeth Warren and the shutdown caucus," we get "Spending bill teeters amid Democratic discontent." Instead of "Elizabeth Warren Is Protesting the Shutdown She Asked For" we have "Elizabeth Warren Joinse Revolt Against Wall Street Deal In Government Shutdown Talks.

Last year, Ted Cruz's push against the government spending deal was all about how Ted Cruz wants a shutdown. But when Elizabeth Warren threatens to torpedo a spending deal that will result in a shutdown, it's all about her courage in standing up to Wall Street and her populist movement against fat cats.

So, I guess she's an anarchist...

Remember That Time Elizabeth Warren Said A Shutdown Was “Anarchy”?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was against government shutdowns before she was for them. Last year, she railed against Republicans and said they wanted to shut down the government in order to prevent food inspections, allow lead into children’s toys manufactured in China, and deform babies through their mothers’ use of unsafe morning sickness pills.

Seriously, she said that:

I guess the Left's hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[Yonivore]

The Taint!

I guess she forgot Democrat negotiators agreed to the bill.

Hey Nancy! You have to pass it to find out what's in it.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Typical GOP posturing. Either do as we want and pass our legislation or you are pro shutdown. Nevermind where the brinksmanship started.

Winehole has a good thread talking about the banking welfare and derivatives writeoffs that they are taking issue with.

[Yonivore]

Typical GOP posturing. Either do as we want and pass our legislation or you are pro shutdown. Nevermind where the brinksmanship started.

Winehole has a good thread talking about the banking welfare and derivatives writeoffs that they are taking issue with.

Actually, Boehner is having trouble with his side of the aisle, as well.

And, it's not the GOP accusing Warren of a shutdown, it's just how the media treats her vs. Cruz who, by the way, is on her side here, I believe.

[boutons_deux]

pussy eater slanders Warren

Warren's objective is to get the Repug gift to BigBank out of the bill, not shut down the govt.

I personally think shutting down the govt is much better alternative that the BigBank item. less Dems have to find their balls, for once.

[Yonivore]

pussy eater slanders Warren

Warren's objective is to get the Repug gift to BigBank out of the bill, not shut down the govt.

I personally think shutting down the govt is much better alternative that the BigBank item. less Dems have to find their balls, for once.

And, of course, Cruz's motive were less noble because you didn't agree with his position.

I don't disagree, they could shutter Washington D.C. for the next 50 years and we just might recover from their abuses.

[boutons_deux]

And, of course, Cruz's motive were less noble because you didn't agree with his position.

I don't disagree, they could shutter Washington D.C. for the next 50 years and we just might recover from their abuses.

Canadian anchor baby Krazy Kruz wanted only to draw attention to himself. He knew no other objective was achievable.

[boutons_deux]

Obama, the less Wall St Dems, bill passes with Repug poison pills.

[ElNono]

at least we avoided a 4-5 page diatribe on how the evil media is out to get some members of congress...

[Spurminator]

I am 100% on board with an Elizabeth Warren candidacy. It's a massive long shot but at this point what do we have to lose?

[Nbadan]

I am 100% on board with an Elizabeth Warren candidacy. It's a massive long shot but at this point what do we have to lose?

Warren/Castro tbh...

[boutons_deux]

7 Nasty Provisions in Congress' New Budget: From Coddling Bankers to Trashing School Lunch

1. Taxpayer Bailouts for Wall Street Casinos. The 2010 Dodd-Frank law tried to prevent the riskiest investments from spiraling out of control by ending Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations coverage of derivative trading. Now, in language that was written by lobbyists, according to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the FDIC’s taxpayer-funded insurance of these risky gambits would return.

2. Multi-Employer Pension Plans Can Be Cut. As America faces a retirement security crisis with tens of millions of Americans relying on Social Security for 90 percent of their incomes, those people with pensions seemed like the lucky few. Not so, anymore, if this provision remains. An estimated 200 private employers across the country don’t have the promised money for pensions of 10.5 million workers. So Congress is saying, ‘just pay based on what you have,’ which, in many cases can result in cuts to monthly payments by a third, experts said.

3. More Reason to Curse The Koch Brothers. The ongoing flood of hundreds of millions of dollars into political campaigns, as pioneered and epitomized by the libertarian Koch brothers political operation, has pushed Congress to try to make political parties more meaningful the only way they know how. Not by taking new and bolder stands on issues, but by increasing by an eight-to-ten-fold factor how much can be legally given to a range of political party causes. One example: the current $32,400 cap on donating to national party committee would be $324,000. And that’s not all, there are new catagories and higher caps for other accounts, such as those surrounding national political conventions. These kinds of moves are another nail in democracy’s coffin, as the system tilts evermore to servicing the wealthiest individuals and interests.

4. The Culture Wars Continue, Starting With Abortion. It hardly matters that most Americans across the political spectrum support reproductive rights. The House-drafted bill continues to ban using federal funds for most abortions, does not allow federal funding for abortions in the District of Columbia, and requires Obamacare applicants to be informed if a health plan covers abortions.

5. Creates New Obstacles To Climate Change Action: It’s no surprise that House Republicans keep going after the Environmental Protection Agency—a department created by Republican President Richard Nixon. The bill cuts the EPA’s budget to the lowest levels in 25 years, and bars the agency from new regulations on a variety of farm-related activities that account for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
6. Pushes A Paranoid, Paradoxical Policy on Pot. Last month, District of Columbia voted to legalize small amounts of recreational marijuana. But the bill speeding through Congress would bar the District from legalizing pot or reducing any legal penalties associated with it. In contrast, it also blocks the Department of Justice from interfering with state-level marijuana legalization efforts and stops the Drug Enforcement Agency from barring industrial hemp production.

7. And Bites Back At A Bunch of Obama Initiatives. It’s no surprise that the bill doesn’t give any new money for Obamacare, only funds immigration policy through February—when a GOP House and Senate can jointly attack the new White House orders blocking deportation, and other Obama initiatives.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...g-school-lunch

The next two years will be much worse than the above.

[Ignignokt]

I am 100% on board with an Elizabeth Warren candidacy. It's a massive long shot but at this point what do we have to lose?

Dignity

[boutons_deux]

AFR Report: Financial Sector Lobbying and Campaign Spending Top $1.2 Billion for 2014 Election Cycle – $1.8 million a day


In the current election cycle, Wall Street banks and financial interests have so far reported spending more than $1.2 billion to influence decision-making in Washington, according to an updated report released today by Americans for Financial Reform.

That total – of officially reported expenditures on campaign contributions and lobbying from January 1, 2013, through November 16, 2014 – works out to just under $1.8 million a day. It represents an average of about $2.3 million spent to elect or influence each of the 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives. More than 300 financial sector companies and trade associations spent at least $500,000 each in this period.

The financial industry is on track to exceed its rate of spending in the 2010 election cycle, when the industry was working to stop or weaken the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as it made its way through Congress. This continued high level of spending reflects the ongoing battle to reshape the financial system, and the industry’s persistent efforts to repeal or win exemptions from parts of the law, to weaken implementing regulations, and to forestall further proposals for change.

http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2014...million-a-day/

[boutons_deux]

Government by Wall Street: JPMorgan CEO whipped votes for last night’s spending bill

The House’s narrow passage of a massive spending bill that included a provision gutting a key financial regulatory reform is being cast as a major win for the financial industry. Wall Street saw the bill’s passage as so crucial that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon personally called members of the House yesterday to urge them to vote in favor of the bill, which funds most of the government through the end of the fiscal year.

So reports the Washington Post, which cites “a person familiar with” Dimon’s effort. The bill could provide a big boon to Dimon’s bank; a provision quietly inserted into the legislation without any prior debate repeals the Dodd-Frank banking reform’s laws “swap pushout” rule, which bans banks from using taxpayer funds to trade highly risky financial instruments known as swaps.

Congressman Kevin Yoder, a Kansas Republican, inserted the provision into the bill, but he didn’t actually write it. Yoder left that job to Citigroup, another firm that has long agitated for repeal of the swap rule.

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/12/gove...spending_bill/

[boutons_deux]

apropos point 2 above

The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway

First, despite sending his state into an economic tailspin after squandering a budget surplus and cutting services to provide unimaginable tax cuts for the rich, Kansas governor Sam Brownback is robbing employee pensions to cover the state’s devastating budget shortfalls. Brownback defended his decision to cut employee’s pensions to help fill ongoing budget shortfalls since he gave the wealthy unfunded tax cuts; like the tax cuts, Brownback is being heavily criticized by leaders in his own party. He said “It’s kind of, uh, well where are you going to go for the funds? It’s kind of what’s your other option?”

The State Policy Network (SPN), a Koch-funded sister organization of ALEC, boasts itself as a group of “free-market think tanks” that would initially target six different states to eliminate public sector pensions; Kansas was one of those states. The group’s primary objective was to achieve its stated goals founded on the Kochs’ “commitment to free enterprise including reforming (robbing) public employee pensions.”

It is what Brownback is doing in Kansas and now that the Kochs control Congress, Republicans are implementing “pension reform” earlier than expected with a “rider” in the so-called “CRomnibus” appropriations bill.

The CRomnibus is supposed to be about annual appropriations for government agencies, not gutting campaign finance laws or allowing Wall Street to unilaterally cut private employee’s pensions; Wall Street already decimated the private pension accounts in the 2008 financial collapse, but apparently it was not enough to satiate their greed.

So the House inserted an esoteric ‘rider’ in the bill meant to fund the government along with one to abolish campaign reform law and deregulate Wall Street for the next financial collapse.

The “gut private pensions” initiative will not create one job, will not grow the economy, or reduce the nation’s debt and deficit. It is a giant bailout gift to Wall Street for sending the nation’s economy over the cliff in 2008 and authority to rob retirees’ pension accounts. The rider’s language gives Wall Street unlimited and unilateral power to cut retirement benefits to millions of current retirees whose pension accounts are tied up in the same private plans Wall Street nearly wiped out just six years ago.

Wall Street and the Koch brothers have had their sights set on abolishing the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) with the same intent as seizing control of the Social Security Trust Fund.

The goal is empowering the rich to cut retirees’ formerly guaranteed benefits to extinction, and this CRomnibus abomination will enable them to see the Kochs’ “commitment reforming (robbing) public employee pensions” to fruition earlier than they expected. The 40-year old ERISA was enacted to protect the lifelong pension investments of millions of retirees the Koch-Wall Street criminals insist belongs to them.

Republicans agree with the Kochs and Wall Street that retired people cannot have their retirement savings because it belongs to the rich.This idea that Americans’ pensions belong to the rich was best elucidated by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfien in 2012 when he said that people expecting their Social Security “are not going to get it.”

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/12/...iticus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

Hiding Bad Policy in a Budget Bill

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD


DECEMBER 11, 2014


When the long-lost grail of bipartisan compromise finally re-emerged on Capitol Hill this week, the spending bill for 2015 turned out to be weighted with some of the most devious and damaging provisions imaginable for good government.

Written in secrecy, presented as the take-it-or-leave-it alternative to a government shutdown,

the bill, which narrowly passed the House Thursday night, includes two regressive “riders” aimed at warming the big-money hearts of donors who leave Congress increasingly vulnerable to special-interest corruption.

One rider would allow a huge increase in the size of checks that deep-pocketed donors can write to win inner-sanctum clout with the major political parties. A donor now held to a mere $97,200 under party limits would be able to give a staggering $777,600. In a further invitation to luxury shopping, a couple yearning for the inside track could triple-down and give $3.1 million to party committees. This is pretty much the coup de grâce for the McCain-Feingold law’s ban on large party donations enacted to end the “soft money” corruption of Watergate.

The parties claim they need this big transfusion of lucre to compete with the stealth millions being raised by independent political operatives. But in truth, the rider would only enlarge the political casino’s runaway action, without any hint of ethical controls.

The second rider, custom tailored for the banks of Wall Street, would kill a crucial part of the Dodd-Frank reform law aimed at curbing the banks’ reckless speculation in complex derivatives that fueled the banks’ ignominious collapse in 2008 and fed the great recession. The rider would effectively put taxpayers back on the hook to cushion the banks’ losses in risky derivative deals.

The White House complained but still supports the bill’s passage. The dirty secret is that many Democrats want this harmful repeal as much as Republicans do in the shabby, big-money symbiosis between Wall Street and Capitol Hill. Passage of this rider would also signal open season on the rest of the Dodd-Frank reforms when Republicans take control of both houses next year. Though a few Democratic senators plan a counterattack against the Dodd-Frank repeal, there clearly is little appe e on Capitol Hill for responsible, transparent legislating.

The omnibus bill includes a thicket of other regressive moves, including

further budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, always a favorite target of the Republican right wing.

Most notoriously, the bill would enshrine a Bush-era rule that allows the mountaintop mining industry to continue dumping toxic coal waste in the streams of Appalachia.

The Internal Revenue Service, another conservative bête noire, would take one of the harshest cuts, $345.6 million, weakening auditing and taxation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service would be banned from adding the greater sage grouse to the endangered species list — a victory for the gas and oil industry, which covets even more of America’s threatened Western landscapes than it already has access to. And so it goes — special industry giveaways, large and small, one after the other.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/12...awakening.html

Thanks, Repugs

Thanks, all y'all Repug voters

Repugs people, govt, the environment while protecting/enabling/enriching their paymasters

[TheSanityAnnex]

You forgot to highlight "The dirty secret is that many Democrats want this harmful repeal as much as Republicans do in the shabby, big-money symbiosis between Wall Street and Capitol Hill."

Hiding Bad Policy in a Budget Bill

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD


DECEMBER 11, 2014


When the long-lost grail of bipartisan compromise finally re-emerged on Capitol Hill this week, the spending bill for 2015 turned out to be weighted with some of the most devious and damaging provisions imaginable for good government.

Written in secrecy, presented as the take-it-or-leave-it alternative to a government shutdown,

the bill, which narrowly passed the House Thursday night, includes two regressive “riders” aimed at warming the big-money hearts of donors who leave Congress increasingly vulnerable to special-interest corruption.

One rider would allow a huge increase in the size of checks that deep-pocketed donors can write to win inner-sanctum clout with the major political parties. A donor now held to a mere $97,200 under party limits would be able to give a staggering $777,600. In a further invitation to luxury shopping, a couple yearning for the inside track could triple-down and give $3.1 million to party committees. This is pretty much the coup de grâce for the McCain-Feingold law’s ban on large party donations enacted to end the “soft money” corruption of Watergate.

The parties claim they need this big transfusion of lucre to compete with the stealth millions being raised by independent political operatives. But in truth, the rider would only enlarge the political casino’s runaway action, without any hint of ethical controls.

The second rider, custom tailored for the banks of Wall Street, would kill a crucial part of the Dodd-Frank reform law aimed at curbing the banks’ reckless speculation in complex derivatives that fueled the banks’ ignominious collapse in 2008 and fed the great recession. The rider would effectively put taxpayers back on the hook to cushion the banks’ losses in risky derivative deals.

The White House complained but still supports the bill’s passage. The dirty secret is that many Democrats want this harmful repeal as much as Republicans do in the shabby, big-money symbiosis between Wall Street and Capitol Hill. Passage of this rider would also signal open season on the rest of the Dodd-Frank reforms when Republicans take control of both houses next year. Though a few Democratic senators plan a counterattack against the Dodd-Frank repeal, there clearly is little appe e on Capitol Hill for responsible, transparent legislating.

The omnibus bill includes a thicket of other regressive moves, including

further budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, always a favorite target of the Republican right wing.

Most notoriously, the bill would enshrine a Bush-era rule that allows the mountaintop mining industry to continue dumping toxic coal waste in the streams of Appalachia.

The Internal Revenue Service, another conservative bête noire, would take one of the harshest cuts, $345.6 million, weakening auditing and taxation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service would be banned from adding the greater sage grouse to the endangered species list — a victory for the gas and oil industry, which covets even more of America’s threatened Western landscapes than it already has access to. And so it goes — special industry giveaways, large and small, one after the other.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/12...awakening.html

Thanks, Repugs

Thanks, all y'all Repug voters

Repugs people, govt, the environment while protecting/enabling/enriching their paymasters

[ElNono]

IIRC, the expansion of political party funding was called the Reid-Boehner amendment... ugh

[101A]

Thanks, Repugs


Thanks, all y'all Repug voters


Repugs people, govt, the environment while protecting/enabling/enriching their paymasters

Repugs people, govt, the environment while protecting/enabling/enriching their paymasters

B. Just keeping score. Yes, the Republicans do control the House. BUT, the Democrats control both the Senate AND the Executive. This piece of crap is just as much on them....if not more so. They, after all, campaign to stop just this kind of crap, they are absolutely in position to do so, but.....nope. They are ALL in cahoots. This is big money, and everyone up their knows where their bread is buttered. They get the bill they want, AND plenty of reps from either left districts, or tea party ones, get to shout about being against it....and ultimately still reap the rewards of its passage.

It's literally not the Democrats or Republicans. It's Washington/Wal-Street.

[DarrinS]

Warren/Castro tbh...

Dear God

[ElNono]

B. Just keeping score. Yes, the Republicans do control the House. BUT, the Democrats control both the Senate AND the Executive. This piece of crap is just as much on them....if not more so. They, after all, campaign to stop just this kind of crap, they are absolutely in position to do so, but.....nope. They are ALL in cahoots. This is big money, and everyone up their knows where their bread is buttered. They get the bill they want, AND plenty of reps from either left districts, or tea party ones, get to shout about being against it....and ultimately still reap the rewards of its passage.

It's literally not the Democrats or Republicans. It's Washington/Wal-Street.

Absolutely.

[Aztecfan03]

4. The Culture Wars Continue, Starting With Abortion. It hardly matters that most Americans across the political spectrum support reproductive rights. The House-drafted bill continues to ban using federal funds for most abortions, does not allow federal funding for abortions in the District of Columbia, and requires Obamacare applicants to be informed if a health plan covers abortions.

My Body My Choice But I don't want to pay for it

[boutons_deux]

Tea Party realizes new campaign finance rider is a Republican plot to weaken them

Tea party activists are attacking a campaign finance rider in the $1.1 trillion spending bill that they view as a sneaky power grab by establishment Republicans designed to undermine outside conservative groups.The provision would increase the amount of money a single donor could give to national party committees each year from $97,200 to as much as $777,600 by allowing them to set up different funds for certain expenses.

The change would be a huge boost for party committees that have faced steep challenges in recent years from well-funded outside groups.

The same conservative activists have long advocated for looser campaign finance laws, but they argue the language of the rider in the 1,600-page bill gives the establishment wing an unfair advantage by tweaking the law specifically for donations to party committees.

“Conservatives support the First Amendment and believe there should be no limits on political speech,” said Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund.

“Unfortunately, the new limits included in the omnibus only increase political speech for party insiders while silencing the majority of Americans who are fed up with Washington.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/1...8Daily+Kos%29#