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The National Rifle Association is targeting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) with new ads urging him not to help President Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) pass new gun restrictions. The NRA is spending $100,000 on TV ads set to air for two weeks in West Virginia on local broadcasts. One of the new NRA ads begins with a clip of a 2010 Manchin Senate campaign ad where he says "as your senator I'll protect your second amendment rights." "That was Joe Manchin's commitment," a voiceover in one of the ads says.  "But now, Manchin is working with President...

On the third-to-last day that Senator Frank Lautenberg ever voted in the Senate, he joined with 53 of his colleagues to support a compromise on new gun regulations. His vote wasn't enough. Now, Lautenberg's death makes the prospect of revisiting that issue — and a number of other Democratic priorities — substantially trickier. Take the gun legislation. The compromise proposal, which would have expanded background checks to include gun show and online sales, was part of a package that was postponed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after the failed vote. It's expected to come back before the Senate at...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

The Senate's proposed gun-control bill crashed and burned earlier this month, and Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled that he was going to put the issue on the political shelf where it would presumably start to gather dust — but that might not be the case after all. Senator Manchin and Toomey revealed last week that they're going to keep looking for ways to strengthen Senate support for the measures, and Machin confirmed that he's optimistc that he can fix their mistakes from the last go-around and introduce a background check-centric, cleaner version of the bill:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO...

His gun-control bill may have fizzled, but Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, isn’t giving up hope. “I was with Pat [Toomey] last night, and Pat’s totally committed to this bill. And I believe that with all my heart,” he said on Fox News Sunday. Manchin predicted that their legislation to expand background checks will “absolutely” come up for another vote. ”We’re going to work this bill,” he said. “I truly believe that if we have time to sell the bill,” it can pass, he said. In an interview last week with NR, Toomey shared Manchin’s perspective. “If we...

Posted from an Android. The fight is not over.

President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech Thursday at the memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. But that was to be expected. We all know Obama can give a stem-winder. What wasn’t expected was that this would be by far the toughest week of the Obama presidency—the first time I can remember the president being dealt an unequivocal policy defeat. Only the “shellacking” of the 2010 midterm comes close, and even there a case can be made that achieving the decades-old progressive dream of universal health care was worth losing the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof...

As the Senate debated the merits of an assault-weapons ban, an emotional Dianne Feinstein urged her colleagues to “show some guts” and vote in favor of the measure. “I am really chagrined and concerned. If anybody cares, vote at least to prospectively ban the manufacture, the sale, the importation of military-style assault weapons,” she said in remarks on the Senate floor. Feinstein is the author of the assault-weapons ban, which was defeated earlier today by a margin of 60 to 40. The compromise on background checks introduced by GOP senator Pat Toomey and Democratic senator Joe Manchin was also defeated,...

The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are shy of the 60 votes they need to move the bipartisan compromise bill on background checks for gun sales. Vice President Joe Biden has been personally calling senators to urge them to support the measure, Democratic aides say. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) began a whip count on Monday, Democratic aides said, and Biden has been pressuring his fellow Democrats to fall in line. Biden’s office did not return an email seeking comment. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are co-sponsoring the proposal that would expand background checks...

Will the ATF's "No Buy" list be any more accurate than TSA's "No Fly" list? If lists are not accurate or meaningful, background checks won't succeed. Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) released a gun-control bill on April 10 that leans heavily on expanding background checks. However, their proposal is only as good as the lists used for the background checks. First, what happened to patient privacy? The Toomey/Manchin proposal proudly announces that their bill "Clarifies that submissions of mental health records into the NICS system are not prohibited by federal privacy laws (HIPAA)." A retired emergency room...

Senator Joe Manchin was on FOX News today to discuss his proposed gun control legislation. Joe Manchin admitted his bill will not prevent another Newtown massacre, “This is not a universal background check. This is a criminal and mental background check at gun shows and internet sales. It does not infringe on your right as a family… It protects the rights of our veterans… They (families of Newtown shooting victims) even recognized that this legislation we’re working on, which is the background checks on criminal and mental illness would not have saved their little babies.” Then why are Democrats in...

Appearing on CBS News' Face the Nation on April 14, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Newtown families have told him they know the bill he and Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) have crafted would not have prevented the heinous crime at Sandy Hook Elementary. In other words, Manchin's expanded background check "compromise" bill, being pushed in response to Newtown, does not do anything that would have stopped the Newtown tragedy from happening. Manchin said the families to whom he's spoken just keep urging him to do something in hopes that somewhere down the road new gun control legislation will "prevent one...

Senators Joe Manchin (R) and Pat Toomey (D) today announced a so-called "compromise" bill/amendment which they claim would increase gun safety through improving "background checks," but is in truth a flawed piece of legislation, WHICH IS WHY YOU SHOULD ACT NOW TO STOP THE MEASURE (or click here for more options). The title of their bill is Orwellian: "The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act." It is double-speak, as their measure infringes on the Second Amendment -- it doesn't "protect" anything. It will in fact push the U.S. towards the establishment of a national gun registry, the eventual...

A bipartisan group of senators has struck a deal to expand gun background checks to all commercial sales — whether at gun shows, via the Internet or in any circumstance involving paid advertising, according to Senate aides familiar with the talks. The proposed agreement would be more stringent than current law, which requires checks only when purchases are made through a licensed dealer, but less than originally sought by President Obama and congressional Democrats, who were seeking to expand background checks to nearly every kind of sale. The agreement should secure enough bipartisan support for the Senate to proceed to...

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told reporters on a conference call moments ago that his compromise bill with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on gun background checks “doesn’t change in any way” his “conservative record or views.” The former Club for Growth president acknowledged he was out of his usual legislative area on the issue, but “it became clear to me a bill of some sort was very likely to reach the floor” that would be “badly flawed,” so he reached out to his friend and neighboring state senator Manchin to sit down and talk. “You’re probably used to hearing me talk...

The National Rifle Association will oppose the background check bill introduced by Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) Wednesday, the pro-Second Amendment group told the Free Beacon. Manchin and Toomey held a press conference Wednesday morning announcing a bipartisan bill that would expand background checks for all commercial firearm sales, including gun shows and Internet sales. The bill is the latest effort by the Senate to introduce background check legislation, after negotiations between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Democrats broke down earlier this year. Manchin’s office told BuzzFeed Wednesday that the senators had been...

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is close to a deal with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on background checks for gun show and Internet gun sales, his office said Tuesday night. The two are planning a joint press conference for Wednesday morning. A Toomey spokesperson on Tuesday told NBC News that the two senators have agreed on all but the final details of a compromise. Manchin told reporters Tuesday that the compromise would close the gun show loophole by mandating background checks for those transactions and also require background checks for all Internet gun sales.

WASHINGTON - Could Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey be a Republican bridge who helps secure a deal on background checks on guns? His office confirmed Friday that Toomey, a strong Second Amendment advocate, was in discussions on pending gun bills that have struggled to gain traction with Republicans and many pro-gun Democrats in the Senate. "Sen. Toomey and his staff are talking to a lot of folks - both in Pennsylvania and in the Capitol - on the issue of guns in the hopes that we get to an approach that works," his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. There was no...

Remember the summer of 2009? Members of Congress came home to hold town-hall meetings as usual in August, part of their annual listening-tour strategy to keep incumbents in favor back in home states and districts. When voters started showing up in droves to berate these Senators and Representatives over ObamaCare, however, the town-hall meetings started getting canceled, and those that did continue made for great moments on YouTube --- especially the declaration from former US Representative Baron Hill (D-IN), who declared that no one could tape the meeting because he didn't want it to end up on YouTube [update: video...

Ladies and gentlemen of the WVCDL and West Virginia. Today, around 3PM I met with Senator Manchin. In any conversation with a person of that level of power, there are two conversations that occur at once. The first is the obvious and direct meaning of what is spoken. The second conversation is the meaning between the lines. In this case, neither is good. West Virginia, in my opinion, you have been sold out. First, let's talk about the direct conversation. It's very simple. Senator Manchin supports a three-pronged approach that includes universal background checks, including private sales. He supports mental...

(CNN) – Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia and "proud gun owner," said Monday he believes last week's Connecticut elementary school shooting should be the tipping point in the debate over limiting gun rights. "I just came with my family from deer hunting. I've never had more than three shells in a clip. Sometimes you don't get more than one shot anyway at a deer," Manchin said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "It's common sense. It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common sense discussion and move in a reasonable way."...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

Interestingly, if they really cared about the middle class, they’d call for a reduction in taxes on those making less than $200k individual/$250 joint (Washington Post) The Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved a plan to preserve tax cuts for the middle class while letting them expire for the wealthy, a powerful if largely symbolic victory for Democrats who have been pushing to raise taxes on the rich for more than a decade. The measure is dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled House, where leaders are preparing to vote next week on their own plan to extend the George W. Bush-era...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced Tuesday that he will vote on Democratic legislation to extend the Bush-era tax rates. Manchin said he will join Democrats in voting to extend the rates for income up to $250,000 a year. The Democratic legislation would allow Bush-era rates on higher annual income to expire. Republicans want to extend all the rates for another year.  The vote on the Democratic plan is expected to take place on Wednesday.  "When considering these two proposals, I kept two priorities in mind: putting our fiscal house back in order and restoring fairness to the tax code," Manchin said...

Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia refused to answer a question about his position on repealing part or all of Obamacare this afternoon outside the Senate chamber. Asked by THE WEEKLY STANDARD if he supported repealing any part of the 2010 health care law, Manchin then stepped into an elevator with retiring Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who laughed as the elevator doors closed. Soon after the Supreme Court ruling in June that upheld most of the health care law, Manchin released a statement calling for Congress to take “additional action to repair” the law, “fixing what is wrong…and saving...

In a year when the Obama administration’s “war on coal” could signify a Republican victory of landslide proportions in West Virginia, three of the state’s top Democrats recently announced they would not attend their party’s national convention that will renominate the president on Labor Day weekend. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin—all of whom who faced stiff re-election challenges in their last races and now face strong Republican opponents this fall—have said they want to spend Labor Day weekend campaigning in or working for West Virginia rather than attend their party’s convention in Charlotte,...

Senate Democrats balk at ending Bush-era tax rates for wealthyBy Alexander Bolton - 06/19/12 05:00 AM ET A growing number of Senate Democrats are signaling they are not prepared to raise taxes on anyone in the weak economy unless Congress approves a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. At least seven Democratic senators have declined to rule out supporting a temporary extension of the Bush-era income tax rates, breaking with party leaders who have called for letting the rates expire for people earning more than $1 million per year. That gives Senate Republicans a chance to push a temporary extension...

Three high-profile Democrats from West Virginia are not planning to attend the Democratic National Convention in September. Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Nick Rahall and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin have opted not to go to the convention in Charlotte, according to a West Virginia Democratic Party press release. President Barack Obama is not popular in the state, and in 2010, Manchin ran a TV ad openly attacking the administration on cap-and-trade. Manchin, who is on the ballot again in November and does not face a difficult race, had already said this spring he wasn’t sure he would vote for Obama’s re-election.

Tuesday's Results: The Tea Party shows it's alive and well, Wisconsin's embattled governor gets more votes than the top two Democrats and a federal inmate gives the president a primary battle. The natives are still restless. Conservative pundit and IBD contributor Ann Coulter once said she, like many Americans, would rather vote for Jeffrey Dahmer, known for his unusual culinary choices, over President Obama. Federal prisoner Keith Russell Judd, 49, is not quite in Dahmer's league, but for a substantial portion of West Virginia Democrats, he is also preferable to our campaigner-in-chief. Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he’s unsure whether he’ll vote for President Barack Obama or likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney. In a statement Friday, Manchin said he has real differences with both Obama and Romney. He also said many West Virginians believe the last 3 ½ years have not been good. One of the more moderate Senate Democrats, Manchin is seeking re-election this year in a state Obama lost to Republican Sen. John McCain, 56-43 percent, in 2008. Obama fared worse in the Democratic primary against Hillary Rodham Clinton, losing 67-26 percent.

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

Sen. Joe Lieberman was treated like an outcast back in 2008 when he broke from the Senate Democratic Caucus and openly opposed Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. Asked last week if he’d back Obama in 2012, the Connecticut independent said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” This time around, there may be more Liebermans. A number of moderate Democrats like Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders are declining to give their unqualified support for the president, saying they’re either too focused on their own races or are calling on the White House...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democrat-controlled Senate on Thursday rejected a Republican attempt to block a regulation intended to curb power plant pollution that blows downwind into other states. By a 56-41 vote, senators defeated a resolution by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who said the step was needed to rein in what he called the Obama administration's overzealous job-killing approach to environmental protection. "We are simply asking that the clean air regulations already on the books stay in place and we do not make the regulations so onerous that they put utility plants out of business and we have an...

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday announced his support for strict spending caps, which put him at odds with his party's leadership and President Obama.  Manchin told an audience in South Charleston, W.Va., he would endorse the "CAP Act," which sets a tighter spending limit than what the president's budget calls for, as well as a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. The senator suggested the legislation could help Republicans and Democrats agree to a deal to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.  "Today, I will be announcing my support for two proposals that I believe provide a good...

Republicans appear to be winning the budget battle on Capitol Hill as well as with the electorate. Senator Joe Manchin, who has to face his constituents again next year after winning a special election to fill out Robert Byrd’s term of office, has announced that he will split with his Democratic party leadership to support major structural reforms to the federal budget: Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday announced his support for strict spending caps that put him at odds with his party’s leadership and President Obama.Manchin told an audience in South Charleston, W.Va. that he would endorse the...

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ripped President Barack Obama on his budget proposals in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, a rare rebuke from a freshman Democrat who clearly is worried about the politics of deficit spending as he faces a tough reelection in 2012. Manchin charged the president with failing to lead the way in reducing spending, while also criticizing Republicans for offering “partisan” and “unrealistic” budget proposals. “Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations — our president — has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and...

Major Surgery Ahead for Obamacare "We're running numbers to see how many new people we can get into the pool with something less than a mandate, something that would be more limited enrollment periods with severe financial penalties for not signing up." -- Sen Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., talking to Politico about her efforts to repeal the provision for mandatory health insurance in President Obama's national health care law. Democrats are getting on the record with their opposition to the controversial provision of President Obama's national health-care law that requires all Americans to purchase private insurance or be enrolled in an...

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin is wasting no time attacking the Obama administration’s energy policies. The senator will use his maiden speech on the Senate floor today to trumpet legislation he is introducing that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from revoking Clean Water Act permits that have already been finalized, his aides tell POLITICO. Manchin was livid in January when EPA pulled the plug on a massive mountaintop-removal coal mine in West Virginia that the George W. Bush administration had signed off on in 2007. The move was the agency’s first-ever retroactive veto of a coal mine permit, and...

Energy: Keeping a campaign vow to bankrupt the industry, the administration revokes the permit for an approved, working coal mine in West Virginia. Guess those electric cars will have to get their energy elsewhere. We and others have warned that in the wake of November's "shellacking," the Obama administration would attempt to implement its agenda through regulations and rule making. As West Virginia's coal industry has found, it matters not even if you follow the rules. In pursuit of this agenda, the rules can be changed on the fly. The Environmental Protection Agency has revoked the coal mining permit for...

Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania was the first House Democrat to stand and defiantly call out his vote against Nancy Pelosi’s bid for minority leader on the first day of the new Congress Wednesday. But Altmire’s willingness to defy the liberal Democratic leadership does not translate into support for the Republican drive in the House to repeal President Obama’s health-care bill next week, even though Altmire voted against the bill last year when it passed. Rep. Heath Shuler, the North Carolina Democrat who challenged Pelosi for the minority leader position and received 11 votes, also voted against the health overhaul...

If only this were a coalition of the left and the right working out differences. But alas, it’s just a coalition of mostly liberal politicians who used to label themselves by a political party and now would rather fly stealth. Sigh. If you are not familiar with “No Lables”, no worries, it’s brand new and they certainly deserve a Hat Tip for brevity. Here’s their declaration: We are not labels – we are people. We care deeply about our country. We are frustrated and concerned about the tone of politics. We are passionate about addressing America’s challenges. We are Democrats,...

Gay-rights activists on Friday booed the mere mention of newly sworn in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the only Democrat to join Republicans in blocking a repeal of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. At a Capitol Hill rally, two West Virginia natives took to the stage and condemned Manchin’s vote on Thursday, issuing veiled threats that they would work against his 2012 reelection if he did not reverse course. “I was disappointed yesterday in Senator Joe Manchin from the state of West Virginia,” said former Army Sgt. Pepe Johnson, a Clarksburg, W. Va., native who was discharged under the...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee Saturday quickly jumped on Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) vote in favor a proposal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts only for families making up to $1 million a year.   The committee accused the centrist Democrat of breaking a campaign pledge to not cast a Senate vote in favor of anything other than an across the board extension of the tax cuts.  In a news release, the committee said Manchin "toed the line for his Democrat Party leaders in Washington once again today when he voted to impose a massive tax hike on American job...

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R) is turning his attention to 2012 and using the vote this week on an earmark moratorium to pick his Democratic targets. DeMint sent an email to the supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund early Wednesday highlighting four Democrats who voted against the earmark ban, are up for re-election in 2012 and sit in states that John McCain (R) carried in 2008: Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.). In the email, DeMint called for unseating Tester, Nelson, Conrad and Manchin. "These senators are nice folks but...

We knew that it wouldn't take too long for Joe Manchin to shed his conservative camouflage and leave it behind in the Mountain state.  Well, it turns out that he has gone all in for the job killing, socialist agenda on his first day in the Senate.  After voting to make anti gun, cap and trade supporting Harry Reid Majority Leader, Manchin voted with Reid on two other measures yesterday.  He voted for the job killing FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) and the Paycheck Fairness Act(S. 3772). We already detailed some of the egregious provisions of the food...

Republicans are offering Sen.-elect Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., his choice of committee assignments to switch parties and join the GOP caucus, according to a Fox News report. If Manchin were to cross the aisle, he most likely would land on the Energy and Natural Resources Joe, Manchin, Republican, Party, Energy, Natural, Resources, CommitteeCommittee, and could even gain support for one of his pet projects –– a coal-converting plant in West Virginia –– that has stalled under Democratic leadership in Congress. Other Democrats reportedly being wooed to caucus with the Republican Party are Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Independent Joe Lieberman of...

Most people only expected hardball efforts to get party switchers in the Senate if it wound up closely divided, either 50-50 or 51/49 in either direction. However, Fox reports today that Senate Republicans have greeted special-election victor Joe Manchin (D-WV) with a big push to get him into the GOP caucus. And they may well have found a way to convince him to join the minority: Republicans are making some big promises to try to lure West Virginia Senator-elect Joe Manchin to cross the aisle.Aside from his pick of committee assignments (likely the Energy and Natural Resources Committee), Manchin might...

One can only imagine the behind-the-scenes stresses accompanying West Virginia's Governor, Joe Manchin, these days. For starters, Manchin finds himself in a surprise, neck-and-neck race with Morgantown businessman John Raese, now the political contest of the Governor's life.   But unlike Raese, Manchin also has to deal with the serious legal and public relations problems associated with a federal investigation into his administration that is getting increasingly close to the Governor himself. The Charleston Gazette's Phil Kabler put it succinctly in last Saturday's piece, "Two factors could play key role in election":   "From the administration's perspective, two troubling events...

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) is an unabashed proponent of labor laws foisting union monopoly bargaining on public employees and government agencies. As recently as this June, in an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail, Mr. Manchin endorsed a state law forcing local school boards in West Virginia to grant a single teacher union the power to speak for all teachers in their district, including those who don’t want to join.According to the Daily Mail’s account, the governor actually said that such a monopoly-bargaining law would constitute a “solution” to “West Virginia’s education woes”! Fortunately for independent-minded public employees...

(Martinsburg, W.V.) West Virginia governor Joe Manchin once supported Obamacare, saying days before it passed in March that he'd vote "for it" if he were in the House of Representatives. Now, in the midst of a tight Senate race with Republican John Raese, the very popular Manchin has run away from the very unpopular health care law. He's called for for "repealing the things that are bad," such as the individual mandate, the federal funding for abortion coverage, and the 1099 reporting requirement for businesses. But he hasn't gone into great detail about what, exactly, he supports in the law.  Asked Friday night if he wants...