Free Republic

WASHINGTON – A plan to raise taxes on the wealthy is emerging as the leading option among House Democrats looking to finance health care legislation that President Barack Obama wants. Numerous officials say that under the proposal, an income tax surcharge would be imposed on individuals earning more than $200,000, with a higher threshold for couples. The same officials say earlier options under consideration have been abandoned. Among them was a proposal to raise the payroll tax that finances Medicare. The officials spoke anonymously to discuss private discussions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) kicked blame for the insertion of a provision allowing for AIG bonuses to go forward to the White House and the Senate on Thursday morning, saying House Democrats bore no responsibility for the bonus language at the center of the AIG storm. The revelation that the $787 billion economic stimulus bill included language paving the way for AIG to award executive bonuses – which totaled $165 million and have caused an uproar in Washington and across the country – came to forefront of the debate on Wednesday. And on Wednesday Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Chairman...

Here’s the roll on the Senate John Doe protection amendment, which missed the 60-vote threshold by 3 votes. Interesting facts: No Republican voted against it. GOP presidential candidate Sam “Switchback” Brownback didn’t bother to vote. Hillary voted for it. Obama sat it out: Check where your Senator stands. They will try to keep this from the public but we should all know and respond.

WASHINGTON - The House moved in its second day under Democratic reign toward changing budget rules that allowed deficits to swell with lawmakers' pet projects and President Bush's tax cuts. But the changes sought Friday could bedevil efforts to appease middle-class voters later. Another rule change would curb past abuses in which GOP leaders held votes open for hours and excluded minority party lawmakers from House-Senate negotiations on the language of final bills sent to the White House for enactment. Former GOP Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California said he supports the reforms but complained that the new rules...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats, determined to make an election-year point about ethics, voted to strip Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) of his committee assignment Thursday night while a federal bribery investigation runs its course. Members of the rank and file approved the move after Jefferson refused for weeks to step aside on his own, and despite claims by some members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he was being treated unfairly. Officials said the vote was 99-58. The action must be ratified by the full House, and Jefferson left open the possibility that he might at long last...

May 1, 2006--Democrats enjoy a 10-point advantage on the Generic Congressional Ballot early in the 2006 campaign season. A Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey of 1,000 Likely Voters found that 46% would vote for the Democrat in their district if the election were held today. Just 36% would vote for the Republican (see crosstabs).The survey also asked about a hypothetical match-up between candidates with opposing views on the immigration debate--"One candidate favors building a barrier along the Mexican border and forcing illegal aliens to leave the United States. The other candidate favors expanding the ways that foreign workers can legally...

My representative in the House is Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, IL, pictured below. Earlier today, Jan was probably at the Democratic Party of Evanston's slatemaking session. But rather pondering just who is the most qualified to gain the local party's endorsement for Cook County Water Reclamation District Commissioner, this Robert Novak column in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times probably dominated her thoughts. From that column: House Republicans, wounded by lobbyist scandals, have called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate more than 10 Democratic members headed by Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Nydia Velazquez of New York. Schakowsky's husband, consumer advocate Robert...

NEW YORK Jim Brady, the executive editor at washingtonpost.com, notified users of the post.blog that the public comment feature had been suspended “indefinitely” after “a significant number of folks” posted personal attacks, profanity, and hate speech. Attempts by E&P to reach Brady have been unsuccessful so far. It seems likely the move is related to controversy in recent days over Sunday’s Post column by ombudsman Deobrah Howell. She has been heavily criticized by some political Web sites and bloggers for writing that indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to both political parties, when most research shows he only gave directly...

Dems Unveil Their Ethics Plan One Day After GOP:"The Honest Leadership And Open Government Act Would End Republican Culture Of Corruption By: Closing The Revolving Door Between Lawmakers And Lobbyists By Doubling The Amount Of Time Lawmakers And Staffers Must Wait Before Lobbying Congress; Prohibiting The Receipt Of Gifts, Including Meals, Entertainment And Travel, From Lobbyists;Clamping Down On 'Pay-To-Play' Systems Like The One Set Up By Lobbyists Like Jack Abramoff; AndEnding Efforts Like The 'K Street Project,' Which Republicans Created To Force Corporations And Lobbying Firms To Hire Republicans In Exchange For Political Access." (Democratic National Committee, "Dean Kicks Off...

HYPOCRISY n.: AN ACT OR INSTANCE OF SUCH FALSENESS Top Ten Things The Dems Don’t Want You To Know About Their Ties To Jack Abramoff 10. Larry Noble, Executive Director Of The Center For Responsive Politics, A Non-Partisan Government Watchdog Group, Says Democrats Are Just As Caught Up In The Abramoff Scandal. Noble: “I Would Say, Broadly Defined As A Question Of The Tribes’ Buying Influence In Washington, It Includes Democrats.” (Donald Lambro, “Dean Denies Party Ties To Abramoff,” The Washington Times, 1/11/06) 9. 39 Of 44 Senate Democrats, And 1 Of 1 Senate Independents, Have Accepted Contributions From Abramoff...

Flies at a picnic have no greater agenda than to disrupt our sunny day and try to spoil the potato salad. Fortunately, the annoying pests can be sent on their way with a little repellant. Congressional liberals, similarly devoid of a stated economic agenda, are exhibiting the same behavior as picnic flies. Our repellant against these nuisances is to persistently tell the facts. The positive metrics of the current economy are undeniable. Gross Domestic Product exceeded three percent growth for all of 2005, and has grown for sixteen straight quarters. U.S. businesses created over two million new jobs last year....

Cross posted at Huffington Post Amid the scandal about the President’s secret spying on law abiding Americans, I asked Professor Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, the most respected legal scholar when it comes to constitutional questions, for his opinion. You can read his entire letter to me in plain text in the extended entry below, but – as first reported by the Wall Street Journal – his analysis confirms my suspicions that this is an utterly lawless and unconstitutional act. My reading of his letter: from the perspective of legal scholarship, the Administration’s justifications don’t pass the laugh test. To...

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former congressional aide pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and aiding and abetting the solicitation of bribes by a member of Congress. Brett Pfeffer , a former aide to Rep. William Jefferson , D-La., entered his plea deal in U.S. District Court in Alexandria..." "Today this defendant admitted to a crime which, at its core, is a bribery scheme involving a public official," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher of the Criminal Division. snip "The congressman told me of a business opportunity in Nigeria," Pfeffer told Judge...

Ever since the plea bargain with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff was announced, the media and the Democrats have done their best to portray this as a Republican controversy. Abramoff bribed Republican lawmakers like Tom DeLay we're told. This is being used to paint the current House and Senate leadership as corrupt. That may be true, but what's getting swept under the rug is the two big fish in the Democratic party that Abramoff had on his payroll. Who are they? None other than Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan. What are they accused of doing?...

Campaign Finance: Nearly all Senate Democrats took money steered their way by Jack Abramoff, and Hillary Clinton's fundraising committee has agreed to a $35,000 fine. Republicans aren't the problem. The system is. It's absurdly hypocritical for Democrats to try to use the Abramoff scandal against Republicans. Any recent instance of Republicans playing fast and loose with campaign laws can be topped by a similar case on the part of prominent Democrats. Sen. Clinton, for instance, was under investigation by the Federal Election Commission starting in 2001 for understating in-kind donations. Last week, The New York Sun reported that her "New...

As House Minority Leader Nancy “which-side-am-I-on-today?” Pelosi (D-CA) and other “fine-upstanding-Democrats” continue to screech against what they call the Republicans’ culture of corruption, they conveniently forget that it is they who wrote the playbook and continue to gleefully indulge themselves in it. Hmmm. Wasn’t it Ms. Pelosi who in 2001, along with Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH—who is also on the House Ethics Committee…of all things!) and her family, took a party trip to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques—financed by lobbyist firm Smith, Dawson & Andrews? OOPS! Later, they attempted to back-track by saying they had made a “human...

So the Democrat Party is running a TV ad claiming Democrats "Didn't know Jack". OH Really? Let's see what a Non Partisan Campaign Watchdog group says. Here is the WHOLE Open Secrets list for those who "Want to be fair". http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff.asp List of Democrats who got Abramoff's money Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte $121,500 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $354,700 Democratic National Cmte $65,720 Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) $42,500 Patty Murray (D-Wash) $40,980 Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) $36,000 Harry Reid (D-Nev) $30,500 (By way of comparison here is that "EVIL Republican" Tom Delay-Tom DeLay (R-Texas) $30,500 Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) $28,000 Tom...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has resolved a number of allegations concerning contributions made and received by two affiliated committees, PAC to the Future and Team Majority, leadership PACs that are associated with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D ? CA). The FEC has entered into conciliation agreements with PAC to the Future and Team Majority, and three campaigns that were recipients of excessive contributions. The conciliation agreements resulted in total civil penalties of $28,000. PAC to the Future and Team Majority will pay $21,000, Julie Thomas for Congress Campaign Committee (D ? IA) and Van Hollen for Congress (D...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has fined two leadership PACs associated with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in response to a Complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) on October 25, 2002. The FEC also has fined three campaigns that failed to return excessive contributions from Pelosi’s PACs within 60 days, as required by law. Under conciliation agreements reached with the FEC, Pelosi’s two committees — PAC to the Future and Team Majority — will pay $21,000. Julie Thomas for Congress Campaign Committee (D–IA) and Van Hollen for Congress (D–MD) will each pay $2,500, and Joe...

Two political action committees linked to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have been charged with attempting to circumvent to legal limits on campaign giving, the Federal Election Commission has ruled. According to the March 2004 FEC finding, Pelosi appears to have violated the same kind of arcane campaign finance regulation that spurred the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this week. The San Francisco Chronicle explained at the time: "The FEC ruled that two Pelosi political action committees created to help Democrats in the 2002 elections were related instead of being independent and therefore violated a rule against giving...