Tag Archives: Harry Reid

Reid Tips Balance on Trade

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in The Hill

It was typical Harry Reid: blunt, to the point, and unambiguous.

“Everyone knows how I feel about this….The White House knows. Everyone would be well-advised to not push this right now.” The “this” is trade promotion authority. And with that unadorned statement, the Democratic Senate majority leader killed the president’s most important job-creating initiative.

Earlier in the year, the Commerce Department announced that the United States exported a record $194.9 billion in goods and services in November 2013. The New York Continue reading →

Time to Bring in The Closer

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It is time for President Obama to bring in the Administration’s version of Mariano Rivera.

They need a closer. And that closer is Joe Biden.

Mr. Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to 37%, chiefly because he refuses to negotiate with Republicans. The House Speaker has basically begged the President to do what every other President in American history has done: negotiate.

But the President and his chief ally on the Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, either won’t negotiate or can’t negotiate.

The White House is so convinced that they have the winning strategy that they even put out a meaningless veto threat on the Republican bill to name a so-called “negotiating committee” on legislation that will never reach the Senate floor. Continue reading →

Reid’s Plan to Raise Middle Class Taxes

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The message to the Senate Finance Chairman was pretty clear: No tax reform unless you raise taxes on middle class Americans.

That is the only conclusion you could reach from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s demand that Max Baucus back off on his tax simplification plans unless it raises close to a trillion dollars in new revenue.

Everybody recognizes the need for fundamental tax reform. The system is inefficient, unfair, and so complex that most people have to hire outside help to figure it all out.

Dave Camp, the Ways and Means Chairman, and Mr. Baucus have gone on an unprecedented road show building the case for a simpler, flatter, and more fair tax regime. They have visited small businesses, big businesses, manufacturers, exporters, farmers, and everybody in between, bringing their charts, facts, and figures to the people. Continue reading →

Greatest Deliberative Body

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The national press corps held its collective breath on Monday night as members of the United States Senate wrangled over whether the holiest of holies – the filibuster rule – would be changed or scrapped altogether by the 55 Democrats in the majority.

This is known as the “nuclear option” and it is generally threatened by the Majority Leader – Republican or Democrat – when the Minority Leader – Republican or Democrat – successfully uses the existing filibuster rules to slow progress on legislation or nominations to a crawl.

The modern version of a filibuster can be broken if the majority can muster 60 votes. As the AP’s Dave Espo wrote: “While a simple majority vote is required to confirm presidential appointees, it takes 60 votes to end delaying tactics and proceed to a yes-or-no vote.” Continue reading →

The Traffic Cop

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Unlike the House, where the Speaker is expected to expedite the will of the majority, the person charged with running the Senate is not expected to exert his will.

Instead, he or she is more like a glorified traffic cop, making certain that all of the highways of the upper chamber are cleared of obstructions and moving smoothly.

It’s a tough job because the Senate is necessarily full of obstructions and rarely moves smoothly.The Senate majority leader, unlike the Speaker, is not named in the Constitution. Nor is the majority leader the top Senator in the line of succession to the White House. That title goes to the president pro tempore — usually the longest serving senator. Continue reading →

Friends & Enemies

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Human beings need enemies. Often for good; sometimes for ill. But having an easily definable enemy is very helpful.

Organizations need enemies to send you mail and call your home asking for donations. The March of Dimes was established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the crippling disease of polio.

With the advent of the Salk and later the Sabin vaccines, polio was effectively wiped out in the United States and the March of Dimes needed a new cause. It found one in preventing birth defects later expanding into helping women have healthy pregnancies.

During World War I and World War II the enemies were easy to identify. They wore uniforms that called out “I am your enemy” and combatants generally stayed on their own side of the battle line. Continue reading →

L.E.G.A.C.Y.

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

For the next 1,418 days the top issue on the mind of President Barack Obama and his ever-tightening inner circle will involve the six letters: L.E.G.A.C.Y.

Just as years three and four were totally focused on the President’s re-election; so the last two years of his second term will be focused on the legacy he leaves behind.

Will it be Jimmy Carter’s well-intentioned ineptness? Or FDR’s history changing vision?

One thing is for sure: unless the Democrats win control of the House and maintain control of the Senate Obama’s legacy will be an eight-letter word: Gridlock. Continue reading →

Conflicting Interests

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The New York Times ran a story about a staff hire in Senator Reid’s office.  It was your typical cynical report about the “revolving door,” in the world of politics.  Here is an excerpt:

“Take what happened late last month as Washington geared up for more fights about taxing, spending, and the deficit. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, decided to bolster his staff’s expertise on taxes. Continue reading →

Game Change or More of the Same?

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It was a status quo election. Or was it?

The players all seem exactly the same. Barack Obama. John Boehner. Harry Reid. Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi. The only change in any top leadership position was John Cornyn taking over from Jon Kyl as the Republican Whip.

Power in Washington is a game of perception. Who has it? Who doesn’t? Who can keep his troops in line and who can’t?

Power slowly recedes from a second term President. Second terms are never pretty. Continue reading →

Abusing Government Institutions: Part III

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“The word is out. He hasn’t paid taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

Those were the words of the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Harry Reid, speaking on the Senate Floor, leveling an accusation against Gov. Mitt Romney that he could not prove, for which he offered no evidence, and had every reason to believe was not true.

Reid’s attack on Romney was clearly calculated to goad the Governor into releasing more income tax returns. The tactic is pretty transparent. A person of Romney’s wealth has to have something in his income, or his tax deductions or his charitable contributions to the Mormon Church, or something else that the Democrats could exploit. Reid, who is a wealthy man, of course, has never released his. Continue reading →

Random Thoughts

By MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

 Item One:  Unsavory Nature of Political Campaigns

 What I saw of the Iowa Republican Presidential primary debate, and it wasn’t much, brought to mind two unsavory aspects of American political campaigns that politicians, the press and the public ought to try to temper before we go full throttle into the 2012 races.

The first was incivility. The media carnival barkers and fire-breathing partisans were anxious for the candidates to brutalize one another, particularly fellow Minnesotans Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.  From news reports of the debate—again, I missed some of the exchanges, they got some of what they wanted, but not much.  I am told the two Minnesotans went at it, dropping the Minnesota nice persona—isn’t that special—but they really did not beat the bejesus out of each other.

  Continue reading →

Count the M&Ms

BY FRANK HILL

Reprinted from telemachus.com

 There has been a lot of braying and bleating from the President to the leaders in Congress about the significance of this most-recently passed budget agreement that averted the shutdown of the federal government yesterday.

Continue reading →

Obama Speech Okay But Late

BY RICH GALEN 

Reprinted from mullings.com 

President Obama’s speech on Monday night was, at best, OK. It got tongues wagging about the “Obama Doctrine” which appears to be: “If it won’t drag Iran into the fight we’ll take a look.”

Continue reading →

Media Missed Mark on Campaign Coverage

By Michael S. Johnson

Delta Airlines’ Sky Magazine had a 26-page spread last month on the Midwest’s new tourist hotspot, North Dakota . It featured Governor– and now U.S. Senator-elect– John Hoeven, who  gets much of the credit for making North Dakota one of the most prosperous states in the country.

Continue reading →

Republican Demise A Bit Premature

BY JOHN FEEHERY

Reprinted from the Feehery Theory

In many ways, it was the best-case scenario for the Republican Party.

They swept the House in dramatic fashion, and while they didn’t quite win the Senate, they got the next best thing: Harry Reid is still going to be the chief spokesman for Congressional Democrats.

Continue reading →

REASONS GOP WILL COME BACK: FROM MAY 2009

 

BY JOHN FEEHERY

 Reprinted from the Feeherytheory.com

Here is an article I wrote in May of 2009 that I thought you would all find of interest:  

 (CNN) – “It is important for us to have a strong Republican Party,” Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tauntingly told a press conference on April 23. “And I hope that the next generation will take back the Republican Party for the Grand Old Party that it used to be.”

Continue reading →

Dems on the Run

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from townhall.com and Mullings

While everything else has been going on, two senior Democratic Members of Congress, Maxine Waters (DEMOCRAT-Calif) and Charles Rangel (DEMOCRAT- New York ) have been, essentially, indicted by the House Ethics Committee for violation of House rules.

Both of those findings came well in advance of the House resuming its back-breaking schedule of a two-week work period between the August-September recess and the October-November pre-election recess.

When the Ethics Committee reported its findings, the expectation was that both Waters and Rangel would have their hearings/trials prior to the pre-election break.

Continue reading →

Obama and Legislative Power

BY GARY ANDRES

Reprinted from weeklystandard.com

The news media hailed President Obama’s victory on the Wall Street reform bill signed into law earlier this week as another example of his legislative prowess.

When it comes to congressional arm-twisting, New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, like others, extolled him as a modern day LBJ.

 “If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama it is this,” Stolberg wrote.  “He knows how to push big bills through a balky Congress.”

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor last week, Linda Feldman shared the sentiment: “Passage of financial regulatory reform signals another landmark legislative victory for President Obama, following the Recovery Act and health-care reform.”

Continue reading →