Anderson@Large

The Nightmare Act Before Christmas

On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought the so-called DREAM Act to the floor for a procedural vote. The vote to override a filibuster failed 55-41 (60 votes are needed to cut off debate).

The cloture vote ended the visions of amnesty that danced in the heads of illegal immigrants and their parents who knowingly broke the law.

The backdoor path to citizenship would have been a Christmas present for millions of illegals, and a nightmare for American taxpayers and legal immigrants who play by the rules.

Newsweek’s Mickey Kaus wrote:

You’ve heard of “comprehensive” reform? DREAM is non comprehensive reform. It doesn’t even have the basic enforcement provisions—employer sanctions and fancy new ID cards—that were part of the earlier, failed “comprehensive” bargain, which wasn’t a very good bargain (in part because nobody was sure the enforcement schemes wouldn’t be immediately undermined by lawsuits from the same organizations who supported “comprehensive” reform). DREAM is all amnesty, no prevention. Maybe that’s because its backers care about amnesty but not prevention.

Senate Republicans, along with five Democrats, blocked Reid’s nightmarish effort to make undocumented immigrants Illegal immigrants and their advocates happy.

Welcome to the Tea Party Congress

I am not a fan of Howard Fineman, but he is spot-on in noting the Tea Party Congress is in session:

The new, more Republican Congress won’t arrive in town until next month, but the Tea Party Era unofficially began on the Hill Thursday night.

Republican leaders in Congress, blindsided by grassroots fury over the tax cut deal they made with President Obama, are now scrambling to show their allegiance to the anti-federal, anti-debt movement.

The GOP brass, led by Senate party leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), did so tonight by eagerly backing the successful efforts of Tea Party favorites to block debate on a $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill that would fund the entire federal government until next October -- but which contained billions of dollars in “earmarks” Republicans, including McConnell, once stoutly defended.

The omnibus bill also contained the spending priorities of the Obama administration and the soon-to-be-ended Democratic-controlled Congress.

Fineman added:

But Reid announced Thursday night that he didn't have the votes he needed to block the maneuver or ensure debate after the reading of the bill. The reason, he said, is that nine Republicans who initially promised to support him had changed their minds.

Game, set, match Tea Party.

After being demonized as racist and “un-American,” tea partiers are now in charge.

Season’s Greetings from Senate Lame Ducks

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is looking like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Reid is threatening to keep the lame ducks in session through the New Year.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Reid said the path to finishing this year lies in Republicans’ hands.

Bah, humbug.

CBC Unveils Alternative Tax Cut Plan

At Friday’s press conference, Rep. Barbara Lee reiterated the message that “the overwhelming majority of Congressional Black Caucus members are opposed to the current tax plan.”

CBC Chairwoman Lee said:

We’re extremely concerned that the cuts that could be made should this package pass would disproportionately hurt the poor and low-income communities and further erode the safety net. We don’t want to create a situation today that will exacerbate the conditions for Americans who are already hurting. That would be unfair and would be unwise.

The CBC unveiled an alternative tax cut plan that includes:

• A 13-month extension of Emergency Unemployment Insurance Benefits plus additional assistance for the chronically unemployed – those Americans who have been unable to find work for more than 99 weeks.
• A payroll tax holiday or equivalent payment, such as a tax rebate check, with guarantees that Social Security will not be deprived of revenue.
• Targeted tax relief through a 2-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for hardworking middle- and low-income families and extending the enhanced provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

The CBC estimates its plan would cost less than half of President Barack Obama’s $900 billion tax cut compromise.

During an appearance on TV One’s “Washington Watch,” Lee said:

This is going to cost close to a trillion dollars. Now, you know where those cuts are going to come from next year? It’s going to come from initiatives that support the working poor, low-income communities, communities of color. It’s going to go right to the safety net, and so there is no way that the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus could support such a hit on the majority, really, of the American people.

Lee noted the House has already passed legislation that would provide tax relief for the middle class:

We have done our work on behalf of the American people, and in no way, mind you – in no way – should we give billionaires and millionaires tax breaks, and in no way should we allow the deficit to continue to grow, because we know who’s going to pay for it. It’s going to be our communities.

The Senate is expected to vote on the “Reid-McConnell Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010” this afternoon.

MoveOn is organizing a “Phone-in Filibuster” to stop tax cuts for the top two percent. To sign up, go here.

House Dems Reject Tax Deal

Gil Scott Heron was wrong: The revolution will be televised. House Democrats’ revolt against President Barack Obama’s tax-cut deal is generating wall-to-wall TV coverage.

In a nonbinding resolution, the House Democratic Caucus voted to reject the tax compromise. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the proposed tax deal will not make it to the House floor without changes:

In the Caucus today, House Democrats supported a resolution to reject the Senate Republican tax provisions as currently written. We will continue discussions with the President and our Democratic and Republican colleagues in the days ahead to improve the proposal before it comes to the House floor for a vote.

Democratic priorities remain clear: to provide a tax cut for working families, to create jobs and economic growth, to assist millions of our fellow Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and to do this in a fiscally sound way.

For progressives and gleeful Republicans, it’s must-see TV.

Obama Bushwhacked

In an address from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, President Barack Obama said he would rather compromise than fight. So he announced a “framework for a bipartisan agreement” that includes a two-year extension of tax cuts for the “wealthiest Americans and the wealthiest estates”:

Sympathetic as I am to those who prefer a fight over compromise, as much as the political wisdom may dictate fighting over solving problems, it would be the wrong thing to do. The American people didn’t send us here to wage symbolic battles or win symbolic victories. They would much rather have the comfort of knowing that when they open their first paycheck on January of 2011, it won’t be smaller than it was before, all because Washington decided they preferred to have a fight and failed to act.

The White House has released a “Fact Sheet on the Framework Agreement on Middle Class Tax Cuts and Unemployment.”

I normally don’t watch MSNBC, but I wanted to hear how progressives reacted to the extension of the Bush tax cuts. The guests were angry, disgusted, unhappy and furious. The host, Ed Schulz, was apoplectic.

Schulz characterized the tax deal as “a capitulation to the base. Republicans got damn near everything they wanted.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders threatened a filibuster. Sanders told Schultz he will “hold tough, hold firm and not concede to Republicans.” He vowed to “do whatever I can to see that 60 votes are not acquired to pass this piece of legislation.”

Rep. Keith Ellison, incoming co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was also a guest. Ellison said:

The Progressive Caucus is full of members who demand economic justice…We’re full of fight…In legislating you sometimes have to make compromises. The question is: Is this the right one?

Ellison added:

My gut level reaction is anger…Why are we adding $700 billion to the deficit at the time people are talking about reducing the deficit.

The deal was struck between Obama and Republican congressional leaders. The question now becomes: Will Democrats go along?

Democrats’ Divided House

Mark Twain quipped, “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

While Republicans are unified on extending Bush tax cuts, President Barack Obama appears ready to cave compromise. And that is dividing Obama from his liberal base.

Washington Post columnist Dan Balz wrote:

Right now there is little goodwill on the left toward the president. Liberals are up in arms amid talk of compromise on extending the George W. Bush tax cuts for all Americans, rather than allowing rates to rise for the wealthiest. They see Obama today as weak, vacillating and lacking either convictions or the gumption to fight for the principles they believe got him elected. They want a fighter in the White House who will put the Republicans in their place.

Indeed, progressives are demanding that Obama man up. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running this ad on cable TV.

Not to be outdone, Moveon.org is airing its own ad

And there ain’t no sunshine in the Sunshine State. Black Democrats are complaining that the Florida Democratic Party are taking African Americans for granted. The St. Petersburg Times reports:

The head of Florida’s black legislative caucus is complaining to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson that the mostly white Florida Democratic Party elite is ignoring African Americans and has all but crowned a new leader without their input.

“We would urge you to recommend that the Party consider and select an African-American candidate to assume the post of Party chair, which could potentially increase African-American voter turnout and fundraising and would be historical for this state,” the caucus’ chairman, state Sen. Gary Siplin, wrote Nelson in a letter sent Thursday.

Democrats should pay heed to President Abraham Lincoln’s warning that a house divided against itself cannot stand.