As expected, Ohio Rep. John Boehner was elected speaker of the House.
In his opening remarks, Speaker Boehner said:
Let us now move forward humble in our demeanor, steady in our principles, and dedicated to proving worthy of the trust and confidence that has been placed in us. If we brace ourselves to do our duty, and to do what we say we are going to do, there is no telling what together we can accomplish for the good of this great and honorable nation. More than a country, America is an idea, and it is our job to pass on to our posterity the blessings bestowed to us.
I wish you all the very best. Welcome to the people's House. Welcome to the 112th Congress.
I am sure Democrats and late night comedians were disappointed that Boehner did not break down and cry as he delivered his remarks.
Against all odds, a former small business owner who grew up with 11 siblings in a two-bedroom house and one bathroom is in control. Boehner should tell Democrats and assorted haters:
It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to Cry if I want to, cry if I want to You would cry too if it happened to you
House Republicans are getting off to a quick start. They have posted online a bill to repeal President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment, health care reform. The House will vote on the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” on Jan. 12.
Also today, a coalition of state lawmakers will open a new front in the war to “eliminate all economic attractions and incentives that continue to lure illegal aliens across America’s unsecured borders.”
State Legislators for Legal Immigration will unveil model legislation to “halt the misapplication of the 14th Amendment.” They propose to deny automatic citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants. The concern is that birthright citizenship is an incentive for foreign nationals to flout the rule of law in the hope that their anchor babies will give them a foothold on legal residency.
SLLI founder Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe is spearheading the national initiative. He will be joined by legislators from across the country and constitutional scholars, including Kansas Secretary of State-elect Kris Kobach, who helped draft Arizona SB 1070.
The press conference will be held at 9:30 am at the National Press Club, but advocates for illegal immigrants have already sent out talking points.
The yet-to-be-unveiled proposal is called “unworkable and divisive.” They say, presumably with a straight face, that “if enacted, they would place huge burdens on American citizens and create a giant new bureaucracy.”
UPDATE: Rep. Steve King, incoming chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement Committee, has introduced a bill, H.R. 140, which would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and end birthright citizenship.
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.
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.
Next week Congressional Democrats will limp back to DC for a lame duck session. Their to-do list includes writing a bill to fund the federal government beyond Dec. 3, when the current spending resolution expires.
Democrats will also vote on caucus leaders for the next Congress.
Although Democrats suffered a historic beat-down in the midterm elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the top job in the House Democratic Caucus. Some of Pelosi’s colleagues think it’s time “to pass the baton.”
Nancy Pelosi has been an extremely effective speaker of the House for four years, shepherding hundreds of important bills toward passage and withstanding solid Republican opposition. Her work in passing health care reform and strong ethics oversight achieved what many thought was legislatively impossible. But is she really the best the Democrats can come up with as their leader as they slip into the minority?
Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of Clyburn:
I am writing to ask for your support of Jim Clyburn to continue as Democratic Whip. With our country and our party at a crossroads, it is important that we have a leadership team in place that recognizes the strength and diversity of the Democratic Caucus and puts the needs of the Caucus before their own agendas. Like many of you, as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, I have worked closely with Jim to advance an agenda that has made a difference for millions of Americans. We need Jim’s continued leadership as Democratic Whip going forward.
In the wake of their historic shellacking, Democrats are playing the blame game.
President Barack Obama took part of the blame. Obama told “60 Minutes” it was a failure to communicate:
You know, I think that over the course of two years we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn’t just legislation. That it’s a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone. And making an argument that people can understand. And I think that we haven’t always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that.
Some Democrats blame Obama’s White House team. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen told the Washington Post:
There doesn’t seem to be anybody in the White House who’s got any idea what it’s like to lie awake at night worried about money and worried about things slipping away. They’re all intellectually smart. They’ve got their numbers. But they don’t feel any of it, and I think people sense that.
Democratic strategist Douglas Schoen agrees and says it’s time to change some of the players. Writing in Politico, Schoen observed:
When a political team like that of White House adviser David Axelrod, press secretary Robert Gibbs and pollster Joel Benenson has failed as utterly as Tuesday’s results make clear, there has got to be a change. There is no disrespect in finding another team of breadth, depth of intellect and a different vision to pick up the momentum after a crushing defeat.
In noting “there’s enough blame to go around,” TV One’s Roland Martin, recommended “four adjustments” Obama must make to “get back in the game.”
The complete transcript of “Washington Watch with Roland Martin” is available here.
This morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner will unveil a shiny new “Pledge to America,” a 21-page governing agenda to take the country back to the future:
In a self‐governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.
[…]
With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.
We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored – particularly the Tenth Amendment, which grants that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
It’s a broad draft document but that hasn’t stopped the pre-buttals. Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement:
Congressional Republicans are pledging to ship jobs overseas; blow a $700 billion hole in the deficit to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires; turn Social Security from a guaranteed benefit into a guaranteed gamble; once again, subject American families to the recklessness of Wall Street; and take away patients’ rights. Republicans want to return to the same failed economic policies that hurt millions of American and threatened our economy.
With this document the “party of no” becomes the “party of oh, hell no.”
UPDATE: House Minority Leader John Boehner released “A Pledge to America” at a family-owned business in Virginia.
During the press event, Boehner said:
“A Pledge to America” offers a new way forward that hasn’t been tried in Washington: an approach focused on cutting spending instead of accelerating spending, and eliminating uncertainty for the private-sector innovators and entrepreneurs who create jobs. These are the solutions the American people are demanding, and Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid should act on them before Congress adjourns for the fall.
