With the way Republican candidates for the presidential nomination have risen and fallen, the prospect of Republicans entering their national convention without a candidate actually decided is real.  This ought not to frighten us, though.  The quality of presidential candidates has not gotten better since primaries and early caucuses started locking up the nomination before convention time.  In fact, one might argue that presidential nominees in constant campaign mode — recall that Carter became the Democrat nominee years earlier than anyone thought practical — may produce better campaigners and worse presidents.

If the Republican convention begins without an anointed nominee, how would the brokering proceed?  Hard feelings and negative ads against those who had been in the ring may make it difficult to choose any of those now running.  A Republican who was generally liked, or at least not disliked, by the candidates now running and who could generate some spark might be the most appealing nominee of all.  Who might that be?  Here are four possible dark horse nominees who have hardly been mentioned, if they’ve been mentioned at all.

Bobby Jindal is extremely conservative and religiously serious.  He is perhaps, the brightest person in politics today.  As the son of legal immigrants and a “person of color” who was attacked by Louisiana Democrats via vile racial epithets when he first ran for governor in 2003, Jindal is someone who could relate to voters with non-European heritage.  As a devout Christian whose parents have remained Hindu, Jindal can combine the passion of his faith with genuine tolerance.  Having a Desi as president of the United States could also make our relationship with India, perhaps the rising superpower in the world, firm and strong.

Jindal also is a genuine expert on health care and medicine, having served in high federal and state offices covering those areas.  There is no personal baggage with Jindal at all.  His experience includes federal and state executive experience and federal legislative experience.  He also is extraordinarily popular in Louisiana, which suggests real leadership.  Indeed, a centerpiece campaign ad might be the actions he took, as governor of Louisiana, when the BP oil spill threatened the economy and ecology, compared with the risible inaction of our current president.   

Carly Fiorina could also be a very good president.  She was socially conservative in a California Senate race last year in which social conservatism hurt her with voters, and she spoke up for Sarah Palin when Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee.  Indeed, Fiorina is a perfect example of the new conservative Republican woman.  She is also a breast cancer survivor, which means that millions of Americans can grasp just how tough she is.

Fiorina is a very smart cookie (it is hard to become CEO of Hewlett-Packard without being smart), and she understands just want America needs to do to survive and thrive with the information technology of the 21^st century.  Like Jindal, she has made no enemies in the Republican Party, and she has no personal baggage.  Fiorina ran a tough campaign against Barbara Boxer in 2010, so Californians know her and appear to like her.  She might be able to put California in play if the economy in the Golden State continues to slide. 

Eric Cantor is an Orthodox Jew whose passionate commitment to social conservatism could attract serious Christian voters without troubling Jewish voters.  Cantor’s ACU rating makes him the most conservative congressman in Virginia, and he is also a very smart guy with background in accounting and finance.  In debating Obama on the budget, he could probably run rings around our current president.  As a Virginian, he could also help keep that state — and probably North Carolina as well — in the Republican column. 

There are no skeletons in Cantor’s closet, and the only real issue with his candidacy would be the public perception of what is happening in Washington now.  As majority leader of the House, Cantor is one of the most powerful Republicans around, and he is intimately involved in the battle with Democrats in the Senate and Obama.  If, eight months from now, American voters view House Republicans as doing the right thing and Obama the wrong thing, then Cantor might well be the perfect foil in the presidential race.

Susana Martinez is such a perfect poster child for conservative Republicans that the only question is when she is going to be on the national ticket.  The child of American citizens of Mexican heritage, she does more than just relate to the sometime amorphous term “Hispanic-American.”  Martinez is a Mexican-American; in fact, New Mexico Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a Democrat, recently referred to Martinez three times as “the Mexican.”  If Martinez could garner substantial percentages of the Mexican-American vote, not only would she carry New Mexico and almost certainly Colorado and Nevada, but she might also put California in play. 

The knock on Martinez is that she is too green.  But she is not a complete novice to government, and, signally, she is a very popular governor in very rough times.  Martinez, if elected, would have more executive experience when sworn into office than Obama did in January 2009. 

A brokered convention is still unlikely, but if a dark horse candidate emerges out of such a situation, Republicans have some devastating potential contenders.  Jindal, Fiorina, Cantor, and Martinez could each make a powerful candidate and a strong, true conservative president.  So the left, which seems to have only one plan — seek and destroy Republicans — may backfire.

Article source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/four_brokered_convention_prospects.html

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From the earliest days of Barack Obama’s presidency, top congressional Republicans made it clear: their No. 1 goal in the ensuing four years was to prevent him from winning a second term in 2012. With the dawning of an election year in just a few days, leading Republicans will soon find out if their strategy has been a successful one as Americans of all political stripes fume about the congressional bipartisan feuding that has gone hand and hand with Obama’s time in the Oval Office. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, surrounded by Republican House members speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Susan Walsh

WASHINGTON – From the earliest days of Barack Obama’s presidency, top congressional Republicans made it clear: their No. 1 goal in the ensuing four years was to prevent him from winning a second term in 2012.

With the dawning of an election year in just a few days, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and other leading Republicans will soon find out if their strategy has been a successful one as Americans of all political stripes fume about the congressional bipartisan feuding that has gone hand and hand with Obama’s time in the Oval Office.

A new poll suggests a record number of Americans, in fact, believe most members of Congress should be booted out of office in 11 months. And their ire is focused most squarely on incumbent Republicans, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center.

Forty per cent of those polled say Republican leaders are to blame, while just 23 per cent point the finger at Democrats.

A recent Gallup survey also found that 70 per cent of Americans are dreading the upcoming presidential campaign, wishing they could fast-forward to the end rather than watch the theatrics unfold.

There’s little doubt it’s going to be a down-and-dirty campaign with Obama poised to run against congressional Republicans he will paint as obstinate and obstructionist, while his political rivals will most certainly portray him as an abysmal failure on creating jobs and rejuvenating the still-sputtering U.S. economy.

“Mad as hell usually wins, because people go to the polls if they’re mad as hell, and they’ll stay home if they’re complacent,” said Andrew Smith, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire and director of the school’s Survey Center.

“So you’ll see both parties in the months to come attempt to stick their fingers in the eye of the other party. Obama will try to stir up anger at congressional Republicans, while Republicans will try to stir up anger about the economy.”

Boehner, the House majority leader, provided a hint of how he might respond to such attacks from Obama when questioned about the Pew survey last week.

“Welcome to divided government,” he told a news conference.

“The American people provided a Republican House, a Democrat Senate and a Democrat in the White House. And as a result, we’ve got to work overtime to try and find common ground to do what the American people sent us here to do.

“It’s not easy, it’s not pretty, but it’s the process our founders gave us and my job is to help make it work.”

The current 112th Congress, however, has been one of the least productive in years if measured by votes taken, bills made into laws and nominees approved. The two ever-duelling parties also narrowly averted a federal default, thereby warding off outright government shutdowns.

The year ended in typical fashion: with bitter wrangling over legislation to extend payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits to hard-hit Americans.

Republican efforts to tie a provision that would force Obama to make a decision within 60 days on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline only added to the rancour. Democrats say the Republicans’ pipeline schemes would all but ensure the death of the $7-billion project.

Is the Republican presidential race providing any hope of more peaceful times ahead? Hardly.

With primary season about to kick off with the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, polls of primary voters suggest Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are neck and neck in the race for the nomination. Libertarian Ron Paul, meantime, was ahead of both men in one Iowa survey this week thanks to a loyal core of supporters in the so-called Hawkeye State.

Expect the Republican elite to turn on Paul as though he’s a dreaded socialist — possibly born in Kenya — if the longtime Texas congressman manages to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, one observer has noted.

“If those two unexpected events do occur, then all hell will rain down upon the Paulistas,” wrote Jeremy Lott, an editor at the RealClearPolitics website.

“The GOP establishment will throw everything including the kitchen sink, the garage door opener, and two dozen pair of oversized baboon dentures at Paul to keep him from becoming the nominee.”

And neither Romney nor Gingrich, should either win the nomination, are expected to elevate the tenor of political debate in a campaign against Obama.

Romney’s hardly been shy about launching some devastating attacks in recent weeks not just against the president, but at Gingrich, as those close to the former Massachusetts governor emerged recently to assail the one-time speaker of the House of Representatives as “anti-conservative” and “unreliable.”

Gingrich, meantime, was known as a “bomb-thrower” when he was speaker in the 1990s. Indeed, he’s considered one of the engineers of the type of bare-knuckled brawling in play on Capitol Hill since Obama’s inauguration.

He frequently vowed to defeat Democrats at any cost, and even shut down the government in the mid-1990s thanks partly to his annoyance at former president Bill Clinton’s insistence that he sit in the back of Air Force One during a presidential tour.

Now Gingrich is on the receiving end of such politics with his rivals for the nomination taking aim at everything from his marital history to the money he made “consulting” on Capitol Hill and his moderate positions on issues including climate change and immigration.

The vitriol is simply a sign of things to come in the months ahead, said Cary Covington, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.

“It will be a very negative campaign, regardless of who wins the nomination,” said Covington, who nonetheless predicts Romney will ultimately take the prize.

“Obama’s game plan is the same as Harry Truman’s in 1948 — to malign a do-nothing Congress. He will tout all the things he tried to get done that Republicans prevented him from doing.”

But Covington urges battle-weary Americans to tune in, despite the negativity.

“There’s lot of substance for the parties to compete on, ranging from the economy to what the proper role of government is in our society and the war on terror and how it’s been handled. This is going to be a very substantively consequential election.”

Article source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/down-and-dirty-us-presidential-campaign-a-certainty-in-election-year-2012-136470808.html?viewAllComments=y

Why haven’t they paid taxes on these profits already?  Because they earned them through offshore subsidiaries, often in tax havens such as Lichtenstein, the Caymans, Switzerland, and Bermuda.  Under U.S. law, if they “repatriate” those profits back to their American parent company, they have to pay corporate taxes.  So, instead, they just sit on the profits, waiting for the moment when American politicians are gullible, corruptible or desperate enough to let them bring the profits back tax-free.  Merry Christmas!

We’ve been down this road before.  In 2004, Congress passed a similar tax holiday under the banner of spurring jobs and investment.  Here’s what a report from the right-wing Heritage Foundation found:

“Congress passed a similar tax holiday in 2004, and produced the expected immediate results—the return of a significant amount of foreign earnings to the United States. However, the evidence is clear that these repatriations did not produce the hoped-for subsequent surge in domestic investment.”

According to the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity, in 2004, of the 843 companies that repatriated $362 billion, only 15 firms accounted for more than half of the total value of the benefit. The biggest five — Pfizer, Merck, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson Johnson and IBM — brought back $88 billion.  That’s real money.

As the Center found:

The holiday also rewarded those who were using offshore funds to dodge taxes in the first place. Among the firms most likely to participate in the tax holiday were many that regularly stash their earnings in tax havens. The countries of incorporation with the largest percentage of repatriated funds under the 2004 law included the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

In many cases, the money was moved through shell companies, often just mailbox drops, that had no employees or physical assets.

Intel and Coca-Cola, the Senate inquiry determined, used shell companies in the Cayman Islands. Proctor Gamble used a holding company in Bermuda that had no physical office and no full-time employees. Eli Lilly used Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands. Oracle employed an Irish subsidiary.

The very conceit of the “investment and jobs” argument is nonsensical.  As even Heritage points out, to believe that additional capital would spur investment, one would have to believe that American corporations are currently capital-constrained.  That is, that there are loads of great investment opportunities just waiting for a business with enough capital to invest. Here’s the problem: corporations are not capital-constrained.  In fact, they are already swimming in record levels of cash on their balance sheets, currently totaling $2.1 trillion.

Despite overwhelming evidence that tax holidays don’t spur economic growth — and cost taxpayers mightily — the so-called “The Freedom to Invest Act of 2011” in the House and the “Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act” in the Senate are gaining support.  Why?  Might it have something to do with the $940,000 that co-sponsors have received in campaign contributions from the bills’ corporate backers since 2009?

Even the reliably liberal Senator Barbara Boxer (D) is pushing the bill: “By bringing back the more than $1 trillion that’s sitting overseas, we will create jobs, strengthen the economy and reduce the deficit.”  Apparently, in a strange twist on the Laffer Curve, by foregoing tax revenues, the federal government will reduce the deficit.

Who is pushing this latest corporate charity through Congress?  It’s the so-called “WIN America Campaign,” whose primary stated concern is “getting Americans back to work.”  (They are certainly putting lobbyists back to work, having spent at least $380,000 to lobby Congress in the first nine months of the year.)  Check out their website.  It’s brimming with stock photos pulled out of a PowerPoint for Dummies.  (Maybe that’s because Microsoft is one of their many corporate backers.)  Plus, it’s got a “blog,” full of pieces by “WIN America Staff,” none of which have any comments.  (To help them start the grassroots conversation, I’ve just posted a comment to their “blog.”  It’s “awaiting moderation.”  Let’s see if they allow it onto their site.)

I’m a big believer in the power of markets (imperfect as they can be) to improve the world. I think that’s why this kind of shameless influence-peddling is so upsetting to me: it has nothing to do with producing things that people value, things that, yes, rightly generate profits for companies. This kind of behavior is about creating two sets of rules, one for average Americans and another for those with wealth and connections.  It’s about taking advantage of our political system and corrupting our democracy, consequences be damned.  It’s wrong and it’s unacceptable.

**

Currently majoring in Business Public Policy at The Wharton School’s MBA program, Andrew Solomon is one of the founding Board members of ACT NOW. He oscillates between voicing views that earn him censure and biting his tongue for the good of all (including himself). He summarizes his political philosophy as “progressive ends, pragmatic means.” You can reach him at solomon [at] actnowny.org.  More by Andrew at http://www.actnowny.org/

Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/30/1049928/-Corporate-Christmas?via=spotlight

The STOCK Act: An Interesting Side-Note

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As you probably know by now, Congressional members can trade on insider information and even give the information away without any legal repercurssions. This trading is done by both sides of the politcal spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi and her holdings in Visa (V) to Eric Cantor and his trading of such stocks as Altria (MO).  These actions have led to understandable outrage and the STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act, a bill (or actually a series of bills with subtle variations) that is long overdue and revolves around the idea that “No Member of Congress and no employee of Congress shall use any nonpublic information derived from the individual’s position as a Member of Congress or employee of Congress, or gained from performance of the individual’s duties, for personal benefit.”

Thanks to awareness raised by 60 Minutes and our own Motley Fool as well as various news outlets, public and Congressional support for the bill has skyrocketed, with more than 32 senators and 242 members of the House of Representatives supporting the bill. 

 Yet, apparently Congress doesn’t even understand how to benefit from insider trading! According to a recent Wall Street Journal article citing a joint study by MIT and the London School of Economics, the average Congressional investor lagged the general public in market returns by 2 to 3% between 2004 and 2008. It also found that, although more than 50 Congressional members actively traded/reported large transactions in 2010, few appeared to make much money and many actually suffered losses. In fact, many lawmakers would have been better off if they hadn’t actively bought and sold stocks.

Now, this by no means should de-emphasize the importance of the STOCK Act or take away from the reasons the bill should pass, but it is a very interesting side-note that serves to put things into perspective. As Business Insider appropriately notes, you can now consider Congress to be both “unethical and inept.”

Article source: http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/the-stock-act-an-interesting/685217

Dr. Ahmed Tibi, MD, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset and former advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, recently wrote an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch attacking US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for having declared that “If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.” In and of itself hardly a remarkable position considering the history of organized Palestinian Arab terrorism that has gone on unabated since the founding of the PLO in 1964 and before. Yet Dr. Tibi then infers that Mr. Cantor therefore “holds all Palestinians responsible for the violence of a few.”

This interesting assumption made by Dr. Tibi is that Palestinian Arab violence and support of said violence is the handiwork of a “few,” a small minority. To determine whether this is true, two basic issues have to be clarified. One, whether or not said violence is the result of only “a few” who implicitly carry out their violent work against the wishes of the Palestinian Arab leadership and without popular support from the Palestinian Arab population. And two, what is considered to be moderate and non-violent means in the view of Dr. Tibi.

Let’s first take a glance at Dr. Tibi’s own behavior. As noted above, he served as an advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, a man he first met in 1984 in Tunis to where Arafat had fled after being ignominiously chased out of Beirut by the Israelis in 1982. Arafat, head of Fatah and subsequently the entire PLO, was responsible for airplane hijackings, indiscriminate murder of civilian targets, including the September 1972 kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games, the 1973 abduction and murder of Western diplomats in Khartoum, Sudan, – where Arafat himself personally gave the order to kill US Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats. And after Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and supposedly changed his ways, he and the Palestinian Authority pursued a campaign of massive incitement in the official PA media and school textbooks, and supported ongoing terrorist activities, including suicide bombings, and in its first 5 years more Israeli civilians were murdered by Palestinian Arab terror attacks than in the previous 15 years.  To avoid the guilt by association card, let us examine Dr. Tibi’s own “moderate and non-violent” approach.

Dr. Tibi writes in his op-ed: “I, too, reject the Palestinian violence Cantor mentioned that is directed at Israeli civilians, but unlike Cantor I believe in strengthening nonviolent efforts to overcome Israeli domination.” But does he really believe in “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?

According to a report in the Haaretz daily newspaper, on August 16, 2000, during the Jewish Fast Day of Tisha B’Av (9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av) when Jews mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, Dr. Tibi, already a Member of Knesset, led a large Arab crowd chanting, “with blood and fire we will liberate Palestine,” while physically blocking an annual police-approved pilgrimage of the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful group to enter the Temple Mount. One wonders what part of “with blood and fire” is “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?

As far as the alluded lack of popular support for violence, a March 2008 report by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey Research (PSR) noted that 67% of the Palestinian Arab population supported armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside pre-1967 Israel, and not merely Israeli military targets or “settlers,” with only 31% opposed. So much for Dr. Tibi’s “few.”

Dr. Tibi also takes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to task because Mr. Gingrich “recently claimed that we Palestinians are an ‘invented people.’ And what, pray tell, are the Americans? Gingrich’s people are every bit as invented, perhaps more, as they come from every corner of the globe.”

The comparison Dr. Tibi wishes to convey is that if the “Palestinians” are an “invented people,” well so are the Americans. And if the Americans are an “invented people” too, then at the very least, the “Palestinians” are no less entitled to a state than are the citizens of the United States of America (AKA “Gingrich’s people” by Dr. Tibi). Clever, but the comparison doesn’t quite work.

It is true that the United States is a country comprised of a “melting pot” of citizens who arrived from many other countries around the world. Not only do Americans not deny this (as Dr. Tibi and friends do regarding the invented Palestinians), it is considered an issue of accomplishment and pride among Americans. Further, it is a matter of record that since the formal and recognized establishment of the United States of America in 1781 following the end the American Revolutionary War, the overwhelming percentage of the current American population arrived in the 150 or so years after that time. And in line with the Emma Lazarus sonnet engraved on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty that declares: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” Americans are proud of their humble antecedents. But all these people came to a functioning and internationally recognized country.

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Eric Cantor, Israel, palestinian state, Terrorism, Yasser Arafat

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Article source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/30/eric-cantor-gets-the-mideast-conflict/

Remember how the Obama administration planned to alert Congress of its intent to raise the debt limit by today? Well, that’s getting kicked back a few days.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) says the White House has assured Republicans they will not issue the debt limit request this week, heading off a confrontation between the administration and the GOP over Congress’ power under the debt limit law to block the increased borrowing authority.

Under the terms of the August debt limit agreement, the administration was given the right to raise the debt limit by $2.1 trillion in three tranches, nearly unilaterally. The catch was that Republicans reserved the right for the House and Senate, within a narrow time frame, to block the increase. This caveat was largely symbolic. Democrats control the Senate and wouldn’t undermine President Obama by triggering another debt limit crisis — and even if they did, Obama would reserve the right to veto the so-called “resolution of disapproval.” But it’s a ready-made talking point for the GOP.

When the administration announced this week that it intended to initiate the debt ceiling increase by December 30, it stumbled into problem. Congress isn’t set to return from winter recess until January 17 — beyond the 15 day window it has under the law to weigh in on the debt limit increase. Had the administration followed through, Congress — but particularly Republicans — would have had to choose between returning from recess early (and thus entering a big public fight with the administration) and abandoning the debt limit vote.

Seeking to avoid that conflict, the administration will delay the debt limit request by a few days, according to a senior administration official.

In an official statement, White House spokesman Josh Earnest says, “we have been asked by bicameral leadership of Congress to delay certification in order to give both houses time to consider when votes may occur given the current Congressional schedule. The President has agreed to Congress’ request to delay submission of the certification, which he has flexibility to do under the [debt limit law]. The Administration is in discussions with leaders in both houses to determine the best timing for submission of the certification and any subsequent votes in the two houses.”

The substantive consequence here is that the Treasury Department will once again have to undertake some of the extraordinary measures they used in July to assure interest on the debt is paid on time.

Beyond that, it’s another illustration of the clumsy nature of the debt limit agreement, which imposed a number of substantive and procedural requirements on what was until this year a routine act of Congress.

Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler is TPM’s senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he’s led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.

Published: Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 3:03 p.m.

Subjects: Economy, Jobs, Small Business

Sources:

Congressman Eric Cantor, “Congressman Cantor supports Small Business Saturday,” November 25, 2011.

E-mail from Megan Whittemore, spokeswoman for Congressman Eric Cantor, Nov. 20, 2011.

Interview with Brian Headd, economist at the Small Business Adminiistration Office of Advocacy, Dec. 2, 2011.

Interview with Molly Brogan, spokeswoman for the National Small Business Administration, Nov. 29, 2011.

The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, “The role of small business in economic development of the United States: From the end of the Korean War (1953) to the present,” September 2010..

The Small Business Administration, “An analysis of small buisness and jobs,”  March 2010.

The Small Business Administration, “Where do jobs come from? New analysis of job gains and losses from the Office of Advocacy,”  Nov. 7, 2010.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table E. Quarterly net change by firm size, seasonally adjusted, accessed Dec. 1, 2011.

Small Business Administration, “Frequently asked questions,”  January 2011.

The White House, “Remarks by the president to small business owners, community lenders and members of Congress,” March 16, 2009.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, “Supporting small business,”  accessed Nov. 28,. 2011.

Kansas Department of Commerce, “Why you should export,” accessed Nov. 28, 2011.

PolitiFact Ohio, “Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder says small businesses create three of four jobs,” Feb. 21, 2011.

Businessweek, “How many jobs do small businesses create? Depends what ‘small’ means,” Oct. 17, 2011.

PolitiFact Virginia, “Eric Cantor says expiration of Bush tax cuts will raise small business taxes,” Nov. 26, 2010.

Washington Post, “White House offers details of plan to foster small business growth,”  March 16, 2009.

Congressman Sam Graves, “Tax reform should include individual reform,” Roll Call, Nov. 17, 2011.

New York Times, “Small businesses are employing less of the labor force,” July 21, 2009.

The Small Business Administration, “The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President,”  2010.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, accessed Dec. 29, 2011.

Written by: Sean Gorman
Researched by: Sean Gorman
Edited by: Warren Fiske

Article source: http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2011/dec/30/eric-cantor/cantor-says-small-businesses-create-70-percent-us-/

Dr. Ahmed Tibi, MD, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset and former advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, recently wrote an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch attacking US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for having declared that “If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.” In and of itself hardly a remarkable position considering the history of organized Palestinian Arab terrorism that has gone on unabated since the founding of the PLO in 1964 and before. Yet Dr. Tibi then infers that Mr. Cantor therefore “holds all Palestinians responsible for the violence of a few.”

This interesting assumption made by Dr. Tibi is that Palestinian Arab violence and support of said violence is the handiwork of a “few,” a small minority. To determine whether this is true, two basic issues have to be clarified. One, whether or not said violence is the result of only “a few” who implicitly carry out their violent work against the wishes of the Palestinian Arab leadership and without popular support from the Palestinian Arab population. And two, what is considered to be moderate and non-violent means in the view of Dr. Tibi.

Let’s first take a glance at Dr. Tibi’s own behavior. As noted above, he served as an advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, a man he first met in 1984 in Tunis to where Arafat had fled after being ignominiously chased out of Beirut by the Israelis in 1982. Arafat, head of Fatah and subsequently the entire PLO, was responsible for airplane hijackings, indiscriminate murder of civilian targets, including the September 1972 kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games, the 1973 abduction and murder of Western diplomats in Khartoum, Sudan, – where Arafat himself personally gave the order to kill US Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats. And after Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and supposedly changed his ways, he and the Palestinian Authority pursued a campaign of massive incitement in the official PA media and school textbooks, and supported ongoing terrorist activities, including suicide bombings, and in its first 5 years more Israeli civilians were murdered by Palestinian Arab terror attacks than in the previous 15 years.  To avoid the guilt by association card, let us examine Dr. Tibi’s own “moderate and non-violent” approach.

Dr. Tibi writes in his op-ed: “I, too, reject the Palestinian violence Cantor mentioned that is directed at Israeli civilians, but unlike Cantor I believe in strengthening nonviolent efforts to overcome Israeli domination.” But does he really believe in “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?

According to a report in the Haaretz daily newspaper, on August 16, 2000, during the Jewish Fast Day of Tisha B’Av (9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av) when Jews mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, Dr. Tibi, already a Member of Knesset, led a large Arab crowd chanting, “with blood and fire we will liberate Palestine,” while physically blocking an annual police-approved pilgrimage of the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful group to enter the Temple Mount. One wonders what part of “with blood and fire” is “strengthening nonviolent efforts”?

As far as the alluded lack of popular support for violence, a March 2008 report by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey Research (PSR) noted that 67% of the Palestinian Arab population supported armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside pre-1967 Israel, and not merely Israeli military targets or “settlers,” with only 31% opposed. So much for Dr. Tibi’s “few.”

Dr. Tibi also takes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to task because Mr. Gingrich “recently claimed that we Palestinians are an ‘invented people.’ And what, pray tell, are the Americans? Gingrich’s people are every bit as invented, perhaps more, as they come from every corner of the globe.”

The comparison Dr. Tibi wishes to convey is that if the “Palestinians” are an “invented people,” well so are the Americans. And if the Americans are an “invented people” too, then at the very least, the “Palestinians” are no less entitled to a state than are the citizens of the United States of America (AKA “Gingrich’s people” by Dr. Tibi). Clever, but the comparison doesn’t quite work.

It is true that the United States is a country comprised of a “melting pot” of citizens who arrived from many other countries around the world. Not only do Americans not deny this (as Dr. Tibi and friends do regarding the invented Palestinians), it is considered an issue of accomplishment and pride among Americans. Further, it is a matter of record that since the formal and recognized establishment of the United States of America in 1781 following the end the American Revolutionary War, the overwhelming percentage of the current American population arrived in the 150 or so years after that time. And in line with the Emma Lazarus sonnet engraved on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty that declares: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” Americans are proud of their humble antecedents. But all these people came to a functioning and internationally recognized country.

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Article source: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/30/eric-cantor-gets-the-mideast-conflict/

Remember how the Obama administration planned to alert Congress of its intent to raise the debt limit by today? Well, that’s getting kicked back a few days.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) says the White House has assured Republicans they will not issue the debt limit request this week, heading off a confrontation between the administration and the GOP over Congress’ power under the debt limit law to block the increased borrowing authority.

Under the terms of the August debt limit agreement, the administration was given the right to raise the debt limit by $2.1 trillion in three tranches, nearly unilaterally. The catch was that Republicans reserved the right for the House and Senate, within a narrow time frame, to block the increase. This caveat was largely symbolic. Democrats control the Senate and wouldn’t undermine President Obama by triggering another debt limit crisis — and even if they did, Obama would reserve the right to veto the so-called “resolution of disapproval.” But it’s a ready-made talking point for the GOP.

When the administration announced this week that it intended to initiate the debt ceiling increase by December 30, it stumbled into problem. Congress isn’t set to return from winter recess until January 17 — beyond the 15 day window it has under the law to weigh in on the debt limit increase. Had the administration followed through, Congress — but particularly Republicans — would have had to choose between returning from recess early (and thus entering a big public fight with the administration) and abandoning the debt limit vote.

Seeking to avoid that conflict, the administration will delay the debt limit request by a few days, according to a senior administration official.

In an official statement, White House spokesman Josh Earnest says, “we have been asked by bicameral leadership of Congress to delay certification in order to give both houses time to consider when votes may occur given the current Congressional schedule. The President has agreed to Congress’ request to delay submission of the certification, which he has flexibility to do under the [debt limit law]. The Administration is in discussions with leaders in both houses to determine the best timing for submission of the certification and any subsequent votes in the two houses.”

The substantive consequence here is that the Treasury Department will once again have to undertake some of the extraordinary measures they used in July to assure interest on the debt is paid on time.

Beyond that, it’s another illustration of the clumsy nature of the debt limit agreement, which imposed a number of substantive and procedural requirements on what was until this year a routine act of Congress.

Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler is TPM’s senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he’s led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/27/eric_cantor_conflict_of_interest/index.html

http://suzieqq.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/current-gop-leaders-voted-19-times-to-increase-debt-limit-by-4-trillion-during-bush-presidency/

Pretty much says it all.

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7393225n

With the Iowa caucuses just days away, the Republican crack-up threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP’s eclipse in 1932. That’s bad for America.

The crack-up isn’t just Romney-the-smooth versus Gingrich-the-bomb-thrower. Not just House Speaker John Boehner, who keeps making agreements he can’t keep, versus House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who keeps making trouble he can’t control. And not just the GOP establishment versus the tea partiers.

The underlying conflict lies deep in the nature and structure of the Republican Party. And its roots are very old.

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As political analyst Michael Lind has noted, today’s tea party is less an ideological movement than the latest incarnation of an angry white minority — predominantly Southern, mainly rural, largely male — that has repeatedly attacked American democracy in order to get its way.

It’s no coincidence that the states responsible for putting the most tea party representatives in the House are all former members of the Confederacy. Others are from border states with significant Southern populations and Southern ties.

This “no-compromise” right wing of today’s GOP isn’t much different from the evangelical social conservatives who began asserting themselves in the party during the 1990s, and, before them, the “Willie Horton” conservatives of the 1980s, and, before them, Richard Nixon’s “silent majority.”

Through most of these years, though, the GOP managed to contain these no-compromise radicals. Most of the Southerners were still Democrats. The conservative mantle of the GOP remained in the West and Midwest — in the libertarian legacies of Ohio Sen. Robert A. Taft and Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, neither of whom was a barn-burner — while the epicenter of the party remained in New York and the East.

But after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as the South began its long shift toward the Republican Party, and New York and the East became ever more solidly Democratic, it was only a matter of time. The GOP’s dominant coalition of big business, Wall Street, and Midwest and Western libertarians was losing its grip.

The watershed event was Newt Gingrich’s takeover of the House in 1995. Suddenly, it seemed, the GOP had a personality transplant. The gentlemanly conservatism of House Minority Leader Bob Michel was replaced by the bomb-throwing antics of Mr. Gingrich, Dick Armey and Tom DeLay.

Almost overnight Washington was transformed from a place where legislators tried to find common ground to a war zone. Compromise was replaced by brinkmanship, bargaining by obstructionism, normal legislative maneuvering by threats to close down government — which occurred at the end of 1995.

Before then, when I’d testified on the Hill as Secretary of Labor, I had come in for tough questioning from Republican senators and representatives — which was their job. After January 1995, I was verbally assaulted. “Mr. Secretary, are you a socialist?” I recall one of them asking.

The first concrete sign that no-compromise radicals might take over the Republican Party came in the vote to impeach Bill Clinton, when two-thirds of the senators from the South voted for impeachment. (A majority of the Senate, you may recall, voted to acquit.)

America has had a long history of white Southern radicals who will stop at nothing to get their way — seceding from the Union in 1861, refusing to obey Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, shutting the government in 1995, and risking the full faith and credit of the United States in 2010.

Newt Gingrich’s recent assertion that public officials aren’t bound to follow the decisions of federal courts is in keeping with the tradition.

This no-compromise radicalism is dangerous for the GOP because most Americans recoil from it. Mr. Gingrich himself became an object of ridicule in the late 1990s, and many Republicans today worry that if he heads the ticket, the party will suffer large losses.

It’s also dangerous for America. We need two political parties solidly grounded in the realities of governing. Our democracy can’t work any other way.

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future.” He blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Article source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-reich-gop-20111229,0,4891106.story

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Article source: http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2011/12/28/the-worst-of-obama-in-2011/

Yes, as shocking as it seems, Virginia has completed another circuit around the sun, and one more crazy political year has finally drawn to a close. And, as ever, we here at the Odd Dominion want to celebrate this historic moment by challenging you, dear readers, to a test of wits. (Or half-wits, as the case may be.)

So, grab a hot rum toddy and put your thinking beanie on. It’s time to take a quizzical stroll down memory lane.

1. Virginia’s General Assembly started out 2011 with a flurry of proposed legislation. Which of the following bills was not introduced?
a) HJ557, a bill to allow the Commonwealth to mint its own legal tender, preferably in the form of gold and silver coins.
b) HJ640, a bill to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 39 years after it was originally proposed.
c) SB1465, a bill to outlaw the use of Spanish as the primary language in “non-personal commercial interactions” (i.e., fast food and bank drive-throughs).
d) SB1470, a bill to consider castration as an alternative to prison for violent sex offenders.

2. Which of the following “facts” originally presented in the state-approved school textbook Our Virginia: Past and Present is untrue?
a) The Confederacy was made up of 12 states.
b) The U.S. entered World War I in 1916.
c) Stonewall Jackson commanded two battalions of black Confederate soldiers.
d) All of the above.

3. Virginia pols continued to have a way with words in 2011—especially when it came to offending large swaths of the population. Which of the following quotes wasn’t actually spoken aloud by a Virginia politician?
a) Representative Jim Moran: “A lot of people in this country, I believe, don’t want to be governed by an African-American.”
b) Delegate Dave Albo: “In a perfect world, I would like to be able to kick out every single person who’s an illegal alien in Virginia.”
c) Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: “My Hispanic cab driver complained about his regs today: I don’t know what’s happening to this country, the regs are getting worse than Cuba.”
d) Representative Eric Cantor, opposing tsunami aid to Japan: “Essentially, what you are saying is to go borrow money from the Japanese so we can spend it there to help the Japanese.”

4. To what was Governor Bob McDonnell referring when he said “We’re furious. It’s a national embarrassment to the United States of America.”
a) The forced closing of the Joint Forces Command in Hampton Roads by the Obama administration.
b) The possibility that Republican intransigence in Congress would cause the U.S. government to default on its debt.
c) The flying of a rainbow gay pride flag over the Richmond Federal
Reserve Bank.
d) Michelle Obama dancing “The Dougie” at Alice Deal Middle School.

Racking your brain for the quote next to Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s high school photo? Hint: It wasn’t “They call me Dr. Love.”

(Photo by ZUMAPRESS)

5. What quote did Eric Cantor choose to accompany his senior high school yearbook photo?
a) “In your heart, you know he’s right.”
b) “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
c) “They call me Dr. Love.”
d) “I want what I want when I want it.”

Match the foolish Virginia politico with his idiotic deed:
6. Delegate Phil Hamilton
7. Lieutenant Governor Bob Bolling
8. Loudoun Sheriff candidate Ronald Speakman
9. Mark Sell, Loudoun County Republican Committee chairman
a) Touted as the Commonwealth’s “Chief Jobs Creation Officer,” told a Lynchburg newspaper “We do not believe the government creates jobs.”
b) Sent a picture of an unknown gentlemen’s penis to a female staffer.
c) Illegally steered a $500,000 government grant to Old Dominion University in return for a $40,000-a-year job.
d) Sent a Halloween-themed mass e-mail featuring President Obama as a zombie with part of his skull missing and a bullet through his head.

Answer key: 1-C, 2-D, 3-C (it was a tweet), 4-B, 5-D, 6-C, 7-A, 8-B, 9-D
 

Article source: http://www.c-ville.com/Article/The_Odd_Dominion/The_year_in_electoral_absurdity/?z_Issue_ID=11802312113297100

American presidential candidates display arrogance and hypocrisy towards the Palestinians, MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) wrote in an op-ed for the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday.

Tibi, a former political adviser to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who identifies as a Palestinian, accused House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) politicians of holding all Palestinians “responsible for the violence of a few.”

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“A man living in a glass home ought not to throw such stones,” Tibi wrote. “Cantor ignored the fact that Americans engaged in genocidal violence and enslavement when establishing the United States of America… [and] Richmond neighborhoods that still extol the virtues of Confederate leaders who fought to uphold slavery.”

The Arab MK’s article in the Virginia newspaper came after Cantor said that Palestinians have a “culture of resentment and hatred” of Israel and they must prove that they deserve a state, remarks that Tibi called “hysterical vitriol.”

Tibi wrote that “the world begins to understand the cruelty of Israel’s subjugation of the Palestinians,” and that Israel uses $3 billion each year to “steal Palestinian land through military might.”

“Americans, I believe, are better than this,” he wrote, adding that the US supported the Arab Spring. Tibi also explained that he has confidence that the US will also support Palestinian statehood.

According to Tibi, the US should strengthen nonviolent Palestinian opposition to “Israeli domination,” which he said Cantor does not see as problematic.

The MK cited Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who called
the Palestinians an “invented people,” writing that Americans are
“every bit as invented, perhaps more, as they come from every corner of
the globe.” In addition, Tibi wrote, Republican candidate Michele
Bachmann said that “Palestinian so-called refugees” should not be given
the right of return.

Tibi also expressed pessimism that Democrats would be better for the
Palestinians, explaining that the two parties compete to show who is
more pro-Israel, which he called a “recipe for disaster.”

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=251246

A joint fundraising committee formed to raise money for three “Young Gun” Republican lawmakers has disbanded.

The Young Guns Majority Fund was created in August to support the fundraising efforts of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s ERICPAC, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Prosperity PAC and Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Majority Committee PAC. But four months later, during which time the group raised $248,100, the committee appears to be shuttering, according to documents filed by the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.

Continue Reading

Joint fundraising committees allow donors to easily write one check to a political action committee that supports various candidates.

The three lawmakers, who call themselves the Young Guns, aim to bolster the reelection prospects of what they call a “new generation” of conservative lawmakers.

Political action committees of similar names have cropped up in various states including Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia this year using the same address as the national group. According to the media reports, Cantor and McCarthy had headlined fundraising efforts for the South Carolina Young Guns Victory Fund and the Florida Young Guns Victory Fund. The South Carolina committee, which supported freshman Reps. Tim Scott, Mick Mulvaney, Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan, also disbanded this month, according to FEC filings.

Earlier this month, the committee disbursed checks of around $71,000 to each of the three committees: ERICPAC, Prosperity PAC and Majority Committee PAC. According to the report filed with the FEC on Tuesday, no other disbursements were made to federal candidates.

The group’s treasurer, Rose Ann Janis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70883.html

A joint fundraising committee formed to raise money for three “Young Gun” Republican lawmakers has disbanded.

The Young Guns Majority Fund was created in August to support the fundraising efforts of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s ERICPAC, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Prosperity PAC and Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Majority Committee PAC. But four months later, during which time the group raised $248,100, the committee appears to be shuttering, according to documents filed by the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.

Continue Reading

Joint fundraising committees allow donors to easily write one check to a political action committee that supports various candidates.

The three lawmakers, who call themselves the Young Guns, aim to bolster the reelection prospects of what they call a “new generation” of conservative lawmakers.

Political action committees of similar names have cropped up in various states including Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia this year using the same address as the national group. According to the media reports, Cantor and McCarthy had headlined fundraising efforts for the South Carolina Young Guns Victory Fund and the Florida Young Guns Victory Fund. The South Carolina committee, which supported freshman Reps. Tim Scott, Mick Mulvaney, Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan, also disbanded this month, according to FEC filings.

Earlier this month, the committee disbursed checks of around $71,000 to each of the three committees: ERICPAC, Prosperity PAC and Majority Committee PAC. According to the report filed with the FEC on Tuesday, no other disbursements were made to federal candidates.

The group’s treasurer, Rose Ann Janis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70883.html

American Voices

December 27, 2011

Article source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-201112271130--tms--amvoicesctnav-c20111227dec27,0,4343437.column

A joint fundraising committee formed to raise money for three “Young Gun” Republican lawmakers has disbanded.

The Young Guns Majority Fund was created in August to support the fundraising efforts of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s ERICPAC, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Prosperity PAC and Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Majority Committee PAC. But four months later, during which time the group raised $248,100, the committee appears to be shuttering, according to documents filed by the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.

Continue Reading

Joint fundraising committees allow donors to easily write one check to a political action committee that supports various candidates.

The three lawmakers, who call themselves the Young Guns, aim to bolster the reelection prospects of what they call a “new generation” of conservative lawmakers.

Political action committees of similar names have cropped up in various states including Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia this year using the same address as the national group. According to the media reports, Cantor and McCarthy had headlined fundraising efforts for the South Carolina Young Guns Victory Fund and the Florida Young Guns Victory Fund. The South Carolina committee, which supported freshman Reps. Tim Scott, Mick Mulvaney, Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan, also disbanded this month, according to FEC filings.

Earlier this month, the committee disbursed checks of around $71,000 to each of the three committees: ERICPAC, Prosperity PAC and Majority Committee PAC. According to the report filed with the FEC on Tuesday, no other disbursements were made to federal candidates.

The group’s treasurer, Rose Ann Janis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70883.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA.) defended the Republican argument Tuesday, as the House prevented a vote on passing the new Senate bill that would extend the reduced payroll tax rate for two months. Mr. Cantor directed his blame at Senate Democrats, saying the current bill places the American taxpayer in a state of uncertainty.

“What the House just did is that we voted to say that we do not believe a 60-day extension of tax relief is good for the working people of this country and we should provide a years-long certainty of tax relief,” Mr. Cantor stated Tuesday, in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“We were not far apart when negotiations broke down. We can resolve the differences and provide the kind of relief that the working people need. The ball is in Harry Reid’s court,” the House Majority leader added.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV.) issued a statement saying that he is refusing to reopen negotiations with the House leaders regarding the bill that the Senate passed with an 89-10 vote on Saturday.

Last week, Mr. Reid along Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) reportedly met privately at the U.S. Capitol building to discuss the ongoing bipartisan divide regarding the payroll tax cut.

The Senate then passed a bill on Saturday to extend the payroll tax cuts for two months, extend unemployment benefits for long term unemployed workers and prevent a 27 percent cut in government funded Medicare reimbursements.

The bill also included a push for an expedited approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which House Republicans were largely in favor of.

However, the two month fix was not enough to satisfy House Republicans, as Mr. Cantor stated Tuesday.

“How does a working family figure out how to deal with their expenses when they don’t know their tax liability from month to month?  Legislating in two-month increments is unacceptable,” Mr. Cantor said.

“Even the president said that it’s inexcusable for Congress not to provide a year’s worth of tax relief for working people.  That’s what we’re trying to do.  I’m asking Harry Reid, what does he have against the middle class in this country?  Why doesn’t he come back appoint conferees, and iron out the narrow differences that we have got because we do not have a lot?” the House majority leader said.

Mr. Cantor blamed Mr. Reid for what he claims is an inadequate bill.

President Barack Obama held a news conference Tuesday as well, urging both chambers of Congress to find a compromise before the December 31st expiration date of the payroll tax cuts.

According to Mr. Cantor, a compromise can be found prior to the end of the year, but it will all rely on whether or not Mr. Reid decides to appoint Senate conferees to negotiate with House appointed conferees and come up with a solution.

“Again, I would ask, what does Harry Reid have in for the middle class?  We want to be there to help the middle class and working people of this country with certainty. That is what the president wants and that is what we want,” Mr. Cantor remarked.

More from The State Column

1. 
   Harry Reid: Senate will block proposed extension of payroll tax cuts
2. 
   Harry Reid: Senate will stay in session until payroll tax cut is passed
3. 
   Harry Reid urges House Republicans to reach deal on payroll taxes

Article source: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/eric-cantor-slams-harry-reid-two-month-extension-unacceptable/

A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to threatening Rep. Eric Cantor and his family. Voice mail left at Cantor’s Richmond office went into graphic detail. The caller reportedly indulged in anti-Semitic slurs.

Immediately after a gunman attacked a Tucson meeting with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, experts blamed right-wing rhetoric for provoking the assault. Ideology had nothing to do with the deadly incident, it was learned. This was a case of mental instability instead. Those who criticized the right shot from the hip.

The threats against Cantor have passed almost without comment. No one has risen to blame hyperventilating rhetoric from the left. The campaign to delegitimize Israel has not been cited as a contributing factor, either.

The double standard does not surprise.

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/rtd-opinion/2011/dec/27/tdopin01-be-consistent-ar-1569437/

About this blog

CNN Press Room is the official website for CNN’s public relations team. Providing the latest announcements and information about CNN’s various networks, programs and platforms, CNN Press Room provides direct access to press releases, fact sheets, video and images, as well as transcripts, anchor and reporter bios, a running stream of the latest tweets from @CNNpr, and a comprehensive list of individual contacts in the CNN PR department.

Article source: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/19/cantor-we-can-do-better-than-two-months/

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Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 08:14 AM PST

House Republicans dish to The Hill on the John Boehner, Eric Cantor ‘soap opera’

by Joan McCarterFollow

If there’s one good thing the debacle of the payroll tax cut extension has done, it’s the emergence of a new, and long overdue, traditional media narrative: Republicans in disarray.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are being prodded by their House GOP colleagues to work through their battle-scarred relationship.

Republican lawmakers said they are frustrated with the perceived tension between the Speaker and his top lieutenant, especially heading into an election year that will bring a fierce battle with the Democrats for control of the House.

The stinging payroll-tax defeat has left many in the House GOP exasperated, with some publicly and privately questioning their leaders. A GOP insider said the tensions between Boehner and Cantor loyalists will reverberate into next year, and that the House Republican Conference could be in utter disarray in January and February.

Gee, ya think? My heart bleeds for them. But note that this new-found concern in the GOP caucus has only arisen after they lost a battle. The divisions have been there for two years, it’s just now that Democrats actually exploited them. More of that, please.

Originally posted to Joan McCarter on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 08:14 AM PST.

Also republished by

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Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 08:14 AM PST

House Republicans dish to The Hill on the John Boehner, Eric Cantor ‘soap opera’

by Joan McCarterFollow

If there’s one good thing the debacle of the payroll tax cut extension has done, it’s the emergence of a new, and long overdue, traditional media narrative: Republicans in disarray.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are being prodded by their House GOP colleagues to work through their battle-scarred relationship.

Republican lawmakers said they are frustrated with the perceived tension between the Speaker and his top lieutenant, especially heading into an election year that will bring a fierce battle with the Democrats for control of the House.

The stinging payroll-tax defeat has left many in the House GOP exasperated, with some publicly and privately questioning their leaders. A GOP insider said the tensions between Boehner and Cantor loyalists will reverberate into next year, and that the House Republican Conference could be in utter disarray in January and February.

Gee, ya think? My heart bleeds for them. But note that this new-found concern in the GOP caucus has only arisen after they lost a battle. The divisions have been there for two years, it’s just now that Democrats actually exploited them. More of that, please.

Originally posted to Joan McCarter on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 08:14 AM PST.

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The Associated Press

Monday, Dec. 26, 2011 | 3:21 a.m.

A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Tuesday to making threats in profanity-laced voice mails left at U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.

Glendon Swift, 64, of Lenoir City pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening a family member of a federal official. In return, prosecutors said they would recommend a 13-month sentence. Swift could have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 4. Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt, declined comment.

An FBI affidavit shows the 64-year-old Swift left two messages at the Republican leader’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27, threatening to “destroy” the congressman, making derogatory references to Cantor being Jewish and making threats against family members. The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

Article source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/dec/26/us-majority-leader-threat/

On Native Ground
A NATURAL DISASTER MEETS UNNATURAL GOVERNING PRINCIPLES

by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
Dummerston, Vt.

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DUMMERSTON, Vt. — I write this at the end of three very long days covering Tropical Storm Irene and its aftermath here in southern Vermont.

When I live, my wife and I were extraordinarily lucky.

We live on a hill, and are nowhere near any river or stream
of consequence that could flood.

We only lost power from about eight hours on Sunday, or only
a couple hours more than the power outage we had after a violent
thunderstorm the Sunday before.

We still had dial-up Internet access and battery backup
power, so I could still keep updating the running story at my newspaper’s Web siteHREF, even though I was doing it by lantern light for a few hours.

But only a few miles from my home was utter devastation.

The low-lying area of downtown Brattleboro, just two blocks
from my newspaper’s office, there was a flash flood when Whetstone Brook left its banks. You may have seen the YouTube footage on the network news programs.

The two-to-three feet of water in that part of Brattleboro on Sunday receded by the end of the day, leaving several inches of mud and silt on the streets and dozens of businesses, homes and apartment blocks with major flood damage.

I was in downtown Brattleboro on Monday, and it was a surreal atmosphere. On one end of town, there was no sign that a 100-year flood had taken place. On the other end of town was damage that may takes weeks, or even months, to repair.

Route 9, the main east-west road in southern Vermont, was
completely washed away in several spots between Brattleboro and
Wilmington, the little town that is at the midpoint between
Brattleboro and Bennington.

The Deerfield River flooded Wilmington’s downtown and
exceeded the high water mark from the fabled Great New England
Hurricane of 1938, the benchmark for severe and deadly weather in our region.

One of my reporters, who lives in the Deerfield Valley, had
to detour to Massachusetts to get to Brattleboro. Every road to
Wilmington was washed out. She managed to get into Wilmington after the water receded on Monday, and she was shocked at the level of damage. You could see the water line on the walls of many buildings.

One young woman drowned when flood waters engulfed her car.

Another of my reporters paddled in a canoe over a section of
Route 5 in Westminster that flooded on Monday when the nearby Bellows Falls dam had to do an emergency water release. A popular farm stand and bakery was swamped with water from the Connecticut River that went up to the top of the gas pumps in front.

My third reporter, who lives in the West River Valley, saw
washed-out roads and bridges galore in her sector. A couple of towns needed to be resupplied by helicopter because there was no other way to deliver emergency aid.

I was by the banks of the Whetstone in Brattleboro on Monday
with Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. When I met up with them on Williams Street, they were looking at a building where the back portion had been washed away during Sunday’s flash flood. It was one of several stops they made that day around Vermont. Both were shaken by what they saw.

The damage reports from Irene around the state were
disheartening, but the response of the state, and of individual
Vermonters, was amazing.

I’ve said on many occasions that Vermont is different from
other states, that there is a sense of community and civic
responsibility that is nearly extinct elsewhere. That spirit is
carrying the state through a difficult time.

I wish I could say the same about the politicians,
particularly those of the conservative persuasion, in Washington.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said last week that emergency aid will not be released for states hit by Irene until other federal programs are cut to offset the spending. Some of the cuts will come to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and first responders.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that, during the
Bush Administration, Cantor supported the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war and raising the debt limit (five times) without asking for a penny in spending cuts.

Right now, FEMA’s disaster-relief fund, which is used to
reimburse local governments and individuals for the costs of cleanup and repairs, is so short on money from all the wildfires, flooding and tornadoes that already happened this year that payments for some projects are being delayed.

With Irene causing billions of dollars of damage from the
Carolinas to the Canadian border, this no time to be shortchanging disaster relief. This is cruel, stupid and despicable.

But House Republicans seem to be doubling down on the stupid. The Associated Press reported that the House Appropriations Committee has approved cuts to funding for “hurricane hunters” – the military planes that fly into hurricanes in order to measure and track them.

All this is to be expected by a political party that hates
government, especially when it helps Americans in need.

This week marks the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,
when the Bush administration left New Orleans to die. The
fecklessness of FEMA, an agency that was gutted by budget cuts and stuffed with cronies who knew nothing about emergency management, during and after Katrina showed the nation what happens when you allow people who don’t believe in the public good to run government agencies.

FEMA has improved since then, and their staffers are quite
familiar with Vermont. They spent most of the spring in northern
Vermont dealing with record flooding of Lake Champlain and heavy
rains that sparked flash floods on the Winooski River. They are on the case again in the Green Mountain State for the aftermath of Irene.

This is what government is supposed to do. It provides hope
to the hopeless. It provides reassurance in a time a crisis. It
provides the resources to help those in need.

The people in positions of responsibility in my brave little
state of Verrmont have lived up to that standard this week. I only wish people like Eric Cantor could see beyond winning elections and keeping power, and do what is it right.

AR Chief of Correspondents Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 30 years. He is currently the news editor of The Commons HREF, a nonprofit weekly community newspaper published in Brattleboro, Vt. He can be reached at
randyholhut@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2011 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.

Article source: http://www.american-reporter.com/4,36!W/66.html

WASHINGTON — House Republicans snatched political defeat from the jaws of victory in a year-end showdown over payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits.

1. 1. 
      

      
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   2. 
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   3. 
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   4. 
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This time, they pushed the country to the brink — and wound up blinking.

By spurning a deal that Senate Republicans had embraced, for a two-month extension of tax cuts for 160 million Americans and jobless benefits for millions more, the House wing of the party isolated itself politically and by some calculations improved President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects.

Friday brought a humbling surrender, the only realistic alternative despite grumbling from scattered holdouts and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, courting support from the small government tea party movement in the race for the presidential nomination.

By then, even allies said Republicans had become vulnerable to Obama’s accusation that they, alone, were threatening a fragile economic recovery and the well-being of the employed and unemployed alike. “Right now, the bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on Jan. 1,” Obama said Tuesday after the House of Representatives rejected the two-month measure that had sailed through the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 89-10.

The reliably conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal piled on, referring to a circular Republican firing squad. The Republicans have “achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter. … This should be impossible,” it wrote on Wednesday.

One poll said Obama ran ahead of Republicans when it came to handling taxes, an issue that has generally favored the Republicans since Ronald Reagan sat in the White House three decades ago.

No less critical were Senate Republicans, fearing the impact on their own political prospects, both individually and as a group eager to gain a majority in the 2012 elections. A gain of four seats would give them control, and several close races are likely. Losses suddenly seemed possible instead. There was even talk that the hardline stance by House Republicans was putting the Republicans’ big majority in that chamber in danger.

Most importantly, for the first time all year, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t in a position to help as House Speaker John Boehner sought to carry out the wishes of his rank and file, the Kentucky senator having voted for the bill that House Republicans insisted was a loser.

At its core, the dispute was a simple one.

Talks between the two parties in the Senate on a full-year extension faltered when negotiators could not agree on the cuts needed to make sure the measure did not increase deficits. The two-month stopgap bill was designed to keep the tax cuts and jobless benefits going until the negotiations could resume again after the first of the year.

To the tea party types, including many first-termers, that smacked of government as usual, precisely what they came to Washington to change.

“We’re as unified as we’ve been all year,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, on the night before the House Republicans rejected the Senate bill, demanded negotiations on a compromise and drove themselves into a political dead end.

This time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrats had no incentive to negotiate, unlike earlier when brinkmanship pushed the government to the edge of a partial shutdown or an unprecedented default.

They and the White House had already caved to Republican demands that any extension be paid for, and that Obama decide within 60 days whether to allow construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.

The president had threatened to veto any measure that linked tax cuts and the pipeline, hoping to postpone a decision on the project until after the election. Late last week, he did an about-face and demanded Congress send him a bill that did precisely that.

The reversal gave Republicans the political victory some had sought if they were going to approve an extension of the tax cuts and jobless benefits at the core of Obama’s jobless program.

Boehner told House Republicans as much in a conference call on Saturday, according to several officials who listened. They added he recommended no specific course of action and sought all views from his rank and file.

Some lawmakers suspected Boehner had acquiesced in the two-month extension that McConnell worked out, and he was challenged on it 48 hours later in a closed-door meeting. He bristled at the accusation, according to several participants, and denied it flatly.

There were hints of infighting. Behind closed doors, one Republican lawmaker raised a concern about a memo — inaccurate, he said — from an unidentified staff aide who wrote that Boehner favored a more conciliatory approach than Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other members of the leadership.

“We’re here and ready to work,” Boehner told reporters on Wednesday morning. He spoke at a made-for-television event with Cantor and the eight Republicans, including three first-termers, appointed to conduct non-existent negotiations with Democrats.

Little more than 24 hours later, the charade ended when Boehner informed his own rank and file, no consultations permitted.

By then, even two newcomers to the House had issued public statements calling for an end to the standoff.

“I don’t think that my constituents should have a tax increase because of Washington’s dysfunction,” said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, now a voting member of the government he was criticizing.

The struggle over, Reid said he hoped the episode had been “a very good learning experience, especially to those who are newer” to Congress.

“Everything we do around here does not have to wind up in a fight.”

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — David Espo covers Congress for The Associated Press.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45783448

House of Representatives – POLITICS

Published December 20, 2011

| Associated Press

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  AP

  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor answers questions from reporters Oct. 3 on Capitol Hill.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. –  A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Tuesday to making threats in profanity-laced voice mails left at U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.

Glendon Swift, 64, of Lenoir City pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening a family member of a federal official. In return, prosecutors said they would recommend a 13-month sentence. Swift could have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 4. Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt, declined comment.

An FBI affidavit shows the 64-year-old Swift left two messages at the Republican leader’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27, threatening to “destroy” the congressman, making derogatory references to Cantor being Jewish and making threats against family members. The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

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Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/20/tennessee-man-pleads-guilty-to-threatening-house-majority-leader-cantor/

A Lenoir City man has pleaded guilty to making drunken and profanity-laced telephone threats to Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader of the House, and his family. The man, Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted a prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the calls, according to court documents.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/us/tennessee-guilty-plea-in-threats-to-congressman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pictured last night. US lawmakers on Friday passed a two-month extension to a payroll tax holiday for 160 million Americans after a bitter political standoff, handing victory to President Barack Obama.

Article source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=iafpCNG.194cd809f6002fba06dd35ddc539357e.711p0&show_article=1

Mr. Boehner finally chose to slam the door on his highly opinionated conference on Thursday afternoon, telling lawmakers that their view on the extension of the payroll tax break was no longer of interest. He was, he said, ready to accept the Senate’s short-term solution, which passed both chambers and was signed by President Obama on Friday.

When Congress reconvenes next month at the start of what inevitably will be a highly  contentious election year,  Mr. Boehner will find out whether his less-experienced members have finally been schooled in the way of divided government or if they will dig in against him, posing a potential threat to his leadership.

“I’m disappointed in our entire leadership team,” Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas said in an interview Friday with CNN, adding that he had considered returning to the Capitol to protest the vote. “After one year watching what’s occurred and seeing our conservative principles falling by the wayside numerous times in these debates, we’ve got a lot of progress to make.” 

But the fact that neither Mr. Huelskamp, nor any other House Republican,  dared to return to Washington to object to the legislative action Friday suggests that there is little current likelihood of a credible effort to challenge Mr. Boehner’s leadership.

 Indeed some freshmen members said the experience left them rethinking the hard-line stance that their class took all year as they flowed from one victory to the next, vexing Senate Democrats and the White House.

“Our freshman class wanted to do a lot of things,” said Representative Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. “Did we accomplish them all? No. But what I’ve come to realize is that in divided government you don’t always get what you want.”

Mr. Boehner says he is confident he has control.

But the question remains of what will happen next year, when these Republicans have a chance to speak back to their speaker — there is no mute button in the caucus room. And the answer has enormous political implications for Mr. Obama, who has spent much of the year being foiled by the party; for Congress, where at least the Democratic-controlled Senate is very much in play; and for the continuing debate over how to right the nation’s fiscal ship.

“No one is perfect,” Mr. Duffy said. “But the speaker has had a tough job. He has tried to build a coalition behind a lot of different ideas, and I think it has garnered him respect in the conference, but when you do that you open yourself up to the issues we have faced over the last couple of weeks.”

It doesn’t help that Mr. Boehner often cannot rely on the help of his deputy, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who is more closely aligned with the more conservative members of the House and who differed with Mr. Boehner on how to proceed on the payroll tax.

Mr. Boehner has also more than once appeared to miscalculate just how far his conference is willing to go to stand up for legislative ideas they strongly support, even when they have zero chance of becoming law. “We had a real communication challenge,” said Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia, who was elected in 1992. “We might wear the same Republican jersey and allegedly we are on the same team, but sometimes we are going to call plays in a different direction.”

The raucous Republican freshmen, aided by many of the more senior conservative members, have helped the House majority achieve goals that would have seemed impossible in previous divided governments.

They have controlled the spending conversation from the first battle, when new members demanded that Republicans hold out for billions more in cuts than those sought by House appropriators. It continued through the debt ceiling showdown, in which a plan to cut $2.1 trillion over 10 years was formed, as well as during the intense focus on changes in entitlement programs.

But the payroll tax became the wrong battle at the wrong time, framed in the muddiest of terms from Day 1 by Mr. Boehner’s chamber. Many Republicans — notably Mr. Cantor and Mr. Boehner himself — initially suggested that the tax cut for middle-class earners was not a great idea and would not stimulate the economy. The House did pass a one-year extension bill, but with so many unrelated policy components — including one to revamp the unemployment insurance system — that Senate Democrats would not brook it.

When the chambers could not agree on how to get to a one-year plan, the Senate passed a short-term measure, but House Republicans balked, saying they needed a one-year extension on a tax cut many had not supported at all.

For Republicans, being associated with a potential tax increase right before the holidays ended up being too much to handle politically, as editorial boards and Republican senators rained criticism on their heads. Further, unlike in every other major partisan fight this year, Mr. Obama did not back down.

“We should have been on high ground from a public relations standpoint,” Mr. Kingston said. “But part of the speaker’s job in any legislative body is to make the tough decisions that are in the interest of the country and in the interest in protecting his majority. One of the things we found out during the shutdown in the Newt-Clinton years is that you couldn’t base your decisions on Republican red-state sentiment, or you leave your members in purple states vulnerable.”

It is a balance that is ever perilous. “As a former member of leadership,” Mr. Kingston said, “I can say every day in leadership you are living on thin ice.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/us/politics/obamas-signature-puts-quick-end-to-payoll-tax-fight.html

“I’m better than you.” Apparently, that’s what our members of Congress think. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a law that allows them to get away with activities that are illegal for anyone who isn’t “serving” in Congress.

It’s still not illegal for Congress to trade on inside information. Virginia Representative Eric Cantor must have laid some bets based on his insider knowledge. How else can you explain his decision to delay the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act?

Congress’ approval rating is currently 11 percent. I say the over/under betting line for Congress’ approval rating by the end of the year is five percent. Cantor, trying to make some money on inside information, the way his colleagues in the House and Senate have, apparently bet the under.

Hands Off the Cookies

The STOCK Act was sponsored by Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus.

Yes, this is the same Spencer Bachus whose insider trades were featured in a scathing report on 60 Minutes. Bachus, with his hands caught in the cookie jar, is now publicly proclaiming that eating cookies before dinner is wrong.

Rather than letting Congress vote on a bill that would ban insider trading by members of congress – a vile act that’s as black-and-white as it gets – Cantor is asking to form a subcommittee to study guidelines on how to draft a provision that will create a task force on whether to further examine right from wrong. Or something like that.

You may recall, several weeks ago, 60 Minutes broke the story that various members of Congress, including Bachus, House leader John Boehner, former House leader Nancy Pelosi and others were trading stocks and options based on inside information. If a CEO or hedge fund manager made the same trade that Bachus made, they’d be paraded handcuffed in front of TV cameras. Those images would run on a continuous loop in the mainstream and financial media for days.

In fact, last Monday hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, reported to a federal prison in Massachusetts to begin serving his 11-year sentence. The former billionaire received and traded on inside information about corporate earnings, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

If he had committed the exact same acts from an office on Capitol Hill rather than one on Madison Avenue in New York, he’d be gearing up for his reelection campaign rather than trying to decide between a job in the prison library or kitchen.

The STOCK Act has 180 co-sponsors, is supported by the majority of the House, including 75 members of Cantor’s own party. Yet there’s considerable doubt that the bill will ever become law. According to Westfair Online, Iona College political science professor Jeanne Zaino said she has doubts the bill will pass. Many other political experts and consultants have said the same thing.

Eric Cantor’s momma didn’t raise no dummy, particularly when it comes to the securities business. Chances are he’s very familiar with issues important to the industry. After all, securities companies were the largest contributors to Cantor’s campaign in 2011, donating 64 percent more money than the second-largest backer.

And if he has any securities-related questions, he can probably run them by his wife, who used to work at Goldman Sachs (GS), which incidentally was the second-largest single contributor to Cantor, behind The Travelers Companies (TRV).

I first wrote about this subject in November when the story broke, and urged you to contact your Representatives and Senators and ask that they not only support the STOCK Act, but demand it. Clearly, some elected officials have received the message loud and clear. But others either think they know better than their constituents, or more likely, hope this issue just fades away in the distraction of everything else we’re paying attention to.

Representatives and Senators make more than three times the median household income. Their health benefits are better than most Americans’. Despite their clamoring to end entitlements, they receive pensions for life. And although the vast majority of mutual fund managers – men and women who analyze the market every day – can’t outperform the SP 500, members of Congress consistently beat the market. That’s not a coincidence…

All investors are looking for angles on how to make as much money in the markets as we can. As law abiding citizens and, more importantly, decent human beings, all we’re asking for is a level playing field. We’re investors who simply seek fairness. We should make a pact that we absolutely will not vote for any member of Congress who votes against the STOCK Act. And that we will spread the word about any Congressman or Congresswoman who apparently believes they’re entitled to special rights to help them line their pockets.

The only reason to vote against the STOCK Act is to keep the easy money coming. It’s time Congress represents us instead of their own self interests. You can find your Representatives’ and Senators’ contact information here. Let them know how you feel.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. Investment U expressly forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security they recommend to our subscribers. All employees and agents of Investment U (and affiliated companies) must wait 24 hours after an initial trade recommendation is published online – or 72 hours after a direct mail publication is sent – before acting on that recommendation.

Article source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/315814-congressional-insider-trading-no-wonder-america-disapproves

A Tennessee man pled guilty Tuesday to charges of making threats against Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his family, citing Cantor’s Jewishness and saying that he was going to kill the lawmaker’s wife and daughter, according to The Associated Press.

Glendon Swift, 64, left two messages at the Republican leader’s Richmond, Va., office, promising to “destroy” the congressman, making insulting references to Cantor’s Jewish background and threatening his family.

Continue Reading

In one disturbing voice-mail, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?” reports the wire service.

The calls were traced to Swift’s cell phone, and he later admitted to the FBI that he had threatened the congressman, saying he had gotten drunk and “started cussing people out,” according to the AP.

In return for pleading guilty, prosecutors said that they would recommend that Swift serve a 13-month sentence. The Tennessee man faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70740.html

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are being prodded by their House GOP colleagues to work through their battle-scarred relationship.

Republican lawmakers said they are frustrated with the perceived tension between the Speaker and his top lieutenant, especially heading into an election year that will bring a fierce battle with the Democrats for control of the House.

The stinging payroll-tax defeat has left many in the House GOP exasperated, with some publicly and privately questioning their leaders. A GOP insider said the tensions between Boehner and Cantor loyalists will reverberate into next year, and that the House Republican Conference could be in utter disarray in January and February.

Members are zeroing in on the Boehner-Cantor relationship, which has had its ups and downs.

At times, they have been together, effectively challenging President Obama and congressional Democrats. At other times, they have been divided and forced to address the perception that they are rivals.

Five days after House Republicans charged into the payroll-tax fight without much of a political strategy, Boehner conceded defeat during a news conference Thursday.

The Speaker appeared at the media briefing alone shortly after declaring surrender to rank-and-file members in a one-way call.

His solitary mea culpa spoke volumes, especially because several days prior, a GOP lawmaker implored the leadership to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with one another.

Several lawmakers told The Hill that Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) was one of the first members to speak at a nearly two-and-a-half-hour closed-door conference meeting Monday night, with a simple request: unity at the leadership table.

A member who attended the meeting paraphrased Cole’s remarks: “I’ll be with you from the first vote to the last one — the only thing I’m asking in return is that you guys be unified. I don’t want to read stories that suggest three of the leaders are on one side and the Speaker’s on the other … the leadership table is to resolve disputes, and if you guys can’t come to a unified decision there, we’ll never be a unified conference.”

Cole’s call for unity came after an angry, 90-minute conference call Saturday, during which GOP lawmakers attacked the Senate and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for returning an amended payroll-tax-cut bill to the House and then skipping town.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said: “I’ve been around here long enough to see the way things act. I was — I rarely use the word shocked — that the Senate would send us that piece of trash.”

As House Republicans battled their GOP counterparts in the Senate this week, they remained perplexed by the split in their own leadership.

According to various media reports based on a readout from a “source on the call,” Boehner, Cole and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) praised the two-month deal Saturday, while Cantor, House GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and House GOP conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) sided with the freshmen in ardent opposition.

Even though lawmakers loyal to Boehner and Cantor who participated in the call disputed that characterization, the reports caused a rift among lawmakers who questioned the motivations behind the leak.

“That’s outrageous because it’s not even true,” a Republican lawmaker told The Hill. “Tom Cole said at conference on Monday night: ‘To the person in this room who leaked … I don’t know which one of you it was, but if you are going to quote me as saying something … please get it right next time.’”

The version of events provided in the leak did not make Boehner look good, and he has repeatedly denied backing the Senate measure.

Sources said, however, that Boehner did imply on Saturday’s call that he wanted the temporary extension to move through the House.

“We have to pick our fights,” Boehner said, according to a Republican on the call.

The leak weakened Boehner’s hand because it appeared he was on an island battling against the rest of his leadership team.

According to a lawmaker familiar with the situation, Cantor privately denied that his office had anything to do with the leak.

The episode was the culmination of a year fraught with high-stakes legislative brinksmanship and different ideas on how to lead a conference antsy for change, amid deal-making with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

In the spring, news reports suggested there was daylight between Boehner and Cantor on the government showdown.

Both were asked about their relationship around that time in separate interviews on Fox News. Boehner characterized it as “wonderful,” and called speculation that he and Cantor were jostling for power “nonsense.”

Cantor said he and Boehner worked well in the minority and in their new majority.

Then, during the summer, Boehner and Cantor were major players in the high-stakes negotiations on raising the debt ceiling.

According to an October profile of Cantor in New York magazine, the Virginia congressman, who had engaged in negotiations with Vice President Biden for weeks, was blind-sided when he learned from the chatty Democrat that Boehner had started private talks with Obama. The next day, Cantor walked away from the bipartisan, bicameral talks, throwing the negotiations into chaos.

Weeks later, tension between Boehner and Cantor intensified as Democrats adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy that sought to portray the Speaker as the adult in the House GOP.

The awkward tension prompted Boehner and Cantor to hold a news conference where the Speaker put his arm around the smiling majority leader.

“Let me just say, we have been in this fight together, and any suggestion that the role that Eric has played … has been anything less than helpful is just wrong,” Boehner said at the July briefing.

Republicans who know Cantor and Boehner acknowledge that the two men are not close, but attribute some of the conflict to problems between their staffs and their loyalists in the conference.

Boehner and Cantor do not hash out conflict — perceived or otherwise — face-to-face. Boehner, many members have said, is not a fan of personal confrontation, and he would oppose efforts to avenge his “shoddy” treatment by fellow GOP leaders, the Republican insider said.

Others attribute the leadership drama to mere differences of opinion.

For example, Boehner told his troops Monday that he wanted to find a way to “vote yes” on the payroll-tax cut to fend off critics who would accuse Republicans of being Grinch-like at Christmas time.

Cantor, however, advocated repeatedly for voting down the Senate’s amended package. That, he argued, would send a message that the House won’t accept a take-it-or-leave-it approach to governing, lawmakers said.

Boehner’s stance won out, as the House subsequently voted to move to conference, not technically kill the Senate legislation.

Still, rank-and-file members grumbled that Boehner could have avoided the entire dust-up — and other such incidents — if he wasn’t so concerned with “making everyone happy,” a GOP lawmaker told The Hill.

“John is a guy that leads by trying to get a consensus … ‘Is it OK if I do this? Is it OK if I do that?’ … But you can’t do that and be a leader,” the member said.

Sources close to Boehner said he did lead on the payroll-tax-cut extension when lawmakers in the conference were saying they wanted to let it expire, along with unemployment benefits.

“He said that anybody who thinks that the end of the year comes and we let the payroll tax expire is crazy,” one source said. “He said, ‘Listen, you don’t understand, this is going to be done and it’s just a question of how or when.’”

Some said Boehner and Cantor have let the tail wag the dog, criticizing their leadership of the volatile House GOP conference. These sources maintained that they should have cracked the whip and ordered the conference to accept the Senate measure.

But a GOP aide said such a move would have been politically impossible, noting that more than 50 House members railed against the Senate bill during Saturday’s call. And even though the argument against the two-month stopgap failed to connect with the public, GOP leaders and rank and file agreed that the policy is badly misguided.

Asked for comment on this article, Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said: “The leadership team worked together to resolve a very difficult issue in the best way for our team and the country.”

Cantor spokeswoman Laena Fallon refrained from commenting on any internal friction.

“House Republicans will always take a stand for lower taxes for middle-class families and small business people,” she told The Hill. “The fact that Republicans and Democrats are now agreeing on cutting taxes and cutting spending shows how much House Republicans have changed the culture in Washington. There’s more work to do.”

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/201249-gop-lawmakers-frustrated-with-boehner-cantor-soap-opera

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are being prodded by their House GOP colleagues to work through their battle-scarred relationship.

Republican lawmakers said they are frustrated with the perceived tension between the Speaker and his top lieutenant, especially heading into an election year that will bring a fierce battle with the Democrats for control of the House.

The stinging payroll-tax defeat has left many in the House GOP exasperated, with some publicly and privately questioning their leaders. A GOP insider said the tensions between Boehner and Cantor loyalists will reverberate into next year, and that the House Republican Conference could be in utter disarray in January and February.

Members are zeroing in on the Boehner-Cantor relationship, which has had its ups and downs.

At times, they have been together, effectively challenging President Obama and congressional Democrats. At other times, they have been divided and forced to address the perception that they are rivals.

Five days after House Republicans charged into the payroll-tax fight without much of a political strategy, Boehner conceded defeat during a news conference Thursday.

The Speaker appeared at the media briefing alone shortly after declaring surrender to rank-and-file members in a one-way call.

His solitary mea culpa spoke volumes, especially because several days prior, a GOP lawmaker implored the leadership to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with one another.

Several lawmakers told The Hill that Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) was one of the first members to speak at a nearly two-and-a-half-hour closed-door conference meeting Monday night, with a simple request: unity at the leadership table.

A member who attended the meeting paraphrased Cole’s remarks: “I’ll be with you from the first vote to the last one — the only thing I’m asking in return is that you guys be unified. I don’t want to read stories that suggest three of the leaders are on one side and the Speaker’s on the other … the leadership table is to resolve disputes, and if you guys can’t come to a unified decision there, we’ll never be a unified conference.”

Cole’s call for unity came after an angry, 90-minute conference call Saturday, during which GOP lawmakers attacked the Senate and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for returning an amended payroll-tax-cut bill to the House and then skipping town.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said: “I’ve been around here long enough to see the way things act. I was — I rarely use the word shocked — that the Senate would send us that piece of trash.”

As House Republicans battled their GOP counterparts in the Senate this week, they remained perplexed by the split in their own leadership.

According to various media reports based on a readout from a “source on the call,” Boehner, Cole and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) praised the two-month deal Saturday, while Cantor, House GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and House GOP conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) sided with the freshmen in ardent opposition.

Even though lawmakers loyal to Boehner and Cantor who participated in the call disputed that characterization, the reports caused a rift among lawmakers who questioned the motivations behind the leak.

“That’s outrageous because it’s not even true,” a Republican lawmaker told The Hill. “Tom Cole said at conference on Monday night: ‘To the person in this room who leaked … I don’t know which one of you it was, but if you are going to quote me as saying something … please get it right next time.’”

The version of events provided in the leak did not make Boehner look good, and he has repeatedly denied backing the Senate measure.

Sources said, however, that Boehner did imply on Saturday’s call that he wanted the temporary extension to move through the House.

“We have to pick our fights,” Boehner said, according to a Republican on the call.

The leak weakened Boehner’s hand because it appeared he was on an island battling against the rest of his leadership team.

According to a lawmaker familiar with the situation, Cantor privately denied that his office had anything to do with the leak.

The episode was the culmination of a year fraught with high-stakes legislative brinksmanship and different ideas on how to lead a conference antsy for change, amid deal-making with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

In the spring, news reports suggested there was daylight between Boehner and Cantor on the government showdown.

Both were asked about their relationship around that time in separate interviews on Fox News. Boehner characterized it as “wonderful,” and called speculation that he and Cantor were jostling for power “nonsense.”

Cantor said he and Boehner worked well in the minority and in their new majority.

Then, during the summer, Boehner and Cantor were major players in the high-stakes negotiations on raising the debt ceiling.

According to an October profile of Cantor in New York magazine, the Virginia congressman, who had engaged in negotiations with Vice President Biden for weeks, was blind-sided when he learned from the chatty Democrat that Boehner had started private talks with Obama. The next day, Cantor walked away from the bipartisan, bicameral talks, throwing the negotiations into chaos.

Weeks later, tension between Boehner and Cantor intensified as Democrats adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy that sought to portray the Speaker as the adult in the House GOP.

The awkward tension prompted Boehner and Cantor to hold a news conference where the Speaker put his arm around the smiling majority leader.

“Let me just say, we have been in this fight together, and any suggestion that the role that Eric has played … has been anything less than helpful is just wrong,” Boehner said at the July briefing.

Republicans who know Cantor and Boehner acknowledge that the two men are not close, but attribute some of the conflict to problems between their staffs and their loyalists in the conference.

Boehner and Cantor do not hash out conflict — perceived or otherwise — face-to-face. Boehner, many members have said, is not a fan of personal confrontation, and he would oppose efforts to avenge his “shoddy” treatment by fellow GOP leaders, the Republican insider said.

Others attribute the leadership drama to mere differences of opinion.

For example, Boehner told his troops Monday that he wanted to find a way to “vote yes” on the payroll-tax cut to fend off critics who would accuse Republicans of being Grinch-like at Christmas time.

Cantor, however, advocated repeatedly for voting down the Senate’s amended package. That, he argued, would send a message that the House won’t accept a take-it-or-leave-it approach to governing, lawmakers said.

Boehner’s stance won out, as the House subsequently voted to move to conference, not technically kill the Senate legislation.

Still, rank-and-file members grumbled that Boehner could have avoided the entire dust-up — and other such incidents — if he wasn’t so concerned with “making everyone happy,” a GOP lawmaker told The Hill.

“John is a guy that leads by trying to get a consensus … ‘Is it OK if I do this? Is it OK if I do that?’ … But you can’t do that and be a leader,” the member said.

Sources close to Boehner said he did lead on the payroll-tax-cut extension when lawmakers in the conference were saying they wanted to let it expire, along with unemployment benefits.

“He said that anybody who thinks that the end of the year comes and we let the payroll tax expire is crazy,” one source said. “He said, ‘Listen, you don’t understand, this is going to be done and it’s just a question of how or when.’”

Some said Boehner and Cantor have let the tail wag the dog, criticizing their leadership of the volatile House GOP conference. These sources maintained that they should have cracked the whip and ordered the conference to accept the Senate measure.

But a GOP aide said such a move would have been politically impossible, noting that more than 50 House members railed against the Senate bill during Saturday’s call. And even though the argument against the two-month stopgap failed to connect with the public, GOP leaders and rank and file agreed that the policy is badly misguided.

Asked for comment on this article, Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said: “The leadership team worked together to resolve a very difficult issue in the best way for our team and the country.”

Cantor spokeswoman Laena Fallon refrained from commenting on any internal friction.

“House Republicans will always take a stand for lower taxes for middle-class families and small business people,” she told The Hill. “The fact that Republicans and Democrats are now agreeing on cutting taxes and cutting spending shows how much House Republicans have changed the culture in Washington. There’s more work to do.”

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/201249-gop-lawmakers-frustrated-with-boehner-cantor-soap-opera

By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tenn |
Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:44pm EST

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making drunken and profanity-laced telephone threats to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor and his family.

Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican representative’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police and FBI.

Cantor’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” the documents said.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The congressman’s office issued his response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Xavier Briand)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-usa-congressman-threats-idUSTRE7BK1ZJ20111221

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is as frustrated as anyone about Congress’ failure to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut.

And he was even more annoyed after seeing photos of President Barack Obama shopping with the First Dog, Bo, as negotiations on the Hill were unraveling earlier this week.  So he offered the president a chance to sit down and talk, and he could bring Bo, too.

“I saw the president out yesterday doing his Christmas shopping. I saw he brought his dog with him. You know, we’re here. He could bring his dog up here. We are pet friendly. You know, again, it will not take a long time,” Cantor said. “We could probably resolve the differences within an hour.”

He thinks the negotiations would be a simple matter.

“Frankly, given where the parties are, there’s not a big difference between our positions,” Cantor said this morning. “It all comes down to [how it's] paid for, it’s the budgetary impact of the extension of this tax holiday.”

See his comments below:

© Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/cantor-obama-dog-bo/2011/12/22/id/421910

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misidentified the House majority leader. It is Eric Cantor.

There was no formal cease-fire.

Speaker John Boehner didn’t even call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to offer up his payroll-tax sword of surrender.

The great Christmas conflict over tax cuts ended at the staff level. Boehner’s chief of staff, Barry Jackson, cut the deal with Reid’s chief of staff, David Krone. If the weeklong tussle over a two-month or one-year extension of payroll taxes was over principle, the principal antagonist, Boehner, in the end, had neither the will nor the stomach to directly sue for peace.

Preordained since at least Tuesday, the only variable on the eventual House GOP retreat was timing. When. Not if. Republicans within leadership circles and those who used to be but now prowl K Street could smell defeat almost from the start. It reeked like reindeer road kill. House Republicans tried for two days to shift public opinion but were met by the Obama megaphone, which grew louder and more visually emphatic by the day.

The mechanics of the endgame commenced, in fact, right after President Obama stood with dozens of middle-class Americans who stood to lose–on average–$83 a month if the 2 percent payroll-tax cut expired on Jan. 1. Mere hours after a press event where they looked implacable and entrenched, Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met with the eight Republicans appointed to a nonexistent conference committee on the payroll-tax issue. They swiftly told Boehner to seek a deal with Reid.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., then called Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, to negotiate new language to smooth out implementation of the two-month payroll-tax-cut extension. The language was not controversial. Senate Democratic aides said if the issue had been raised by Senate Republicans, it would have been addressed when the bill was first drafted.

At roughly 2 p.m., Boehner set up a conference call with his leadership team and told them he would accept Reid’s demand for a two-month deal, with the new payroll-tax language. They agreed without complaint.

Jackson then called Krone, who readily accepted the contours of the GOP retreat. Krone checked with the Baucus staff and ran the deal past Reid. The majority leader accepted without hesitation, as his aides celebrated what they described as a “total cave.” Krone called Jackson back, and it was over.

Interestingly, it was the first time Jackson and Krone–who negotiated their way around near-miss government shutdowns and debt defaults–had spoken since Saturday. Previously, Jackson and Krone had inched their way through tough negotiations. This time, the retreat went from zero to 60 mph.

Boehner went through the motions of a conference call to “consult” House GOP lawmakers. But no one could speak up. It was a directive, not a conversation. That’s because at least 75 percent of the GOP conference had already surrendered back home, or were in the process of doing so. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., switched from full-fight to full-flee in roughly 48 hours. Another freshman, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., who came to Congress after starting on MTV’s Real World Boston in 1997,  also pleaded with Boehner to end the misery. When Republicans lose rural Arkansas the MTV generation on the same day, you know it’s over.

What’s next?

Boehner might say ruefully, an end to two-way conference calls with House Republicans (on Saturday, Boehner gingerly embraced the Senate bill expecting some favorable response–he got nothing but hot-headed denunciations).

In truth, Republicans now must lick their gaping, self-inflicted political wounds and plan for the coming debate over how to pay for the remaining 10-months of a payroll-tax extension, jobless benefits, and the so-called Medicare doc fix. The two-month package cost $31 billion, a 10-year price tag offset by new fines assessed to government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It will take other offsets to cover 10 months of the benefits Congress is about to improve. Amid the ruins of this tactical debacle on Thursday, stout-hearted Republicans hoped the debate over paying for the payroll-tax cut, jobless benefits, and doc fix with budget cuts might give them the high ground. Republicans say that Democrats have already given up on the millionaires’ surtax and with the two-month deal accepted the idea of assessing fees or finding other offsets to pay for these benefits.

If past is prologue, Democrats might find this a tricky debate. But Democrats may revive the millionaires’ surtax–and nothing from this debate would discourage them–and force Republicans back onto the terrain they found so politically uncomfortable.

In either case, Republicans better gird themselves for another battle over the payroll-tax cut and the prospect of inflicting higher taxes on 160 million taxpayers. That’s exactly the debate they didn’t want to repeat in February when they balked at the Senate deal in the first place. Horrible politics, they screamed at Boehner.

House Republicans have horrible politics squared. Now and two months from now–unless they figure out a way to balance the desire of taxpayers for a continuation of their payroll-tax cut against their desire to reduce the size and scope of government.

That failed once and visibly so. Unless House Republicans reverse that trend, February could look like Groundhog Day. Except it won’t be nearly as funny as Bill Murray’s version.

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Article source: http://nationaljournal.com/congress/behind-the-scenes-of-the-house-republicans-self-inflicted-wound-20111222

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. (Applause.) Please have a seat.  Good afternoon to all of you. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays.

We’ve been doing everything we can over the last few weeks to make sure that 160 million working Americans aren’t hit with a holiday tax increase on January 1st. We’ve also been doing everything we can to make sure that millions of people who are out there looking for work in a very tough environment don’t start losing their unemployment insurance on January 1st.

Now, on Saturday, we reached a bipartisan compromise that would do just that—make sure that people aren’t seeing a tax cut the first of the year; make sure that they still have unemployment insurance the first of the year.  Nearly every Democrat in the Senate voted for that compromise. Nearly every Republican in the Senate voted for that compromise. Democrats and even some Republicans in the House voted for that compromise. I am ready to sign that compromise into law the second it lands on my desk.

So far, the only reason it hasn’t landed on my desk—the only reason–is because a faction of House Republicans have refused to support this compromise.

Now, if you’re a family making about $50,000 a year, this is a tax cut that amounts to about $1,000 a year. That’s about 40 bucks out of every paycheck. It may be that there’s some folks in the House who refuse to vote for this compromise because they don’t think that 40 bucks is a lot of money. But anyone who knows what it’s like to stretch a budget knows that at the end of the week, or the end of the month, $40 can make all the difference in the world.

And that’s why we thought we’d bring your voices into this debate. So many of these debates in Washington end up being portrayed as which party is winning, which party is losing. But what we have to remind ourselves of is this is about people. This is about the American people and whether they win. It’s not about a contest between politicians.

So on Tuesday, we asked folks to tell us what would it be like to lose $40 out of your paycheck every week. And I have to tell you that the response has been overwhelming.  We haven’t seen anything like this before. Over 30,000 people have written in so far—as many as 2,000 every hour. We’re still hearing from folks–and I want to encourage everybody who’s been paying attention to this to keep sending your stories to WhiteHouse.gov and share them on Twitter and share them on Facebook.

The responses we’ve gotten so far have come from Americans of all ages and Americans of all backgrounds, from every corner of the country. Some of the folks who responded are on stage with me here today, and they should remind every single member of Congress what’s at stake in this debate. Let me just give you a few samples.  

Joseph from New Jersey talked about how he would have to sacrifice the occasional pizza night with his daughters.  He said—and I’m quoting–“My 16-year-old twins will be out of the house soon. I’ll miss this.”

Richard from Rhode Island wrote to tell us that having an extra $40 in his check buys enough heating oil to keep his family warm for three nights. In his words — I’m quoting — “If someone doesn’t think that 12 gallons of heating oil is important, I invite them to spend three nights in an unheated home. Or you can believe me when I say that it makes a difference.”

Pete from Wisconsin told us about driving more than 200 miles each week to keep his father-in-law company in a nursing home–$40 out of his paycheck would mean he’d only be able to make three trips instead of four.

We heard from a teacher named Claire from here in D.C. who goes to the thrift store every week and uses her own money to buy pencils and books for her fourth grade class. Once in a while she splurges on science or art supplies. Losing $40, she says, would mean she couldn’t do that anymore.

For others, $40 means dinner out with a child who’s home for Christmas, a new pair of shoes, a tank of gas, a charitable donation. These are the things at stake for millions of Americans. They matter to people. A lot.

And keep in mind that those are just the individual stories.That doesn’t account for the overall impact that a failure to extend the payroll tax cut and a failure to extend unemployment insurance would have on the economy as a whole. We’ve seen the economy do better over the last couple of months, but there’s still a lot of sources of uncertainty out there — what’s going on in Europe, what’s going on around the world.  And so this is insurance to make sure that our recovery continues.  

So it’s time for the House to listen to the voices who are up here, the voices all across the country, and reconsider. What’s happening right now is exactly why people just get so frustrated with Washington. This is it; this is exactly why people get so frustrated with Washington. This isn’t a typical Democratic-versus-Republican issue. This is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree. How can we not get that done? I mean, has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things we can’t do it? (Applause.) It doesn’t make any sense.

So, enough is enough. The people standing with me today can’t afford any more games. They can’t afford to lose $1,000 because of some ridiculous Washington standoff. The House needs to pass a short-term version of this compromise, and then we should negotiate an agreement as quickly as possible to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for the rest of 2012. It’s the right thing to do for the economy, and it’s, most importantly, the right thing to do for American families all across the country.

This is not just my view. Just a few hours ago, this is exactly what the Republican Leader of the Senate said we should do. Democrats agree with the Republican Leader of the Senate. We should go ahead and get this done. This should not be hard. We all agree it should happen. I believe it’s going to happen sooner or later. Why not make it sooner, rather than later? Let’s give the American people—the people who sent us here—the kind of leadership they deserve.  

Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)

Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/22/1047958/-President-Obama-renews-call-for-House-Republicans-to-approve-payroll-tax-cut

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misidentified the House majority leader. It is Eric Cantor.

There was no formal cease-fire.

Speaker John Boehner didn’t even call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to offer up his payroll-tax sword of surrender.

The great Christmas conflict over tax cuts ended at the staff level. Boehner’s chief of staff, Barry Jackson, cut the deal with Reid’s chief of staff, David Krone. If the weeklong tussle over a two-month or one-year extension of payroll taxes was over principle, the principal antagonist, Boehner, in the end, had neither the will nor the stomach to directly sue for peace.

Preordained since at least Tuesday, the only variable on the eventual House GOP retreat was timing. When. Not if. Republicans within leadership circles and those who used to be but now prowl K Street could smell defeat almost from the start. It reeked like reindeer road kill. House Republicans tried for two days to shift public opinion but were met by the Obama megaphone, which grew louder and more visually emphatic by the day.

The mechanics of the endgame commenced, in fact, right after President Obama stood with dozens of middle-class Americans who stood to lose–on average–$83 a month if the 2 percent payroll-tax cut expired on Jan. 1. Mere hours after a press event where they looked implacable and entrenched, Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met with the eight Republicans appointed to a nonexistent conference committee on the payroll-tax issue. They swiftly told Boehner to seek a deal with Reid.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., then called Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, to negotiate new language to smooth out implementation of the two-month payroll-tax-cut extension. The language was not controversial. Senate Democratic aides said if the issue had been raised by Senate Republicans, it would have been addressed when the bill was first drafted.

At roughly 2 p.m., Boehner set up a conference call with his leadership team and told them he would accept Reid’s demand for a two-month deal, with the new payroll-tax language. They agreed without complaint.

Jackson then called Krone, who readily accepted the contours of the GOP retreat. Krone checked with the Baucus staff and ran the deal past Reid. The majority leader accepted without hesitation, as his aides celebrated what they described as a “total cave.” Krone called Jackson back, and it was over.

Interestingly, it was the first time Jackson and Krone–who negotiated their way around near-miss government shutdowns and debt defaults–had spoken since Saturday. Previously, Jackson and Krone had inched their way through tough negotiations. This time, the retreat went from zero to 60 mph.

Boehner went through the motions of a conference call to “consult” House GOP lawmakers. But no one could speak up. It was a directive, not a conversation. That’s because at least 75 percent of the GOP conference had already surrendered back home, or were in the process of doing so. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., switched from full-fight to full-flee in roughly 48 hours. Another freshman, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., who came to Congress after starting on MTV’s Real World Boston in 1997,  also pleaded with Boehner to end the misery. When Republicans lose rural Arkansas the MTV generation on the same day, you know it’s over.

What’s next?

Boehner might say ruefully, an end to two-way conference calls with House Republicans (on Saturday, Boehner gingerly embraced the Senate bill expecting some favorable response–he got nothing but hot-headed denunciations).

In truth, Republicans now must lick their gaping, self-inflicted political wounds and plan for the coming debate over how to pay for the remaining 10-months of a payroll-tax extension, jobless benefits, and the so-called Medicare doc fix. The two-month package cost $31 billion, a 10-year price tag offset by new fines assessed to government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It will take other offsets to cover 10 months of the benefits Congress is about to improve. Amid the ruins of this tactical debacle on Thursday, stout-hearted Republicans hoped the debate over paying for the payroll-tax cut, jobless benefits, and doc fix with budget cuts might give them the high ground. Republicans say that Democrats have already given up on the millionaires’ surtax and with the two-month deal accepted the idea of assessing fees or finding other offsets to pay for these benefits.

If past is prologue, Democrats might find this a tricky debate. But Democrats may revive the millionaires’ surtax–and nothing from this debate would discourage them–and force Republicans back onto the terrain they found so politically uncomfortable.

In either case, Republicans better gird themselves for another battle over the payroll-tax cut and the prospect of inflicting higher taxes on 160 million taxpayers. That’s exactly the debate they didn’t want to repeat in February when they balked at the Senate deal in the first place. Horrible politics, they screamed at Boehner.

House Republicans have horrible politics squared. Now and two months from now–unless they figure out a way to balance the desire of taxpayers for a continuation of their payroll-tax cut against their desire to reduce the size and scope of government.

That failed once and visibly so. Unless House Republicans reverse that trend, February could look like Groundhog Day. Except it won’t be nearly as funny as Bill Murray’s version.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/behind-scenes-house-republicans-self-inflicted-wound-221839248.html

Posted: 5:50 PM
Updated: 6:19 PM

Republicans retreat, accept tax cut

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner says he has reached agreement with the Senate to renew the payroll tax cut before it expires Dec. 31.

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, right, and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., hold a meeting with the conference committee on the payroll tax cut on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AP

Related headlines

• McCain: Republican stance on payroll tax a mistake
• Collins, Snowe urge House GOP to pass tax cut
• McConnell: Extend tax cut short-term and long-term

The Ohio Republican said in a statement Thursday that he expects to pass a new bill by Christmas that would renew the tax break for two months while congressional negotiators work out a longer-term measure that would also extend jobless benefits for millions of Americans and prevent doctors from absorbing a big cut in Medicare payments.

The GOP retreat ends a tense standoff in which Boehner’s House Republicans came under intense pressure to agree to the short-term extension.

President Barack Obama welcomed the deal to extend the payroll tax cut and congratulated  Congress for ending its “partisan stalemate.”

The president issued a statement Thursday evening moments after House Speaker John Boehner announced that House Republicans were reversing course and accepting a two-month extension agreed to by the Senate and supported by the president.

Obama says the deal, which also extends unemployment benefits, is good news just in time for the holidays and the right thing to do for American families and the economy.

And he is thanking Americans who pressured Congress to get it done.

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(NECN/CNN: Emily Schmidt) – While American kids count down the hours until they check their stockings, the White House wants their parents to watch this clock: A website marking the number of hours until a payroll tax extension goes away – unless Washington works out a deal.

“Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when we agree we can’t get something done?”

President Obama said the workers behind him can’t afford to lose money due to what he called a “stupid Washington standoff.” The Senate passed a two-month extension to keep paychecks intact while negotiations continue. Obama blames the Republican-led House for the holdup.

Speaker John Boehner says it’s the other way around.

“Nothing can happen until we have someone to work with and negotiate with,” said Boehner.

Republican leaders say a two-month deal would just make things more uncertain, and estimate a solution could be simple.

“We could probably resolve the differences in an hour,” said Rep. Eric Cantor, Republican majority leader.

But at this point, it’s getting close to the 11th hour, with plenty of position-staking in front of the cameras and no publicly scheduled face-to-face meetings.

“The President isn’t sitting on the bipartisan bill,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Democratic party chair. “The bipartisan Senate bill is right here in the United States Congress.”

The White House says this all comes down to $40 – the amount the average American worker will lose from each paycheck if nothing is done. The changes hit Jan. 1 – the same day an election year begins.

Article source: http://www.necn.com/12/22/11/Eric-Cantor-We-could-probably-resolve-di/landing_politics.html?blockID=617576&feedID=4212

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Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 06:30 PM PST

House Republicans getting creamed in the payroll tax cut PR war

by Barbara MorrillFollow for Daily Kos

With higher taxes looming for 160 million Americans, it comes as no surprise to see House Republicans getting shellacked in the press. And deservedly so. Here’s just a few of the headlines that showcase their PR nightmare:

• CBS News: House GOP takes a political beating in payroll tax fight
• Fox News: Tax cut fight ends ugly year for Boehner
• ABC News: Capitol stand off: Republicans caving?
• CNN: Senate Republicans frustration mounting with House GOP
• Washington Post: How the Republicans lost the upper hand in payroll tax debate
• Atlanta Journal Constitution: House GOP has manuevered itself into a dead-end
• Chicago Tribune: In tax cut debate, a focus on Boehner’s leadership

And all of this because John Boehner doesn’t have the guts to buck the tea party base of the Republican Party, so screw the 160 million Americans who are going to see smaller paychecks next month.

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Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/21/1047704/-House-Republicans-getting-creamed-in-the-payroll-tax-cut-PR-war

A Lenoir City man has pleaded guilty to making drunken and profanity-laced telephone threats to Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader of the House, and his family. The man, Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted a prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the calls, according to court documents.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/us/tennessee-guilty-plea-in-threats-to-congressman.html

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Article source: http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-philadelphia/will-obama-bring-his-dog-to-capitol-hill

House Republicans want to work out a compromise with President Barack Obama about extending the payroll tax, but they can’t just offer to do so without a bit of snark. In a press conference Thursday morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republicans could work out a deal with President Barack Obama in about an hour to extend the middle-class tax break for another year, tweets CBS producer Jill Jackson. But Cantor couldn’t resist a jab at the president that just makes the Republican offer to compromise seem, well, not all that sincere. Real Clear Politics has some video and this quote:

“I saw the president out yesterday doing his Christmas shopping. I saw he brought his dog with him. You know, we’re here. He could bring his dog up here. We are pet friendly. You know, again, it will not take a long time,” Cantor said. “We could probably resolve the differences within an hour.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate (which passed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut already) are putting pressure on the house to get this done. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement Thursday saying, “there is no reason why Congress and the President cannot accomplish all of these things before the end of the year.” 

Related: Obama and Congress Are Not Getting Along Right Now

Related: Poll: More People Disapprove of Republicans in Stalled Debt Talks

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-republicans-think-obama-bo-could-payroll-tax-161431203.html

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making drunken and profanity-laced telephone threats to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor and his family.

Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican representative’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police and FBI.

Cantor’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” the documents said.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The congressman’s office issued his response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Xavier Briand)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-faces-prison-threats-senior-lawmaker-211013156.html

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making threatening drunken profanity-laced telephone calls to U.S. Congressman Eric Cantor, prompting the House majority leader to praise investigators on Wednesday.

Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican congressman’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by the Capitol Police and FBI.

The congressman’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” according to court documents.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The congressman’s office deferred to law enforcement about case details, but conveyed the congressman’s response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-man-faces-prison-threats-congressman-191556452.html

The arrogance of some American politicians and presidential candidates toward the Palestinians and Palestinian national aspirations is breathtaking. Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor stated, “If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.” He appeared to hold all Palestinians responsible for the violence of a few.

A man living in a glass home ought not to throw such stones. Cantor’s remarks ignored the fact that Americans engaged in genocidal violence and enslavement when establishing the United States of America. He vilifies a Palestinian “culture of resentment and hatred” yet says not a word about his own Richmond neighborhoods that still extol the virtues of Confederate leaders who fought to uphold slavery.

His words are clearly hypocritical and the hysterical vitriol of a man frightened by the fact that Palestinians are edging closer to freedom as more of the world begins to understand the cruelty of Israel’s subjugation of the Palestinians. His words do nothing to advance peace, and they allow too many Israelis to think they can use $3 billion annually in American taxpayers’ money to steal Palestinian land through military might.

Americans, I believe, are better than this. They support freedom for Arabs throwing off decades of repression with the Arab Spring, and I believe they will support Palestinians if told Palestinian stories of loss, hardship and suffering under Israeli occupation. Certainly most Americans already support the two-state solution more than Cantor, who excuses Israeli colonization of Palestinian land.

I, too, reject the Palestinian violence Cantor mentioned that is directed at Israeli civilians, but unlike Cantor I believe in strengthening nonviolent efforts to overcome Israeli domination. Cantor is perfectly content with such control. Furthermore, he regards Israeli violence as pure when, in fact, it has brought the deaths of far more Palestinian civilians than Palestinians have ever killed on the Israeli side.

But the over-the-top rhetoric does not stop with Cantor.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently claimed that we Palestinians are an “invented people.” And what, pray tell, are the Americans? Gingrich’s people are every bit as invented, perhaps more, as they come from every corner of the globe. Good for the Americans. But don’t disparage us and try to kill our freedom aspirations.

Thomas Friedman wrote recently that Gingrich seems to think Israel’s “choices are: 1) to permanently deprive the West Bank Palestinians of Israeli citizenship and put Israel on the road to apartheid; 2) to evict the West Bank Palestinians through ethnic cleansing and put Israel on the road to the International Criminal Court in the Hague; or 3) to treat the Palestinians in the West Bank as citizens, just like Israeli Arabs, and lay the foundation for Israel to become a binational state.”

Rather than throw rhetorical bombs, Gingrich should study the dispossession of more than 700,000 Palestinians that occurred immediately before and after the creation of Israel in 1948. These Palestinians have never been allowed to return to homes and lands from which they fled or were expelled.

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, speaking earlier this month at the Republican Jewish Coalition forum, asserted there would be “no right of return to Israel for Palestinian so-called refugees.” Palestinian private property rights mean little to nothing to her.

Democrats, however, give no indication they will be any better. They surely knew they were misrepresenting the Republican position when they argued a Republican president would jeopardize aid to Israel.

Rather than raise fundamental questions about the discriminatory legislation right-wing Israeli politicians are enacting, the two parties squabble over “pro-Israel” bona fides.

It is a recipe for disaster. Americans will awaken one day and realize they can no longer ignore the bigotry gripping Israel. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already complained about Israeli buses, which require Jewish women to sit at the back. Notably, she did not comment on the Palestinian Freedom Riders arrested on the edge of occupied East Jerusalem. And scarcely a word is said in the United States about legislation that allows hundreds of communities in the Negev and Galilee to discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel who might want to move there.

American politicians can use their free speech to taunt Palestinians and inflame tensions in the region or they can think sensibly about what they would do were they oppressed and dispossessed by Israel. My fear in this campaign season is that it will only get worse and the winner will be confronted with a Palestinian people who have zero confidence that the president will treat them fairly and be willing to press Israel to end the occupation. Consequently, the America that was once respected around the world is increasingly reviled in the Middle East for backing Israeli domination rather than Palestinian freedom.

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/oped/2011/dec/22/tdopin02-tibi-world-beginning-to-understand-palest-ar-1560551/

Tim Ghianni

Reuters

1:18 p.m. CST, December 21, 2011

Article source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-tennessee-threatstre7bk1qj-20111221,0,909565.story

Washington’s new impasse could ironically lead to a gift of sanity as the House Tea Party is finally revealed for the berserk faction it has been all year, holding the nation hostage to a scorched-government ideology.

Senate Republicans, after passing a short-term payroll tax extension by 89 to 10, are outdoing the President in denouncing them for “harming the view, if it’s possible anymore, of the American people about Congress” (John McCain), “playing politics” (Scott Brown) and thinking of “political leverage, not about what’s good for the American people” (Dean Heller, who replaced John Ensign in Nevada).

Speaker John Boehner is the public face of GOP irrationality, but he is clearly trapped by his own deputy, Eric Cantor, the leader of what the No.2 House Democrat describes as a “walk-away caucus…walking away from 160 million Americans.”

For a long time, from the Health Care Summit last year to the debt-ceiling debacle that scuttled Boehner’s Grand Bargain with the President this summer, Cantor has been at the head of those holding the Speaker himself hostage.

Now, he attacks Senate Republicans by charging that “the people of this country are beginning to wonder about the body on the other side of this Capitol and are wondering what the leader over there has against the middle class of this country.”

Cantor has been picking fights with the President for two years now in his delusion that he will replace Boehner someday, but now he is taking on his own party as well.

MORE.

Article source: http://themoderatevoice.com/132739/is-eric-cantor-running-the-country/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, said Wednesday that the House and Senate were “not very far apart” on payroll tax holiday extension talks when discussions broke up.

“Very narrow differences” remain, Cantor said, urging senators to return to negotiations.

The Senate passed a two-month extension with bipartisan approval. The House on Tuesday rejected the Senate position and asked for a conference, setting up a stalemate that continued late Wednesday.

The tax holiday is slated to expire on Jan. 1 and trigger a tax increase for 160 million Americans.

Cantor said there’s an opportunity to resolve differences if senators would return to Washington to work.

“The fact that the president will say, ‘Well, the 60-day position is the only thing that can get done at this point,’ is only valid if you assume that the Senate doesn’t want to come back to work.”

Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-3rd, was among House members supporting the Senate measure, saying the payroll tax holiday “benefits working Americans and stimulates the economy.”

“My Republican colleagues in Congress believe that this bill will create uncertainty for families, doctors, and businesses, and they cite this uncertainty as one of their primary reasons to reject this legislation,” Scott said in a statement.

“They fail to recognize, however, that by rejecting this bill, this uncertainty will now begin not in two months, but in less than two weeks.”

The majority of House Republicans rejected the Senate measure, but Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, the dean of the Virginia congressional delegation, was one of seven GOP members to vote against rejecting the Senate bill and starting a conference committee.

Wolf objected to the tax holiday — and now its potential extension — for its impact on the Social Security Trust Fund.

“Granting another tax holiday is unwise,” he said in a statement. “It puts the existing benefits of those 55 million Americans who currently receive Social Security at risk to continue a failed ‘stimulus’ policy.”

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-news/2011/dec/22/tdmain04-cantor-cites-very-narrow-differences-on-p-ar-1560903/

NASHVILLE, Tenn — A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making drunken and profanity-laced telephone threats to U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor and his family.

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Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican representative’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police and FBI.

Cantor’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” the documents said.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The congressman’s office issued his response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45756360

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Tim Ghianni, Reuters) – A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making threatening drunken profanity-laced telephone calls to U.S. Congressman Eric Cantor, prompting the House majority leader to praise investigators on Wednesday.

Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican congressman’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by the Capitol Police and FBI.

The congressman’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” according to court documents.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The congressman’s office deferred to law enforcement about case details, but conveyed the congressman’s response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

Click for Restrictions.

Also on HuffPost:

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/eric-cantor-glendon-swift_n_1163561.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, said Wednesday that the House and Senate were “not very far apart” on payroll tax holiday extension talks when discussions broke up.

“Very narrow differences” remain, Cantor said, urging senators to return to negotiations.

The Senate passed a two-month extension with bipartisan approval. The House on Tuesday rejected the Senate position and asked for a conference, setting up a stalemate that continued late Wednesday.

The tax holiday is slated to expire on Jan. 1 and trigger a tax increase for 160 million Americans.

Cantor said there’s an opportunity to resolve differences if senators would return to Washington to work.

“The fact that the president will say, ‘Well, the 60-day position is the only thing that can get done at this point,’ is only valid if you assume that the Senate doesn’t want to come back to work.”

Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-3rd, was among House members supporting the Senate measure, saying the payroll tax holiday “benefits working Americans and stimulates the economy.”

“My Republican colleagues in Congress believe that this bill will create uncertainty for families, doctors, and businesses, and they cite this uncertainty as one of their primary reasons to reject this legislation,” Scott said in a statement.

“They fail to recognize, however, that by rejecting this bill, this uncertainty will now begin not in two months, but in less than two weeks.”

The majority of House Republicans rejected the Senate measure, but Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, the dean of the Virginia congressional delegation, was one of seven GOP members to vote against rejecting the Senate bill and starting a conference committee.

Wolf objected to the tax holiday — and now its potential extension — for its impact on the Social Security Trust Fund.

“Granting another tax holiday is unwise,” he said in a statement. “It puts the existing benefits of those 55 million Americans who currently receive Social Security at risk to continue a failed ‘stimulus’ policy.”

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2011/dec/22/tdmain04-cantor-cites-very-narrow-differences-on-p-ar-1560903/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, said today that the House and Senate were “not far apart” on payroll tax holiday extension talks when discussions stopped.

“Very narrow differences” remain, Cantor said, urging senators to return to negotiations for an extension longer than the two months that won bipartisan approval in the Senate.

House Republicans on Tuesday rejected the Senate position, setting up a stalemate that continued this afternoon.

President Barack Obama today called House and Senate leaders to discuss the tax holiday, which is slated to expire on Jan. 1 and trigger a tax increase for 160 million Americans.

Obama urged House Speaker John Boehner to take up the compromise passed in the Senate. He reiterated a commitment to work with Congress to extend the tax cut for the entire year but said the Senate’s short-term compromise “is the only option to ensure that middle class families aren’t hit with a tax hike in 10 days and gives both sides the time needed to work out a full year solution,” according to a readout from the White House.

Cantor said there’s an opportunity to resolve differences if senators would return to Washington to work.

“I think everybody agrees with the House position that it ought to be a year’s extension of the payroll tax holiday,” he said.

“The fact that the president will say, ‘Well, the 60-day position is the only thing that can get done at this point’, is only valid if you assume that the Senate doesn’t want to come back to work.”

Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-3rd, was among House members supporting the Senate measure, saying the payroll tax holiday “benefits working Americans and stimulates the economy.”

“My Republican colleagues in Congress believe that this bill will create uncertainty for families, doctors, and businesses, and they cite this uncertainty as one of their primary reasons to reject this legislation,” Scott said in a statement. “They fail to recognize, however, that by rejecting this bill, this uncertainty will now begin not in two months, but in less than two weeks.”

The majority of House Republicans rejected the Senate measure, but Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, the dean of the Virginia congressional delegation, was one of seven Republicans to vote against rejecting the Senate bill. He objects to the tax holiday’s potential impact on the Social Security Trust Fund.

“This ‘holiday’ is a raid on Social Security, which is already going broke,” Wolf said in a statement.

“Granting another tax holiday is unwise. It puts the existing benefits of those 55 million Americans who currently receive Social Security at risk to continue a failed ‘stimulus’ policy.”

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2011/dec/21/cantor-cites-narrow-differences-on-payroll-tax-hol-ar-1560491/

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Tim Ghianni, Reuters) – A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making threatening drunken profanity-laced telephone calls to U.S. Congressman Eric Cantor, prompting the House majority leader to praise investigators on Wednesday.

Glendon Swift, 64, pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening a family member of a federal official and accepted prosecutor’s recommendation for a 13-month prison sentence for the October 27 calls, according to court documents. He was arrested November 2.

Swift, who lives in Lenoir City outside Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Republican congressman’s suburban Richmond, Virginia, offices, threatening Cantor and his family and prompting an investigation by the Capitol Police and FBI.

The congressman’s staff saved recordings of the calls. They included derogatory comments about Cantor’s Jewish faith and threats to “destroy” him, according to court documents.

Swift admitted it was his voice on recordings and told FBI agents he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,” according to court documents.

According to the FBI, the profanity-laced remarks included, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift pleaded guilty in federal court in Knoxville. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The congressman’s office deferred to law enforcement about case details, but conveyed the congressman’s response via email.

“Leader Cantor appreciates the dedicated service of law enforcement and the U.S. Capitol police for their continued efforts to keep members of Congress and their families safe,” spokeswoman Laena Fallon said.

Sentencing has been set for April 4.

Click for Restrictions.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/eric-cantor-glendon-swift_n_1163561.html

OK, Dave. Just a clean vote up or down on the extension. Nothing else tied into the legislation, that is clearly irrelevant to the extension. (You know, ancillary stuff like the big pipeline, ending environment pollution laws, etc.)

If the Republicans truly favor a one-year extenson, then just do it. No tie-barring the legislation to some of your other ‘pet projects.” Of course, you won’t do that, so that means that you and your party are just a bunch of HYPOCRITES!

But we already knew that about you, Dave.

Article source: http://www.mlive.com/midland/index.ssf/2011/12/rep_dave_camp_of_midland_urges_democrats_to_extend_payroll_tax_relief.html

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Tuesday to making threats in profanity-laced voice mails left at U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.

Glendon Swift, 64, of Lenoir City pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening a family member of a federal official. In return, prosecutors said they would recommend a 13-month sentence. Swift could have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 4. Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt, declined comment.

An FBI affidavit shows the 64-year-old Swift left two messages at the Republican leader’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27, threatening to “destroy” the congressman, making derogatory references to Cantor being Jewish and making threats against family members. The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/20/4136186/guilty-plea-for-nasty-rep-cantor.html

Article source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/12/21/eric_cantor_counters_the_journal

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A House-Senate deal to extend the payroll-tax cut for one year isn’t far off, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Wednesday. Speaking on CNBC, he said there aren’t “big differences” between the two chambers, but as of Wednesday morning Senate Democrats had not appointed negotiators to work on a compromise. Payroll taxes will jump to 6.2% of earnings from 4.2% on Jan. 1 if Congress doesn’t act.

Read the full story:

Tax increase looms as standoff intensifies

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/payroll-tax-cut-deal-not-far-off-rep-cantor-says-2011-12-21?link=MW_story_latest_news

Sheesh!  I am just totally awed.  Eric Cantor (Is that how you spell his name?  Could it be Erich instead?) has spoken. 

This morning on MSNBC, Eric Cantor, defending a hijacked-by-Tea-Party Republican Congress, urged the president of the United States to find some common ground with Republicans regarding the Republican Congress’s measly, whiny, Republicrap “gimmick” on the extension of the much-ballyhooed payroll tax cut. 

All Eric Cantor—a white man—wants is for the President to sign-off on about 40 dozen “tricky” riders attached to a simple, common sense tax cut.  Surely Grover Norquist is rolling-over in his grave. 

Norquist’s dead, isn’t he?  Shoot.  I never get the news on important developments in terms of Washington Republicraps who’ve got their balls tied-up in little bows by some creep who, because he inherited the Polaroid fortune, thinks he can dictate a “no tax” agenda for the entire country.  Gee.  I feel really stupid.  When’s Grover’s funeral?

Can you say “demagogue”???

But enough of Grover, the man named after one of the Muppets.  This column is about Eric Cantor telling us all about “common ground”. 

Now, before I say anything about my opinion on “common ground”, I want everyone to know that I’m pro-Jew, but anti-Israel.  Anti-Israel?  Why so? 

Oh, that question’s easy to answer.  The Israelis seem to think they can run a theocratic fascist regime just like the Nazis and no one will ever notice.  This is where “common ground” comes in.  After all, the Israelis, who got an entire country simply given to them on a silver platter after experiencing horrible oppression from the Germans before and during World War II, are acting just like the Germans in how they treat the Palestinian people. 

Go ahead.  Call me an anti-Semite for speaking my mind.  I’m not anti-Semetic.  I know a number of Semites and find them to be responsible, dutiful, charitable, kind, intelligent and even funny.  Adam Sandler, for instance.  I just love his just-gimme-some-candy routine when it plays on reruns of Saturday Night Live. 

My problem is that Eric Cantor, who is so snarky and arrogant it seems to be written all over his face most of the time, seems to be trying to be a comedian with all this blather about common ground. 

Israel is here, Palestinians aren’t here.  Nope.  They’re there.  In Gaza.  Under a blockade.  Palestinian kids throw rocks at Israeli soldiers, and then the descendants of people who suffered horribly during the Holocaust shoot them.  They shoot kids.  Kids.  Human beings. 

For me and me alone, this speaks volumes about the so-called Jewish charge to serve as examples and teachers for the rest of the human race.  Common ground?  Are you kidding? 

Virginia Representative Eric Cantor is so concerned about common ground that he sits in a multi-million dollar mansion—while telling Virginia flood victims that it’s up to them, not the government, to help them rebuild their lives.  Is that common ground?  Seems awfully swampy to me. 

I have openly asked Eric Cantor to do something/anything regarding “unnecessary expenses” so that Americans can be assured the Republicans are doing something about the deficit.  What have I asked?  It’s not much, really.  It’s just plain as peach pie that America needs to quit sending Israel that whopping $119 billion a year in foreign aid. 

The US is currently boycotting Cuba, for example, because the Cuban government continues to act-out and imprison people.  But when Israel does the same thing, the US rolls-out the royal carpet and treats the Israeli government, which is right-wing to an excessive degree, like kings.  That’s not right.  We need to be consistent regarding whom we boycott and whom we reward with our largesse. 

Eric Cantor seems to have a problem with his hearing.  He really oughta get his ears checked-out.  He’s missing the obvious, and every time I see those poor Palestinian kids, angry that their country was taken away from them, getting shot at for expressing their feelings, I feel sick.  Common ground, Eric.  Does it sicken you too? 

It should sicken you, Eric.  I’ve long admired the Jews.  I got beat-up by a kid once because I defended the Jews.  I told this kid, a relative stranger, that I was proud the Israelis whopped-ass in the 1967 war.  I didn’t know until I had a black eye that the kid’s uncle was the ruler of Jordan. 

Yes, I’ve taken my blows for the Jews.  So let’s make a deal, Eric.  You remove all those smarmy riders from a simple payroll tax-cut bill and I’ll quit pointing-out that the Israeli government should be extremely ashamed of itself for bullying right, good people who, like Americans did in 1776, are fighting for a nation.

You should think of that sometime, Eric Cantor.  Knock that chip off your shoulder and get back to work. 

Article source: http://open.salon.com/blog/gordon_hilgers/2011/12/21/eric_cantor_speaks_on_common_ground

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Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tn-man-pleads-guilty-to-leaving-threatening-voice-mails-at-house-majority-leaders-office/2011/12/20/gIQAiWXl7O_story.html?wprss=rss_national

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An East Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to making threats in profanity-laced voice mails left at U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.

Glendon Swift of Lenoir City entered the plea at a federal hearing Tuesday in Knoxville. Swift changed his plea to guilty in return for prosecutors recommending a 13-month sentence. Sentencing is set April 4.

Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt, declined comment.

An FBI affidavit shows the 64-year-old Swift left two messages at the Republican leader’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27, threatening to “destroy” the congressman and making derogatory references to Cantor being Jewish.

The calls were traced to Swift’s cell phone.

Article source: http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/Guilty_plea_in_telephone_message_at_Cantor_office_135976613.html

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia talks about today’s move by the House to block a two-month extension of an expiring payroll tax cut that was approved by the Senate. In a 229-193 vote, the House requested formal negotiations with the Senate. Democratic leaders have said they won’t discuss a year-long agreement until the short-term deal is completed.
Cantor speaks with Bloomberg’s Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves with Deirdre Bolton.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/83119284/

Glendon Swift, 62, of Lenoir City, pleaded guilty Tuesday to making threats against U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and his family.

Swift plead guilty in the Eastern District of Tennessee to threatening a family member of a federal official. The defense and government jointly recommended in the plea agreement a prison sentence of 13 months. He will be formally sentenced on April 4, 2012.

According to court documents, an unknown man left two voicemail messages with Rep. Cantor’s Glen Allen, Va., office the evening of Oct. 27. The screaming, profanity-laden messages stated the caller was going to destroy Rep. Cantor, rape his daughter and kill his wife.

Swift was identified as the individual.

More in Wednesday’s edition.

Article source: http://www.oakridger.com/features/x1658267051/Man-pleads-guilty-to-threats-against-lawmaker-family

A Tennessee man pled guilty Tuesday to charges of making threats against Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his family, citing his Jewishness and saying that he was going to kill the lawmaker’s wife and daughter, according to the Associated Press.

Glendon Swift, 64, left two messages at the Republican leader’s Richmond, Va., office, promising to “destroy” the congressman, making insulting references to Cantor’s Jewish background, and threatening his family.

Continue Reading

In one disturbing voice-mail, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?” reports the wire service.

The calls were traced to Swift’s cell phone, and he later admitted to the FBI that he had threatened the congressman, saying he had gotten drunk and “started cussing people out,” according to the AP.

In return for pleading guilty, prosecutors said that they would recommend that Swift serve a 13-month sentence. The Tennessee man faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70740.html

Updated 3:51 p.m. ET

The Republican-led House today rejected a Senate-passed bill that would extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months.

The vote was 229-193. The tax cut and unemployment benefits expire Dec. 31.

“The bottom line is a two-month patch is irresponsible. That’s why the House is taking a stand,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said on the floor prior to the vote.

BLOG:  Obama blasts GOP

COLUMN:  Boehner speaks out

If the benefits expire at the end of the year, 160 million Americans will see a tax increase while about 2.2 million long-term unemployed will see their benefits disappear. Medicare payments to physicians also will drop, raising concerns that doctors will limit their care to seniors.

House Republicans voted to move to formal negotiations with the Senate to resolve the differences between their two bills. The House has passed a one-year extension, while the Senate approved the short-term deal over the weekend.

The move to open formal negotiations is complicated since the Senate already has adjourned for the year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had expected the House to pass the short-term fix.

“There’s no reason the House, the Senate and the president cannot spend the next two weeks working to get (a deal) done,” Cantor said, calling on the Senate to return to Washington.

The White House blamed Republicans for the stalemate.

“The shenanigans of the last 48 hours from the House GOP leadership are why 43% of Americans think this is the worst Congress in history,” tweeted White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

While House Republicans argued before the vote that their approach is better in terms of legislative process and economic policy, Democrats focused on the real-time impact on millions of Americans. They warned that the GOP strategy could have political repercussions.

“You are jeopardizing the lives of millions of taxpayers, millions of the unemployed, and millions of seniors,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. “You are creating the possibility of immense discord within the United States of America.”

In a play on the holiday season, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., held up a stocking and a piece of coal on the House floor. “Remember the lump of coal in November of 2012, folks. (Republicans) gave it to you.”

(Contributing: David Jackson)

Article source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/12/house-payroll-tax-cut-vote-john-boehner-/1

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Shortly after House Republicans rejected the Senate’s bipartisan, two-month extension of the payroll tax break, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Tuesday that he and the overwhelming majority of House Republicans are united behind Speaker John Boehner’s call for further negotiations.

“John Boehner and I have always been together in saying we want a year’s worth of tax relief for the working people in this country. Our conference is overwhelmingly behind this sense, that it is a much better path to make sure that we give some certainty to the working people,” Cantor said, responding to MSNBC guest host Chris Cillizza’s question about whether Boehner had lost control of his conference.

Continue Reading

Cantor repeatedly avoided questions about why the House did not hold a straight up or down vote on the two-month extension – and he instead put the onus on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring the Senate back to hammer out a longer-term deal.

“We’re now looking to see that Harry Reid does his job and the Senate come back to town, because what is now the case is the papers, the actual bill itself, is back in the Senate and in the Senate’s hands,” Cantor said.

The Republican Majority Leader said that a two-month extension would not provide enough certainty for families, and that Republicans were focused on getting a one-year extension.

“We want to sit down right now. We believe there is common ground on this issue and can provide some certainty in a full year’s worth of tax relief for the working taxpayers of this country,” Cantor said.

Cantor said that Harry Reid’s statement that he didn’t intend to appoint conferees to negotiate a deal was an obstructionist move.

“We’re not saying ‘my way or the highway.’ It’s Harry Reid now that’s saying ‘my way or the highway’ and is obstructing this process,” he said.

Earlier, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the two-month extension, 89-10. On Tuesday, the House effectively rejected the Senate bill, 229-193.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70702.html

In 2012, Yahoo! News will tell the nation’s story through the experiences and views of real Americans like you. Watch the first Remake America video »

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/guilty-plea-nasty-rep-cantor-phone-messages-223640861.html

In 2012, Yahoo! News will tell the nation’s story through the experiences and views of real Americans like you. Watch the first Remake America video »

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/tenn-man-pleads-guilty-threatening-rep-cantor-232813786.html

House of Representatives – POLITICS

Published December 20, 2011

| Associated Press

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  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor answers questions from reporters Oct. 3 on Capitol Hill.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. –  A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Tuesday to making threats in profanity-laced voice mails left at U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.

Glendon Swift, 64, of Lenoir City pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening a family member of a federal official. In return, prosecutors said they would recommend a 13-month sentence. Swift could have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 4. Swift’s attorney, federal public defender Jonathan Moffatt, declined comment.

An FBI affidavit shows the 64-year-old Swift left two messages at the Republican leader’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27, threatening to “destroy” the congressman, making derogatory references to Cantor being Jewish and making threats against family members. The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

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Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/20/tennessee-man-pleads-guilty-to-threatening-house-majority-leader-cantor/

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Article source: http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/payroll-tax-cantor/2011/12/20/id/421533

A Tennessee man could spend 13 months in prison after he pleaded guilty today to threatening to destroy Virginia congressman Eric Cantor and kill and rape members of his family.

Glendon Swift, 62, of Lenoir City, Tenn., made the plea in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The defense and government jointly recommended a prison sentence of 13 months. Swift will be formally sentenced on April 4.

Court records state that someone left two voicemail messages on the answering machine at Cantor’s Glenn Allen ofice on Oct. 27. The man was screaming that he was going to destroy Cantor, rape his daughter and kill his wife. An FBI agent’s report states that the caller also screamed slurs at Cantor, who is Jewish. Both calls together were about five minutes. A staff member heard the messages and contacted the U.S. Capitol Police, who sought the help of the FBI to identify and find the caller.       

Authorities quickly identified Swift as the caller and he was arrested Nov. 2 after police interviewed him.

According to the Huffington Post, Swift told an FBI agent that he got drunk and started cussing at people, but although he admitted to calling Cantor, he did not remember making any threats.

If the jointly recommended sentence is not accepted, Swift faces up to 10 years in prison.

Cantor has been threatened before. Norman LeBoon, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

Article source: http://fredericksburg.patch.com/articles/tennessee-man-guilty-of-phone-threats-against-eric-cantor

Shortly after House Republicans rejected the Senate’s bipartisan, two-month extension of the payroll tax break, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Tuesday that he and the overwhelming majority of House Republicans are united behind Speaker John Boehner’s call for further negotiations.

“John Boehner and I have always been together in saying we want a year’s worth of tax relief for the working people in this country. Our conference is overwhelmingly behind this sense, that it is a much better path to make sure that we give some certainty to the working people,” Cantor said, responding to MSNBC guest host Chris Cillizza’s question about whether Boehner had lost control of his conference.

Continue Reading

Cantor repeatedly avoided questions about why the House did not hold a straight up or down vote on the two-month extension – and he instead put the onus on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring the Senate back to hammer out a longer-term deal.

“We’re now looking to see that Harry Reid does his job and the Senate come back to town, because what is now the case is the papers, the actual bill itself, is back in the Senate and in the Senate’s hands,” Cantor said.

The Republican Majority Leader said that a two-month extension would not provide enough certainty for families, and that Republicans were focused on getting a one-year extension.

“We want to sit down right now. We believe there is common ground on this issue and can provide some certainty in a full year’s worth of tax relief for the working taxpayers of this country,” Cantor said.

Cantor said that Harry Reid’s statement that he didn’t intend to appoint conferees to negotiate a deal was an obstructionist move.

“We’re not saying ‘my way or the highway.’ It’s Harry Reid now that’s saying ‘my way or the highway’ and is obstructing this process,” he said.

Earlier, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the two-month extension, 89-10. On Tuesday, the House effectively rejected the Senate bill, 229-193.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70702.html

By Laura Meckler

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney isn’t giving up yet on a House vote expected late tonight over payroll taxes.

“I was told that it was impossible for the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Green Bay Packers,” said Mr. Carney, alluding to the Chiefs’ upset victory Sunday.

President Barack Obama wants to extend a payroll tax cut into next year.

House Republican leaders have said they will reject a two-month extension passed by the Senate on Saturday in an 89-10 vote.

House GOP leaders said they would hold out for a full-year extension, which the White House says it wants too. The problem is the parties can’t agree how to pay for the longer cut.

“We’ve got to start working together,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said on CNN.

The White House is portraying House Republicans as resisting a tax cut for the middle class, while the Republicans say they’re trying to make the nation live within its means.

In a bit of political theater, the White House updated an electronic clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the payroll tax cut expires. The banner’s sign originally warned that taxes go up if “Congress doesn’t act.” Now, “Congress” has been crossed out, replaced by “the House.”

Article source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/12/19/white-house-girds-for-late-night-vote-on-taxes/

Democrats, however, imagining the political wind at their backs, have said they would not return to the Capitol to negotiate further until the House passed the short-term bill, one that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, negotiated and voted for, along with 38 other Republican senators on Saturday.

The House had been planning to vote on the two-month payroll tax bill on Monday night. But after a two-hour meeting of their caucus, House Republican leaders postponed the floor debate and the vote to Tuesday.

“The votes will take place tomorrow in the light of day,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 House Republican.

 However, rather than have a straight up-or-down vote, the House will implement a procedural maneuver in which they will “reject” the Senate bill while requesting to go to conference with members of that chamber in a single measure, protecting House members from having to actually vote against extending a payroll tax cut. During the conference meeting among Republican members, some members expressed concern about effectively voting for a tax increase on the eve of an election year, said some who attended. 

As the House readied itself for what was certain to be a raucous floor fight over both the bill and the method that will now be used to bring it to the floor, it was increasingly unclear Tuesday whether the tax cuts would be extended for 160 million workers and whether millions of unemployed Americans would continue to get jobless benefits next year.

Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said he was confident that he had the votes to reject the Senate version of the bill.

The standoff leaves Mr. Boehner ending the year exactly where he began, in the middle of a nasty fiscal fight with Senate Democrats and his conservative freshmen in revolt, making it difficult to find a middle ground between mollifying his conference and coming up with legislation to avert disaster. But Mr. Boehner said repeatedly on Monday that he believed a deal for a one-year extension could still be struck, even with the Senate essentially adjourned for the year and the tax break set to expire on Jan. 1.

“I don’t believe the differences are that significant that we can’t do this for a whole year,” Mr. Boehner said. “Why punt this until the end of February when we can just do this now and get it over with?”

Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, urged Mr. Boehner to allow an up-or-down vote.  “With millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, it would be unconscionable for Speaker Boehner to block a bipartisan agreement that would protect middle-class families from the thousand-dollar tax increase looming on January first,” Mr. Reid said in a statement.

A core group of conservative House members, many of them newcomers who provided the Republican majority, have balked all year at short-term spending agreements, including proposed legislation to raise the debt ceiling and bills to increase disaster funding. 

“We are witnessing the concluding convulsion of confrontation and obstruction in the most unproductive, Tea Party-dominated partisan session of the Congress — the most partisan of which I have participated,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, said during a news briefing on Monday. He has served in Congress for three decades.

The impasse began over the weekend when House Republicans said they would reject the Senate measure, which passed 89 to 10. It would, for two months, extend the payroll tax cut, continue unemployment benefits and prevent a cut in fees paid to doctors who accept Medicare, and would allow lawmakers and the White House time to work out their differences on how to pay for a yearlong extension.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 19, 2011

A previous version of this article misstated the vote in the Senate on Saturday on a bill to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months; the bill passed 89 to 10, not 89 to 19.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/us/politics/house-set-to-vote-down-payroll-tax-cut-extension.html

In congressional tug-of-war, doc-pay fix still in flux

<!–by Jessica Zigmond–>
By Jessica Zigmond

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday said the nation’s doctors don’t need more uncertainty, but that’s just what physicians are getting from Congress.

Later today, the House will vote to accept or a reject a Senate-amended version of a payroll tax cut bill that the lower chamber passed last week.

For the nation’s healthcare providers, the legislation is significant for including measures that affect Medicare payments to physicians, as well as several extensions to healthcare provisions that are set to expire by year’s end. The House version calls for a $38.9 billion, two-year fix to the sustainable growth rate, or SGR, formula that would provide a 1% payment update to the nation’s doctors in 2011 and 2013. Meanwhile, the Senate’s amended version of that bill would freeze payments to physicians until Feb. 29.

When asked if House members are considering removal of the SGR language from the Senate-amended bill and voting on the SGR measure separately, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a physician, said, “there are all sorts of discussions about what our posture should be and get the Senate to move in a positive direction.” Price noted that House conferees will convene at 6 p.m. Eastern time, before any votes. Earlier in the day, Cantor was resolute about the House’s position to extend the payroll tax holiday for longer than is called for in the Senate bill.

“We are going to stay here and do our work until we guarantee that no one faces a tax increase in the year ahead,” Cantor said in a statement Monday. “No one-middle-class families, workers, employers, doctors-needs more uncertainty in this tough economy, and Washington must not ignore them,” he continued. “The president has said it would be ‘inexcusable’ to not extend the payroll tax cut for a year-and we agree.”

But resistance from the Senate is fierce, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) released a statement of his own, saying that he will not re-open negotiations until the House approves the amended bill received support Saturday from 89 senators-including 39 Republicans.

“I have always sought a year-long extension,” Reid said in a statement. “I have been trying to forge one for weeks, and I am happy to continue negotiating one once we have made sure middle-class families will not wake up to a tax increase on Jan. 1, according to Reid’s statement. “So before we re-open negotiations on a year-long extension, the House of Representatives must protect middle-class families by passing the overwhelmingly bipartisan compromise that Republicans negotiated, and was approved by 90% of the Senate.”

Meanwhile, physician groups are in “defensive mode” as their federal reimbursement environment remains cloudy, according to Anders Gilberg, senior vice president of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association.

“For physician practices–who want to take care of patients, including Medicare patients–it’s hard to make sense of the game of chicken that is transpiring in Washington here today,” Gilberg said.

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Article source: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20111219/BLOGS04/312199930

The death of Kim Jong-il and the future of both North and South Korea will dominate the headlines this week. Also, Republicans and Democrats are about to have another showdown over a deal to extend payroll tax cuts. Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, and Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich discuss the major stories for the week ahead.

Article source: http://www.thetakeaway.org/2011/dec/19/agenda-congress-european-debt-christmas-shopping/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) suggested Monday evening that Republicans in his chamber had no plans to budge on killing the Senate’s payroll tax cut extension bill.

During a pair of interviews on CNN and Fox News, Cantor said that House Republicans were committed to passing a one-year extension of the tax rather than a two-month extension approved by the Senate.

“We don’t need to be governing in two month increments,” Cantor said on CNN. “We don’t need any more uncertainty.”

Cantor’s comments came a little before the House is expected to vote on the Senate bill. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has predicted the House will reject it, despite calls from some Senate Republicans for the House to approve it. 

The Senate easily passed the bill in an overwhelming 89-10, which seemed to tee up the legislation for a quick House vote and an end to Congress’s work for the year. 

Instead, Republicans on a conference call on Saturday said they would oppose the bill, and on Sunday Boehner said the legislation was unacceptable. 

House leaders are pressing for a conference committee to be formed to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House bills. The House approved a one-year extension of the tax cut earlier this month. 

Cantor echoed that sentiment in his CNN interview on Monday. He said the Senate would have to return to Washington to renegotiate the bill.

“I don’t think anybody really thinks it is a good way to implement policy on a two month basis,” Cantor continued. “And again that’s what we’re saying, it’s time for the Senate to come back to town and do what it is the president said we should be doing which is provide that yearlong guarantee that taxes are not going to go up on working people.”

Asked why Senate Republicans voted on the Senate version of the bill, Cantor said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) controls the chamber and Republicans really don’t have much say in what comes up for a vote.

“The Senate Republicans were only given one option to vote on and that was Harry Reid’s choice to bring that up,” Cantor said on Fox News.

Cantor predicted lock step opposition by House Republicans to the Senate bill.

“I think what you’re going to see on this payroll tax holiday extension is you’re going to see Republicans united to do the right thing and asking the president and the Senate to stay in town so we can work this out and so that no working person in America can face a tax increase for the rest of the next year,” Cantor said in the interview on Fox.

Still, at least one Republican, Rep. Chris Gibson (N.Y.), announced on Monday that he supported the two-month extension.

Article source: http://thehill.com/video/house/200407-cantor-we-dont-need-anymore-uncertainty

House Republican leaders abandoned plans to vote Monday night and into Tuesday morning on the Senate’s payroll tax-cut package, saying it would look bad to vote in the middle of the night.

“These votes will take place tomorrow, in the light of day,” said GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy of California after House Republicans confabbed for more than two hours.

“The overwhelming sentiment in our conference is that [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid is the one who should be ashamed and that we should vote in light of day,” said one senior House GOP source. “At the rate we were going, we would have been here voting at 5 a.m.”

Tuesday’s votes will include a rule, a motion to reject the Senate plan, and a motion to form a conference committee to hash out differences with the Senate, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said.

This is in line with the leadership’s earlier plans to reject the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut but not to do so outright. The procedural move is designed to gain the upper hand in end-game negotiations with the Senate. It also means that lawmakers are not voting directly on rejecting the two-month payroll tax-cut compromise, something Democrats immediately decried.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Republican leaders are not bringing the legislation for an up-or-down vote because they would be unhappy with the outcome.

“My guess is that they are afraid that their members are not going to stick with them,” Pelosi said at a press conference on Monday night. “The reason Republicans are not taking ‘yes’ for an answer is because ‘no’ is their answer,” she said. “Radical tea party Republicans are holding up this tax cut.” 

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Senate Democrats must come back to Washington and admit their bill is dead. Reid says he will not call back the Senate before Christmas and maintains that Senate Democrats won’t be blamed if taxes are raised for the average working family by approximately $1,000.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., picked up Pelosi’s theme.

“Speaker Boehner should allow an up-or-down vote on the compromise that [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and I negotiated at Speaker Boehner’s request, and which was supported by 89 Republican and Democratic senators.”

Boehner will likely name his conferees before the House votes to form a conference committee, against Democratic objections, on Tuesday.

McConnell has told Boehner he will offer GOP support in the Senate for unanimous consent to appoint conferees to pressure Reid, the aides say. House Republicans are contemplating other ways to publicly force Reid’s hand, including holding a conference committee that cannot convene for a lack of Democratic attendance.

Despite Boehner’s call for Congress to continue its work, most House Republicans will be allowed to return to their districts. Senior House GOP aides say only leadership and conferees will actually stay in Washington.

“There’s nothing for our other members to do until the Senate does something,” one top-level aide said. “So most members won’t be here.”

The House threat to attack the Senate for going on vacation rather than negotiating a compromise bill represents a reversal of the situation less than two weeks ago. At the time, President Obama and Senate Democratic leaders, concerned the House would pass its preferred payroll tax-cut extension then leave town without letting the Senate alter it, were threatening to stay in Washington and launch daily attacks on Republicans for leaving.

Republicans are now throwing those statements back at Democrats in an effort to increase pressure on Reid to agree to a conference.

These are the latest developments in a fight that was renewed unexpectedly this weekend after the deal to extend the 2 percent payroll-tax cut for two months was agreed to by the Senate but then rejected by House Republicans.

Each side is locked in combat and seeking advantage as the benefits will evaporate on Jan. 1 if no agreement is reached. The measure also would extend unemployment benefits and spare doctors from a 27 percent Medicare reimbursement pay cut.

At a news conference with about 10 other freshmen, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., said the Senate is “playing a very ugly game of political chicken with the American people.”

Senate Republicans were not spared from the ire of their House counterparts.

Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., said he is “troubled” that the Senate approved the deal in an 89-10 vote, meaning most Republicans voted for it.

The intrasquad sniping among Republicans continued all day as some Senate Republicans said it was the House GOP that was in the wrong.

Republican Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts all urged Boehner to move the Senate version. Those senators hold seats Democrats hope to pick up next year.

“There is no reason to hold up the short-term extension while a more comprehensive deal is being worked out,” Heller said in a statement. “What is playing out in Washington, D.C., this week is about political leverage, not about what’s good for the American people.”

Earlier, Brown blasted the House GOP position in a statement. “The House Republicans’ plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong,” Brown said. “I appreciate their effort to extend these measures for a full year, but a two-month extension is a good deal when it means we avoid jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of American families.”

The White House has made its displeasure clear with Republican leaders’ apparent about-face.

“We need a partner in this,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. Referring to the Senate compromise, Carney said: “We had a partner in this. Blowing up the process now is playing politics with the paychecks of 160 million Americans.”

Dan Friedman, Ben Terris, Shane Goldmacher, Katy O’Donnell, and Kelsey Snell contributed

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Article source: http://nationaljournal.com/congress/house-punts-vote-to-reject-senate-payroll-deal-until-tuesday-20111219

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Sunday that congressional lawmakers will take up a measure intended to ban insider trading by members of Congress.

In an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, Mr. Eric Cantor said House Republicans would move forward with a bill banning congressional insider trading early next year. The Virginia Republican said House lawmakers would consider a vote on the measure following the holiday recess.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” said Mr. Cantor. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.

Mr. Cantor’s pledge comes just one month after the same program reported that a number of members of Congress had sought to maximize returns, in part, through the use of confidential information gained from their time on Capitol Hill. A number of members of Congress alleged to have partaken in the activity have denied using access to confidential information when investing in companies.

Speaking Sunday, Mr. Cantor said the measure would seek to ban all using confidential information in all forms of investments, including land and leasing deals and publicly traded stocks.

“I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they’ve engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have — and acting on it,” said Mr. Cantor. “And that means whether they’re buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can.”

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Article source: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/eric-cantor-house-will-consider-ban-on-congressional-insider-trading/

CNNMoney: What happens if payroll tax cut is not extended?

The Senate’s two-month extension was a fallback position after Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a more long term, comprehensive agreement.

Reid said in a statement Sunday that Boehner had earlier left it to Senate leaders to come up with a deal, but changed his tune after the Senate easily adopted the two-month extension.

“Neither side got everything they wanted, but we forged a middle ground that passed the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan majority,” Reid said. If the Senate measure doesn’t clear the House, “Republicans will be forcing a thousand-dollar tax increase on middle class families on January 1st.”

Does House want to move forward? Two senators debate that question

Under the current party breakdown in the House, at least 26 Republicans would have to join a unanimous Democratic minority to pass the Senate measure. Any slippage in Democratic support would require more Republican backing.

Boehner appears to have reversed himself since a conference call with caucus members Saturday, when he was the only House Republican leader to express support for the Senate plan, according to a GOP source.

The source said Boehner described the Senate vote as “a good deal” and “a victory” in the conference call. For his part, the speaker insisted Monday that he raised concerns about the Senate plan “from the moment I heard of it.”

Boehner said he only praised a provision in the Senate bill requiring presidential action on the Keystone pipeline.

“The rank-and-file members are extremely opposed” to the Senate plan, a GOP source stressed, adding that most members were concerned with the uncertainty caused by just a two-month extension, as well as the political benefit the White House could gain in the national dialogue over taxes.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a statement Sunday that conservative House Republicans are standing in the way of an agreement.

“By holding up this bipartisan compromise, tea party House Republicans are walking away once again, showing their extremism and clearly demonstrating that they never intended to give the middle class a tax cut,” Pelosi said.

The two-month measure, which passed the Senate on Saturday, would reduce the deficit by nearly $3 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Under the plan, its $33 billion in costs would be offset by an increase in fees that new homeowners with federally backed mortgages will pay to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. Those entities would then turn that money over to the U.S. Treasury.

The bump amounts to about $15 per month for every $200,000 borrowed, Senate aides estimated.

CNN’s Athena Jones, Rebecca Stewart, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Kate Bolduan, Dana Bash, and Erin Burnett contributed to this report.

Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/19/politics/congress-payroll-tax-cut/index.html?eref=rss_us

Enlarge Alex Wong/Getty Images

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) speaks as Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) listen during after a Republican Conference meeting Dec. 13, 2011 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) speaks as Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) listen during after a Republican Conference meeting Dec. 13, 2011 in Washington, DC.

Read Another Opinion On Welfare Reform

Mark Schmitt is a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former editor of The American Prospect.

If you’ve been watching the Republican presidential debates, you’ve likely heard a surprising amount of talk about welfare reform. Both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum identify the 1996 law, which the Republican Congress eventually forced President Clinton to sign, as their signature achievements, emblematic of the kind of policies they would pursue as president. Even the logic, if you can call it that, behind Gingrich’s proposal to have schoolchildren work as janitors is lifted straight from the most extreme rhetoric of welfare reform: that poor kids live in neighborhoods where no one at all works, and thus need to be exposed to real labor.

The problem for Republicans after the welfare reform law passed was that, having achieved the victory, they no longer had the issue: The specter of the non-working poor could no longer be reliably evoked, and nothing with a similar power to divide voters has emerged to take its place. They tried going after the “lucky duckies,” those people who pay no federal income tax, but that hasn’t really caught on. Affirmative action has faded as an issue.

But now they seem to have found it, in the most unlikely of programs: Unemployment Insurance. The legislation to extend the payroll tax cuts that passed the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday brings the full arsenal of welfare reform gimmicks to the UI program: Time limits; drug tests; requirements to seek work or enter an education program.

None of these changes are intended to repair any serious problems within the Unemployment Insurance system. People are unemployed for long periods of time at the moment because there are four job-seekers for every one opening, not because they are happier collecting Unemployment. There’s no reason to think that UI recipients are more likely to use or abuse drugs than other adults. And, as anyone who’s ever been on Unemployment, or even watched the Vandelay Industries episode of “Seinfeld,” knows, there are already strong requirements to be looking for a job.

Instead, these moves are intended to break down public support for extending UI benefits by casting the program in the same terms as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the old welfare program. Much like arguments blaming the financial crisis on ACORN, Fannie Mae, and the push for low-income homeownership, it shifts the responsibility for unemployment onto the unemployed themselves. This has been in the making for a long time: University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan has been grabbing scraps of evidence for years to construct a thoroughly discredited argument that the unemployed are jobless largely by choice, and that Unemployment Insurance shields them from the necessity to take a job that pays less than their old job.

Although I opposed welfare reform in 1996, as a staffer to a Senate Finance Committee member, there was at least a grain of truth to some of the concerns about the program: It didn’t do enough to encourage or create opportunities for those welfare recipients who could work, and getting those who could into the workforce would make them and their families much better off. But Unemployment Insurance is a totally different kind of program. Just to be eligible for UI, a worker needs a solid full-time work history, typically more than a year of work before becoming unemployed. That’s why younger workers, part-time workers, and women are less likely to qualify. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey this week revealed that only 22 percent of the long-term unemployed are currently receiving benefits, and barely half had ever received them. To receive benefits, you need to be more than just unemployed — you really need to have worked hard and “played by the rules” for a long period of time. These are not people who show any evidence that they are happier sitting idly at home.

Nor, really, should we want people to take the first job that’s available to them. When a worker with specialized skills acquired at some cost, whether to herself or her previous employer, instead takes a job as a greeter at Wal-Mart, that investment in skills is lost. That’s actually the genius behind the Unemployment Insurance system: It’s a brilliant way for industrial employers to manage the size of their labor force during recessions, and then bring them back when demand picks up. Employers pay into the system, and in most states help run it, because it helps them protect their investment in skilled workers. It’s the most pro-business social program there is.

And yet, in their zeal to shift the blame for joblessness to the jobless, House Republicans seem to have forgotten everything they should know about Unemployment Insurance, recasting it as if it were welfare. Strangely, many of the victims of this move are likely to be the GOP’s core constituency — UI beneficiaries are overwhelmingly white, middle-class, and older — and it’s hard to believe they’ll take kindly to the idea that they only have themselves to blame for their current hardship.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/19/143947029/new-republic-gop-finds-its-new-welfare-queens

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) applauded House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) “newfound willingness” to advance legislation barring insider trading by members of Congress.

The sponsor of the STOCK Act, which would ban lawmakers or staffers from making financial trades based on private information or providing such sensitive information to outside sources, said it is “unacceptable” that her bill is not moving forward, and that she would battle any attempts to weaken it.

Her statement came Monday after Cantor indicated that he would supporting moving such a bill in the new year, after he put the brakes on the legislation earlier this month.

Cantor told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he wanted to advance and “build on” the bill in 2012, by expanding it to ban not just stock trades but things like real estate deals as well.

Slaughter’s bill exploded in popularity after that same TV program aired a report that suggested several high-ranking lawmakers may have reaped personal profits thanks to their positions in government. The bill currently has 239 co-sponsors, a majority of the House.

“I appreciate Mr. Cantor’s newfound willingness to take up the STOCK Act because he now seems to understand that the American people are outraged that insider trading and the unregulated collection of political intelligence are allowed in the Halls of Congress,” Slaughter said.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who was singled out in the original report, originally wanted to fast-track the legislation. He announced his committee would vote on the bill shortly after a hearing on it in the days following the report.

However, that fast track was derailed by Cantor amidst concerns that the bill was moving too quickly and members were not being given enough time to consider it.

Meanwhile, similar legislation in the Senate has already cleared the committee level, as members of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee easily cleared a similar bill last week.

Lawmakers are not exempted from existing insider trading laws, but there is a lack of legal precedent on members using information obtained during the legislative process to make financial trades, driving the push by some to craft an explicit ban on the practice.

Article source: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/200387-stock-act-sponsor-welcomes-cantors-newfound-willingness-to-push-bill

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Sunday that congressional lawmakers will take up a measure intended to ban insider trading by members of Congress.

In an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, Mr. Eric Cantor said House Republicans would move forward with a bill banning congressional insider trading early next year. The Virginia Republican said House lawmakers would consider a vote on the measure following the holiday recess.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” said Mr. Cantor. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.

Mr. Cantor’s pledge comes just one month after the same program reported that a number of members of Congress had sought to maximize returns, in part, through the use of confidential information gained from their time on Capitol Hill. A number of members of Congress alleged to have partaken in the activity have denied using access to confidential information when investing in companies.

Speaking Sunday, Mr. Cantor said the measure would seek to ban all using confidential information in all forms of investments, including land and leasing deals and publicly traded stocks.

“I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they’ve engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have — and acting on it,” said Mr. Cantor. “And that means whether they’re buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can.”

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Article source: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/eric-cantor-house-will-consider-ban-on-congressional-insider-trading/

WASHINGTON
– President Barack Obama’s Medicare nominee Tuesday got unexpected support from one of Congress’ Republican stars. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told The Associated Press that Marilyn Tavenner is “eminently qualified” to run Medicare.

It may be too soon to contemplate a truce in the political wars over health care. With Tavenner, major players on both sides may be able to shift from confrontation to problem-solving.

The White House announced Tavenner’s nomination last week to replace current Medicare chief Donald Berwick, who had run into a wall of opposition from Republicans and couldn’t even get a hearing in the Senate. As head of Medicare and Medicaid, the former nurse would be responsible for programs that already provide coverage to 100 million Americans, as well as for putting in place the new health overhaul law to cover the uninsured.

Cantor said he met Tavenner years ago when he was a state legislator in Richmond, Va., and she was a senior executive for Hospital Corporation of America, a major hospital chain.

“She was an individual with a wealth of knowledge about the complexities of the health care system, and she came forward with solutions that actually made sense,” said Cantor. “I always found her to be extremely professional and understanding of the value of the private sector in health care.”

Tavenner, 60, is currently Medicare’s principal deputy administrator. She started her career as a nurse and worked her way up to hospital executive before entering government service as Virginia’s health care secretary. She came to Washington last year as Congress labored in the home stretch to pass Obama’s health care law.

Cantor is not a member of the Senate, so he does not get a vote on Tavenner’s nomination. But his views are influential with other conservatives.

“I would hope to be able to support her,” said Cantor. “Obviously, I’m not in the Senate, so I don’t have that vote, but I do think she is qualified. Obviously, she’ll be working for a president with an agenda that’s quite different from mine.”

Cantor said he is convinced that Tavenner is committed to preserving the role of the private sector in health care. Responsibility for health coverage in the U.S. is close to evenly split between federal and state programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and workplace and private insurance. Republicans charge that Obama is trying to engineer a complete takeover by government, while the president insists his way is the best approach for preserving a system of shared responsibility in the face of unsustainable cost increases and millions of uninsured.

Tavenner “is somebody who understands the private sector and business concerns” said Cantor. “Marilyn Tavenner has experience as a nurse at the practical level, and as a health system administrator of a very larger national company. Hopefully she’ll bring that type of experience.”

Tavenner’s nomination has been endorsed by groups representing hospitals, doctors and the health insurance industry. Some congressional Democrats may question her over her tenure at Hospital Corporation, which was embroiled in a major Medicare fraud investigation in the 1990s. None of that seems to have involved Tavenner, however.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/nation/134694293.html

December 19, 2011, 8:44 AM EST

By Laura Litvan and James Rowley

(Updates with comment beginning in 10th paragraph.)

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — House Speaker John Boehner said he and fellow House Republicans oppose Senate legislation to extend through February a payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits and will push to continue the measures through 2012.

Congress should “stop, do our work and extend for one year,” Boehner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today. He said a two-month addition creates uncertainty for employers as they budget for 2012. A “reasonable, responsible” compromise could be reached, he said, and suggested a formal conference committee between the House and the Senate to resolve differences between the two chambers.

“We’ve got two weeks to get this done,” he said. The tax cuts expire at the end of this year. “It’s time to do this the right way.”

Boehner’s call for negotiations threw into question the outcome of the payroll-tax debate just a day after the Senate approved a $33 billion, two-month extension on an 89-10 vote. The top two Senate leaders in both parties indicated a willingness to continue discussing a longer-term deal after Boehner made his remarks.

Bipartisan Majority

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Boehner should proceed with the Senate-approved payroll tax measure, “which passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican votes.” Not doing so, he said, could spark a tax increase for workers on Jan. 1.

Later, his spokesman said Reid isn’t opposed to continuing to negotiate for a longer extension if the House first acted on the Senate legislation.

“Senator Reid has been trying to negotiate a yearlong extension of the payroll tax credit with Republicans for weeks,” Adam Jentleson said in an e-mail.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said today that the Republican Senate leader thinks the best way to resolve House Republican concerns with the Senate bill is to move immediately to further negotiations with the House.

“The House and the President both want a full-year extension,” said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart. “The best way to resolve the difference between the two-month extension and the full-year bill, and provide certainty for job creators, employees and the long-term unemployed, is through regular order, as the Speaker suggested.”

White House Frustration

White House officials expressed frustration. White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement saying Boehner should “stop playing politics” and push the Senate-passed compromise through the House.

“It’s time House Republicans stop playing politics and get the job done for the American people,” he said in the statement.

Boehner’s comments today followed a 90-minute conference call with Republican lawmakers yesterday during which “the pushback” by the rank and file members “was a lot stronger than the leadership thought” they would encounter, Georgia Representative Jack Kingston said in telephone interview. He predicted the House would vote to appoint negotiators to reconcile the two versions of the legislation.

“A lot of senior members were pretty agitated” by the Senate measure, Kingston said. House Republicans were surprised that bill passed the Senate with 89 votes, he said.

“People were flabbergasted this was all the stand-up Republicans could give us,” he said. “We thought McConnell was hanging out for something stronger.”

Republicans told leaders to get this issue settled correctly or “we will be here over Christmas if that’s what it takes,” he said.

Doctors’ Reimbursements

Members were upset that the Senate measure made no changes to the unemployment insurance program and urged leaders to “really push” to make sure to extend the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors for a year, he said. The Senate measure would avert a 27 percent drop in Medicare reimbursements for just two months.

Many doctors “are really small businessmen and if they don’t know what the government reimbursement is going to be for the next year” that’s “a huge disadvantage,” he said.

With the House set to return to Washington tomorrow, Republican leaders are studying their options, Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in an e-mail.

House Options

When the House meets tomorrow, it will either vote to amend the Senate-passed measure “so that it is responsible and in line with the needs of hard-working taxpayers and middle class families” or vote to appoint representatives to a House-Senate conference to reconcile differences between the two chambers, she said.

“We owe the middle class, employers and doctors better than a two-month extension,” she said. “Washington is already causing massive uncertainty to those struggling in the Obama economy.”

“If there is a will there is a way,” said William Galston, a senior fellow for governance studies at Brookings Institution, a policy center in Washington. “The bottom line question is whether either party is really willing to let this entire negotiation collapse.”

For Boehner to express his opposition to the Senate bill “that bluntly on national TV is to lay down a marker from which it is not so easy to retreat,” Galston said. “If the House goes down this road, I think there will be a lot of pressure on the Senate Majority Leader to try and resolve this issue.”

Democratic Split

Senate Democratic leaders publicly split over how to handle the dispute.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democratic leader, said Republicans should act on the Senate bill or take political blame for no measure making it into law.

“If House Republicans let taxes go up on the middle class on January 1, it could very well cost them the majority in the House next year,” Schumer said in a statement. “And they will deserve it.”

Hours later, Senator Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democratic leader, said talks on a compromise must begin.

“America has had its fill this year of repeated political ultimatums from Speaker Boehner,” said Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. “We can and we must negotiate a long-term agreement after the House passes the Senate’s bipartisan agreement.”

Paying for Cuts

Any talks are complicated by disagreement over how to pay for a yearlong payroll-tax cut extension, with Democrats saying they oppose House Republican proposals that include cuts to Medicare.

Democrats said yesterday that debating the issue again in February would only strengthen their hand, while Republicans would be under pressure in an election year to extend the tax cuts though 2012.

Boehner hasn’t spoken to Reid about House members’ concerns about the bill nor does he have any immediate plans to, Boehner spokesman Steel said today. Asked when a decision would be made about whether to amend the bill or ask for a conference, Steel would say only that a decision would be made before the vote.

President Barack Obama said yesterday he was “very pleased” with the Senate deal.

His remarks at the White House after the Senate passed the plan belied months of negotiations on a bigger package that Obama and Democrats wanted and were unable to get: A yearlong extension of the payroll-tax cut along with a surtax on millionaires.

For their part, Republicans have fallen short on efforts to force the permitting of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to U.S. refineries, or to attach to a separate spending bill limits on family planning funding, environmental regulation and expanded health-care coverage.

Political Gridlock

The last-minute negotiating before lawmakers break for the holidays caps a year in which congressional gridlock brought the nation close to default during a debt-limit standoff and Obama had to settle for less than the so-called grand bargain of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that he once envisioned.

The world’s largest economy lost 8.75 million jobs as a result of the recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. It has regained 2.46 million in the subsequent recovery. The jobless rate has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest stretch of such levels of unemployment since monthly records began in 1948.

Concern over a European economic slump precipitated by the region’s debt crisis has helped push down yields on U.S. Treasury securities, showing investors are less concerned with the U.S. budget debate. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note dropped to 1.85 percent late on Dec. 16, compared to this year’s closing high of 3.74 percent reached in February.

Treasuries have returned 9.9 percent this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Treasury Master index, headed for the highest gain on a yearly basis since 2008.

–With assistance from Margaret Talev, Kathleen Hunter, Brendan McGarry, Steven Sloan, Richard Rubin, Roxana Tiron and Loren Duggan in Washington. Editors: Ann Hughey, Carlos Torres.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-17/two-month-deal-caps-year-of-concessions-as-obama-looks-to-2012.html

Cantor’s behavior before the Stahl interview surprised Congresswoman Louise Slaughter from New York, an original sponsor, in the wake of the earlier 60 Minutes segment about members of Congress enriching themselves from insider trading. Especially after the Great Recession, from which Cantor, many colleagues, and his Wall Street campaign contributors became wealthier while the rest of the country suffered.

Eric Cantor’s net worth from his financial disclosure forms:
2010 :     From $2,893,110 to $8,048,999
2009 :     From $2,175,157 to $7,533,999  
2008 :     From $1,853,155 to $6,707,999

(Source Open Secrets)

His behavior in quashing the law is further surprising now that it’s co-sponsored by 237 representatives, a clear majority of the House of Representatives. Maybe now that 48% of the country has slipped into poverty according to a recent report, Cantor has become reborn as a reformer…or maybe not.

Cantor told Stahl that he planned to have a more comprehensive Act passed within a couple of months. I doubt that he offered any information that would provide answers to questions about his own financial conflict of interest during the debt ceiling debate from which he disengaged in a temper tantrum. Earlier this year, when asked if he would profit if the debt ceiling talks failed, his spokesperson simply responded that Cantor didn’t keep up with all of his investments.  

Only the most practiced hypocrite could avoid commenting on his own conflict while claiming to want to ban the corruption and “illegal activity” of others, and only a professional politician trying to cover his tracks would kill a law that he claims he wants to strengthen. In Cantor’s world, only a polished pot can call a kettle black.

And given how Cantor behaved during the Debt Ceiling negotiations, I can’t help but wonder what kind of stock deal Cantor is working on while he stalls passing the STOCK Act.  

Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/19/1046817/-Cantors-glaring-hypocrisy-goes-prime-time?via=siderecent

The House will vote Monday evening on the Senate’s two-month payroll tax cut extension the office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday night.

The announcement comes as expectations for an agreement on extending the payroll tax cut fell into doubt Sunday after Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that House Republicans opposed compromise legislation that passed the Senate in an overwhelming 89-10 vote Saturday.

Unless dozens of Republicans defect, the Senate’s bill is expected to fail in the House, and Cantor’s office advised members that additional votes related to the payroll tax cut are possible.

A Cantor spokeswoman said those votes have yet to be determined. The House could try to amend the Senate bill or approve a motion to go to a conference committee to reconcile the Senate bill with a version the House passed last week.

The Senate measure, negotiated by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) extended the payroll tax cut and also included a two-month extension of unemployment benefits and a two-month freeze of scheduled cuts to Medicare payments to doctors. Only seven Senate Republicans voted against the measure.

Boehner said Sunday however that the Senate bill did not have the support of rank-and-file House Republicans. “It’s pretty clear that I and our members oppose the Senate bill,” Boehner announced on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“How can you do tax policy for two months?” Boehner asked. “I believe that two months is just kicking the can down the road. The American people are tired of that.”

The speaker suggested a conference committee could reconcile the Senate bill with a House-passed, one-year payroll tax cut extension.

Senate Republican Leader McConnell backed up the House GOP’s call, with an aide suggesting Sunday that Senate Democrats should be open to changing terms of the payroll tax deal.  

“The House and the President both want a full-year extension. The best way to resolve the difference between the two-month extension and the full-year bill, and provide certainty for job creators, employees and the long-term unemployed, is through regular order, as the Speaker suggested,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell.

Senate Democrats led by Reid however rejected those calls. The majority leader called for House Republicans to vote on the Senate measure. 

“Instead of threatening middle-class families with a thousand-dollar tax hike, Speaker Boehner should bring up the bipartisan compromise that Senator McConnell and I negotiated, and which passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican votes,” Reid said in a statement. 

“I would hate to think that Speaker Boehner is refusing to act on this bipartisan compromise because he is afraid it will actually pass, but I cannot imagine any other reason why he would not bring it up for a vote,” he added. An aide for Reid said that the Senate majority leader would not call back senators if the House rejected the two-month compromise bill. The Senate is not scheduled to return to regular session until Monday, Jan. 23.

Reid said that he had negotiated the compromise with McConnell at Boehner’s insistence.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that Boehner had empowered McConnell to negotiate the payroll tax deal for him and would be breaking his word to Senate leaders if he did not schedule a vote. 

“Last week, Speaker Boehner sat in a meeting with Leader Reid and Leader McConnell and he gave Leader McConnell his proxy to negotiate a bipartisan compromise,” Schumer said. “He made public comments promising to live by whatever agreement the Senate reached.”

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, disputed Schumer’s characterization of the meeting and said the claim that McConnell was acting as a proxy for Boehner were “not true.” Boehner’s office said the speaker was not involved in negotiations between Reid and McConnell to craft the payroll tax extension. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday accused Boehner of “kow-towing” to the Tea Party and threatening middle class Americans with a tax increase.

“By holding up this bipartisan compromise, Tea Party House Republicans are walking away once again, showing their extremism and clearly demonstrating that they never intended to give the middle class a tax cut,” Pelosi said in a statement.

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director also criticized House Republicans and said they would be responsible for increasing taxes on 160 million people if they failed to approve the Senate compromise.

“As the president said yesterday, it is inexcusable to do anything less than extend this tax cut for the entire year, and Congress must work on a one year deal.  But they should pass the two month extension now to avoid a devastating tax hike from hitting the middle class in just 13 days,” he said in a statement.

Alexander Bolton and Meghashyam Mali contributed to this post.

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200193-house-to-vote-on-payroll-tax-bill

(J. Scott Applewhite – AP)

House Republicans on Saturday voiced vigorous opposition to a short-term payroll tax package that includes a provision on the Keystone oil pipeline, arguing that the two-month deal would add to economic uncertainty and give Democrats the upper hand in the second round of the tax-cut battle early next year.

The objections to the tax-cut package, raised by lawmakers during a conference call Saturday afternoon, raise the possibility of new tumult and a final cliff-hanger vote in the House early next week.

On Saturday’s conference call with members, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) described three possible options to members, according to a GOP aide — “accept the Senate bill, go to conference or amend the Senate bill and send it back.”

“Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate’s decision to just ‘kick the can down the road’ for two months,” the aide said, adding that leaders made no announcement regarding the House’s schedule or plans.

House leaders told rank-and-file members before the chamber recessed on Friday that they would give 24 hours’ notice ahead of any expected votes next week; so far, no notice has been given.

Senate leaders in both parties said Saturday that they believed the House would approve the deal, which sailed through the Senate on an 89-to-10 vote. The $33 billion package would keep the payroll tax rate at 4.2 percent rather than allowing it to revert to 6.2 percent on Jan. 1; it also would extend unemployment benefits and postpone a cut in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors.

Republicans succeeded in securing a provision in the deal that would force the Obama administration to decide within 60 days on whether to issue a permit for the construction of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. The measure will be paid for not by a surtax on millionaires, which Democrats supported, but rather through an increase in fees on lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That provision received bipartisan support in debt-reduction deals earlier this year.

The White House on Saturday called the agreement a “significant victory,” and leading House Democrats have suggested they would call on their members to back the package.

“House Democrats will return to Washington to take up this legislation without delay, and we will keep up the fight to extend these provisions for a full year,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

But those who participated in Saturday’s House GOP conference call said that members of the majority are deeply dissatisfied with the deal.

“House Republicans are furious,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said. “It was a chorus of frustration with the Senate. They’re always in punt formation. … If we want jobs, and if we want the economy to grow, we need some stability and predictability. This will make the situation worse, not better.”

Chaffetz added that rank-and-file members seemed eager to make changes to the hard-fought Senate deal.

A person who participated in Saturday’s call said that Boehner called the deal a victory and said members should “take it and live to fight another day.”

But other top Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Va.) and Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas), said the package was a bad deal, according to the person on the call.

Among the concerns voiced by GOP leaders and rank-and-file members were that the two-month deal would not bring certainty to the middle class or to doctors and also that it would give the president a chance to “wag his finger” at Congress during his State of the Union address next month.

Adding to the uncertainty surrounding the payroll tax fight: On Saturday evening, Obama signed not the long-term government funding measure approved by both chambers, but rather a seven-day funding bill that lawmakers had passed in the case of an 11th-hour dispute on the payroll tax deal.

Boehner is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, an appearance that is likely to shed further light on where the payroll tax package is headed next.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/house-republicans-not-sold-on-payroll-tax-cut-package/2011/12/17/gIQAt7830O_blog.html

Speaker John A. Boehner, who had urged his members on Saturday to support the legislation, did what appeared to be an about-face on Sunday when he said that he and other House Republicans were opposed to the temporary extension, part of a $33 billion package of bills that the Senate easily passed Saturday. In addition to extending the payroll tax cut for millions of American workers, the legislation extended unemployment benefits and avoided cuts in payments to doctors who accept Medicare. The measure would be effective through February.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” , Mr. Boehner said the two-month extension would be “just kicking the can down the road.”

“It’s time to just stop, do our work, resolve the differences and extend this for one year,” Mr. Boehner said. “How can you have tax policy for two months?”

He said that Republicans wanted to extend the payroll cut for a year, but that it would have to be financed with cuts in the existing budget. When Congressional aides announced the deal on Friday, they said the items it contained were fully paid for.

But any thought that Congress will agree on a yearlong tax-cut extension or on the other provisions is extremely optimistic, given that its work will overlap with President Obama’s State of the Union speech, the heat of the Republican primaries and a presidential campaign hitting full stride. Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats criticized Mr. Boehner’s stance on the payroll tax cut, saying he was renouncing the package negotiated last week by House and Senate leaders.

“The bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate yesterday received 89 votes, including 39 Republican votes, and Speaker Boehner himself just yesterday called it a ‘good deal’ and a ‘victory,’ ” the White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, said in a statement.

“If House Republicans refuse to pass this bipartisan bill to extend the payroll tax cut,” Mr. Pfeiffer said, “there will be a significant tax increase on 160 million hard-working Americans in 13 days that would damage the economy and job growth.”

 The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said that Mr. Boehner had asked him and the minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, to work out a compromise on the tax cut and that it had been agreed to by both political parties.

“Neither side got everything they wanted, but we forged a middle ground that passed the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan majority,” Mr. Reid said in a statement. “If Speaker Boehner refuses to vote on the bipartisan compromise that passed the Senate with 89 votes, Republicans will be forcing a thousand-dollar tax increase on middle-class families on Jan. 1.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Mr. Boehner’s comments called into question his ability to lead.

“This is a test of whether the House Republicans are fit to govern, and it is a make-or-break moment for John Boehner’s speakership,” he said in a statement. “You cannot let a small group at the extreme resort to brinksmanship every time there is a major national issue and try to dictate every move this nation makes.”

Mr. Boehner’s remarks on “Meet the Press” came less than 24 hours after a conference call in which, several participants said, he tried to sell the package of bill to his members, pointing to a provision that would speed Republican-supported construction of an oil pipeline, known as Keystone XL, from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Many Republican lawmakers were not happy with the legislation, chiefly because they objected to the tax cut extension’s cost.

Among them was the House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia. A statement issued Sunday by Mr. Cantor’s office said that on Monday, the House would either amend the Senate bill so that it met the “needs of hard-working taxpayers and middle-class families,” or pass a motion to move the measure to a conference committee to accomplish the same goal.

Mr. Cantor said the House opposed the Senate bill “because — to put it simply — we owe the middle class, employers and doctors better than a two-month extension.”

Mr. Boehner’s decision to back away from a deal on the payroll tax cut was similar to his actions during debt-reduction talks with Mr. Obama in July. After it appeared that both sides had agreed to a deal that would cut spending but raise taxes on the wealthy, Mr. Boehner pulled out of talks when it became clear that the more conservative members of his rank and file would not agree to the tax increase.

“We are witnessing a pattern of Speaker Boehner walking away from bipartisan compromises to kowtow to his extreme Tea Party wing of his caucus,” Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said in a statement. “This is the latest example of the Tea Party Republicans sacrificing the good of the country on the altar of extreme ideology.”

The Obama administration strongly supports a yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut but signed off on the two-month measure. Mr. Obama acknowledged Saturday that a temporary extension would mean Democrats and Republicans could be fighting the same fight again in February. In remarks before the White House press corps, the president said that next year’s vote should be a “formality,” and that he expected that Congress would accomplish his goal of a one-year extension “with as little drama as possible when they come back next month.”

The president will not go to Hawaii for a family vacation until the issue of the two-month extension is resolved, his communications director said.

Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/politics/house-republicans-oppose-senate-deal-on-payroll-tax-cut-boehner-says.html

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UPDATE (Dec. 17 9:07 a.m. ET): Last night, CBS News posted an early version of this weekend’s 60 Minutes episode with the following text: “Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House will take up the STOCK Act in 2012. His remarks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl came after he previously angered some on Capitol Hill by blocking progress on a ban on congressional ‘insider trading.’” You can watch the 60 Minutes clip online here. We applaud Rep. Cantor’s plans and look forward to seeing him move the STOCK Act to the floor quickly. You can rest assured that we’ll be following every step of this bill’s journey here on Fool.com.

UPDATE (Dec. 16 4:50 p.m. ET): Thanks to all your grassroots efforts, Rep. Cantor’s office contacted us to clarify his position on the STOCK Act. According to his spokesperson, “Complete and total transparency is the key to restoring public trust. Sunlight goes a long way, which is why we are committed to moving forward in a reasoned and responsible way. In this instance, a large group of bipartisan Members on the Committee felt the legislation was flawed and being recklessly moved solely in response to media pressure. Members on both sides of the aisle wanted more time to gather information and develop responsible alternatives. Complicating matters is the fact that the legislation has been referred to five other committees. Therefore, the Chairman determined that in the interest of crafting the most effective response, the markup would be rescheduled.” Also, Rep. Cantor made an on-the-record statement about the STOCK Act here.

It would appear that Rep. Cantor is indeed for the kind of transparency core to the STOCK Act. Stay tuned next week for more on this story, Fools.

–

For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c.aspx

UPDATE – House Republicans are threatening to reject the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance extension deal approved by the Senate, according to GOP sources. The House GOP convened a conference call Saturday afternoon, where rank-and-file members expressed open hostility to the bargain. Neither House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is interested in fighting for a deal cut by Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with little of their input. GOP sources said that passage of the Senate bill was highly unlikely, and that House Republicans are more likely either to amend it and return it next week, or appoint conferees to find a compromise.

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a last-minute bill Saturday to fund the federal government, and Democrats were privately patting themselves on the back for what they see as victories in cleansing partisan ideological add-ons from the measure.

Democrats believe the bill, which passed 67 to 32 and was the final major piece of legislation of the year, hands them a slew of points to use heading into the 2012 election season.

“There were a lot of ideological riders, and other nasty things in there that we got stripped from the bill,” said one Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations.

The trillion-dollar “omnibus bill” passed the House overwhelmingly Friday, and President Obama is expected to sign it soon before going on vacation.

“The GOP came in with an aggressive agenda and both in April and now today, the president and Democratic negotiators held their ground,” said another Democrat, referring to budget battles last spring. The senior aide added that they “made sure that extreme, ideological riders that had nothing to do with funding the government were removed.”

“Priorities like health care reform, Wall Street reform and education were funded,” said the aide, speaking anonymously Friday night because negotiations over tax cuts and other items were ongoing.

In fact, such items had all faced major cuts in the original bills passed by the House.

Perhaps the most-heavily targeted agency was the Environmental Protection Agency, which faced funding cuts of more than $1.5 billion. It still wound up with a substantial cut, but ended up with a budget above $8 billion, instead of the GOP’s proposed $7.15 billion.

And removed from the bill were dozens of environmental riders that would have done things like allow mining around the Grand Canyon, controversial mountaintop mining practices blamed for harming streams and water quality, removal of protections for gray wolves, and prevention of the EPA from regulating certain greenhouse gas emissions.

On the Wall Street front, Republicans sought to weaken the new Consumer Financial Protection Board, which they contend has too much authority. They also would have cut back and weakened the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which plays a central role under last year’s financial reforms in regulating risky derivatives trading. Both agencies were preserved by today’s bill.

One source said the White House was especially pleased that money was preserved for the president’s Race to the Top education initiative, which rewards schools for innovative reform plans. “Republicans were bragging about cutting Race to the Top in their bill, although how it’s good to cut education, I don’t know,” a Democratic source said.

The bill also added money to the health reform law, instead of cutting it.

The Democrats provided an extensive list of what they see as bragging points, saying the bill:

• Prevents policy riders that would have restricted funding for Planned Parenthood and eliminated funding for Title X family planning programs, severely limiting women’s access to health care.
• Prevents restrictions that would have reversed President Obama’s policy allowing family travel and money remittances to Cuba.
• Saves 60,000 New Head Start slots created by the stimulus act and spends more than $550 million for the Race to the Top program.
• Boosts the Student Aid Administration with nearly $50 million in new funding for loan servicing and collections.
• Preserves the AmeriCorps program by stopping a GOP provision that would have cut the program.

They also pointed to a string of riders that were cut from the bill, including items that would have:

• Barred use of funds for the CPSC’s public product safety database, SaferProducts.gov.
• Cut federal funding of National Public Radio
• Stopped a new military chaplain training curriculum written after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
• Ended the Home Affordable Modification Program, which aims to help homewoners avoid foreclosure
• Prohibited use federal funds to develop and finalize EPA rules naming coal ash as a hazardous waste
• Stopped the FCC from implementing new neutrality rules
• Stopped federal spending to run and implement the heath reform law until 90 days after any legal challenges are complete.

Republicans also declared wins in adding many other restrictions, including blocking a phaseout of 100-watt incandescent lightbulbs, stopping express funding for a number of President Obama’s “czars,” cutting the budget overall, and placing restrictions on funding for the United Nations.

Yet it was some of the things that made it into the bill that attracted scathing denunciations from Republicans concerned about waste, especially in the defense budget.

“We have 15 minutes to consider a document 1,221 pages long, representing $915 billion of the taxpayers’ money, filled with unauthorized, unrequested money,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

“There’s $3.5 billion of unrequested, unauthorized [spending] … projects like for Guam. You thought the Bridge to Nowhere was bad?” McCain said. “This is 53 civilian school buses and 53 repair kits for $10.7 million; $12.7 million for a cultural artifacts repository. That’s in the name of defense.

“I have amendments to save the taxpayers billions of dollars as associated with this bill,” McCain said. “But never mind because we’re going to go home for Christmas.”

President Obama was expected to address the bill Saturday afternoon.

Michael McAuliff covers politics and Congress for the Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/17/government-spending-bill-passed-democrats_n_1154927.html

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Speaker Cantor?

See Also:

Bernanke To Brief Senate Republicans On Eurozone Crisis

IT’S NOT DEAD: Congress Takes First Major Step Toward Banning Lawmaker Insider Trading

WAKE UP: The Government Might Really Shut Down This Time

In an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pledged to move forward with a bill banning congressional insider trading early next year.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor said. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.”

60 Minutes blew the lid off congressional insider trading last month, with a report detailing several suspect trades by lawmakers — including efforts to short the stock market during the 2008 financial crisis.

Cantor blocked the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act from undergoing a mark-up in the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month — the committee headed by Rep. Spencer Bachus, one of the lawmakers at the center of the scandal.

Article source: http://www.businessinsider.com/cantor-says-house-gop-will-push-insider-congressional-trading-ban-next-year-2011-12

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) delivered a severe rebuke to Palestinians on Thursday, linking their culture to terrorism and questioning their worthiness to have an independent state.

Speaking to a conference of Reform Jews, Cantor told of a Palestinian woman treated for burns at an Israeli hospital who tried to return for a follow-up visit wearing a suicide belt.

“What kind of culture leads one to do that? Sadly, it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred,” Cantor said.

“If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state,” said Cantor, one of the highest-profile Jewish Republicans and a staunch Israel supporter.

Detecting a weakness for President Obama among voters who believe he has forsaken the U.S. alliance with Israel, Republican rhetoric toward Palestinians has become increasingly caustic in recent weeks.

The party’s slate of presidential candidates have jostled in debates and at a meeting of Jewish Republicans last week for who can take the stance that is most pro-Israel — and, often, anti-Palestinian.

Obama is scheduled to speak to the conference on Friday.

While Cantor and other House leaders have firmly backed Israel’s right to defend itself, they are generally careful to distinguish between those who commit terrorist acts and Palestinians as a whole. That nuance was absent in Cantor’s Thursday address to the Union for Reform Judaism.

“It is not morally equivalent when the offenses of terrorists are equated with the defenses of Israel,” he said to a few thousand conference participants, who offered Cantor a polite but guarded reception.

A number of participants could be heard outside the ballroom where Cantor was speaking discussing their choice not to attend his speech so as to not lend their support to his conservative views.

Warning that the 2,000-year-old dream of a Jewish state is in jeopardy, Cantor said the international community is replete with anti-Semitic vitriol and pointed to the success of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s post-revolution elections, which he said presented major challenges to U.S. interests in the region.

He also hailed the package of harsh economic sanctions passed on Wednesday by the Republican-controlled House.

Cantor avoided a direct critique of Obama, but called out the president’s ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who sparked a political flare-up in early December when his comments about differentiating types of anti-Semitism were seen by some as blaming Israel for Muslim anti-Semitism.

“I say to you, any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor said. “History is replete with examples that when it comes to the Jewish people, the world can turn a deaf ear.”

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/199617-cantor-palestinian-culture-infused-with-resentment-and-hatred

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Lights, camera, action. Politics usually is good film fodder. Now Hollywood returns the favor…

More than a penny for his thoughts

A conservative radio host has offered Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich $1 million to abandon his bid to be the party’s presidential nominee.

The offer was good for 72 hours beginning Monday. The deadline passed. Gingrich is still in the race.

“Newt Gingrich is unelectable. Mitt Romney is the only candidate with a chance of defeating Barack Obama, and there is nothing more important than that for the future health, safety, and security of the United States of America,” a statement posted on Michael Savage’s Web site read. “Therefore I am offering Newt Gingrich $1 million dollars to drop out of the presidential race for the sake of the nation.”

Savage allows that former Massachusetts Gov. Romney isn’t the strong conservative many in the party would like, but Romney doesn’t carry the type of baggage Gingrich does, either.

Top of the list: Gingrich didn’t deliver on the “Contract with America” manifesto he proffered when Republicans devastated Democrats in the midterm elections during the Bill Clinton administration. Then there’s an ad about global warming that the Georgia Republican made with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — an idea even Gingrich called a “dumb” move career-wise. And then there’s Gingrich’s idea to offer illegal aliens who are established in the United States a path to citizenship, which Savage said amounts to “amnesty.”

The list doesn’t stop there. Savage also noted Gingrich’s ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac, his failed marriages and infidelity, and his calling the budget plan laid out by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., “right-wing social engineering.”

While some have argued Gingrich will do well in debating President Obama, Savage said it doesn’t matter. Regardless of how well he does, Gingrich will “come off badly compared to Obama and look like nothing more than what he is: a fat, old, white man.”

If Gingrich “really loves this country as much as he says he does … he will set his ego aside, call me, and accept my offer,” Savage’s statement said.

Cantor candor in Hollywood

Hollywood’s political image as bleeding blue has taken on a more reddish hue around the edges.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has pitched for financial and policy support in Tinseltown, tapping into a network of conservatives and finding success.

“Eric has been really incredibly attentive and has a deep personal interest in better understanding this industry,” Craig Haffner, an Emmy-winning television writer and producer, told Roll Call.

As far back as 2009, Cantor said he knew the Republican Party had friends in Hollywood and wasn’t afraid to court them.

Republicans note Cantor has what’s needed to make him an effective fundraiser everywhere — the ability to connect quickly, a phenomenal memory for names and meticulous prep work on issues important to each audience he faces.

“He was the first guy who ever came out here and knew what our problems were,” said Lionel Chetwynd, a Cantor friend who has been called the “dean of Hollywood conservatives” by entertainment trade publication Variety magazine. Chetwynd is a writer, producer and director known for documentaries and historical adaptations.

“There’s always been Republicans in Hollywood, and now they have a voice in Eric,” said Ray Allen, a Cantor senior strategist.

Still, fundraising numbers indicate only modest progress for Republicans, Roll Call said.

In the 2010 cycle, the glitzy Beverly Hills ZIP code — 90210 — was the fourth most lucrative for Cantor, following three Richmond, Va., ZIP codes, data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics indicates.

Don’t touch that remote

In the battle of the airwaves, Democrats prefer comedies such as the popular NBC series “Parks and Recreation,” while Republicans tune into the ABC drama “Castle” and favor reality shows.

The annual research survey by Experian-Simmons measures the consumer preferences of various political ideologies. In a report prepared exclusively for Entertainment Weekly, Experian-Simmons calculated some of the favorite — and least favorite — destinations for channel-surfing political partisans.

Democrats tend to be drawn to “sarcastic” comedies and conflicted anti-heroes, the survey found, while work-centered shows — both reality shows and procedurals — and reality competitions drew conservatives.

Favorites for liberal Democrat viewers include “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central; “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation” on NBC; “The View” on ABC; Fox’s “Glee,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on FX and “Cougar Town” on ABC.

“Swamp Loggers” on Discovery and “Top Shot” on History are among the favorites for conservative Republicans, as are ABC’s “The Bachelor” and “Castle, and Discovery’s “Mythbuster.” Crime dramas such as “Hawaii Five-O,” “NCIS” and “The Mentalist,” all on CBS, also proved popular.

The comedy “The Middle” did well in both groups.

Not surprisingly, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” were among conservative Republicans’ least favorite shows. “Swamp Loggers” and “Dog the Bounty Hunter” on AE didn’t cut it for liberal Democrats.

Sarah Palin stumps for new reality TV show

Sarah Palin, the governor-turned-vice-presidential-nominee-turned-Fox-News-contributor, has been making the circuit in Hollywood, pitching another reality series — this one focused on her husband’s career as a champion snowmobile racer.

So far, however, there haven’t been any takers, Hollywood Reporter said.

The new series follows the Mark Burnett-produced “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” which debuted on TLC in November 2010 to a record-breaking 5 million viewers.

TLC owner Discovery Communications passed on the Todd Palin series, sources told the trade publication. And AE Networks, which got into a bidding war for “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” also is not interested.

Networks have balked the steep asking price, the Reporter said. “Alaska” sold for more than $1 million an episode and sources say Burnett and Palin want a similar payday for the follow-up.

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/12/18/Politics-2012-The-magic-that-is-Hollywood/UPI-33551324202400/?spt=hs&or=tn

J. Scott Applewhite | Posted: Thursday, December 15, 2011 12:26 am

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, joined by, from left,
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric
Cantor, R-Va., and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to
reporters just after House passage of legislation to extend Social
Security payroll tax cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday,
Dec. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Article source: http://idahostatejournal.com/image_1f2815ce-26ee-11e1-b61b-001871e3ce6c.html

UPDATE (Dec. 17 9:07 a.m. ET): Last night, CBS News posted an early version of this weekend’s 60 Minutes episode with the following text: “Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House will take up the STOCK Act in 2012. His remarks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl came after he previously angered some on Capitol Hill by blocking progress on a ban on congressional ‘insider trading.’” You can watch the 60 Minutes clip online here. We applaud Rep. Cantor’s plans and look forward to seeing him move the STOCK Act to the floor quickly. You can rest assured that we’ll be following every step of this bill’s journey here on Fool.com.

UPDATE (Dec. 16 4:50 p.m. ET): Thanks to all your grassroots efforts, Rep. Cantor’s office contacted us to clarify his position on the STOCK Act. According to his spokesperson, “Complete and total transparency is the key to restoring public trust. Sunlight goes a long way, which is why we are committed to moving forward in a reasoned and responsible way. In this instance, a large group of bipartisan Members on the Committee felt the legislation was flawed and being recklessly moved solely in response to media pressure. Members on both sides of the aisle wanted more time to gather information and develop responsible alternatives. Complicating matters is the fact that the legislation has been referred to five other committees. Therefore, the Chairman determined that in the interest of crafting the most effective response, the markup would be rescheduled.” Also, Rep. Cantor made an on-the-record statement about the STOCK Act here.

It would appear that Rep. Cantor is indeed for the kind of transparency core to the STOCK Act. Stay tuned next week for more on this story, Fools.

–

For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

At the time this
article was published Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c/

BY BRODY MULLINS

WASHINGTON—The House will take up legislation early next year to explicitly ban members of Congress from trading stocks based on information they gather on Capitol Hill, according Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.

An effort to ban insider-trading in Congress was sidetracked a few weeks ago when the House Financial Services Committee called off a scheduled vote. Mr. Cantor said at the time that the legislation was flawed and that the House should have more time to study the issue.

But in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that is scheduled to air Sunday evening, Mr. Cantor said he wants …

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204553904577104943331963210.html

The two-month payroll tax cut extension that passed the Senate on Saturday may not be a done deal.

Rank-and-file House Republicans voiced extreme opposition to the package during a conference call Saturday afternoon in which Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) briefed them on the legislation and their options to respond, according to two sources with knowledge of the call.

One source said Boehner spoke approvingly of the deal as a win for the GOP but that three other members of the leadership team – Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Tex.) – all criticized it. The source said that with the exception of Reps. Tom Cole (Okla.) and Walter Jones (N.C.), Boehner was the only person on the call to praise the deal.

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Boehner cited as a victory the inclusion of a provision forcing the Obama administration to expedite a decision on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which it had delayed until after the 2012 election. But Lankford said Boehner spoke briefly and was not overwhelmingly supportive of the Senate deal.

“I didn’t hear anyone give overwhelming support for it,” Lankford said. “This is not something we should support.”

He said members were particularly angry at the two-month extension, saying it seemed like the Senate was more concerned with getting home for Christmas than resolving the issue for American families and businesses. There was little confidence, he said, that an extra two months would make the problem easier to resolve.

“It makes it more complicated and more insecure for every business in America,” Lankford said. The Senate “is trying to make our job simpler by making everyone else in America’s job harder.”

No plans for a vote next week were announced.

A GOP leadership aide said Boehner laid out three options for the House: accept the Senate bill, go to a conference committee to reconcile the broader House legislation with the Senate bill or amend the Senate bill and send it back.

A source said Cantor said the Senate bill was a bad deal for the middle class and wanted a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut, while McCarthy worried that the timing would allow President Obama to berate Congress during his State of the Union address in January.

“Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate’s decision to just ‘kick the can down the road’ for two months,” the aide said.

Boehner is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning. In recent days he had left Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to negotiate the final deal, giving the House little apparent input.

House Democratic leaders said Saturday they were disappointed in the two-month extension but urged the House to pass it anyway.

“House Democrats will return to Washington to take up this legislation without delay, and we will keep up the fight to extend these provisions for a full year,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

The House passed a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut last week, coupled with reforms and an extension of the unemployment insurance program and a fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors.

The Senate could only agree to a two-month extension amid disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over how to pay for the bill. The Senate earlier Saturday adjourned for the year, meaning any action by the House other than passing the Senate version without changes could result in a tax increase for 160 million Americans.

Senate Republicans had hailed as a victory the inclusion of the Keystone provision.

Senate Republicans had hailed as a victory the inclusion of a provision forcing the administration to expedite a decision on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which it had delayed until after the 2012 election.

This story was updated at 6 p.m.

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200123-senates-payroll-tax-cut-extension-not-popular-with-house-gop

(Joshua Roberts – BLOOMBERG)

The House on Friday passed a bill that would keep the federal government running through next September, sending the measure over to the Senate hours ahead of a midnight shutdown deadline.

The $1 trillion funding agreement, which will fund three-quarters of the federal government, passed on a 296-to-121 vote: 147 Republicans and 149 Democrats voted “yes,” while 86 Republicans and 35 Democrats opposed the measure.

The Senate is expected to approve the measure, although the timing of the upper chamber vote remains unclear as leaders continue heated negotiations on a deal to extend the payroll tax cut and other key provisions that expire at the end of the month.

Passage of the bill appeared to be a sure thing earlier this week, as congressional leaders of both parties had focused their energies on debating not the funding measure but rather the payroll tax cut and the Keystone pipeline. The House earlier this month passed a proposal that would couple an extension of the payroll tax cut and other provisions with a measure that would force a decision on the pipeline, a move Democrats and the White House have rejected.

But both the funding plan and the payroll tax debate became intertwined after Democrats withheld their support for the former until leaders reached a deal on the latter. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are now leading those negotiations, which are increasingly focused on whether the Keystone pipeline provision will be included in a final payroll tax deal.

Congress faces a Dec. 31 deadline to approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday and other provisions.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said after Friday’s funding vote that the House would not meet over the weekend and that what date the chamber returns next week depends on the progress of the payroll tax negotiations taking place in the Senate.

“As all of my colleagues are painfully aware, the Senate has the ability to move both as quickly and as slowly as it wants, so, it is difficult to predict if or when we may need to return,” he said to laughter and applause from lawmakers. “My best guess is that the earliest we would return is this Monday, Dec. 19. But I can assure my colleagues that we will provide at least 24 hours’ notice prior to scheduling any further votes in the House this year.”

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), Cantor’s Democratic counterpart, then took to the floor. “Just to clarify, it is my understanding, therefore, that we do intend before we leave for the year to address the House-passed bill or a Senate version thereof,” he said.

Cantor responded: “As I indicated earlier, it is all pending the Senate’s action. And as I indicated, no one really knows how quickly or slowly that will occur or if it will occur.”

This story has been updated.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/government-funding-bill-that-will-avert-shutdown-passed-by-house/2011/12/16/gIQAq2ggyO_blog.html

UPDATE (Dec. 17 9:07 a.m. ET): Last night, CBS News posted an early version of this weekend’s 60 Minutes episode with the following text: “Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House will take up the STOCK Act in 2012. His remarks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl came after he previously angered some on Capitol Hill by blocking progress on a ban on congressional ‘insider trading.’” You can watch the 60 Minutes clip online here. We applaud Rep. Cantor’s plans and look forward to seeing him move the STOCK Act to the floor quickly. You can rest assured that we’ll be following every step of this bill’s journey here on Fool.com.

UPDATE (Dec. 16 4:50 p.m. ET): Thanks to all your grassroots efforts, Rep. Cantor’s office contacted us to clarify his position on the STOCK Act. According to his spokesperson, “Complete and total transparency is the key to restoring public trust. Sunlight goes a long way, which is why we are committed to moving forward in a reasoned and responsible way. In this instance, a large group of bipartisan Members on the Committee felt the legislation was flawed and being recklessly moved solely in response to media pressure. Members on both sides of the aisle wanted more time to gather information and develop responsible alternatives. Complicating matters is the fact that the legislation has been referred to five other committees. Therefore, the Chairman determined that in the interest of crafting the most effective response, the markup would be rescheduled.” Also, Rep. Cantor made an on-the-record statement about the STOCK Act here.

It would appear that Rep. Cantor is indeed for the kind of transparency core to the STOCK Act. Stay tuned next week for more on this story, Fools.

–

For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

At the time this
article was published Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) says Republicans will revive and expand a bill banning insider trading by members of Congress in the first months of 2012, after he slowed the bill’s progress earlier this month.

The legislation, known as the STOCK Act, had gained momentum after a “60 Minutes” report raised questions about whether lawmakers were personally profiting from the insider information they gleaned from their jobs in the Capitol.

Cantor had reportedly forced the GOP chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), to postpone a planned committee vote on the bill earlier this month over concerns that it was advancing too quickly. The majority leader is the subject of his own forthcoming “60 Minutes” profile, and he told CBS News that the House would advance and “build on” the bill in the new year.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor told CBS. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.”

Pressed on how he would expand the legislation, Cantor mentioned not just prohibiting insider stock trading but also preventing insider real estate deals.

“I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they’ve engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have — and acting on it,” he said. “And that means whether they’re buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can.”

Reps. Louis Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) are the authors of the Stock Act, which had barely more than a dozen co-sponsors before the first “60 Minutes” report but now has 237, a full majority of the House.

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200091-cantor-says-house-will-revive-expand-insider-trading-ban

By Sheldon Alberts

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser on Friday broke with his former boss over the Keystone XL pipeline, warning that continued delay of the project risks a stable supply of crude oil from a friendly neighbour.

Gen. Jim Jones said a failure to approve the $7-billion project will leave the U.S. dependent on oil from far-flung nations and vulnerable to the “whims of leaders and other actors” hostile to American interests.

“I believe strongly that approving the project serves the economic and the security interests of the United States,” said Jones, who served as Obama’s top security adviser through the first two years of his presidency.

Related

• Canada predicts U.S. approval of Keystone pipeline

• Kelly McParland: Keystone pipeline project enjoys a brief rebirth

“In a tightly contested global economy where securing energy sources is a national must, we should be able to act with speed and agility. And any threat to this project by delay or otherwise would constitute a significant setback.”

Jones’ comments came as Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives vowed Friday to continue fighting for legislation that would force the Obama administration to speed up its decision on whether to grant a presidential permit allowing Keystone XL to proceed.

House Speaker John Boehner said the GOP will not drop its demand that a Keystone XL provision, which would force a ruling on the pipeline within 60 days, remain in a tax-relief bill supported by the White House.

“I guarantee that the Keystone pipeline will be in there when it goes back to the United States Senate,” Boehner said.

Obama has threatened to veto a House bill that includes the provision, and Democrats in the Senate want to strip the pipeline “rider” out of legislation passed by the House earlier this week.

Jones, a former U.S. Marine Corps commandant who has long been a supporter of Canada’s oilsands, said it becomes “more evident” every day that the U.S. needs to secure a Canadian crude supply or risk losing it to countries like China.

“Given the important role of energy to our national security, it seems to me the country can’t afford to pass up the opportunity to secure a reliable supply from a close ally, a close friend and a neighbour,” he said in a conference call with reporters that was hosted by the American Petroleum Institute.

“With its huge supply of crude oil derived from oilsands, it can be a greater source of the oil we will continue to need in the coming decades.”

He added: “If we can’t get it from Canada, the oil will have to come largely from other countries, few as friendly and reliable.”

The U.S. State Department decided in November to delay a final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until early 2013 — after the presidential election — amid intense criticism of the project by environmental groups. The Obama administration is now working with Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. to find an alternative route that would move the pipeline out of the ecologically fragile Sand Hills region in Nebraska.

In an interview this week, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said his company was comfortable working with the State Department on the new process and timeline.

Even so, the timing of the pipeline’s construction has become a key piece in a holiday season legislative frenzy on Capitol Hill, with Republicans using Keystone XL as a bargaining chip as the White House presses for extension of payroll tax cuts to 160 million Americans.

During a Republican presidential debate Thursday night in Iowa, GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich called Obama’s decision to delay Keystone XL an “utterly irrational” move that damages the U.S. economy and leaves the country vulnerable to continued dependence on Middle East oil.

Gingrich also criticized Obama for threatening to veto the legislation that includes a Keystone XL provision.

“The president of the United States cannot figure out that it is — I’m using mild words here — utterly irrational to say, ‘I’m now going to veto a middle-class tax cut to protect left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco, so that we’re going to kill American jobs, weaken American energy, make us more vulnerable to the Iranians and do so in a way that makes no sense to any normal, rational American,’” Gingrich said, drawing loud applause from the audience.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, another Republican candidate, said Obama placed politics above principle.

“His entire calculus was based upon his re-election effort because, quite frankly, the radical environmentalists said to President Obama: ‘You pass Keystone, we’re not going to do your volunteer door-to-door work,’” Bachmann said.

“He’s put his re-election over adding jobs and making the United States energy-independent.”

The 2,700-kilometre Keystone XL pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels a day of crude oil from northern Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Jones said the delay in a decision on Keystone XL had no bearing on his decision to leave the Obama administration in late 2010.

“I have not been in touch with the administration on this, except that I am quite sure that my former colleagues know exactly how I feel about where we need to go with regard to energy,” Jones said.

Article source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/16/republicans-push-to-speed-up-keystone-pipeline-decision/

LYNN SWEET
blogs.suntimes.com/sweet

December 16, 2011 11:26PM

• Reprints

Article source: http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/9488238-452/cheers-for-obama-from-key-us-jewish-group.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he’ll push for broad action early next year to crack down on alleged congressional corruption and make sure lawmakers don’t profit from inside information.

In an interview excerpt released Friday, Cantor says the measure will expand on the STOCK Act – legislation explicitly banning congressional insider trading that’s rapidly gained traction on both sides of Capitol Hill since a “60 Minutes” report in November highlighted the practice.

Continue Reading

“We want to make sure the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor said in the interview, also on “60 Minutes,” which will air Sunday.

Last week, Cantor pressured House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus to abruptly cancel a committee markup on the STOCK Act. Cantor, the House’s No. 2 Republican, privately told Bachus – who had been a major target of the “60 Minutes” probe – that he should not have moved forward on the bill without clearing it with GOP leaders in the lower chamber.

House Democratic backers of the STOCK Act – who were thrilled to see committee action on the legislation, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in particular – were left peeved by Cantor’s behind-the-scenes moves to halt the bill from moving forward, and wrote a letter to Cantor asking him to reconsider.

In the “60 Minutes” interview, Cantor gave some hints as to how the broader package would build on the STOCK Act, which focuses on stock trades. For example, Cantor said government officials with access to inside information could unfairly profit from land sales.

“It is to expand the notion that somehow it’s only stock purchases and trading that is somehow the only thing that could potentially go wrong,” he said.

The measure could come as early as the first couple of months of 2012, Cantor indicated.

Little known before the news investigation, the STOCK Act – short for “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act” – has now grown to 237 co-sponsors in the House. In the upper chamber, its companion legislation cleared a Senate panel earlier this week.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70581.html

Speaking at the Jewish Reform Movement conference in Maryland, House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R – VA), lashed the notion of a Palestinian state, while condemning the Palestinians for what he called a “culture of resentment.”

Cantor went on to praise Israel, saying that “if Palestinians want to live in a state of their own they must demonstrate they are worthy of a state.” He did not make it clear what makes people worthy of statehood.

The Palestinian issue has become a major one in the Republican Party primaries recently, after Newt Gingrich insisted that they were an “invented” people with no right to a state, and other candidates lashed him for making the comments without first getting permission from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Cantor’s comments appear aimed at cashing in on what many Republicans see as a ticket to winning more Jewish votes: denouncing the Palestinians as a matter of course more than a matter of any particular issue.

Cantor went on in his comments to condemn the “so-called Arab Spring,” insisting that the pro-democracy movements across the Middle East “brought disappointment and Islamism” and that they “present challenges for interests to the US.”

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Article source: http://news.antiwar.com/2011/12/16/house-majority-leader-palestinians-need-to-prove-they-deserve-statehood/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he’ll push for broad action early next year to crack down on alleged congressional corruption and make sure lawmakers don’t profit from inside information.

In an interview excerpt released Friday, Cantor says the measure will expand on the STOCK Act – legislation explicitly banning congressional insider trading that’s rapidly gained traction on both sides of Capitol Hill since a “60 Minutes” report in November highlighted the practice.

Continue Reading

“We want to make sure the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor said in the interview, also on “60 Minutes,” which will air Sunday.

Last week, Cantor pressured House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus to abruptly cancel a committee markup on the STOCK Act. Cantor, the House’s No. 2 Republican, privately told Bachus – who had been a major target of the “60 Minutes” probe – that he should not have moved forward on the bill without clearing it with GOP leaders in the lower chamber.

House Democratic backers of the STOCK Act – who were thrilled to see committee action on the legislation, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in particular – were left peeved by Cantor’s behind-the-scenes moves to halt the bill from moving forward, and wrote a letter to Cantor asking him to reconsider.

In the “60 Minutes” interview, Cantor gave some hints as to how the broader package would build on the STOCK Act, which focuses on stock trades. For example, Cantor said government officials with access to inside information could unfairly profit from land sales.

“It is to expand the notion that somehow it’s only stock purchases and trading that is somehow the only thing that could potentially go wrong,” he said.

The measure could come as early as the first couple of months of 2012, Cantor indicated.

Little known before the news investigation, the STOCK Act – short for “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act” – has now grown to 237 co-sponsors in the House. In the upper chamber, its companion legislation cleared a Senate panel earlier this week.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70581.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor surprised and angered some on Capitol Hill last week when he blocked progress on a bill to ban so-called congressional “insider trading.”

But in an interview with Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes,” Cantor said he plans to revive the legislation in the first couple of months of 2012 — and expand it so that it addresses more than just congressional stock transactions.

Cantor said he wants to “try and address the situation and take care of it once and for all.”

The issue of “insider trading” in Congress came to the fore after a piece on “60 Minutes” shed new light on the issue last month. Like everyone else, members of Congress are subject to current insider trading laws. However, some contend that current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity, since members of Congress aren’t technically obligated to keep that information confidential. So, for instance, if a lawmaker learns an upcoming bill will grant a company a large government contract, which could boost that company’s stock, he or she is free to buy that stock ahead of the bill’s public introduction.

Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota introduced the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act in the House to stop this practice — but the bill, which has been introduced before, never garnered more than 14 congressional sponsors. In the wake of the “60 Minutes” report, it now has 237 co-sponsors in the House as well as bipartisan support in the Senate.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor told Stahl. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.”

That means expanding the bill so that it bars more than just stock transactions, he said.

“I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they’ve engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have — and acting on it,” he said. “And that means whether they’re buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can.”

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57344486-503544/cantor-plans-to-revive-stock-act-in-early-2012/

Dear friends,

Our Economy is so BAD, that
Brokers(Not Banks) are Gambling with clients money at Wall Street without
a SAFETY NET to pay their clients back, when they do NOT make Profit at Gambling!

Today Former MF GLOBAL CEO Jon Corzine does Not know where the Gambling Money is!

While PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS publicly proclaims that
Jon Corzine used EFFECTIVE INTERNAL CONTROL on the Gambling Money!

(Watch Charles Ponzi scheme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXcUb4UMMk )

Conclusion:

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP (PwC) is also Responsible for the Economic Crisis Today!
That ‘s how Bad the Economy is!

Advice:

1.) President Barack Hussein Obama,
The United States Congress (the House of Representatives the Senate) and
The Chairmen of the Federal Reserve(Ben Shalom Bernanke)

Must create an USA Committee on BROKERS Supervision in order to:

- Create standards on how much Capital(SAFETY NET) Brokers need to put aside!

- Check or Audit if the Brokers are following these SAFETY NET standards!

(Watch Investment schemes: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/invest/schemes.shtm )

2.) MF GLOBAL Public Accountant PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP (PwC),
which is also the Public Accountant of Solyndra,

Must NOTIFY the clients of MF GLOBAL where their money is!

Because on May 19, 2011 PwC-New York mention in the MF Global 2010 Annual Financiel Report that

Jon Corzine used EFFECTIVE INTERNAL CONTROL on the Gambling Money!

For More Information go to:

http://www.pwc.com
http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/secdocuments.aspx?symbol=mf

Greetings,

Jurgen R. Brul

PS. May Our Good Soldiers and Civilians, who Serve and Protect Their Nation, Rest in Peace!

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7391931n

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday afternoon that the House would adjourn today and likely return Monday to finish up the payroll tax holiday bill.

Cantor said the Senate is still considering the bill, which also would extend unemployment insurance and make a host of reforms favored by Republicans. 

“At this time, the fate of the Senate’s conversations are unclear,” Cantor said on the floor. “Therefore, we will conclude our business for the week at the end of this vote series.

“As all my colleagues are painfully aware, the Senate has the ability to move both as quickly and as slowly as it wants,” he added. “So it is difficult … to predict if or when we may need to return. My best guess is the earliest we would return is this Monday, Dec. 19.”

Cantor said he would give members 24 hours notice before any scheduled votes.

Article source: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/199993-cantor-house-likely-to-return-monday-to-deal-with-tax-bill

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor surprised and angered some on Capitol Hill last week when he blocked progress on a bill to ban so-called congressional “insider trading.”

But in an interview with Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes,” Cantor said he plans to revive the legislation in the first couple of months of 2012 — and expand it so that it addresses more than just congressional stock transactions.

Cantor said he wants to “try and address the situation and take care of it once and for all.”

The issue of “insider trading” in Congress came to the fore after a piece on “60 Minutes” shed new light on the issue last month. Like everyone else, members of Congress are subject to current insider trading laws. However, some contend that current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity, since members of Congress aren’t technically obligated to keep that information confidential. So, for instance, if a lawmaker learns an upcoming bill will grant a company a large government contract, which could boost that company’s stock, he or she is free to buy that stock ahead of the bill’s public introduction.

Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota introduced the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act in the House to stop this practice — but the bill, which has been introduced before, never garnered more than 14 congressional sponsors. In the wake of the “60 Minutes” report, it now has 237 co-sponsors in the House as well as bipartisan support in the Senate.

“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor told Stahl. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.”

That means expanding the bill so that it bars more than just stock transactions, he said.

“I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they’ve engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have — and acting on it,” he said. “And that means whether they’re buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can.”

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57344486-503544/cantor-plans-to-revive-stock-act-in-early-2012/

slideshow

WASHINGTON — Some might consider them to be a political odd couple, but don’t say that to Rabbi David Saperstein.

Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism — the Reform movement’s advocate in Washington for social justice issues — was tapped Thursday to introduce U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor — the highest-ranking Republican congressman — on day two of the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial.

Addressing the several hundred Jews at the morning plenary, who warmly welcomed Cantor, Saperstein read off a laundry list of legislative initiatives on which he and the congressman from Richmond, Va., have found common ground.

He called Cantor “a proud and engaged Jew, a champion of Israel and an opponent of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

And on those issues where they disagree — he drew a light round of applause from the crowd at that point — Saperstein noted that the two leaders would continue “to pursue our goals in different ways.”

Cantor used his brief remarks to remind the biennial goers that bipartisanship, especially in the cases of Israel and the nuclear threat from Iran, is not only doable, but a done deal in one very recent case

That case came Wednesday night when the House passed by a 410-11 vote the Iran Threat Reduction Act, which will add significant new sanctions to the Islamic republic

The bill, was spurred by last month’s report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that comes closer than ever to confirmation that Iran is nearing the ability to produce nuclear weapons.

The bill would impose new sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, as well as Iran’s Central Bank — considered a key facilitator of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It would also make it U.S. policy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, escalate the level of sanctions against the regime’s human rights violators and tighten enforcement of existing sanctions law.

Cantor never mentioned President Obama by name, but he did criticize the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, for striking differences between traditional anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel among the Arab regimes and streets.

“I say to you, any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor said.

He added that United States must send a strong message that, “it is not OK to vilify Israel and it is not OK to demonize Jews.”

Cantor is just one conservative political leader to appear at the biennial this week. William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, also is scheduled to appear.

(Lee Chottiner can be reached at leec@thejewishchronicle.net.)

Article source: http://thejewishchronicle.net/view/full_story/16795873/article-Cantor-touts-bipartisan-effort-against-Iran?instance=lead_story_left_column

Want to understand why Obama can’t get his way with Congress? One place to start would be Representative Eric Cantor, Republicans’ “Young Gun” No. 2 in the House. Cantor, the highest ranking Jewish member of Congress in history, helped lead the GOP in its year-long crusade to lower taxes and cut spending, parrying Democrats at every turn. It was Cantor whom John Boehner tapped to lead negotiations at the height of tense debt-ceiling negotiations in July, and the Majority Leader played no small role in striking budget victory after budget victory for conservatives in 2011.

Article source: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102309_2102286,00.html

The Palestinians need to prove they deserve an independent state before on is recognized, a leading U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday, criticizing what he said was a Palestinian culture of “resentment.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor made the comments during the Reform movement’s biennial conference at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland south of Washington DC, which was participated by 6,000 U.S. Jews, including rabbis, Reform movement officials, lay leaders, and students.

Eric Cantor speaking at the Reform movement’s biennial conference, Dec. 15, 2001.

Photo by: URJ

Addressing the week-long conference on Thursday, the Republican leader discussed what he called the Palestinian “culture of resentment and hatred,” adding: “As we say in Hebrew, Am Israel Chai, and what people of Israel want is to live in peace. If Palestinians want to live in a state of their own they must demonstrate they are worthy of state.”

Cantor also addressed the “so-called Arab Spring,” saying the popular unrest movement brought disappointment and Islamism and that, “to put it mildly, presents challenges for interests to the U.S. and raises questions whether they’ll preserve peace treaty with Israel.”

The prominent lawmaker also took an apparent jab at the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who raised controversy by linking the raise of anti-Semitism to the unsolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor added.

Another speaker addressing the conference was Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, urged participants to commit themselves to programs related to Israel.

“It is you, American Jews, who discovered the way to strengthen the Jewish identity – by visiting Israel,” he said, adding: “It’s very important to strengthen institutions of Reformed movement in Israel.”

However, the Jewish Agency chief made it clear he expected U.S. Jews to support such programs, saying: “You think I am criticizing Israel government? I am criticizing you!” adding: “It’s up to you to support these institutions.”

Sharansky also addressed concerns among U.S. Jews regarding a recent series of controversial Knesset bills, assuring conference participants that “there is no chance there will be passed legislation undermining legitimacy of your movement.”

“There is legislation you don’t like and most of them I don’t like,” he said, “but to say there is no democracy in Israel? Does it mean lawmakers can’t propose bills I don’t like? But which of the legislation that made you mad passed? Some was stalled, some blocked by the Prime Minister or stuck at the Supreme Court. That’s real democracy,” he added.

Concluding his remarks, Sharansky reiterated the Israeli demand for an immediate release of Jonathan Pollard, saying he was “aware that this is a complicated matter for the American Jewish community.”

“But today when there is a growing consensus in favor of Pollard’s release amongst former Pentagon and CIA officials, legal authorities, the Israeli government, and American Jewish leaders, the time has come to vigorously and loudly demand his freedom,” Sharansky added.

“Twenty six years is more than enough. Your great leader, Rabbi Alexander Schindler visited Pollard regularly and called on the President to release him. He said Pollard had indeed committed a crime, but his punishment was excessive and the time had come for his relapse. If this was true 12 years ago, how much more so is it true today?” he asked.

Reform movement shows political diversity

With 5 days of speeches, training, study, prayer, music and schmoozing, the various areas of the building housing the Reform movement’s conference this week mirrored the diversity of discourse among American reform Jews.

There were more traditional panel’s, like Thursday’s session with the Weekly Standard’s conservative editor Bill Kristol and RAC, Director Rabbi David Saperstein (“Kristol agreed after all President Obama’s record on Israel is not all bad”, Rabbi Saperstein noted ironically after the debate),

Other sessions, however, bore a slight resemblance to the “occupy” movement camps, with young people sitting on the floor in the hallways, vigorously discussing social, political and communal issues.

In yet another hall, participants wandered between the long rows of booths filled with Judaica and prayer shawls (especially colorful for women, with matching yarmoulkes), babies’ bibs with “Future lawyer” or “little mensch” on it; representatives promoting “Birthright”, Jewish college “Alpha Epsilon Pi” fraternity to trips to visit the Jewish community in Cuba; web sites meant “to help your community grow” and even pianos.

Irvin Ungar, publisher and antiquarian book seller, brought to the conference his 8,800 dollars book – splendid Haggadah by Arthur Szyk. It’s not the first Jewish event this year where he tries to find buyers for a costly project, but he says it’s his personal mission, “to make Szyk, who was the leading anti-Nazi voice after he came to the U.S. in 1940, and was forgotten after his death, famous again.”

Movie director Nathan Lang came from San Antonio for a different reason – to convince community leaders to attend a screening his new documentary, “God in the Box”.

Lang and his crew went across the country with a big black booth that people were invited in to talk about what God means to them. Later, theologians, pastors, rabbis, historians were asked to explain why people see today the God as they see him (Why not her? Why should the young black woman see the God as an old white man, as one of the participants complained).

Lang, himself a member of a Reform congregations, says the making of the movie made brought him closer to tradition again – but, as many Reform Jews, he explains it’s a very different connection to it than following a strict set of rules.

“I am not a particularly religious person – and it’s great I am allowed to feel comfortable with my spirituality without being required it go every week to the synagogue or eat particular food,” Land said.

“But I love being Jewish, it’s part of my heritage”, he said. “This film made me realize that we hear a lot in the news about religious extremes – while the majority are just common people, spiritual people, who don’t make news because they don’t protest in front of the abortion clinic.”

And no, he hasn’t been to Israel yet, but would love to go.

Another biennial participant, Jessie Weiser (26) from Boston, may serve as a foil to the claim that Reform movement is just a step from a total assimilation. Her parents are reform Jews, and now, when they still live in Phoenix, Arizona, while she lives in Boston, Massachusetts, but she is as deeply involved as they are – and they love to share news about the new community projects and initiatives.

For her, as one might guess, the first priority isn’t Israel, but finding some creative ways to engage youth like herself. And no, she doesn’t feel the Reform movement is “Judaism lite”.

“You might not be demanded to do certain things, but you are committed on a very deep level, and there is real richness to your Judaism experience – when you combine the social justice and tradition, there is something truly magnetic and vibrant”, she said.

Rabbi David Saperstein said this Biennial was marked by a leadership transition – Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who led the Union for Reform Judaism since 1996, is succeeded by Rabbi Rick Jacobs (who got from Rabbi Yoffie one short advice – to “change everything”).

“This is a major transition in the life of the movement,” Rabbi Saperstein told “Haaretz.”

“We are welcoming a new leader, a new visionary. Three previous leaders had a major impact on the development of the movement. Rabbi Eisendrath puts an emphasis on a social justice, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler made Israel a much bigger part of the Reform movement’s life and worked on an outreach to bring more people to the meaningful Jewish life,” Saperstein said.

“Rabbi Yoffie stressed youth engagement, the camp system, Israel trip program, got us focused on Torah studies. Now every stream has outreach program to mixed families, many to gay families. Rick is deeply committed to engaging young people, bringing them into a community in a more profound way, not only for one trip,” he added,

This biennial features some prominent speakers – House Majority leader Eric Cantor, Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak – and Friday, President Barack Obama will address the gathering.

One of the most thought provoking speakers at the conference was Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch, recipient of the Eisendrath Award, who pondered in his remarks on the Jewish identity, relationship between Israel and the Diaspora and the potential role of the Reform movement in the future in both worlds.

“Why does Diaspora Jewry need Israel?” he asked. “If Jewish identity is contracted to a religion only, or limited to a personalized religious expression without a sense of Jewish peoplehood, we run the risk of being reduced to another American religious sect. The Jewish soul cannot flourish without the Jewish body. Without the closest ties to the Jewish land, Jewish culture and the Hebrew language, Jewish identity will disintegrate. Without our presence in force in the State of Israel, Israel would be incomplete, just as without Israel we would be unfulfilled”.

“Why does Israel need the Diaspora?” he continued. “If in America a process of “religionization” is contracting Jewish identity, in Israel a process of “nationalization” is contracting Jewish identity,” Hirsch added.

“Yes, there is assimilation in Israel. Assimilation in Israel leads to what has been defined as post-Zionism—the desire of many for Israel to be a normal state like all other states. The post-Zionists tend to be indifferent to the weakening ties to world Jewry and the Jewish heritage,” rabbi Hirsch said, adding: “Reform Judaism potentially has a key role to play in this process.”

“Of all groups in Jewish life, we are capable of having our feet planted firmly in both worlds—Israel and the Diaspora, peoplehood and modernity. Israel desperately needs a strong viable movement of liberal Judaism in order to counter the benighted trend toward extremism among the ultra-Orthodox and the trend toward right-wing radical religious and political positions among the so-called Zionist Orthodox. Even though the majority of Israeli Jews define themselves as secular, in reality most of them observe Jewish life-cycle events and holidays such as the Passover seder. For those in search of meaning and purpose in an enlightened framework, Progressive Judaism represents not a rejection but a reinvigoration of Judaism. That is why our movement is expanding significantly and why we are destined to become an increasingly vital factor in Israeli society,” he said.

Rabbi Hirsch compared Israel to Broadway and the Diaspora- to Off-Broadway and called for a deeper involvement of the movement in Israel.

“Can we continue to consider ourselves as an authentic world movement if we thrive only in a non-Jewish environment and not in a Jewish environment? In order for our American movement to have the proper commitment and identity as Jews, it needs to help nurture the Israel and World movements. Is Israel an exemplary society? NO! But neither is American society. Does the Israel reality seem far distant from the dream? To be sure. But would the Jewish people be better off today if there were no Jewish state, if we lived only with the dream of the biblical prophets?”

Article source: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-jewish-lawmaker-palestinians-have-to-prove-they-deserve-a-state-1.401790?localLinksEnabled=false&asid=d956437e

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For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c.aspx

The Palestinians need to prove they deserve an independent state before on is recognized, a leading U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday, criticizing what he said was a Palestinian culture of “resentment.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor made the comments during the Reform movement’s biennial conference at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland south of Washington DC, which was participated by 6,000 U.S. Jews, including rabbis, Reform movement officials, lay leaders, and students.

Eric Cantor speaking at the Reform movement’s biennial conference, Dec. 15, 2001.

Photo by: Natasha Movgovaya

Addressing the week-long conference on Thursday, the Republican leader discussed what he called the Palestinian “culture of resentment and hatred,” adding: “As we say in Hebrew, Am Israel Chai, and what people of Israel want is to live in peace. If Palestinians want to live in a state of their own they must demonstrate they are worthy of state.”

Cantor also addressed the “so-called Arab Spring,” saying the popular unrest movement brought disappointment and Islamism and that, “to put it mildly, presents challenges for interests to the U.S. and raises questions whether they’ll preserve peace treaty with Israel.”

The prominent lawmaker also took an apparent jab at the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who raised controversy by linking the raise of anti-Semitism to the unsolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor added.

Another speaker addressing the conference was Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, urged participants to commit themselves to programs related to Israel.

“It is you, American Jews, who discovered the way to strengthen the Jewish identity – by visiting Israel,” he said, adding: “It’s very important to strengthen institutions of Reformed movement in Israel.”

However, the Jewish Agency chief made it clear he expected U.S. Jews to support such programs, saying: “You think I am criticizing Israel government? I am criticizing you!” adding: “It’s up to you to support these institutions.”

Sharansky also addressed concerns among U.S. Jews regarding a recent series of controversial Knesset bills, assuring conference participants that “there is no chance there will be passed legislation undermining legitimacy of your movement.”

“There is legislation you don’t like and most of them I don’t like,” he said, “but to say there is no democracy in Israel? Does it mean lawmakers can’t propose bills I don’t like? But which of the legislation that made you mad passed? Some was stalled, some blocked by the Prime Minister or stuck at the Supreme Court. That’s real democracy,” he added.

Concluding his remarks, Sharansky reiterated the Israeli demand for an immediate release of Jonathan Pollard, saying he was “aware that this is a complicated matter for the American Jewish community.”

“But today when there is a growing consensus in favor of Pollard’s release amongst former Pentagon and CIA officials, legal authorities, the Israeli government, and American Jewish leaders, the time has come to vigorously and loudly demand his freedom,” Sharansky added.

“Twenty six years is more than enough. Your great leader, Rabbi Alexander Schindler visited Pollard regularly and called on the President to release him. He said Pollard had indeed committed a crime, but his punishment was excessive and the time had come for his relapse. If this was true 12 years ago, how much more so is it true today?” he asked.

Reform movement shows political diversity

With 5 days of speeches, training, study, prayer, music and schmoozing, the various areas of the building housing the Reform movement’s conference this week mirrored the diversity of discourse among American reform Jews.

There were more traditional panel’s, like Thursday’s session with the Weekly Standard’s conservative editor Bill Kristol and RAC, Director Rabbi David Saperstein (“Kristol agreed after all President Obama’s record on Israel is not all bad”, Rabbi Saperstein noted ironically after the debate),

Other sessions, however, bore a slight resemblance to the “occupy” movement camps, with young people sitting on the floor in the hallways, vigorously discussing social, political and communal issues.

In yet another hall, participants wandered between the long rows of booths filled with Judaica and prayer shawls (especially colorful for women, with matching yarmoulkes), babies’ bibs with “Future lawyer” or “little mensch” on it; representatives promoting “Birthright”, Jewish college “Alpha Epsilon Pi” fraternity to trips to visit the Jewish community in Cuba; web sites meant “to help your community grow” and even pianos.

Irvin Ungar, publisher and antiquarian book seller, brought to the conference his 8,800 dollars book – splendid Haggadah by Arthur Szyk. It’s not the first Jewish event this year where he tries to find buyers for a costly project, but he says it’s his personal mission, “to make Szyk, who was the leading anti-Nazi voice after he came to the U.S. in 1940, and was forgotten after his death, famous again.”

Movie director Nathan Lang came from San Antonio for a different reason – to convince community leaders to attend a screening his new documentary, “God in the Box”.

Lang and his crew went across the country with a big black booth that people were invited in to talk about what God means to them. Later, theologians, pastors, rabbis, historians were asked to explain why people see today the God as they see him (Why not her? Why should the young black woman see the God as an old white man, as one of the participants complained).

Lang, himself a member of a Reform congregations, says the making of the movie made brought him closer to tradition again – but, as many Reform Jews, he explains it’s a very different connection to it than following a strict set of rules.

“I am not a particularly religious person – and it’s great I am allowed to feel comfortable with my spirituality without being required it go every week to the synagogue or eat particular food,” Land said.

“But I love being Jewish, it’s part of my heritage”, he said. “This film made me realize that we hear a lot in the news about religious extremes – while the majority are just common people, spiritual people, who don’t make news because they don’t protest in front of the abortion clinic.”

And no, he hasn’t been to Israel yet, but would love to go.

Another biennial participant, Jessie Weiser (26) from Boston, may serve as a foil to the claim that Reform movement is just a step from a total assimilation. Her parents are reform Jews, and now, when they still live in Phoenix, Arizona, while she lives in Boston, Massachusetts, but she is as deeply involved as they are – and they love to share news about the new community projects and initiatives.

For her, as one might guess, the first priority isn’t Israel, but finding some creative ways to engage youth like herself. And no, she doesn’t feel the Reform movement is “Judaism lite”.

“You might not be demanded to do certain things, but you are committed on a very deep level, and there is real richness to your Judaism experience – when you combine the social justice and tradition, there is something truly magnetic and vibrant”, she said.

Rabbi David Saperstein said this Biennial was marked by a leadership transition – Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who led the Union for Reform Judaism since 1996, is succeeded by Rabbi Rick Jacobs (who got from Rabbi Yoffie one short advice – to “change everything”).

“This is a major transition in the life of the movement,” Rabbi Saperstein told “Haaretz.”

“We are welcoming a new leader, a new visionary. Three previous leaders had a major impact on the development of the movement. Rabbi Eisendrath puts an emphasis on a social justice, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler made Israel a much bigger part of the Reform movement’s life and worked on an outreach to bring more people to the meaningful Jewish life,” Saperstein said.

“Rabbi Yoffie stressed youth engagement, the camp system, Israel trip program, got us focused on Torah studies. Now every stream has outreach program to mixed families, many to gay families. Rick is deeply committed to engaging young people, bringing them into a community in a more profound way, not only for one trip,” he added,

This biennial features some prominent speakers – House Majority leader Eric Cantor, Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak – and Friday, President Barack Obama will address the gathering.

One of the most thought provoking speakers at the conference was Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch, recipient of the Eisendrath Award, who pondered in his remarks on the Jewish identity, relationship between Israel and the Diaspora and the potential role of the Reform movement in the future in both worlds.

“Why does Diaspora Jewry need Israel?” he asked. “If Jewish identity is contracted to a religion only, or limited to a personalized religious expression without a sense of Jewish peoplehood, we run the risk of being reduced to another American religious sect. The Jewish soul cannot flourish without the Jewish body. Without the closest ties to the Jewish land, Jewish culture and the Hebrew language, Jewish identity will disintegrate. Without our presence in force in the State of Israel, Israel would be incomplete, just as without Israel we would be unfulfilled”.

“Why does Israel need the Diaspora?” he continued. “If in America a process of “religionization” is contracting Jewish identity, in Israel a process of “nationalization” is contracting Jewish identity,” Hirsch added.

“Yes, there is assimilation in Israel. Assimilation in Israel leads to what has been defined as post-Zionism—the desire of many for Israel to be a normal state like all other states. The post-Zionists tend to be indifferent to the weakening ties to world Jewry and the Jewish heritage,” rabbi Hirsch said, adding: “Reform Judaism potentially has a key role to play in this process.”

“Of all groups in Jewish life, we are capable of having our feet planted firmly in both worlds—Israel and the Diaspora, peoplehood and modernity. Israel desperately needs a strong viable movement of liberal Judaism in order to counter the benighted trend toward extremism among the ultra-Orthodox and the trend toward right-wing radical religious and political positions among the so-called Zionist Orthodox. Even though the majority of Israeli Jews define themselves as secular, in reality most of them observe Jewish life-cycle events and holidays such as the Passover seder. For those in search of meaning and purpose in an enlightened framework, Progressive Judaism represents not a rejection but a reinvigoration of Judaism. That is why our movement is expanding significantly and why we are destined to become an increasingly vital factor in Israeli society,” he said.

Rabbi Hirsch compared Israel to Broadway and the Diaspora- to Off-Broadway and called for a deeper involvement of the movement in Israel.

“Can we continue to consider ourselves as an authentic world movement if we thrive only in a non-Jewish environment and not in a Jewish environment? In order for our American movement to have the proper commitment and identity as Jews, it needs to help nurture the Israel and World movements. Is Israel an exemplary society? NO! But neither is American society. Does the Israel reality seem far distant from the dream? To be sure. But would the Jewish people be better off today if there were no Jewish state, if we lived only with the dream of the biblical prophets?”

Article source: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-jewish-lawmaker-palestinians-have-to-prove-they-deserve-a-state-1.401790

A new leader promising ‘big tent’ outreach must also deal with dissent from within.

This week’s biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), marking the transition to new leadership at the helm, is being hailed as a celebration, and one can see why.

An estimated 6,000 delegates are gathering in Washington, D.C., making the five-day, sold-out conference the largest North American Jewish gathering of the year and underscoring the fact that the Reform movement is the largest of the denominations, with some 900 congregations and 330,000 member households. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the convention — further proof of its clout — as will House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, headlining scores of speakers.

But the emotional highlight may well be when the participants witness Rabbi Eric Yoffie, 64, whose 16-year tenure has been marked by an emphasis on Torah study and ritual tradition, preach his last Shabbat sermon in the role of president, and the next morning hear president-elect Rabbi Richard (Rick) Jacobs of Westchester Reform Temple outline his vision for the movement’s future.

At a time of critical transition in the movement, there is a sense of anticipation and excitement among the faithful, fueled in part by Rabbi Jacobs’ charismatic optimism. He is expected to call for a “big tent” approach and issue a charge to imagine the Jewish future in bold ways, reaching out to the community and beyond, to “recover the larger sense of ‘we,’” as he puts it, while strengthening the movement from within.

But under the surface, there are roiling concerns within the movement, from sharp internal disagreements over dues structure, budgets and finance to wider worries over staggering dropout rates — up to 80 percent for teens, and 50 percent for members within a year after their child’s bar or bat mitzvah.

“If families are not staying in the synagogue for themselves, there is no hope for the future,” confided Rabbi Peter Rubinstein of Central Synagogue, the venerable, thriving East Side Reform congregation.

Complex Equation

A major theme of the biennial is re-engaging youth, and a special campaign has been launched to retain post-bnai mitzvah teens in synagogues, Hebrew schools and summer camps. An Education Summit at the conference will offer workshops and programs focused on how coordinated efforts within the movement can help inspire young people.

In addition, an ongoing core program of the movement for the last three decades — welcoming interfaith families and encouraging their participation in congregational life — will be highlighted this week. But it’s a complex equation that tends to mask, or perhaps even cause, other problems.

For example, the fact that the number of Reform Jews in the U.S. is not growing despite the increase in interfaith families joining Reform temples — more than 20 percent of member families — indicates that there are fewer Jewish members of the movement today than in decades past. Some rabbis worry about “the lack of knowledge and depth and commitment out there,” as one put it. And with notable exceptions, studies find that intermarried couples in Reform temples are less Jewishly active than other congregants, says Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Randy Sheinberg of Temple Tikvah in New Hyde Park, L.I., estimates that about one-third of her congregation’s 300 families are interfaith, and that there may be fewer in-married families than when she came eight years ago. But the impact, she said, depends on the interfaith families themselves.

“Some are very committed,” observed the rabbi, and it is not uncommon for the Jewish partner to be strengthened in his or her own commitment as a result of the conscious effort made by the couple to raise Jewish children. “That can be quite wonderful.”

But for marginally affiliated interfaith families, “it’s a harder sell to get them to stay” after a child’s bar or bat mitzvah, and “their tenure as members may be shortened.”

This trend clearly has been exacerbated by the economic recession, she noted.

The URJ was hit hard by the 2008 recession and was forced to make major cuts in staffing and programming. It also faced another kind of shock in recent years in the form of dissent from some of its most influential rabbis.

Central Synagogue’s Rabbi Rubinstein led a group of 17 senior rabbis within the movement seeking increased coordination among the URJ, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Hebrew Union College and the synagogues, and a greater role for congregations in decision-making.

In an interview this week, he noted that Rabbi Jacobs, the incoming URJ president-elect who will become president officially next June, was an active member of the group, known as the Rabbinic Vision Initiative, and fully understands the issues.

‘All About Transformation’

Indeed, Rabbi Jacobs, a tall, ruggedly handsome man of 56, says the future of Reform Jewry is “all about transformation,” invoking the mantra of Billy Beane, the baseball executive portrayed in the film “Moneyball”: “adapt or die.” The rabbi wants to see Reform Jewry seek out “the unaffiliated and the uninspired,” beyond the walls of the synagogue.

Despite economic woes, he says this is not the time to “scale back” but to reach out more aggressively. Congregations can no longer “sit back and wait” for young adults who drifted away from Jewish life come back and join as young parents, as happened in the past.

This generation is distrustful of denominations and institutions, the rabbi said, and will respond to relationships more than programming. The job of Reform leaders is to reach young people where they are and connect them to the values of the movement, emphasizing ritual and observance, community, social action and moving tradition into modernity, Rabbi Jacobs says, all “rooted in serious Jewish learning at the core.”

It is Rabbi Yoffie who is credited with bringing the movement closer to Jewish tradition anchored by Torah study, increased observance of Shabbat and more spiritual and spirited Friday evening services, with congregants participating rather than playing a passive role.

“This community will be sustained by the synagogue and nothing else,” he said this week, asserting that “the synagogue remains the central institution in Jewish life.”

Rabbi Yoffie’s tenure was also marked by his unabashed, passionate voice as ideological leader, speaking out in defense — and at times criticism — of Israel, seeking greater understanding and cooperation between Muslims and Jews, between Evangelical Christians and Jews, and articulating what it means to be a liberal Jew today.

Rabbi Rubinstein says that need for progressive Jews to define and describe their beliefs is paramount.

“I ask members, ‘Why do you care? Why do you care if your children stay Jewish?”

The rabbi holds about 70 informal meetings a year with member families and finds that most people are “beyond inarticulate; they have no words” to express what being Jewish means to them. “There’s a vacuum.”

He says it was a mistake for rabbinical schools to train rabbis not to speak about themselves and their own spiritual struggles. So Rabbi Rubinstein made a point of devoting his Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur sermons this year to his own search for God, how he finds God in Jewish existence and the need to articulate one’s feelings and transmit them to one’s children.

“Parents always ask me to talk to their kids” about these issues “but I say no. It needs to come from you to impact your children.”

Rabbi Jacobs believes that in the first months of his tenure “we’ll get clearer about who we are, and live it, and remove the walls” that separate congregations and unaffiliated Jews.

“We need to be less timid about being out” in the wider culture, he says.

Some congregations are wondering about the bottom line for them if the movement spends time and money on an outreach that is not just about increasing membership.

Supporters say they are enthused about Rabbi Jacobs’ confident positioning of Reform Jewry but warn that his first priority must be to address persistent concerns about internal matters. These include the dues structure of the union, which critics say is too high; how synagogues can sustain themselves when younger people want free services; and greater synagogue representation in who speaks for the movement.

“Expectations are very high,” Rabbi Sheinberg of New Hyde Park acknowledges. She believes Rabbi Jacobs is “hoping to create a great deal of excitement inside the movement and the rest will follow.”

How he manages to balance an expansive new vision while addressing deep concerns on the home front remains to be seen, but no doubt he will be advising potential critics: “Adapt or die.”

E-mail: gary@jewishweek.org

Article source: http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/gary_rosenblatt/crossroads_reform_jewry_focuses_transformation

For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

At the time this
article was published Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c/

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For years, Congress has stalled on passing a law to ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. Three times, it’s gone to committee. Three times, it’s died there.

This year is different. With 235 Congressmen backing the bill, The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the “STOCK Act”), finally got a fair hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last week. But no sooner had the committee scheduled the STOCK Act for final mark-up (prior to consideration by the full House) than House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blocked it. Again. For the fourth time.

Arguing that “media pressure” was behind the bill’s sudden popularity, Cantor ordered his allies on the committee to suspend consideration and “develop appropriate alternatives” instead.

That’s right: Despite overwhelming momentum and bipartisan support, one man is now thwarting the will of a clear majority of U.S. Congress members — and countless American citizens.

Allowing Capitol Hill to continue to profit on insider information is wrong. We’re willing to bet a majority of American voters agree. We’re not backing down, and we will be heard.

That’s why we’re calling on every angry citizen to join us in demanding an explanation from Eric Cantor on why he is blocking this important bill:

• Tweet @EricCantor @GOPLeader with the hashtag #PassTheStockAct and his office phone number.
• Post on his Facebook wall.
• Leave a message at his DC office at 202-225-2815.
• Email him.
• If you’d like to learn more about the STOCK Act, read this article: Support Your Local “Sheriff” in Supporting the STOCK Act

Fool contributor Rich Smith contributed to this article. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Article source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/15/take-action-lets-hold-house-majority-leader-eric-c.aspx

Earlier this week, the Steven Palazzo campaign announced that he will have a reception on February 4 with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor as the freshman faces the possibility of primary and general election challengers. Cantor wouldn’t be coming to the Fourth District if this race wasn’t at least on the NRCC’s radar, but I haven’t heard this race talked about as a Democratic takeover possibility at this point. You won’t find any mention of it from Rothenberg or Cook or Sabato, etc.

Part of that is because their is only one serious Democrat and that is the man Palazzo defeated last November- Gene Taylor. He recently told the Sun Herald that he is weighing his options, but isn’t committing one way or the other. He, and others, need to decide soon with a January 13 qualifying deadline. Comebacks aren’t unheard of, but they aren’t the norm either. But generally you will find them in swing districts, not a place like MS-04 which is very Republican, despite supporting Taylor over the years.

As an incumbent, Palazzo should have the money advantage. As of the latest reports, he has about $264,000- not a huge total, but he will obviously be able to raise money as the GOP looks to protect their incumbents. Taylor has about $30,000 in the bank. Taylor’s advantage, among other things, had long been his business connections and his ability to raise money. Those groups supported Taylor but generally tend to back the incumbent. It will be interesting to see which friends he can call on if he is the challenger.

But Taylor, if he entered, likely would have a pass through the Democratic primary while Palazzo may not get so lucky. Michael Watson again said he is looking at the possibility and Tea Party groups are saying someone will run. Not sure if Watson or someone else is their man. (They have also said someone will challenge Roger Wicker and so far nothing has come of that). But a primary could drain Palazzo’s resources for a certain period of time. But there will be nearly eight months in the time between the primary and general election.

If Taylor doesn’t enter, the GOP primary will decide this in all likelihood. Some Democrats may run, but they will face long odds regardless of who the GOP candidate is. For now, Taylor is the one to watch.

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Article source: http://majorityinms.com/2011/12/15/palazzo-begins-re-election-campaign/

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Cantor: U.S. must signal intolerance for Israel vilification

December 15, 2011

WASHINGTON (JTA) — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the Obama administration must clearly signal to emerging Arab governments that vilifying Israel and Jews is unacceptable.

“Now is the time for Washington to send a clear signal to the emerging governments of the Middle East and the international community that it is not OK to vilify Israel and it is not OK to demonize Jews,” Cantor (R-Va.) said in his address Thursday to the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial taking place in suburban Washington.

Cantor blasted Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, who last week differentiated between European and Muslim anti-Semitism, saying the latter was in part explicable because of events in the Middle East.

“Any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor said to applause.

Obama administration officials have distanced themselves from Gutman’s remarks but have resisted calls to fire him.

Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the U.S. Congress, earned a warm reception, despite his differences with the Reform movement, which trends liberal on a number of domestic issues.

Introducing Cantor, Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of reform’s Religious Action Center, praised the majority leader’s role in working with the Reform movement and other Jewish groups to defend Israel, isolate Iran, and promote human rights in Sudan and elsewhere.

Click to login and write a letter to the editor or sign up for the Daily Briefing.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.

Article source: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/15/3090757/cantor-us-must-signal-intolerance-for-israel-vilification

In a strange and unexpected twist, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives is now blocking progress on a bill that would definitively outlaw insider trading by federal lawmakers.

The Republican sponsor of the bill in the House, Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus of Alabama, had scheduled a markup of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act for next week. But on Wednesday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia cancelled the markup session.

Cantor reportedly said he blocked the bill to give Congress more time to examine the issue. Critics of the move, however, fear that any delay could kill the bill entirely.

Some version of the the STOCK Act has been bouncing around Capitol Hill for six years. But recent attention to the issue of Congressional insider trading, following reports from CNBC’s Eamon Javers and a “60 Minutes” report, brought the bill out of stasis and made its passage into law seem likely. If the latest delay pushes the bill into next year, it may become lost in election-year politics.

Trading by lawmakers based on non-public information about legislation falls into what many see as a loophole in insider trading regulations.

Although corporate insiders are banned from trading on non-public information about their companies, congressional representatives and senators may not be banned from trading on non-public information about legislation or regulation. The legal issue is disputed by scholars and regulators.

The head of the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently argued that congressional insider trading is already banned. But he admitted that no legal action has ever been taken against a member of Congress.

Studies have shown the investment portfolios of House members and Senators consistently outperform the market by significant degrees, suggesting they are either miraculously bright and lucky investors or using their access to non-public information when trading. Financial experts regard the idea that it is just luck or investing smarts as laughable. 

Congressman Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, said Cantor’s move is “absolutely unacceptable” and described Cantor as “petty,” according to The Hill.

The bill may have fallen victim to backroom politics. Apparently lawmakers on Capitol Hill believe Bachus is rushing through the bill because he was one of the prime subjects of the “60 Minutes” piece on congressional insider trading.

From Politico:

In a Wednesday meeting described by one source as “extremely direct”

and by another as “very blunt,” Cantor (R-Va.) ripped into Bachus, explaining in no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable for Bachus to mark up the bill without having run it by GOP leaders and other chairmen with jurisdiction over its provisions. …

Bachus, clearly anxious to create a good-government portfolio in the wake of a “60 Minutes” piece on his stock trades – some of which netted five-figure gains in a single day – put the STOCK Act on the fast track. … Cantor delivered the cease-and-desist order on behalf of GOP leaders, other chairmen and rank-and-file lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who were concerned that Bachus could help give the bill life by having the committee approve it. …

Cantor apparently prefers to whack Bachus behind closed doors, as his office offered up a rather understated version of events when asked about the exchange.

“A large group of bipartisan members of the committee felt the legislation was flawed and being recklessly moved solely in response to media pressure,” Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said. “Members of both sides of the aisle wanted more time to gather information and develop appropriate alternatives.”

Cantor’s move to block the markup is stirring outrage. Professor Stephen Bainbridge, of the UCLA School of Law, has been a vocal supporter of banning insider trading by lawmakers. He recently wrote:

Why is Congressman Eric Cantor blocking this basic good-government reform? Does Cantor believe that congressmen should be allowed to inside trade with impunity? Does Cantor not realize that congressional insider trading raises serious issues of ethics, corruption, and even the potential for bribery? Does Cantor not see that the current de facto exemption of Congress from the draconian penalties for insider trading it has imposed on everybody else is fundamentally unfair?

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Cantor: U.S. must signal intolerance for Israel vilification

December 15, 2011

WASHINGTON (JTA) — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the Obama administration must clearly signal to emerging Arab governments that vilifying Israel and Jews is unacceptable.

“Now is the time for Washington to send a clear signal to the emerging governments of the Middle East and the international community that it is not OK to vilify Israel and it is not OK to demonize Jews,” Cantor (R-Va.) said in his address Thursday to the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial taking place in suburban Washington.

Cantor blasted Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, who last week differentiated between European and Muslim anti-Semitism, saying the latter was in part explicable because of events in the Middle East.

“Any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor said to applause.

Obama administration officials have distanced themselves from Gutman’s remarks but have resisted calls to fire him.

Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the U.S. Congress, earned a warm reception, despite his differences with the Reform movement, which trends liberal on a number of domestic issues.

Introducing Cantor, Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of reform’s Religious Action Center, praised the majority leader’s role in working with the Reform movement and other Jewish groups to defend Israel, isolate Iran, and promote human rights in Sudan and elsewhere.

Click to login and write a letter to the editor or sign up for the Daily Briefing.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.

Article source: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/15/3090757/cantor-us-must-signal-intolerance-for-israel-vilification

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) delivered a severe rebuke to Palestinians on Thursday, linking their culture to terrorism and questioning their worthiness to have an independent state.

Speaking to a conference of Reform Jews, Cantor told of a Palestinian woman treated for burns at an Israeli hospital who tried to return for a follow-up visit wearing a suicide belt.

“What kind of culture leads one to do that? Sadly, it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred,” Cantor said.

“If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state,” said Cantor, one of the highest-profile Jewish Republicans and a staunch Israel supporter.

Detecting a weakness for President Obama among voters who believe he has forsaken the U.S. alliance with Israel, Republican rhetoric toward Palestinians has become increasingly caustic in recent weeks.

The party’s slate of presidential candidates have jostled in debates and at a meeting of Jewish Republicans last week for who can take the stance that is most pro-Israel — and, often, anti-Palestinian.

Obama is scheduled to speak to the conference on Friday.

While Cantor and other House leaders have firmly backed Israel’s right to defend itself, they are generally careful to distinguish between those who commit terrorist acts and Palestinians as a whole. That nuance was absent in Cantor’s Thursday address to the Union for Reform Judaism.

“It is not morally equivalent when the offenses of terrorists are equated with the defenses of Israel,” he said to a few thousand conference participants, who offered Cantor a polite but guarded reception.

A number of participants could be heard outside the ballroom where Cantor was speaking discussing their choice not to attend his speech so as to not lend their support to his conservative views.

Warning that the 2,000-year-old dream of a Jewish state is in jeopardy, Cantor said the international community is replete with anti-Semitic vitriol and pointed to the success of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s post-revolution elections, which he said presented major challenges to U.S. interests in the region.

He also hailed the package of harsh economic sanctions passed on Wednesday by the Republican-controlled House.

Cantor avoided a direct critique of Obama, but called out the president’s ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who sparked a political flare-up in early December when his comments about differentiating types of anti-Semitism were seen by some as blaming Israel for Muslim anti-Semitism.

“I say to you, any justification of any form of anti-Semitism must not be tolerated or condoned,” Cantor said. “History is replete with examples that when it comes to the Jewish people, the world can turn a deaf ear.”

Article source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/199617-cantor-palestinian-culture-infused-with-resentment-and-hatred

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–U.S. House of Representatives leaders dithered Wednesday on plans to vote on a defense-policy measure that authorizes Pentagon spending for fiscal 2012, postponing and then deciding to …

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111214-715734.html

(AP)  WASHINGTON Most Americans want Congress to vote to continue the payroll tax reduction, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll that comes as Democrats and Republicans wrestle over whether to extend the cut through 2012.

It’s the latest instance in which lawmakers on Capitol Hill have allowed partisan sniping to hold up a measure to put in place a policy that most Americans support, like ending the Bush tax cuts, cap and trade, and a surcharge on millionaires.

The dragged-out debate over whether to extend an expiring payroll tax reduction is one of many developments that have kept voters furious with their leaders all year. On the brink of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, virtually all Americans are disappointed and frustrated with the political scene and nearly 6 in 10 say they are angry, the AP-GfK survey showed.

“It seems like there are parties that only want to get their agenda done,” said liquor store owner James Jacobsen, 47, of East Hartford, Conn. “They’re catering to special interests and not Americans. They are not representing the individual American.”

Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they want Congress to pass the extension, according to the poll. Letting the payroll tax break expire would cost a family making $50,000 about $1,000.

Yet, Republicans and Democrats are rejecting each other’s proposals and trying to make law from what’s left, a tactic they’ve used all year on debates over the budget and the nation’s debt. The stalemates have caused a decline in confidence so severe that 15 percent of all adults and 32 percent of political independents say they don’t trust either party to manage the federal budget deficit.

Economic discontent has spilled over into the political sphere all year and could influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Occupy Wall Street and other protests against inequality have grabbed some attention from politicians, with Democrats the most supportive. Last week, a group of demonstrators camped out on the National Mall, crashed stately holiday parties and marched on Capitol Hill, demanding that Congress extend the payroll tax and insurance for the long-term unemployed.

On the payroll tax deduction, 58 percent of respondents said they want Congress to extend the break, while 35 percent want it to expire.

Democrats and independents are the strongest supporters of continuing the tax cut, while Republicans were evenly divided. But the difference is more partisan than ideological: Conservatives supported an extension, 54 percent to the 42 percent who prefer to let the reduction expire.

Those with annual incomes below $50,000 more strongly support the extension compared with higher-income respondents, and seniors were more likely than younger adults to back the extension.

On Wednesday, there was little sign Congress was listening.

Democrats who control the Senate rejected a GOP-ruled House plan to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, but only with cuts to spending and sped-up approval of an oil pipeline. The Senate is crafting its own proposal in response.

If an agreement is not reached by the end of the year, payroll taxes will jump on Jan. 1 from this year’s 4.2 percent back to their normal level of 6.2 percent.

Americans are virtually out of patience, the polling shows. And their distrust crosses party lines.

“I really don’t feel that they are having the best interests of us as a people,” said Rogersville, Tenn., resident Andrea Stafford, 38, a single mother of two who has been unemployed since the summer.

“And when I say people,” she added, “I don’t mean millionaires and government officials. I’m talking about the normal person who gets up and fixes their children’s lunch and has to take off work when their child is sick because we don’t have nannies.”

The AP-GfK poll found congressional approval near its all-time low and nearly all Americans disappointed with politics. Eighty-four percent of the respondents disapproved of the way Congress is doing its job, with at least 8 in 10 Republicans, Democrats and independents feeling that way.

As for how to balance the federal budget, more now favor cutting government services as the best means to bring federal spending into balance. Sixty percent think lawmakers should focus on budget cuts over tax increases. That figure had been as low as 53 percent in August, during the showdown over raising the country’s debt limit.

The biggest shift on that question has come from independents. In the August poll, 37 percent said lawmakers should focus on increasing taxes and 42 percent said cutting services. Now, that divide stands at 28 percent for raising taxes and 59 percent for cutting services.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta, writer Stacy Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57343363/poll-most-americans-want-payroll-tax-extension/

Taken together, the developments signaled the end game for a year of divided government — with a tea party-flavored majority in the House and Obama’s allies in the Senate — that has veered from near-catastrophe to last-minute compromise repeatedly since last January.

The rhetoric was biting at times.

“We have fiddled all year long, all year,” McConnell complained in a less-than-harmonious exchange on the Senate floor with Reid. He accused Democrats of “routinely setting up votes designed to divide us … to give the president a talking point out on the campaign trail.”

Reid shot back that McConnell had long ago declared Obama’s defeat to be his top priority. And he warned that unless Republicans show a willingness to bend, the country faces a government shutdown “that will be just as unpopular” as the two that occurred when Newt Gingrich was House speaker more than a decade ago.

It was a reminder — as if McConnell and current Speaker John Boehner of Ohio needed one — of the political debacle that ensued for Republicans when Gingrich was outmaneuvered in a showdown with former President Bill Clinton.

At issue now are three year-end bills that Obama and leaders in both parties in Congress say they want. One would extend expiring Social Security payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed, provisions at the heart of Obama’s jobs program. Another is the $1 trillion spending measure that would lock in cuts that Republicans won earlier in the year. The third measure is a $662 billion defense bill setting policy for military personnel, weapons systems and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus national security programs in the Energy Department.

After a two-day silence, the White House said Obama would sign the measure despite initial concern over a provision requiring military custody of certain terror suspects linked to al-Qaida or its affiliates. U.S. citizens would be exempt.

The measure cleared the House, 283-136, with a final vote expected Thursday in the Senate.

Officials said Democrats were drafting a new proposal to extend the payroll tax that likely would not include the millionaires’ surtax that Republicans opposed almost unanimously.

Republicans minimized the significance of the move. “They’re not giving up a whole lot. The tax they wanted to implement on business owners was something that couldn’t pass the House and couldn’t pass the Senate,” McConnell said in a CNBC interview.

Jettisoning the tax could also require Democrats to agree to politically painful savings elsewhere in the budget to replace the estimated $140 billion the tax would have raised over a decade.

In its most recent form, the surtax would have slapped a 1.9 percent tax on income in excess of $1 million, with the proceeds helping pay for the extension of tax cuts for 160 million workers. Senate Democrats have twice forced votes on the proposal in what officials have described as a political maneuver designed to force GOP lawmakers to choose between protecting the wealthy on the one hand and extending tax cuts for millions on the other.

The spending bill was hung up — and there was no agreement why.

Republicans and at least one Democrat said agreement had been reached earlier in the week, but Reid disputed that and pointed to provisions relating to travel to Cuba and funding for the Commodities Future Trading Commission as examples.

“It’s pretty clear to all of us that President Obama and Sen. Reid want to threaten a government shutdown so they can get leverage” on the payroll tax bill, said Boehner, noting that so far, the Senate has failed to pass legislation on the issue.

Wednesday’s maneuvering occurred the day after the House passed a payroll tax extension that contained no higher taxes. That House measure drew a veto threat from Obama that cited spending cuts the White House said would harm the middle class without requiring a sacrifice from the wealthy.

The bill would extract nearly $43 billion from the year-old health care bill; extend a pay freeze on federal employees while also increasing their pension contributions and raise Medicare premiums on seniors with incomes over $80,000 beginning in 2017. It also would raise a fee that is charged to banks whose mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Obama’s veto message also alluded to a requirement for the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that Republicans said would create 20,000 jobs. The provision is designed to force the administration’s hand, since Obama announced recently that despite three years of review under two administrations, he was putting off a decision until after the election.

The measure would permit Obama to block the Keystone XL project if he deemed its construction to be not in the national interest.

The House-passed bill also includes an extension of unemployment benefits that would scale back what is currently in place. The White House said 3.3 million people would be cut off under its terms. Another part of the bill, to block proposed regulations limiting toxic emissions from industrial incinerators, drew objections from the White House.

The legislation would avert a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients, and Obama and Democrats are willing to accept that.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor contributed to this story

Article source: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/dems_drop_millionaires_tax_in_year_end_dispute_2_2_2/

Rep. Ed Royce

• Majority Leader Eric Cantor Brought Key Religious Freedom Measure to a Floor Vote
• Reps. Ed Royce and Howard Berman Led Bipartisan Drive for Adoption of H.Res.306

Rep. Eric Cantor

The measure, spearheaded by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA) was scheduled for House consideration by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, with the support of Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Ranking Member Berman, of the Foreign Affairs Committee. House Members speaking in support of the measure included Representatives Royce, Berman, Congressional Armenian Genocide Resolution lead cosponsor Adam Schiff (D-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY). Congressional Turkey Caucus Co-Chair Ed Whitfield (R-KY) was alone in speaking out against the resolution. The measure was adopted by voice vote.

“Despite Prime Minister Erdogan’s recent claims of progress on religious freedom, Turkey’s Christian communities continue to face severe discrimination,” explained Congressman Royce. “Today, the U.S. House of Representatives considered and adopted my legislation, which calls upon the government of Turkey to end religious discrimination, allow religious prayer and education, and return stolen church property. The United States has a strong interest in promoting religious freedom abroad.”

Rep. Berman concurred, noting that, “This important resolution calls attention to Turkey’s disturbing, persistent failure to respect the ancient Christian heritage of Anatolia and to treat its Christian communities as free and equal citizens. Turkey should take immediate steps to restore all confiscated church property and allow full freedom of worship and religious education for all Christian communities.”

Rep. Howard Berman

In July, Reps. Royce and Berman were joined by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) in spearheading House Foreign Affairs Committee consideration of the “Return of Churches” amendment to the State Department Authorization Bill. Their amendment was overwhelmingly adopted by a vote of 43 to 1.

“The passage of House Resolution 306 is a great victory for religious freedom around the world, and is a turning point in the Armenian people’s fight for religious freedom. Respect for the full exercise of our civil rights is really central to who we are as Americans and central to the values and ideals that we promote all over the world.
My home state of Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams on the principles of religious liberty and freedom and I am proud to co-sponsor the Resolution in that spirit,” said Congressman David Cicilline.

The text of H.Res.306 adopted today is the same as the abridged version adopted at the committee level.

“Today’s vote – over opposition from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and, sadly, even our own American President’s Administration, represents a powerful victory for religious freedom, and also reflects the growing American and international consensus that Turkey must – starting with the return of thousands of stolen Christian churches properties and holy sites – accept its responsibilities for the full moral and material implications of a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.

Armenian Americans across the U.S. were joined by religious freedom advocates and their counterparts in the Greek, Assyrian, and Syriac communities in making thousands of phone calls to their Representatives in support of H.Res.306, following action alerts issued by the Armenian National Committee of America, American Hellenic Institute, and American Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association and the American Hellenic Council.

With hours left to the scheduled vote on H.Res.306, Turkish American groups mounted a campaign to block the measure but were ultimately unsuccessful.

The ANCA will be posting full video coverage of U.S. consideration of H.Res.306 on its website at http://www.anca.org/return

Text of H.Res. 306
Urging the Republic of Turkey to safeguard its Christian heritage and to return confiscated church properties.

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary of State, in all official contacts with Turkish leaders and other Turkish officials, should emphasize that Turkey should:

1. End all forms of religious discrimination;

2. Allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to organize and administer prayer services, religious education, clerical training, appointments, and succession, religious community gatherings, social services, including ministry to the needs of the poor and infirm, and other religious activities;

3. Return to their rightful owners all Christian churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties, including movable properties, such as artwork, manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts; and

4. Allow the rightful Christian church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to preserve, reconstruct, and repair, as they see fit, all Christian churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties within Turkey.

Article source: http://asbarez.com/99801/house-presses-turkey-to-return-stolen-churches/

By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON – Democrats may jettison their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security tax cuts for most Americans, officials said Wednesday as President Barack Obama and Congress struggled to clear critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government shutdown.

Republicans, too, signaled an eagerness to avoid gridlock and adjourn for the holidays. With a massive, $1 trillion funding bill blocked by Democrats, GOP lawmakers and aides floated the possibility of a backup measure to keep the government in operation for several days after the money runs out Friday night.

It all comes at the close of a year of divided government _ with a tea party-flavored majority in the House and Obama’s allies in the Senate _ that has veered from near- catastrophe to last-minute compromise repeatedly since last January.

The rhetoric Wednesday was biting at times.

“We have fiddled all year long, all year,” the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, complained in a less-than-harmonious exchange on the Senate floor with Majority Leader Harry Reid. McConnell accused Democrats of “routinely setting up votes designed to divide us … to give the president a talking point out on the campaign trail.”

Reid shot back that McConnell had long ago declared Obama’s defeat to be his top priority. And he warned that unless Republicans show a willingness to bend, the country faces a government shutdown “that will be just as unpopular” as the two that occurred when Newt Gingrich was House speaker more than a decade ago.

It was a reminder _ as if McConnell and current Speaker John Boehner of Ohio needed one _ of the political debacle that ensued for Republicans when Gingrich was outmaneuvered in a showdown with former President Bill Clinton.

At issue now are three year-end bills that Obama and leaders in both parties in Congress say they want. One would extend expiring Social Security payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed, provisions at the heart of Obama’s jobs program. Another is the $1 trillion spending measure that would lock in cuts that Republicans won earlier in the year. The third measure is a $662 billion defense bill setting policy for military personnel, weapons systems and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus national security programs in the Energy Department.

After a two-day silence, the White House said Obama would sign the measure despite initial concern over a provision requiring the military to take custody of any suspect deemed to be a member of al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or committing attacks on the United States. U.S. citizens would be exempt.

Reid and other top Democratic senators met with Obama at the White House at mid-afternoon, and congressional aides said the topic was the end-of-year legislation.

Democrats have made the proposed millionaires’ tax central to their plan for the payroll tax cut extension, and officials stressed no decision had been made on whether to drop it. They spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about legislative strategy.

Any such move would represent a concession to the Republicans in both houses who are opposed to the surtax. But it could also require Democrats to agree to politically painful savings elsewhere in the budget to replace the estimated $140 billion the tax would have raised over a decade.

In its most recent form, the surtax would have slapped a 1.9 percent tax on income in excess of $1 million, with the proceeds helping pay for the extension of tax cuts for 160 million workers. Senate Democrats have twice forced votes on the proposal in what officials have described as a political maneuver designed to force GOP lawmakers to choose between protecting the wealthy on the one hand and extending tax cuts for millions on the other.

Wednesday’s maneuvering occurred the day after the House passed a payroll tax extension that contained no higher taxes. That House measure drew a veto threat from Obama that cited spending cuts the White House said would harm the middle class without requiring a sacrifice from the wealthy.

The bill would repeal nearly $43 billion from the year-old health care bill; extend a pay freeze on federal retirees while also increasing their pension contributions; and raise Medicare premiums on seniors with incomes over $80,000 beginning in 2017. It also would raise a fee that is charged to banks whose mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Obama’s veto message also alluded to a requirement for the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that Republicans said would create 20,000 jobs. The provision is designed to force the administration’s hand, since Obama announced recently that despite three years of review under two administrations, he was putting off a decision until after the election.

Article source: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2668554

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Congressional Insider Trading: No Wonder Congress Has An 11-Percent Approval Rating…

by Marc Lichtenfeld, Investment U Senior Analyst
Wednesday, December 14, 2011: Issue #1664

“I’m better than you…”

Apparently, that’s what our members of Congress think. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a law that allows them to get away with activities that are illegal for anyone else who isn’t “serving” in Congress.

It’s still not illegal for Congress to trade on inside information. Virginia Representative Eric Cantor must have laid some bets based on his insider knowledge. How else can you explain his decision to delay the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act?

Congress’ approval rating is currently 11 percent. According to my Las Vegas sources (that I completely made up), the over/under betting line for Congress’ approval rating by the end of the year is five percent…

Cantor, trying to make some money on inside information, the way his colleagues in the House and Senate have, apparently bet the under.

Hands Off the Cookies

The STOCK Act was sponsored by Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus.

Yes, this is the same Spencer Bachus whose insider trades were featured in a scathing report on “60 Minutes.” Bachus, with his hands caught in the cookie jar, is now publicly proclaiming that eating cookies before dinner is wrong.

Rather than letting Congress vote on a bill that would ban insider trading by members of congress – a vile act that’s as black and white as it gets – Cantor is asking to form a subcommittee to study guidelines on how to draft a provision that will create a task force on whether to further examine right from wrong. Or something like that.

You may recall, several weeks ago, “60 Minutes” broke the story that various members of Congress including Bachus, House leader John Boehner, former House leader Nancy Pelosi and others were trading stocks and options based on inside information. If a CEO or hedge fund manager made the same trade that Bachus made, they’d be paraded handcuffed in front of TV cameras. Those images would run on a continuous loop in the mainstream and financial media for days.

In fact, last Monday hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, reported to a federal prison in Massachusetts to begin serving his 11-year sentence. The former billionaire received and traded on inside information about corporate earnings as well as mergers and acquisitions.

If he had committed the exact same acts from an office on Capitol Hill rather than one on Madison Avenue in New York, he’d be gearing up for his reelection campaign rather than trying to decide whether to try to get a job in the prison library or kitchen. (If you’re reading this Raj, go for the kitchen, they’re fed better than the other inmates.)

The STOCK Act has 180 co-sponsors, is supported by the majority of the House, including 75 members of Cantor’s own party.

Yet there’s considerable doubt that the bill will ever become law. According to Westfair Online, Iona College political science professor Jeanne Zaino said she has doubts the bill will pass. Many other political experts and consultants have said the same thing.

Eric Cantor’s momma didn’t raise no dummy, particularly when it comes to the securities business. Chances are he’s very familiar with issues important to the industry. After all, securities companies were the largest contributors to Cantor’s campaign in 2011, donating 64 percent more money than the second largest backer.

And if he has any securities related questions, he can probably run them by his wife who used to work at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), which incidentally was the second largest contributor to Cantor behind The Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV).

I first wrote about this subject in November when the story broke and urged you to contact your Representatives and Senators and not ask that they support the STOCK Act, but demand it.

Clearly, some elected officials have received the message loud and clear. But others either think they know better than their constituents or more likely, hope this issue just fades away in the distraction of the next Kardashian catastrophe or the raging debate on whether Tim Tebow can be a real NFL quarterback.

Representatives and Senators make more than three times the median household income. Their health benefits are better than most Americans’.

Despite their clamoring to end entitlements, they receive pensions for life. And although the vast majority of mutual fund managers – men and women who analyze the market every day – can’t outperform the SP 500, members of Congress consistently beat the market.

That’s not a coincidence…

All investors are looking for angles on how to make as much money in the markets as we can. As law abiding citizens and, more importantly, decent human beings, all we’re asking for is a level playing field.

We’re investors who simply seek fairness. We should make a pact that we absolutely will not vote for any member of Congress who votes against the STOCK Act. And that we will spread the word about any Congressman or Congresswoman who apparently believes they’re entitled to special rights to help them line their pockets.

The only reason to vote against the STOCK Act is to keep the easy money coming. It’s time Congress represents us instead of their own self interests.

You can find your Representatives’ and Senators’ contact information here. Let them know how you feel.

Good Investing,

Marc Lichtenfeld

Any investment contains risk. Please see our disclaimer

Related Investment U Articles:

• Congressional Insider Trading: The Double Standard
• How to Trade Like a Congressman
• Congressional Insider Trading… It’s Good to Be King
• Insider Buying Trends: Are You Using This Powerful, Reliable Indicator?
• How to Protect Yourself from the Crash of 2011

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3 Responses to “Congressional Insider Trading: No Wonder Congress Has An 11-Percent Approval Rating…”

1. Drina Fried Says:
   

   As law abiding citizens and, more importantly, decent human beings, I’m asking for is a level playing field in the stock market not allowing Congress and/or their spouses to use
   inside information. Maybe prison would be too harsh a consequence but loss of job should happen.

   Reply

2. Linda Says:
   

   Amen, brother! I’ve been telling this to my do-nothing rep. for 8 yrs.! A pension for life, great medical for he, his wife, and their 5 kids, and a salary for sitting on his hands and goose stepping with his party all on my tax dollar. You know what I always get in response to my contacting him – a computer generated ‘thanks for contacting your congressman’. He doesn’t even have the nerve to answer for his actions to his constituent! Not once! There is nothing quite like an Arizona politician! It’s so much easier for him to simply answer to his supporters.

   Reply

3. Ron C. Says:
   

   I have not read this particular bill, but my inquiry to Paul Ryan indicated that it was opposed by many congressmen because it had no teeth and too many loopholes that congress could easily get around, ie: not prohibiting family members to put the trade on as opposed to the member of congress. Under this bill, I could have my wife call my broker and it would be legal. That’s what you get with a Spencer Bachus Bill…..

   Ryan wants the same laws that apply to us to apply to congress…..

   Reply

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Article source: http://www.investmentu.com/2011/December/congress-insider-buying-approval-rating.html

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) — A higher number of Jewish Republican congressional candidates in 2012 raises the possibility of a greater presence for the bloc on Capitol Hill, insiders said.

Right now, only House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia is Jewish, but observers say this could change in the 2012 election cycle, particularly in the Senate where three Jewish Republicans are running in competitive 2012 races, Roll Call reported Monday.

Seeking to be the party nominee in competitive Senate races are former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, Adam Hasner in Florida and Josh Mandel in Ohio.

“We are blessed with many. The harvest is bountiful,” said former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is Jewish. “There’s a real possibility of [getting two or three Republican Jews elected to] the Senate. It’s been a pretty exclusive club.”

Coleman, who lost a 2008 recount battle in mid-2009 to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., was one of the last Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the GOP to become a Democrat. (Specter lost a re-election bid in 2010.)

Twenty-four Jewish Democrats are House members and 12 Jewish Democrats are in the Senate, Roll Call said.

Jewish Republican donors climbed to prominence and power during the last 10 years, working to build a national network of financial support for candidates, Roll Call said. Last week, nearly every Republican presidential hopeful spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s presidential forum in Washington.

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/12/12/Jewish-GOP-candidates-grow-in-number/UPI-27731323695932/

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Article source: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/13/video-kth-cantor-accused-of-killing-anti-graft-bill/

Your two favorite woodland creatures who dually prevent enviro-atrocities and make childhood lessons bearable are on the political chopping block. Yes, Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl have been placed on the endangered list thanks to the House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s new “YouCut” program.

YouCut welcomes the public to offer ideas as to where significant budget cuts can be made in federal spending. The Forest Service’s “environmental literacy” and “conservation education” programs — Smokey and Woodsy’s home sweet home — made the list. Cantor supported this cut, saying that it’s wrong for taxpayer dollars to go to “generate issue-oriented advocacy.” Additionally, cutting this program would save $50 million over 10 years.

What Cantor forgot to mention, however, was how many children will loose interest in nature and the environment (which, believe it or not, does have a considerable impact on the world) if this sector is nixed.

Give a hoot, America.

Article source: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/12/13/smokey-and-woodsy-under-house-gop-fire

By David Espo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama’s request but it also would speed construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.

Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its nearly certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Only 10 House Democrats voted for the measure, while only 14 Republicans opposed it.

The Central Texas delegation split along those party lines with Republican Reps. Michael McCaul of Austin, John Carter of Round Rock and Lamar Smith of San Antonio backing the bill, while Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin voted against it.

“This is a responsible bill that prevents a tax increase, creates jobs and takes a step toward energy independence,” McCaul said. “This legislation is good for the taxpayer, good for the country. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support it and the president to sign it.”

But Doggett, in a House floor speech, said: “Today’s Republican bill would eliminate up to 40 weeks of federal unemployment benefits, with the biggest cuts coming from states like Texas with high unemployment rates. That means that next year, over 3 million unemployed Americans and their families will be shortchanged if this bill is enacted.”

The bill would extend jobless benefits for some of unemployed Americans while reducing the maximum number of weeks of benefits that a worker could receive.

It would also block certain air pollution rules for industrial boilers and incinerators; freeze the pay of many federal employees through 2013; increase Medicare premiums for affluent beneficiaries; prevent a deep cut in Medicare payments to doctors; and eliminate more than $20 billion of spending planned under Obama’s health care law.

While the tax and unemployment provisions were less generous than Obama sought, he and Republicans clashed principally over steps to cover the estimated $180 billion cost of the measure and over the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada’s tar sands to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur. Obama recently delayed a decision on granting a permit for the pipeline until after the 2012 election.

Republicans drew attention at every turn to the pipeline, which is backed by some lawmakers in the president’s party as well as by unions representing plumbers, pipefitters, electricians, carpenters and construction workers. But the pipeline is opposed by many environmentalists.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as “ideological candy.”

Of the pipeline, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, “Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs.”

Estimates of the jobs that would be produced by pipeline construction vary widely but are in the thousands in a time of high national unemployment. The State Department estimated the total at about 6,000 jobs; project manager TransCanada put it at 20,000, and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said on the House floor that it was more than 100,000.

After the House vote, the White House urged Congress on in finishing work on extending the tax cuts and jobless aid. Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, issued a statement that didn’t mention the pipeline but renewed Obama’s insistence that the legislation be paid for, at least in part, by “asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share” in higher tax levies.

Lawmakers “cannot go on vacation before agreeing to prevent a tax hike on 160 million Americans and extending unemployment insurance,” he said.

Republicans mocked Obama’s objections to their version of the bill.

“Mr. President, we can’t wait,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., employing a refrain the White House often uses to criticize Republicans for not to taking steps urged by the Obama administration to improve the economy.

At its core, Tuesday’s measure did include a key part of the jobs program that Obama asked Congress to approve in September. The Social Security payroll tax cuts approved a year ago to help stimulate the economy would be extended through 2012, avoiding a loss of take-home income for wage-earners.

The payroll tax legislation was one of three major bills that Congress was struggling to finish before adjourning for the year, and by far the most contentious.

Additional material from The New York Times.

Article source: http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/house-passes-extension-of-payroll-tax-cut-2030848.html

By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent

December 13, 2011 10:49PM

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Article source: http://www.suntimes.com/9428815-417/republicans-muscle-tax-cut-bill-through-house.html

WASHINGTON
– President Barack Obama’s Medicare nominee Tuesday got unexpected support from one of Congress’ Republican stars. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told The Associated Press that Marilyn Tavenner is “eminently qualified” to run Medicare.

It may be too soon to contemplate a truce in the political wars over health care. With Tavenner, major players on both sides may be able to shift from confrontation to problem-solving.

The White House announced Tavenner’s nomination last week to replace current Medicare chief Donald Berwick, who had run into a wall of opposition from Republicans and couldn’t even get a hearing in the Senate. As head of Medicare and Medicaid, the former nurse would be responsible for programs that already provide coverage to 100 million Americans, as well as for putting in place the new health overhaul law to cover the uninsured.

Cantor said he met Tavenner years ago when he was a state legislator in Richmond, Va., and she was a senior executive for Hospital Corporation of America, a major hospital chain.

“She was an individual with a wealth of knowledge about the complexities of the health care system, and she came forward with solutions that actually made sense,” said Cantor. “I always found her to be extremely professional and understanding of the value of the private sector in health care.”

Tavenner, 60, is currently Medicare’s principal deputy administrator. She started her career as a nurse and worked her way up to hospital executive before entering government service as Virginia’s health care secretary. She came to Washington last year as Congress labored in the home stretch to pass Obama’s health care law.

Cantor is not a member of the Senate, so he does not get a vote on Tavenner’s nomination. But his views are influential with other conservatives.

“I would hope to be able to support her,” said Cantor. “Obviously, I’m not in the Senate, so I don’t have that vote, but I do think she is qualified. Obviously, she’ll be working for a president with an agenda that’s quite different from mine.”

Cantor said he is convinced that Tavenner is committed to preserving the role of the private sector in health care. Responsibility for health coverage in the U.S. is close to evenly split between federal and state programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and workplace and private insurance. Republicans charge that Obama is trying to engineer a complete takeover by government, while the president insists his way is the best approach for preserving a system of shared responsibility in the face of unsustainable cost increases and millions of uninsured.

Tavenner “is somebody who understands the private sector and business concerns” said Cantor. “Marilyn Tavenner has experience as a nurse at the practical level, and as a health system administrator of a very larger national company. Hopefully she’ll bring that type of experience.”

Tavenner’s nomination has been endorsed by groups representing hospitals, doctors and the health insurance industry. Some congressional Democrats may question her over her tenure at Hospital Corporation, which was embroiled in a major Medicare fraud investigation in the 1990s. None of that seems to have involved Tavenner, however.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/134694293.html

Matt Lira, Office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor

As noted in the New York Times article referenced in the question summary, the trend was popularized in the 1990s by then-Rep. Dick Armey.

Most Members of Congress maintain two households, their real home in the district they represent (often where their spouse and children primarily reside) and a place to stay during legislative business in Washington.

For many Representatives who choose to sleep in their offices, it is primarily a way to save money; the DC housing market is one of the most expensive in the country. Freshmen representatives, many from considerably less expensive housing markets, are often stunned by the high rental prices within the city.

For others who have made the choice, it is a way to symbolize their commitment to not making Washington their home. They are in the city to work, then quickly return home to their districts to live. While some would debate the point, it isn’t entirely a bad thing for Representatives to prioritize time in their districts. It is the function of the House to be the closest institution in the federal government to the public.

For those Members of Congress who don’t sleep in their offices, another common arrangement is for Members to share a “crash pad” with other Representatives and Senators. Here is an interesting article by the New York Times in 2007 describing the shared DC-home of Senator Schumer, Senator Durbin, Rep. George Miller and Rep. Bill Delahunt. What a reality show that would make.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/1…

This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Congress:

• Do televised Senate and House hearings have any redeeming value or are they just for show?
• Which US Senators (past or present) are genuinely good guys — good people, motivated to do good?
• How should the United States Congress use social media to enhance the legislative process?

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2011/12/13/why-do-certain-congressmen-sleep-in-their-offices/

GALLERY

By National Journal staff

Updated: December 13, 2011 | 1:52 p.m.

December 13, 2011 | 1:40 p.m.

Every day, we bring you the top photo of the day. Here is a collection of these photos.

Dec. 13: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday before a crucial vote on a GOP effort to renew an extension of the payroll-tax cut.

PHOTO: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Dec. 9: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a town hall meeting on Friday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

PHOTO: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Dec. 8: Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry listens to Catcher Jones, 7, of Greenville, S.C., as Jones tells him about his desire to become President of the United States and to become an Eagle Scout on Thursday on the U.S.S. Yorktown  in Charleston, S.C.

PHOTO: Alice Keeney/AP

Dec. 7: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates Forum luncheon honoring Amb. Sam Fox, hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, on Wednesday in Washington.

PHOTO: Cliff Owen/AP

Dec. 6: Keith Thomas, 49, right, and Orlando Gonzales, 88, left, wearing red ski hat, both from Washington, join in a protest inside the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, on Tuesday.

PHOTO: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Dec. 2: President Obama listens as former President Bill Clinton speaks at a building under construction in Washington on Friday.

PHOTO: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Dec. 1: Myanmar President Thein Sein, right, shakes hands with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a meeting at the President’s Office in Naypyidaw, Myanmar on Thursday.

PHOTO: Saul Loeb, Pool/AP

Nov. 30: Texas Gov. Rick Perry addresses the New Hampshire legislature during a campaign stop at the Statehouse in Concord, N.H., on Wednesday.

PHOTO: Jim Cole/AP

Nov. 29: Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, left, looks on as Vice President Joe Biden, right, shakes hands with the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey after he arrived, in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday. Biden arrived on a surprise visit to Iraq late Tuesday in a trip designed to chart a new relationship between the two countries.

PHOTO: Khalid Mohammed/AP

President Obama’s dog Bo inspects the White House Christmas tree as it arrives at the North Portico, Nov. 25, in Washington. The 19-foot-tall balsam fir is from a farm near Neshkoro, Wis.

PHOTO: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Nov. 23: President Obama, with daughters Sasha and Malia, pardons Liberty, a 19-week old, 45-pound turkey,on Wednesday on the North Portico of the White House.

PHOTO: Lauren Rock/AP

Nov. 22: President Obama greets audience members before he spoke about jobs on Tuesday at Manchester High School Central in Manchester, N.H.

PHOTO: Charles Dharapak/AP

Nov. 18: President Obama poses for a photograph with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, center, and his wife, Kristiani, upon his arrival for a gala diner at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Friday.

PHOTO: Romeo Ranoco, Pool/AP

Nov. 17: Energy Secretary Steven Chu testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on Solyndra on Thursday.

PHOTO: Chet Susslin

Nov. 16: House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., right, answers questions after a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Huddling behind him, from left are, Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.

PHOTO: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Nov. 15: Occupy Wall Street protesters clash with police at Zuccotti Park after being ordered to leave their longtime encampment in New York on Tuesday.

PHOTO: Craig Ruttle/AP

Nov. 11: President Obama, accompanied by Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, Commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, left, places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns during a Veteran’s Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday.

PHOTO: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Nov. 10: Rowers on the foggy Potomac River approach the Memorial Bridge in Washington on Thursday.

PHOTO: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Nov. 9: Trader Michael Zicchinolfi runs across the floor the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 240 points in early trading after Italy’s borrowing costs soared.

PHOTO: Richard Drew/AP

Nov. 8: President Obama visits a classroom at Yeadon Regional Head Start Center in Yeadon, Pa., on Tuesday.

PHOTO: Charles Dharapak/AP

Nov. 4: President Obama smiles in the rain as he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy attend an event on Friday honoring the alliance between the United States and France and their efforts in Libya at Cannes City Hall, after the G20 Summit in Cannes, France.

PHOTO: Charles Dharapak/AP

Nov. 3: World leaders pose for the group photo for the G20 summit in Cannes, France, on Thursday.

PHOTO: Markus Schreiber/AP

Nov. 2: President Obama speaks in front of the Key Bridge on Wednesday, which spans the Potomac River between Arlington, Va., and Washington.

PHOTO: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Nov. 1: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, greets Turkey’s Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, between members of the military on Tuesday at the Pentagon.

PHOTO: JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

Oct. 28: Members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery of New York remove their cannons following a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty to mark her 125th anniversary on Friday.

PHOTO: MARK LENNIHAN/AP

Oct. 21: President Obama speaks in the briefing room of the White House on Friday where he announced that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by year’s end.

PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/AP

Oct. 20: Libyans celebrate Muammar el-Qaddafi death in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday. Libya’s information minister said Qaddafi was killed on Thursday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown, Surt, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell.

PHOTO: ABDEL MAGID al-FERGANY/AP

Oct. 19: A protester throws a stone at Greek police officers during clashes in central Athens on Wednesday. Greek anger over new austerity measures and layoffs erupted into violence Wednesday, as demonstrators hurled chunks of marble and gasoline bombs, and riot police responded with tear gas and stun grenades that echoed across Athens’ main square.

PHOTO: LEFTERIS PITARAKIS/AP

Oct. 18: President Obama delivers remarks at the YMCA at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., on Tuesday.

PHOTO: GERRY BROOME/AP

Oct. 14: Clouds are seen over Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Friday before President Obama’s arrival, prior to the president traveling to Detroit.

PHOTO: ANN HEISENFELT/AP

Oct. 13: President Obama welcomes South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday.

PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/AP

Oct. 12: President Obama speaks at the White House Forum on American Latino Heritage on Wednesday at the Interior Department in Washington.

PHOTO: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Oct. 7: President Obama stands with the 1985 Super Bowl XX Champions Chicago Bears football team during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.

PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

Oct. 6: President Obama gestures during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.

PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/AP

Oct. 5: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gestures while discussing the department’s enforcement of immigration laws on Wednesday at American University in Washington.

PHOTO: JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

Oct. 4: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie listens to a question in the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J., on Tuesday after he announced that he will not run for president in 2012.

PHOTO: MEL EVANS/AP

The White House is bathed in pink light Monday night to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

PHOTO: Chet Susslin

Sept. 30: President Obama pauses as he speaks on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki on Friday during a ‘Change of Office’ ceremony at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Va.
— PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP PHOTO

Sept. 28: Rev. Al Sharpton on Wednesday announces details of a march for “Jobs Justice” to be held on Oct. 15, during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
— PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/AP PHOTO

Sept. 22: Rep. Charlie Rangel on Thursday speaks at the unveiling of his portrait, which will be hung in the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room— PHOTO: CHET SUSSLIN

PHOTO: Chet Susslin

Sept. 27: A man attaches rigging to the top of the Washington Monument on the National Mall, in Washington, on Tuesday before engineers rappelled down the sides of the monument to survey the extent of damage sustained to the monument from the Aug. 23 earthquake.
— PHOTO: JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Sept. 21: President Obama addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on Wednesday.
— PHOTO: JASON DECROW/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: JASON DECROW/AP PHOTO

Sept. 20: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry speaks at a press conference with American and Israeli Jewish leaders and supporters of Israel, in New York on Tuesday, where he attacked President Obama’s foreign policy.
— PHOTO: MARY ALTAFFER/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: MARY ALTAFFER/AP PHOTO

Sept. 19: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, accompanied by Budget Director Jacob Lew, gestures during a briefing at the White House on Monday.
— PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/AP PHOTO

PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/AP PHOTO

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Article source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/pictures-video/pictures-photo-of-the-day-20111213

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of adding “ideological candy” to the legislation, a reference to the oil pipeline, and catering to tea party conservatives. Obama has promised to reject any bill containing the Keystone language, which would give the administration 60 days to approve a permit for work to begin.

Article source: http://www.boston.com/business/taxes/articles/2011/12/13/republicans_plan_house_ok_of_payroll_tax_cut_bill/

December 12, 2011, 12:17 AM EST

By Kathleen Hunter

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — House Republican leaders are “definitely working” on putting together a package of tax-cut extensions that includes a payroll provision, according to U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in an interview today that details of the package were still “under discussion” and that Republican leaders would present options to their caucus before the end of the week.

Republican leaders should be able to persuade their members to support the measure they craft, which will include spending cuts, Cantor said.

Laena Fallon, Cantor’s spokeswoman, said today that the House wouldn’t vote before next week on a payroll tax-cut extension.

–Editors: Jodi Schneider, Jim Rubin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Hunter in Washington at Khunter9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-12/cantor-says-house-republicans-working-on-payroll-tax-cut-plan.html

WASHINGTON — Since Republicans proposed drug testing the unemployed last week, both Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington have been quiet on the controversial proposal.

Spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have repeatedly referred questions on specific parts of a broader Republican jobs bill to the office of Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House committee that oversees unemployment insurance. A Camp spokesman referred drug testing questions to Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), author of a different drug testing proposal unveiled last week. And Kingston’s office has said only that local businesses complain of drug use among the jobless.

A White House official pointed out drug testing was not part of the president’s jobs bill, but declined to say the administration opposed it. Congressional Democrats have focused their criticism of the Republican plan on its provisions to slash the duration of federal unemployment benefits by 40 weeks. Since 2008, federal programs expiring in January have provided up to 73 weeks of compensation for workers who use up 26 weeks of state benefits.

Both the administration’s jobs bill and the Republican proposal would phase out the federal Extended Benefits program, which provides up to 20 weeks of compensation for the long-term jobless. The Republican version would slash an additional 20 weeks of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation and it would let states reduce benefits even further. It would also impose a uniform federal work search requirement and disqualify high school dropouts not actively pursuing GEDs and millionaires from receiving benefits.

The unemployment reforms, sweeping as they are, may be lost amid other features of the Republican package — particularly the part that calls for a speedy construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which has already drawn a veto threat from the White House.

Worker advocacy group the National Employment Law Project on Monday described the drug testing element the “most disturbing” part of the GOP’s unemployment reforms. “Devising new ways to insult the unemployed only distracts from the current debate over how to best restore the nation’s economy to strong footing and the discussion over how to best support the unemployed and get them back to work,” NELP said in a report (PDF).

Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior analyst with the Center for Law and Social Policy, a liberal-leaning Washington think tank, sounded a similar note on Monday.

“Drug testing unemployment insurance recipients is part of a strategy of blaming the jobless for their predicament, rather than economic conditions,” Lower-Basch said. “It’s an insult to unemployed workers — and a massive waste of taxpayer money — to test millions of people for drug use with no reason other than stereotype to believe they are using drugs.”

Tom Ballard of Lexington, Ky., said he doesn’t care about the drug testing. He just wants Congress to strike a deal, otherwise he’ll be one of nearly 2 million whose benefits will prematurely expire in January. Ballard said he lost his job as a supervisor for a thoroughbred racing company in August 2010 and that his current tier of Emergency Unemployment Compensation will run out at the very beginning of 2012. “I’ll pay my rent in January but as of February 1, I’m homeless,” Ballard said.

Ballard, 59, said his job search has been dismal. He said that when he omitted his earlier years of work from his resume, he landed several interviews, but managers didn’t want to hire him after meeting him. “I’m too young to retire but too old to hire,” he said.

He said there may be “bad apples” not sincerely looking for work, but the vast majority of the jobless are in their predicament through no fault of their own. “There are those of us sincerely looking for employment, and the jobs aren’t there,” he said. “And if you’re my age, even if the job is there, you’re probably not going to get it.”

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/unemployment-benefits_n_1143847.html?ref=mostpopular

“There’s a small tribe of Jewish Republicans in Congress, with a current membership of just one: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.),” Roll Call writes. “But that could change this cycle, especially in the Senate where three Jewish Republicans are running in competitive 2012 races.”

NORTH CAROLINA: Six Republicans have now entered the race for NC-8 against Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell.

OREGON: “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has increased its TV airtime reservation in the Oregon special election by nearly $300,000, indicating the party could be concerned about the race in the solidly Democratic district,” Roll Call wrote last week. “The DCCC has now reserved $439,000 worth of network airtime for the next two weeks in the Portland-based 1st district, according to a Republican source with knowledge of the buy.” The election is Jan. 31.

SOUTH CAROLINA: “A new Winthop University poll shows South Carolinians have soured on Gov. Nikki Haley (R), pushing her approval rate down to just 34% with 43% disapproving,” Political Wire writes. “In contrast, even President Obama’s approval rate in the GOP-friendly state is higher than Haley’s at 45%.”

Article source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/12/9388288-more-haley-unpopular-in-sc

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It is becoming a regular occurrence in Washington. Another deadline, another conflict and another looming showdown.

This time the showdown is over a payroll tax cut, that if a deal is not made, could lead to a 2 percent cut in the average American’s take-home pay.

Just like in the battle over the debt ceiling, Republicans in the House and President Obama have backed into corners with two dramatically different plans.

Despite the bleak prognosis, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Henrico) is confident a deal will get done.

“We are going to see our way forward and resolve our differences,” Cantor said. “So that we can afford those with a job out their working hard some relief.”

Cantor seems confident, but areas of common ground appear few and far between. And with the holidays approaching, the December 31 deadline is looming large.

Video of Cantor’s remarks can be found below:

Click here to read Nobles’ full analysis.

Ryan Nobles, an anchor at NBC12 in Richmond, Va., moderates the Decision Virginia blog. Nobles has been named one of America’s “Best State-Based Political Reporters” by the Washington Post. Politico recognized him as one of the “50 to Watch” political players in the U.S. You can read more from his blog by clicking here.

Article source: http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Cantor-Confident-Payroll-Tax-Deal-Will-Get-Done-135443698.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), left, and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) announced a plan to extend the payroll tax reduction.
(Joshua Roberts – BLOOMBERG)

Updated 12:04 p.m. EST: Talk about timing: Just as most federal employees were leaving the office Friday afternoon, House Republicans announced the details of a plan to extend the payroll tax reduction that would force feds to face another year of frozen pay and to increase contributions toward their retirements.

The broad package would extend the tax cut for another year. It also would extend unemployment insurance and reimbursements for doctors who see Medicare patients, and would move to accelerate a decision by the Obama administration on the Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline. Although the plan’s provisions regarding Keystone may receive much of the attention this week, federal workers and their unions will focus on details published toward the end of the 24-page plan.

Under the plan, federal workers would face a one-year extension of the current two-year pay freeze, meaning no raise until January 2014 at the earliest, and a 1.5 percent increase in employee pension contributions that would be phased in over three years starting in 2013.

For those who retire in 2013 or later, the government would eliminate the Social Security supplement for workers who retire before 62, unless the employee is in a position with a mandatory retirement age (including law enforcement personnel, for example).

The bill also would create new retirement rules for federal workers hired beginning in January 2013 who have less than five years of previous government service. Those employees would be forced to pay 3.2 percent more of their salaries toward their retirement savings starting in 2013 (although they would not be subject to a further increase as higher contributions are phased in for everyone else). Their retirement benefits would be based on their highest five years of compensation, rather than the highest three, with the net effect that those employees would be paying more for less.

Federal employees with more than five years of experience would be exempt from those changes, meaning that part of the proposal would affect mostly younger, less-experienced workers.

Extending the federal pay freeze would save taxpayers about $26.2 billion over 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The retirement changes would save about $36.7 billion over a decade, CBO said.

There’s little chance of the proposals earning enough support in the Senate — although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that he expects Democrats to back it — and regardless, federal union leaders promised to fight the plans.

Joseph A. Beaudoin, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said the changes would add a new 3 percent payroll tax on federal worker salaries. Singling out middle-class federal employees “clearly does not belong in the current debate about extending the payroll tax holiday for middle-class workers,” he added. “For leaders in Congress to pursue it further is not the right or rational way to help America’s middle class and economy recover.”

In a similar vein, Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said it is “outrageous” that Republicans “would single out hard-working middle-class federal employees to bear such a disproportionate burden while continuing to oppose even the smallest sacrifice by the most affluent.”

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, added: “The American people should be outraged.”

The House GOP plan is “even more draconian” than the Senate Republican proposal, Gage said, adding that Republicans are “on an unrelenting quest to push through their anti-worker political agenda.”

Despite disagreements between Republicans and Democrats, McConnell said Sunday that Congress will not let the payroll tax cut expire at year’s end.

“Obviously, we’ll reach an agreement,” he said.

In the meantime, federal workers would be wise to watch the debate — and their wallets — closely.

Staff writer Eric Yoder contributed to this report.

Follow Ed O’Keefe on Twitter: @edatpost

For further reading:

House GOP formally announces payroll tax package

GOP payroll tax plan will get ‘significant’ Democratic support, McConnell says

McCaskill-led earmark probe finds $834 million in requests

For more, visit PostPolitics and The Fed Page.

This post has been updated since it was first published.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/what-the-republican-payroll-tax-plan-would-mean-for-federal-workers/2011/12/11/gIQAnPcCpO_blog.html

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20 (http://bit.ly/rC6oU5).

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

___

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

Article source: http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/54828a5e8d9d48b7ba8b94ba38a9ef22/Article_2011-12-10-Majority%20Leader-Threat/id-62122c978065445daf7f080e77d82c52

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia cornerback Demetrious Nicholson was honored on the second-team of CollegeFootballNews.com‘s 2011 Freshman All-America team. The Virginia Beach, Va., native became the first true freshman at UVa to start a season-opening game at cornerback since Kevin Cook did so in 1986.

Nicholson made his collegiate debut against William Mary and became the first true freshman at UVa to start a season-opening game at any position since offensive lineman Branden Albert in 2005.  One of 15 Cavaliers to start all 12 games, Nicholson is No. 4 on the team with 56 tackles.  Nicholson has two interceptions, including one against then-No. 12 Georgia Tech and is tied for No. 1 on the team with eight pass breakups with All-American Chase Minnifield.

Nicholson joins three current UVa teammates who have been honored as CollegeFootballNews.com Freshman All-Americans. Last season Morgan Moses was an honorable mention honoree, in 2009 Steve Greer earned a second-team nod as did Matt Conrath in 2008.

Article source: http://www.wina.com/Nicholson-Named-a-Second-Team-Freshman-All-America/11700741

The search for a missing Earlysville man now involves Albemarle County waterways.  Police officers, divers, paramedics and search dogs spent Saturday looking for 69-year-old James Alvin Shifflett (pictured) in the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. Shifflett has been missing since Wednesday.   Investigators have already found Shifflett’s red Ford F-150 truck with its headlights on and keys removed.  If you have additional information, call CrimeStoppers at 977-4000.

Article source: http://www.wina.com/Authorities-Search-Waterways-For-Missing-Man/11683253

The 9 percent of Americans who approve of the way Congress is conducting the nation’s business may reconsider their opinion if they take a look at what’s happened to a measure designed to regulate congressional behavior.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., last week scuttled a vote on a bill that addresses the populist outrage over the investing habits of the 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate. His decision came after the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act — or STOCK Act — had garnered the support of a majority of House members, including 75 from Mr. Cantor’s Grand Old Party.

The timing understandably led some to connect the dots by concluding that Mr. Cantor was taken aback by the prospect of Congress having to obey the same laws the rest of us do.

The STOCK act, introduced by Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Tim Walz, D-Minn., would prohibit members of Congress and federal employees from making investment decisions based on nonpublic information they obtain as part of their jobs. It would also put restrictions on the “political intelligence” industry, where lobbyists, hedge funds and others seek access to the wealth of nonpublic information available in Washington to improve their investment decision making.

Anyone who fails to see just how valuable this information can be should read “Throw Them All Out” by Peter Schweizer. But before doing so, you might consider medication of some sort to control your blood pressure, for Mr. Schweizer documents how the investments of multiple members of Congress overlap with their legislative activities. His conclusion: It is “standard behavior” in Washington for politicians to trade stocks while they are considering legislation that affects those stocks.

Furthermore, academic researchers who have analyzed investments made by members of Congress concluded that they significantly outperform the broad market and that their success has something to do with their access to information that is off-limits to other investors.

You don’t have to be a proponent of class warfare to understand why these findings resonate with the unwashed masses.

Consider this response to Mr. Cantor’s decision to postpone a markup of the proposal, a key step that leads to a vote by the full House. The markup was scheduled to occur this week.

“This action by the Republican leadership … is yet another example of this Congress not wanting to do anything — let alone something bipartisan, something with massive public support, something as common sense as banning insider trading in Congress,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

There are those who say insider trading laws already apply to members of Congress, including Indiana University law Professor Donna M. Nagy, who testified Tuesday at a congressional hearing on the proposed legislation.

“Congressional insider trading is already illegal under existing law,” Ms. Nagy said in prepared testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services.

Robert L. Walker, former chief counsel for the House and Senate ethics committees and now an attorney with a Washington, D.C., law firm, told the committee the same thing.

Robert Khuzami, director of the Security and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, told the House committee that although “there is no reason why” members of Congress and their staff are exempt from securities regulations, applying insider trading laws to Congress “is without direct precedent.” And although ethics rules restrict congressional use of nonpublic information, that does not stop members of Congress from doing what critics deem to be insider trading. Two possible explanations: Congress has been reluctant to police members over ethical lapses; and it controls the budget of the SEC, the federal agency that polices insider trading.

There are concerns that the STOCK Act, as written, could make it harder to prosecute insider trading cases against those outside of Congress and that it may not prevent the type of behavior its sponsors are targeting.

This is a legitimate concern given how many times congressional lawmaking illustrates the unintended consequences of good intentions.

The proposal’s shortcomings conceivably could be addressed during the markup Mr. Cantor has postponed; but given congressional efficiency these days, that might be too much to expect.

Nevertheless, a majority of House members want to do something about it, even if only to restore a small measure of the public confidence Congress has frittered away with its rancorous, partisan bickering over the debt limit, budget talks and on other fronts.

“Failure to pass the STOCK Act this session will only serve to further erode the public trust and ensure single digit congressional approval ratings continue,” Reps. Slaughter and Walz wrote in a letter to Mr. Cantor.

Members of Congress are missing the point if their primary motivation for enacting legislation is to get the American public off their back.

What the American public demands — and deserves — is a Congress that wants to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because it will make voters think their hearts are in the right place.

Article source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11345/1195883-435-0.stm

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Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tenn-man-who-threatened-house-leader-agrees-to-plead-guilty-in-exchange-for-13-month-sentence/2011/12/10/gIQA6iQukO_story.html

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. –

A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

Glendon Swift, 62, of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20 .

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

Article source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/dec/10/man-who-threatened-cantor-agrees-plea-ar-1534854/

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

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The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20 (http://bit.ly/rC6oU5).

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

___

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45623807

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20.

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

Article source: http://bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view/20111210tennessee_man_who_threatened_house_leader_agrees_to_plea

Post Recommended

Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tenn-man-who-threatened-house-leader-agrees-to-plead-guilty-in-exchange-for-13-month-sentence/2011/12/10/gIQA6iQukO_story.html?wprss=rss_national

LANDOVER, Maryland (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, attending his first Army-Navy football game as commander in chief on Saturday, praised the dedication of the country’s armed forces ahead of a week in which he will focus heavily on the end of America’s war in Iraq.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-threatened-house-leader-agrees-plea-182332605.html

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20 (). http://bit.ly/rC6oU5

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

___

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

Also on HuffPost:

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/glendon-swift-eric-cantor-threats-plea_n_1140834.html

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man who left profanity-laden voicemails at the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has agreed to plead guilty in return for a 13-month sentence.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 62-year-old Glendon Swift of Lenoir City was detained Friday by a federal magistrate pending a change-of-plea hearing on Dec. 20 (). http://bit.ly/rC6oU5

The plea agreement must be approved by a judge at an April sentencing hearing. Swift’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, Swift left two messages, totaling about five minutes, at Cantor’s suburban Richmond office on Oct. 27. In the messages, Swift threatened to “destroy” the congressman and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift said, “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife?”

The calls were traced to Swift’s cellphone.

Swift admitted to the FBI that he made the calls to the six-term Republican, saying he “got drunk the other night and started cussing people out.” He said he did not remember threatening the congressman’s family, however.

A spokeswoman for Cantor did not respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.

This is not Cantor’s first experience with threats. In April, Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to posting a YouTube video in which he called Cantor “a liar” and “Lucifer” and threatened to shoot him.

___

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

Also on HuffPost:

‘;
var coords = [-5, -72];
// display fb-bubble
FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, ‘top’, {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: ‘clear-overlay’});
});

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/glendon-swift-eric-cantor-threats-plea_n_1140834.html

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
is branding Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) as
2011’s ‘Job Killer of the Year’ for his willingness to obstruct
legislation that would sustain tens of thousands of
American manufacturing jobs.

In addition to relentless opposition to all substantive jobs proposals,
Cantor is now threatening to withhold funding for the US Export-Import
Bank. At stake is a deal for 3.4 billion in loan guarantees that will
allow Air India to finance the purchase of 27 U.S.-built Boeing 787s.

“The purpose of the Ex-Im bank is to guarantee rather than finance
transactions. The process has proven to be extremely effective
in promotion of U.S. manufactured products for export and has created
hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs,” said IAM International President
Tom Buffenbarger. “The loan guarantees for Air India to purchase
Boeing-built aircraft are a clear example of how the bank was designed
to operate and would provide a vital benefit for the U.S. economy with
tens of thousands of direct jobs and roughly a 100,000 indirect and
supply chain jobs.”

Cantor’s actions, intended or not, support lobbying efforts by Delta Air
Lines to prevent Air India from acquiring the additional aircraft. The
effort includes a lawsuit by Airlines for America (AFA, formerly Air
Transport Association). This is the same Delta Airlines that could
afford the Northwest Airlines merger but is projected to avoid federal
taxes for several years due to huge operating losses and it is the same
Delta Airlines that has dumped nearly $10 billion in pension liability
on the taxpayer.

“Rep. Cantor and the AFA are willing to give a single company, Delta Air
Lines, an unfair competitive advantage at the expense of tens of
thousands of U.S. workers,” declared Buffenbarger. “Our economy needs
jobs much more than any one company needs special treatment from any
elected official.”

A vote on legislation to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank could take place as
soon as tomorrow or next week.

The IAM represents more than 35,000 Boeing workers among nearly 700,000
active and retired members in dozens of industries. For more information
about the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.

Article source: http://finance.boston.com/boston/news/read?GUID=20152975

UPDATE

Here’s some info on Eric Cantor’s net worth based in his financial disclosure forms. (Source: opensecrets.org)

2010 Net Worth:     From $2,893,110 to $8,048,999
2009 Net Worth:     From $2,175,157 to $7,533,999
2008 Net Worth:     From $1,853,155 to $6,707,999

Seems like he’s been doing pretty well for himself since the economy cratered in 2008.  I know I lost most of my savings, so why is Cantor doing so well these past 3 years?  Could it have anything to do with insider trading?  Maybe we should ask him.  So Mr. Cantor, how much have you profited from the use of inside information in your investments while you have been a member of Congress?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[crickets]

* * *

We’ll get to Eric Cantor in a minute but first a little good news …

Every year someone gets caught using inside information to cheat and place sure bets on stock trades.  This is (if you did not know it before) a federal and (usually) a state crime (for most people).  Not that the fact insider trading is the equivalent of fraud, which is punishable as a felony under federal law, discourages many people who are inclined to disregard the law and risk jail time for millions of dollars in profits, but every once in a while a US Attorney prosecutes people for violating the law against using inside information to game the system. Not as many people as all those who engage in it, of course, but every once in a while the Department of Justice actually makes a case and puts someone in jail, like this guy:

(Reuters) – A New York stock trader pleaded guilty to participating in an insider trading scheme that relied on inside information from a corporate lawyer at four prominent law firms and spanned over 15 years, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey announced in a press release on Thursday.

Amazing isn’t it?  Presumably highly compensated attorneys at reputable and I suspect very profitable law firms, lawyers who worked on securities deals or who had privileged  information about their clients that might influence said clients’ stock prices, worked with this stock trader for FIFTEEN YEARS to make millions in illegal gains using that privileged information.  Amazing to me anyway that they got caught, but I suppose like many organized crime figures, they got sloppy after a while and slipped up.  Here are some excerpts from the press release issue by the District of New Jersey’s US Attorney’s office:

Garrett D. Bauer, 44, of New York, pleaded guilty to all four counts charged in the Information against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice. Bauer entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden in Newark federal court. [...]

“Today, Garrett Bauer admitted that he used confidential information, stolen from major law firms, to make tens of millions in one of the largest, longest-running insider trading schemes ever prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman. “After taking the lion’s share of the $37 million in profits, Bauer now faces punishment for conduct that undermines the fairness of our financial markets and the public’s trust in the safety of its investments. We have no tolerance for corporate insiders and their cronies who benefit themselves by using their positions and access to cheat the investing public.” [...]

Bauer and two coconspirators – Matthew Kluger, 50, of Oakton, Va., and Kenneth Robinson, 45, of Long Beach, N.Y. – engaged in an insider trading scheme that began in 1994 and relied on Kluger, a lawyer, to steal information from his employers and their clients. [...]

Over time, Kluger worked at four of the nation’s premier mergers and acquisitions law firms. From 1994 to 1997, he worked first as a summer associate and later as a corporate associate at Cravath Swaine Moore in New York. From 1998 to 2001, he worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom in New York and Palo Alto, Calif., as an associate in their corporate department. From 2001 to 2002, Kluger worked as a corporate associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver Jacobson LLP in New York. From Dec. 5, 2005, to March 11, 2011, Kluger worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati (“Wilson Sonsini”) as a senior associate in the Mergers Acquisitions department of the firm’s Washington office.

While at the firms, Kluger regularly stole and disclosed to Robinson material, nonpublic information regarding anticipated corporate mergers and acquisitions on which his firms were working. Early in the scheme, Kluger disclosed information relating to deals on which he personally worked. As the scheme developed, and in an effort to avoid law enforcement detection, Kluger took information which he found primarily by viewing documents on his firms’ computer systems.

Once Kluger provided the inside information to Robinson, Robinson passed it to Bauer. Bauer then purchased shares for himself, Kluger, and Robinson in Bauer’s trading accounts, then sold them once the relevant deal was publicly announced and the stock price rose. Bauer gave Robinson and Kluger their shares of the illicit profits in cash – often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars – that Bauer withdrew in multiple transactions from ATM machines. [...]

This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.  

For those who don’t know much about the legal biz, Cravath Swaine Moore and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom are two of the biggest corporate law firms in New York and indeed in the country.  They represent the crème de la crème of multi-national corporate clients and wealthy individuals, i.e., the .001%.  According to its wikipedia entry, Skadden has nearly 2000 lawyers around the world and its revenues exceed $2 Billion per year.  Its the tenth largest law firm in the world.  It has represented many of the top fifty companies on the Fortune 500 list, principally in the practice areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities law, tax law and bankruptcy law.  

Cravath is no slouch either.  Its been around since 1854, and though it only has around 500 lawyers, its clients are represent a virtual Who’s Who among large corporations and wealthy individuals.  Needless to say it does a lot of work on the area of mergers and acquisitions (i.e., MA), securities law, antitrust litigation (Microsoft is a client), etc.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver Jacobson (468 attorneys according to wikipedia, with offices in Europe and Hong Kong as well as NYC) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati are major firms as well, and both do a large number of large financial transactions from MA work and IPO’s (initial public offerings)  to private equity deals, complex financing transactions, securities law, antitrust law, etc.  Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati also profits from many of its deals by taking securities in exchange for deferral of fees on IPO deals, one of which was Google.

So these are big players on Wall Street, and privy to valuable information regarding the Grand Casino on Wall Street to which poor schmucks like you and I will never have access.  Not really a surprise that at least one of their employees (and I suspect frankly far more than one) have used access to that information to enrich himself and his fellow criminals.  Especially so at a time when the budgets for the SEC and the Department of Justice Securities Fraud division have been under attack.

Of course, as Mr. Cantor’s efforts have made clear over the past few days, certain people are exempt for charges of illegal insider trading.  Those people are known as our elected Congressional representatives.  What would send you and I to jail, and will likely send Messrs. Bauer, Kluger and Robinson to federal prison, is of not much consequence to our Congressional representatives.  Indeed, we know that they have been using this exemption to make money off of inside information they acquire for years.  For one example let me off you the not so curious case of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL):

According to a new book called Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, as relayed by Dave Weigel at Slate, Rep. Bachus made more than 40 trades in his personal account in the summer and fall of 2008, in the early months of the financial crisis.

The fact that Bachus personally traded on private information he received as a result of his job is bad enough. The fact that he was the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee at the time is simply outrageous.

In one case, the day after getting a private briefing on the collapsing economy and financial system from Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson, Rep. Bachus effectively shorted the market (by buying options that would rise if the market tanked.)

A few days later, after the market tanked, Bachus sold his position and nearly doubled his money.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/…

Some more details about Bachus “grab the money and run” bonanza from Weigel’s  book:

On the evening of September 18, at 7 p.m., Bachus received [a] private briefing for congressional leaders by Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke about the current state of the economy. They sat around a long table in the office of Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House. These briefings were secretive. Often, cell phones and Blackberrys had to be surrendered outside the room to avoid leaks. [...]

Bernanke [stated], “It is a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system.” Bachus was among those who spoke. According to Paulson, he suggested recapitalizing the banks by buying shares.

The meeting broke up. The next day, September 19, Congressman Bachus bought contract options on Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, an index fund that seeks results that are 200% of the inverse of the Nasdaq 100 index. In other words, he was shorting the market. It was an inexpensive way to bet that the market would fall. He bought options for $7,846 on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 8,604. A few days later, on September 23, after the market had indeed fallen, he sold the options for over $13,000 and nearly doubled his money.

Of course, this is only one example of our corrupt representatives benefiting from the loophole in the Securities Fraud laws they created for themselves.  Here’s a chart that shows how the securities portfolios of House and Senate members prospered far in excess of what than the average citizen in the 90′s who held securities earned:

Sources:  

Alan J. Ziobrowski, PhD, Ping Cheng, PhD, James W. Boyd, PhD, and Briggitte J. Ziobrowski, PhD, “Abnormal Returns from the Common Stock Investments of the U.S. Senate,” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Dec. 2004

Alan J. Ziobrowski, PhD, James W. Boyd, PhD, Ping Cheng, PhD, and Briggitte J. Ziobrowski, PhD, “Abnormal Returns From the Common Stock Investments of Members of the US House of Representatives” (321 KB), Business and Politics, May 2011.

As you can see, Mr. and Ms. Ordinary Investor’s portfolio underperformed the average return on stocks by a -1.5%.  Senators on the other hand outperformed the market average by a whopping +12.3% with House members also outperforming the market by the lesser extent of +6%.  Not a bad deal for those lucky duckies in Congress who could trade on inside information without fear that their actions would subject them to criminal prosecution.

Yet now that this has all come to light thanks to a bill Louise Slaughter (S-NY) originally proposed in 2006, and a November 60 minutes expose on this loophole just for Congress, Eric cantor comes riding to the rescue to stop the 220 or so members of both parties in the House who have co-sponsored Rep. Slaughter’s Stop Trading on Insider Knowledge Act (STOCK Act).  I wonder why, don’t you?

Well, not really.  After all, Cantor already shorted US treasuries during the debt ceiling debate as was well documented by many news outlets including our own deepsouthdoug in his diary from June 28, 2011:  Eric Cantor shorting the U.S. Treasury market.  I don’t think he did that based on a hunch or gut feeling, do you?

I didn’t think so.

Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/09/1043622/-Insider-Trading:-Eric-Cantor,-How-Long-Have-You-Been-Using-Inside-Info-to-Make-Money-on-Securities

News Sentinel Staff

A Lenoir City man has struck a deal to plead guilty to telephoning threats to a Virginia congressman’s family.

According to court documents, Glendon Swift, 62, has admitted that he left two anonymous telephone messages at the office of U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va) in October, and said he was drunk when he did so. Swift was ordered detained Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley pending a Dec. 20 hearing at which he is expected to plead guilty to one count of threatening a federal official’s family.

The plea deal calls for a 13-month prison term. But U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan must approve it at an April 4 sentencing.

When FBI agents from the Richmond, Va., field office first questioned Swift about the calls, he readily admitted he had made them, court documents state.

Swift “immediately responded that he was aware of why the agents were there and stated that he ‘got drunk the other night and started cussing people out,’ ” a court document states.

Swift, after consulting with an attorney, has signed a plea agreement. He has also agreed to have the case handled in Knoxville instead of Virginia.

The calls were made on Swift’s cellphone. They were “laden with the screaming and ranting of profanities,” and made derogatory references to the fact that Cantor is Jewish.

In one of the calls, Swift says: “How about if I rape your daughter? How about that, if I come into your house and kill your wife.”

Available court documents do not indicate Swift’s motive in making the call.

Article source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/dec/10/lenoir-city-man-admits-threatening-virginia/

UPDATE

Here’s some info on Eric Cantor’s net worth based in his financial disclosure forms. (Source: opensecrets.org)

2010 Net Worth:     From $2,893,110 to $8,048,999
2009 Net Worth:     From $2,175,157 to $7,533,999
2008 Net Worth:     From $1,853,155 to $6,707,999

Seems like he’s been doing pretty well for himself since the economy cratered in 2008.  I know I lost most of my savings, so why is Cantor doing so well these past 3 years?  Could it have anything to do with insider trading?  Maybe we should ask him.  So Mr. Cantor, how much have you profited from the use of inside information in your investments while you have been a member of Congress?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[crickets]

* * *

We’ll get to Eric Cantor in a minute but first a little good news …

Every year someone gets caught using inside information to cheat and place sure bets on stock trades.  This is (if you did not know it before) a federal and (usually) a state crime (for most people).  Not that the fact insider trading is the equivalent of fraud, which is punishable as a felony under federal law, discourages many people who are inclined to disregard the law and risk jail time for millions of dollars in profits, but every once in a while a US Attorney prosecutes people for violating the law against using inside information to game the system. Not as many people as all those who engage in it, of course, but every once in a while the Department of Justice actually makes a case and puts someone in jail, like this guy:

(Reuters) – A New York stock trader pleaded guilty to participating in an insider trading scheme that relied on inside information from a corporate lawyer at four prominent law firms and spanned over 15 years, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey announced in a press release on Thursday.

Amazing isn’t it?  Presumably highly compensated attorneys at reputable and I suspect very profitable law firms, lawyers who worked on securities deals or who had privileged  information about their clients that might influence said clients’ stock prices, worked with this stock trader for FIFTEEN YEARS to make millions in illegal gains using that privileged information.  Amazing to me anyway that they got caught, but I suppose like many organized crime figures, they got sloppy after a while and slipped up.  Here are some excerpts from the press release issue by the District of New Jersey’s US Attorney’s office:

Garrett D. Bauer, 44, of New York, pleaded guilty to all four counts charged in the Information against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice. Bauer entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden in Newark federal court. [...]

“Today, Garrett Bauer admitted that he used confidential information, stolen from major law firms, to make tens of millions in one of the largest, longest-running insider trading schemes ever prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman. “After taking the lion’s share of the $37 million in profits, Bauer now faces punishment for conduct that undermines the fairness of our financial markets and the public’s trust in the safety of its investments. We have no tolerance for corporate insiders and their cronies who benefit themselves by using their positions and access to cheat the investing public.” [...]

Bauer and two coconspirators – Matthew Kluger, 50, of Oakton, Va., and Kenneth Robinson, 45, of Long Beach, N.Y. – engaged in an insider trading scheme that began in 1994 and relied on Kluger, a lawyer, to steal information from his employers and their clients. [...]

Over time, Kluger worked at four of the nation’s premier mergers and acquisitions law firms. From 1994 to 1997, he worked first as a summer associate and later as a corporate associate at Cravath Swaine Moore in New York. From 1998 to 2001, he worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom in New York and Palo Alto, Calif., as an associate in their corporate department. From 2001 to 2002, Kluger worked as a corporate associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver Jacobson LLP in New York. From Dec. 5, 2005, to March 11, 2011, Kluger worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati (“Wilson Sonsini”) as a senior associate in the Mergers Acquisitions department of the firm’s Washington office.

While at the firms, Kluger regularly stole and disclosed to Robinson material, nonpublic information regarding anticipated corporate mergers and acquisitions on which his firms were working. Early in the scheme, Kluger disclosed information relating to deals on which he personally worked. As the scheme developed, and in an effort to avoid law enforcement detection, Kluger took information which he found primarily by viewing documents on his firms’ computer systems.

Once Kluger provided the inside information to Robinson, Robinson passed it to Bauer. Bauer then purchased shares for himself, Kluger, and Robinson in Bauer’s trading accounts, then sold them once the relevant deal was publicly announced and the stock price rose. Bauer gave Robinson and Kluger their shares of the illicit profits in cash – often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars – that Bauer withdrew in multiple transactions from ATM machines. [...]

This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.  

For those who don’t know much about the legal biz, Cravath Swaine Moore and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom are two of the biggest corporate law firms in New York and indeed in the country.  They represent the crème de la crème of multi-national corporate clients and wealthy individuals, i.e., the .001%.  According to its wikipedia entry, Skadden has nearly 2000 lawyers around the world and its revenues exceed $2 Billion per year.  Its the tenth largest law firm in the world.  It has represented many of the top fifty companies on the Fortune 500 list, principally in the practice areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities law, tax law and bankruptcy law.  

Cravath is no slouch either.  Its been around since 1854, and though it only has around 500 lawyers, its clients are represent a virtual Who’s Who among large corporations and wealthy individuals.  Needless to say it does a lot of work on the area of mergers and acquisitions (i.e., MA), securities law, antitrust litigation (Microsoft is a client), etc.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver Jacobson (468 attorneys according to wikipedia, with offices in Europe and Hong Kong as well as NYC) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati are major firms as well, and both do a large number of large financial transactions from MA work and IPO’s (initial public offerings)  to private equity deals, complex financing transactions, securities law, antitrust law, etc.  Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati also profits from many of its deals by taking securities in exchange for deferral of fees on IPO deals, one of which was Google.

So these are big players on Wall Street, and privy to valuable information regarding the Grand Casino on Wall Street to which poor schmucks like you and I will never have access.  Not really a surprise that at least one of their employees (and I suspect frankly far more than one) have used access to that information to enrich himself and his fellow criminals.  Especially so at a time when the budgets for the SEC and the Department of Justice Securities Fraud division have been under attack.

Of course, as Mr. Cantor’s efforts have made clear over the past few days, certain people are exempt for charges of illegal insider trading.  Those people are known as our elected Congressional representatives.  What would send you and I to jail, and will likely send Messrs. Bauer, Kluger and Robinson to federal prison, is of not much consequence to our Congressional representatives.  Indeed, we know that they have been using this exemption to make money off of inside information they acquire for years.  For one example let me off you the not so curious case of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL):

According to a new book called Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, as relayed by Dave Weigel at Slate, Rep. Bachus made more than 40 trades in his personal account in the summer and fall of 2008, in the early months of the financial crisis.

The fact that Bachus personally traded on private information he received as a result of his job is bad enough. The fact that he was the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee at the time is simply outrageous.

In one case, the day after getting a private briefing on the collapsing economy and financial system from Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson, Rep. Bachus effectively shorted the market (by buying options that would rise if the market tanked.)

A few days later, after the market tanked, Bachus sold his position and nearly doubled his money.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/…

Some more details about Bachus “grab the money and run” bonanza from Weigel’s  book:

On the evening of September 18, at 7 p.m., Bachus received [a] private briefing for congressional leaders by Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke about the current state of the economy. They sat around a long table in the office of Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House. These briefings were secretive. Often, cell phones and Blackberrys had to be surrendered outside the room to avoid leaks. [...]

Bernanke [stated], “It is a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system.” Bachus was among those who spoke. According to Paulson, he suggested recapitalizing the banks by buying shares.

The meeting broke up. The next day, September 19, Congressman Bachus bought contract options on Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, an index fund that seeks results that are 200% of the inverse of the Nasdaq 100 index. In other words, he was shorting the market. It was an inexpensive way to bet that the market would fall. He bought options for $7,846 on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 8,604. A few days later, on September 23, after the market had indeed fallen, he sold the options for over $13,000 and nearly doubled his money.

Of course, this is only one example of our corrupt representatives benefiting from the loophole in the Securities Fraud laws they created for themselves.  Here’s a chart that shows how the securities portfolios of House and Senate members prospered far in excess of what than the average citizen in the 90′s who held securities earned:

Sources:  

Alan J. Ziobrowski, PhD, Ping Cheng, PhD, James W. Boyd, PhD, and Briggitte J. Ziobrowski, PhD, “Abnormal Returns from the Common Stock Investments of the U.S. Senate,” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Dec. 2004

Alan J. Ziobrowski, PhD, James W. Boyd, PhD, Ping Cheng, PhD, and Briggitte J. Ziobrowski, PhD, “Abnormal Returns From the Common Stock Investments of Members of the US House of Representatives” (321 KB), Business and Politics, May 2011.

As you can see, Mr. and Ms. Ordinary Investor’s portfolio underperformed the average return on stocks by a -1.5%.  Senators on the other hand outperformed the market average by a whopping +12.3% with House members also outperforming the market by the lesser extent of +6%.  Not a bad deal for those lucky duckies in Congress who could trade on inside information without fear that their actions would subject them to criminal prosecution.

Yet now that this has all come to light thanks to a bill Louise Slaughter (S-NY) originally proposed in 2006, and a November 60 minutes expose on this loophole just for Congress, Eric cantor comes riding to the rescue to stop the 220 or so members of both parties in the House who have co-sponsored Rep. Slaughter’s Stop Trading on Insider Knowledge Act (STOCK Act).  I wonder why, don’t you?

Well, not really.  After all, Cantor already shorted US treasuries during the debt ceiling debate as was well documented by many news outlets including our own deepsouthdoug in his diary from June 28, 2011:  Eric Cantor shorting the U.S. Treasury market.  I don’t think he did that based on a hunch or gut feeling, do you?

I didn’t think so.

Article source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/09/1043622/-Insider-Trading:-Eric-Cantor,-How-Long-Have-You-Been-Using-Inside-Info-to-Make-Money-on-Securities

Eric Cantor (right) and his ideological muse Newt Gingrich (right)

Earlier this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) made a series of major missteps when he decided the House GOP would not release federal disaster funds unless it included offsetting spending cuts following a deadly Missouri tornado, a hurricane that hit the east coast, and an earthquake in Virginia.

Though Cantor was roundly criticized for the move, a look back to the 104th Congress revealed the origins of Cantor’s idea: Newt Gingrich.

Less than two months after Gingrich took over as House speaker in 1995, one of his first orders of business was to propose holding off on federal disaster aid unless it was accompanied by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. Gingrich downplayed the long-held system of sending federal relief money to areas stricken by natural disaster without making it contingent on ideologically-driven cuts, telling reporters, “you don’t have this thing of waving a magic wand and saying, ‘Well, this is an emergency.’”

This was not simply a theoretical exercise. When the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing occurred later that year, Gingrich held federal disaster aid hostage unless he received offsetting spending cuts, prompting the Philadelphia Daily News to write that “Even Newt Gingrich must lose a little sleep at the idea of making political hay out of the mini-civil war that struck Oklahoma City.”

The Free Lance-Star from February 11, 1995, has more:

President Clinton last week asked Congress for an extra $4.9 billion in emergency aid to pay for repairs lingering from the Northridge earthquake in Southern California a year ago. He also is seeking an additional $500,000 to repair damage from last month’s record flooding in the state.

Typically, those funds are sent to states under special budget rules that do not require Congress to earmark offsetting cuts.

But that practice, Gingrich said, is about to change.

“We’re going to have to find a way to offset that,” he said.

Gingrich went on to criticize President Clinton for refusing “to suggest where to cut to pay for federal disaster aid.” Not all congressional spending proposals were held to this same standard though. As the Washington Post wrote in July 1996, Gingrich “instructed a House Appropriations panel to earmark an additional $15 million for water projects to boost reelection prospects of Republicans in California, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington state.”

Pork-barrel projects like these were deemed important enough to merit a special earmark, but Gingrich held disaster relief money hostage unless Congress and the president agreed to offsetting spending cuts elsewhere. Sixteen years later, Cantor took up the mantle and used the devastating Joplin tornado, which killed 159 people, to try to extract spending cuts from congressional Democrats.

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Article source: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/09/385977/newt-gingrich-disaster-relief-oklahoma-city/

by federal lawmakers.

The Republican sponsor of the bill in the House, Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus of Alabama, had scheduled a markup of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act for next week. But on Wednesday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia cancelled the markup session.

Cantor reportedly said he blocked the bill to give Congress more time to examine the issue. Critics of the move, however, fear that any delay could kill the bill entirely.

Some version of the the STOCK Act has been bouncing around Capitol Hill for six years. But recent attention to the issue of Congressional insider trading, following reports from CNBC’s Eamon Javers and a “60 Minutes” report, brought the bill out of stasis and made its passage into law seem likely. If the latest delay pushes the bill into next year, it may become lost in election-year politics.

Trading by lawmakers based on non-public information about legislation falls into what many see as a loophole in insider trading regulations.

Although corporate insiders are banned from trading on non-public information about their companies, congressional representatives and senators may not be banned from trading on non-public information about legislation or regulation. The legal issue is disputed by scholars and regulators.

The head of the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently argued that congressional insider trading is already banned. But he admitted that no legal action has ever been taken against a member of Congress.

Studies have shown the investment portfolios of House members and Senators consistently outperform the market by significant degrees, suggesting they are either miraculously bright and lucky investors or using their access to non-public information when trading. Financial experts regard the idea that it is just luck or investing smarts as laughable. 

Congressman Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, said Cantor’s move is “absolutely unacceptable” and described Cantor as “petty,” according to The Hill.

The bill may have fallen victim to backroom politics. Apparently lawmakers on Capitol Hill believe Bachus is rushing through the bill because he was one of the prime subjects of the “60 Minutes” piece on congressional insider trading.

From Politico:

In a Wednesday meeting described by one source as “extremely direct”

and by another as “very blunt,” Cantor (R-Va.) ripped into Bachus, explaining in no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable for Bachus to mark up the bill without having run it by GOP leaders and other chairmen with jurisdiction over its provisions. …

Bachus, clearly anxious to create a good-government portfolio in the wake of a “60 Minutes” piece on his stock trades — some of which netted five-figure gains in a single day — put the STOCK Act on the fast track. … Cantor delivered the cease-and-desist order on behalf of GOP leaders, other chairmen and rank-and-file lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who were concerned that Bachus could help give the bill life by having the committee approve it. …

Cantor apparently prefers to whack Bachus behind closed doors, as his office offered up a rather understated version of events when asked about the exchange.

“A large group of bipartisan members of the committee felt the legislation was flawed and being recklessly moved solely in response to media pressure,” Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said. “Members of both sides of the aisle wanted more time to gather information and develop appropriate alternatives.”

Cantor’s move to block the markup is stirring outrage. Professor Stephen Bainbridge, of the UCLA School of Law, has been a vocal supporter of banning insider trading by lawmakers. He recently wrote:

Why is Congressman Eric Cantor blocking this basic good-government reform? Does Cantor believe that congressmen should be allowed to inside trade with impunity? Does Cantor not realize that congressional insider trading raises serious issues of ethics, corruption, and even the potential for bribery? Does Cantor not see that the current de facto exemption of Congress from the draconian penalties for insider trading it has imposed on everybody else is fundamentally unfair?

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