cal04
cal04's JournalHouse Democrats to target 48 GOP seats in 2014
As it tries again in 2014 to win back control of the House of Representatives, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it's got its eyes on 48 Republican-held seats.
"We need 17 seats to pick up the House. So we begin with an early universe of 30 districts where the incumbent got less than 10% and an additional 18 districts that we think can perform better in an off year than an on year," DCCC Chairman Steve Israel told reporters Thursday.
(snip)
Israel said the DCCC has completed an initial review of what they did right and wrong in the 2012 cycle. While he wouldn't give specifics, Israel said strong recruitment is crucial.
"We've studied what we can do better. Now we are incorporating that into moving forward. The key issue here is that it all starts with recruiting," he said. "The reason we picked up seats in 2012 is because we aggressively began recruiting in 2010."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/13/house-democrats-to-target-48-gop-seats-in-2014/
Pelosi On Raising Medicare Eligibility Age: ‘Don’t Go There’
Source: TPM
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday morning that she and other Democrats would "object" to raising the Medicare eligibility age in deficit reduction talks.
"Don't go there because it doesn't produce money," she said on "CBS This Morning." "Raising the retirement age does not get you that much money... so you're doing a bad thing when it comes to seniors and you're not achieving your goal" of lowering the deficit and improving the economy.
She said of potential reforms: "We're saying, 'does it work, is it fair or is it just a trophy for Republicans to take home?'"
"There's a recognition he may need our votes," Pelosi said of House Speaker John Boehner.
Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/pelosi-on-raising-medicare-eligibility-age-dont-go
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57558681/pelosi-on-raising-age-for-medicare-dont-go-there/
Pelosi throws it back at Boehner, asks GOP to clarify tax hikes
http://thehill.com/video/house/272229-pelosi-throws-it-back-at-boehner-asks-gop-to-clarify-tax-hikesHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday challenged Republicans to clarify what tax increases they can agree to, just moments after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on Democrats to propose specific spending cuts.
Pelosi said the biggest challenge in the fiscal cliff talks is to ensure the middle class is not hurt by tax increases or cuts to needed government services. But she said Republicans have focused only on spending cuts and have ignored the idea of higher taxes.
"Where are the revenues?" she asked on the floor. "Regardless of the cuts ... more is demanded in terms of what seniors would have to pay into Medicare and what age that would happen, while the Republicans refuse to touch one hair on the head of the wealthiest people in our country."
(snip)
"What stands in the way is an act on the part of Republican majority to bring a middle-class tax cut to the floor of the House," Pelosi said.
Sherrod Brown Exposes GOP’s Motives For Deep Entitlement Cuts
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/10/1307551/sherrod-brown-exposes-gops-motives-for-deep-entitlement-cuts/As President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) continue to do battle over a fiscal cliff deal, another Ohio legislator, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), soundly rejected the idea that Republicans are truly concerned with saving public programs like Social Security and Medicare. On Monday, Brown appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to blast the Republicans’ insistence on including severe cuts in entitlement programs to avert the impending fiscal cliff.
Brown stood firm when Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski pressed him on possibly raising the Medicare eligibility age, which Democrats are considering as part of the compromise. When Brzezinski claimed that Republicans are right to argue that Medicare and Social Security are unsustainable and could go bankrupt without reforms, Brown explained the broader anti-government ideology behind the cuts:
BRZEZINSKI: I feel like there’s a disconnect. First of all, you’ve got a lot of Republicans promulgating small businesses will be hurt. It’s not true. But I also feel like in return, there is this concept that Republicans are looking like the boogeyman who want to take away Medicare from everybody when they really want to make it solvent. When they really want to make it last into the future, when they really want to make this country’s fiscal irresponsibility come together and make sense.
BROWN: [...] When Newt Gingrich had a chance or President Bush had a chance, they wanted to shift costs onto beneficiaries by in part turning Social Security over to Wall Street. There has been a movement among conservative Republicans of a bit of a distaste for Social Security and Medicare. They’re public programs that are successful, and if it’s proven that these public programs are successful, it sort of undercuts their view that government can’t do anything right. Government has never been late on a social security check in 75 years since its first payment in 1940. We have seen two very successful public programs and there are always efforts to shift costs.
&feature=player_embedded
Grijalva: You Can't Blame Deficit on SS, Medicare, Medicaid
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/grijalva-you-cant-blame-deficit-ss-me(snip)
STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring in Congressman Grijalva. And you're going to get the last word. But what if the Republicans do call the president's bluff, pass the tax cut extension for the middle class, but nothing else? That's going to be mean no extension of unemployment benefits, the sequester kicks in, cuts in both domestic and defense spending, and the president will have no more leverage after that fact. Isn't that true?
GRIJALVA: I think the leverage is there for the president, George. I really do. I'm happy the president and the Democrats are not negotiating with themselves this round. They're actually negotiating with people that are in a position in the House to make the decisions.
And -- and if the middle class is -- if that's the vote we take, that is a good vote, it is a step toward in a direction. But I think that one of the issues that's being left alone in this whole discussion is the amnesia of how we got into this situation, who's responsible for the situation. And to blame the three programs that we're talking about -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- as the drivers of this deficit is a mistake.
The drivers happened long ago, two wars on a credit card, financial institutions that didn't -- that took -- abused the American people, and now we're being asked to go back to the same people that have endured this crisis and ask them to pay up again. No. No.
video at link
Charlie Crist signs papers to become a Democrat
It was just a matter of time. Charlie Crist is becoming a Democrat.
Crist — Florida's former Republican governor who relished the tough-on-crime nickname "Chain Gang Charlie" and used to describe himself variously as a "Ronald Reagan Republican" and a "Jeb Bush Republican" — on Friday evening signed papers changing his party from independent to Democrat.
He did so during a Christmas reception at the White House, where President Obama greeted the news with a fist bump for the man who had a higher profile campaigning for Obama's reelection this year than any Florida Democrat.
The widely expected move positions Crist, 56, for another highly anticipated next step: announcing his candidacy for governor, taking on Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Scott and an untold number of Democrats who would challenge him for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/charlie-crist-signs-papers-to-become-a-democrat/1265224
Charlie Crist @charliecristfl
Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President @barackobama!
https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=charliecristfl
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/07/3132538/charlie-crist-signs-papers-to.html
Ex-Fla. Gov. Crist Tweets He's Joining Democrats
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fla-gov-crist-tweets-joining-democrats-17910387#.UMK-pL_ZfUg
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has announced on Twitter that he's joining the Democratic Party.
Crist sent out a Tweet on Friday night that said, "Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President (at)Barack Obama!"
The Tweet included a photo of a smiling Crist holding up a Florida voter registration application. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the former Republican governor signed the papers changing his affiliation from independent to Democrat at a Christmas reception at The White House.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announces plans to manufacture Mac computers in USA
Source: NBC news
In an exclusive interview with Brian Williams airing tonight at 10pm/9c on NBC’s “Rock Center,” Apple CEO Tim Cook announced one of the existing Mac lines will be manufactured exclusively in the United States next year. Mac fans will have to wait to see which Mac line it will be because Apple, widely known for its secrecy, left it vague. Cook's announcement may or may not confirm recent rumors in the blogosphere sparked by iMacs inscribed in the back with “Assembled in USA.”
“We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” Cook told Williams. It was Cook’s first interview since taking over from his visionary former boss, Steve Jobs, who resigned due to health reasons in August 2011. Jobs died on October 5, 2011, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
The announcement could be good news for a country that has been struggling with an unemployment rate of around 8 percent for some time and has been bleeding good-paying factory jobs to lower-wage nations such as China.
Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, said he believes it’s important to bring more jobs to the United States. Apple would not reveal where exactly the Macs will be manufactured.
Read more: http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/06/15708290-apple-ceo-tim-cook-announces-plans-to-manufacture-mac-computers-in-usa?lite
House Dems File Discharge Petition To Force Vote On Middle Income Tax Cuts
House Democrats filed their discharge petition today seeking to force a vote on legislation that would extend middle income tax cuts and let the top marginal rates return to Clinton-era levels.
Filed by Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), the petition requires 218 signatories to succeed -- in other words, a significant number of Republicans.
"Our economy and our families cannot wait any longer for action and cannot afford a Republican tax increase on the middle class," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "There’s no time to waste. The Senate has already passed this legislation; House Democrats are prepared to support it; President Obama is ready to sign it into law."
At his weekly briefing, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) called on all Democrats and sympathetic Republicans like Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) to sign the petition.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/house-dems-file-discharge-petition-to-force-vote
Nancy Pelosi’s Key Role In Budget Negotiations
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/pelosi-fiscal-cliff-boehner-obama.php?ref=fpaMost news accounts of budget negotiations between the White House and Congress focus on two men: President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. The man who ran on a platform of “balanced” deficit reduction, and the man who represents the party that refuses to increase taxes on high earners.
But there’s a third agent, quietly keeping the negotiating center of gravity in Democrats’ comfort zone
On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will file what’s known as a discharge petition — a procedural tool that will increase pressure on Republicans to allow Bush tax cuts for top earners to expire. If 218 members sign the petition, legislation to permanently extend middle-income tax cuts will get a vote, and Republicans will be on the spot. Leadership aides expect nearly every Democrat will put pen to paper in support of it, and then push squishy Republicans to break with leadership and sign it as well.
That reflects half of Pelosi’s role. The other half is subtler. As the controller of an overwhelming number of Democratic votes, she’s there to warn all negotiators, including Obama himself, not to cut a bad deal.
:large
:large
Profile Information
Member since: Tue Jan 6, 2004, 01:46 PMNumber of posts: 41,505