2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

well, that was an incoherent post

fwiw rehm has already come out on the "clearly this is false, i'm **glad** i could help put this **rumor** to **rest**" front

"i'm gley-ahhhd i could heyyulp put this roomher to rayust"

Now, now, Rehm has a health condition that makes her speak like that. But yea, she never researches that well, and has now apologized for this line of questioning saying she "read it on Facebook."

House votes Friday on Trade Promotion Authority

A piece on the business front of this morning’s New York Times runs down some of the language being inserted into the bill to get Republican votes, including anti-immigration language from Iowa Rep. Steve King. A Huffington Post item getting circulated widely among progressives says that the customs enforcement bill being voted on Friday includes language that would excuse the U.S. from any trade deal obligations to address climate change. Unions are threatening to back primary challengers against members who cross them on this vote, and they’re running ads in swing districts on the issue. These stories make it harder to sell the base on the necessity of siding with the president.

Now, now, Rehm has a health condition that makes her speak like that.

! is that so, i had no idea

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

http://obamatrade.com/

cmooooooon wingnuts lets go

Trump is always so angry

ugh god having actually looked at that site i feel gross now

Trump rubbed his sweaty forehead all over you

From Wikipedia: Rehm suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that affects the quality of her voice.

dear god

http://gawker.com/ap-every-single-federal-employees-social-security-numb-1710708467

oof

sorry Karl :(

yeah no doubt, what a horrible thing

happened a couple days ago but with each followup it just gets worse

what's funny is that everything I've learned from this has come from the media and/or my union

learned about this, i mean.

The letter will come in the mail weeks from now. Just the paper and postage for those millions of letters will be substantial.

this is p gross as a stunt: http://news.yahoo.com/capitol-hill-buzz-gop-sen-graham-offers-abortion-180104514--election.html

lol url a little misleading there

man he really wants to be in the top ten so he can debate i guess

there's no way he gets through this without getting outed, right? I mean, that's the logical endpoint I sorta wonder if that's his secret/unconscious goal

Shakey, you wanted more evidence of Scott Walker's malfeasance?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/scott-walker-wisconsin-removing-tenure-law

hey guys

have you called your congress lizards to tell them to vote against fast track yet?

the vote is today

O is so desperate he's at the capitol RIGHT NOW briefing the caucus

call if you can

https://www.stopfasttrack.com/

hoos is anyone keeping a record of who has indicated that they're voting yes?

yeah one sec

all my lists are outdated at this point but the undecideds are pretty slim in the house rn, i'm trying to find a list i saw The Hill update with this morning

here we go

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/trade/241114-whip-list-dems-bucking-obama-on-trade

we've got the right number of GOP with us, these are the publicly undecided Dems

----

Rep. Alma Adams (N.C.)

Rep. Karen Bass (Calif.)

Rep. Joyce Beatty (Ohio)

Rep. Julia Brownley (Calif.)

Rep. Kathy Castor (Fla.) — Castor backed trio of trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia in 2011.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas) — Some have speculated Castro could be Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016.

Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) — Clyburn is the No. 3-ranked House Democrat and influential lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.)

Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.) — Cooper signed a letter offering support for fast-track but has yet to endorse the deal.

Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.) — “If the Senate votes out a package this week, I hope we’ll have an opportunity to look at that, and, yes, I would like to be in a position to vote for it,” he told Politico in an interview in May, but has since expressed reservations.

Rep. Susan Davis (Calif.) — Voted for fast-track in 2002.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (Calif.) — Ally of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who backed two of the three trade deals in 2011.

Rep. Bill Foster (Ill.)

Rep. Al Green (Texas)

Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (Texas) — Voted for fast-track in 2002 and supported two of the three trade deals passed in 2011.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.) — "I've not yet made a decision on what I'm going to do. There's still a bit of time to go and developments to occur," the House minority whip told Politico. Hoyer backed all three trade deals in 2011, but opposed fast-track in 2002.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas)

Rep. Robin Kelly (Ill.)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) — Lofgren told The Hill she is “still looking at” the emerging TPP agreement. “It's so secret that I have not yet been able to read it all. You go down to the basement, it's only opened occasionally,” she said. “So it takes a long time. I mean, I went through a quarter of a section and it took me two hours. And so I'm not going to vote for something I haven't read. … If I can't read it, I can't vote for it. But I'm trying to get it read."

Rep. Doris Matsui (Calif.) — Key swing vote on fast-track. The congresswoman's late husband, Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Calif.), backed some trade deals.

Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.) — Every other member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation is against fast-track. Moulton defeated then-Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) in the primary last year.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas) — Obama wants his vote. The president was recently interviewed on trade in O'Rourke's district. Meanwhile, anti-fast-track activists have also targeted O'Rourke.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — The House minority leader not taken a public position though some of her close allies are firmly against fast-track. She said that Republicans need to come up with 200 votes for fast-track.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (Colo.)

Rep. Scott Peters (Calif.) — Labor groups threatened to spend $1 million against Peters’ reelection bid if the swing-district Democrat votes for the trade bill, Politico reported. Peters is a top GOP target in 2016.

Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.) — Centrist Democrat backed two of the three trade deals in 2011.

Rep. David Price (N.C.) — "I'm genuinely conflicted," Price told The Hill. Obama has reached out to Price.

Rep. Terri Sewell (Ala.) — Supported two of the three trade deals in 2011. Sewell is seeking provisions to protect steel workers.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)

Rep. Marc Veasey (Texas)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) — DNC chairwoman voted for all three 2011 trade deals.

Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.)

Rep. Frederica Wilson (Fla.)

wow just overheard that in a meeting with house dem caucus this morning Obama says "if you get primary challenged over this, i'm coming to your district to campaign for you"

thx, figured my rep (fattah) would be a 'no,' but wanted to double check

maybe i'm misreading the temp of this thing but i can't imagine anyone getting primaried over it

diff members already being threatened by moveon, sierra club, blue green alliance--ami bera, jared polis, moveon even giving wyden side eye with big ad buys

The White House, recognizing the precarious position the package is in, dispatched top officials to Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with Democrats, and Obama himself made a surprise appearance at Thursday night's annual congressional baseball game. Arriving as Democratic and Republican lawmakers faced off at Nationals Park, Obama was greeted with chants of "TPA! TPA!" from the GOP side — the acronym for the Trade Promotion Authority fast track bill.

someone find that footage and play it in slow motion

Mr. Obama has rarely employed the kind of face-to-face lobbying and arm-twisting of lawmakers that previous presidents have found to be effective. But the fight for authority to negotiate new trade deals has been different, with Mr. Obama repeatedly urging lawmakers in both parties to support him.

lol imagine if he had this much get-up-and-go during the rest of his administration

I expect Pelosi isn't gonna break with Obama if she doesn't have to, but I'm encouraged by the fact that she's not whipping the caucus up for a yea vote

xp

honestly I dunno why O thinks this is so important

keep the cash comin' for the ppl building his library

xpost
some people on digby and elsewhere have been speculating that it has to do with helping the U.S. military maintain control of the Strait of Malacca (world's third biggest shipping lane), but who knows

i think the president has a much higher opinion of his negotiating skills than others, maybe he's thrilled about what the US is getting out of TPP? also, i think he has a higher opinion about how well he represents the interests of the 'common man,' than maybe most working class ppl.

feel free to tear this apart, but this is the strait of malacca thing i was referencing:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/more-than-meets-eye-by-bloggersrus.html

huh interesting

It’s a bottleneck, a chokepoint, and if Malaysia is “driven into the arms of China” then China can close those Straits to shipping how, when, and as they please.

this seems awfully presumptuous

haha why would China do that anyway. "We're not shipping you anymore products!" "huh OK, have fun going broke"

otoh, it's a nice theory that ties together TPP w/ Iran negotiations as O's biggest a) trade + b) foreign policy priorities

as i anticipated:

He's simply cashing out, feathering his future nest, foaming his own landing, getting his meal ticket punched, setting the table for the feast of his 20 years of life — his post-electoral, Obama Global Initiative legacy-tour life. You can't ride the corporate stratospheric rails to Davos if corporate jet owners don't like you.

tsk Mordy, always believing the best of everypimpone.

idk the "personal gain" angle seems p weak in this instance

xposts
yeah, it also starts to veer into conspiracy theory at some point.

but i do think there must be something more to it than "obama wants rich people to like him so that he can bank after the presidency." obama is already going to make a ton of money after the presidency. it seems odd for him to burn bridges and turn his entire party against him just because he wants to have a net worth of $30 million rather than $20 million

that's dumb. being an ex-POTUS will guarantee him wealth-producing connections & expensive speaking fees for life whether or not he passes this.