Democrats Abroad New Zealand
Democrats Set House Debate to Rebuke Bush Over Iraq Policy (NYTimes.com)
By JEFF ZELENY
Published: February 9, 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — House Democratic leaders persuaded members of their party on Thursday to limit the scope of an Iraq war resolution next week to a simple repudiation of President Bush’s troop buildup plan, hoping to temporarily set aside divisive decisions over war financing and troop redeployments.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and other party leaders met privately for more than an hour with other Democratic lawmakers. They sought to reassure Democrats that the symbolic, nonbinding resolution devised to rebuke Mr. Bush was a first step — but not a final one — toward asserting Congressional powers on Iraq.
After winning control of Congress, in part because of discontent over the Iraq war, Democrats are eager to send a strong signal of disapproval to the White House. To make the proposal palatable to at least some Republicans, the Democrats said their resolution would express support for the troops, but reject the plan to send 21,500 more of them to Iraq.
The people “called for a new direction,” Ms. Pelosi said, “and no place do they want that direction to be more clear than in the war in Iraq.”
(More ...
New York Times > Washington)
Labels: Congress, Iraq, New York Times
Bush Pledges Balanced Budget (Reuters.com)
Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:20pm ET146
By Caren Bohan
PEORIA, Illinois (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he plans to submit a budget proposal for fiscal 2008 next week that would help the government balance its budget by 2012 while still keeping taxes low.
"I'm going to submit a budget for Congress to look at that shows how we can balance the budget in five years and keep your taxes low," he said in a speech to workers of heavy equipment maker Caterpillar.
It was the first of two speeches Bush is giving on the U.S. economy after his State of the Union address a week ago. The second is scheduled for Wednesday in New York.
The unveiling of Bush's fiscal 2008 budget on Monday will kick off months of wrangling over spending priorities, and some analysts are bracing for the most rancorous debate since a 1996 standoff that led to a temporary shutdown of the government.
The budget deficit was $248 billion in fiscal 2006, down from a record of $413 billion in 2004.
Democrats, now in control of Congress, are concerned that the cost of the Iraq war and Bush's vow to extend his tax cuts will worsen the budget picture.
(More ...
Reuters > News > Politics)
Labels: Budget, Bush, Congress, Reuters
Chairman: Bush Officials Misled Public on Global Warming (CNN.com)
POSTED: 2:28 p.m. EST, January 30, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming."
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said he and the top Republican on his oversight committee, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, have sought documents from the administration on climate policy, but repeatedly been rebuffed.
"The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or documents that could affect our immediate national security," said Waxman, opening the hearing. "We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists."
"We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger," Waxman said.
Administration officials were not scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In the past the White House has said it has only sought to inject balance into reports on climate change. Present Bush has acknowledged concerns about global warming, but strongly opposes mandatory caps of greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that approach would be too costly.
Waxman said his committee had not received documents it requested from the White House and other agencies, and that a handful of papers received on the eve of the hearing "add nothing to our inquiry."
Two private advocacy groups, meanwhile, presented to the panel a survey of government climate scientists showing that many of them say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at downplaying the threat of global warming.
(More ...
CNN > Politics)
Labels: Bush, Climate Change, CNN, Congress
Bush Dirfective Increases Sway on Regulations (NYTimes.com)
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 30, 2007
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.
This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.
The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In an interview on Monday, Jeffrey A. Rosen, general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said, “This is a classic good-government measure that will make federal agencies more open and accountable.”
Business groups welcomed the executive order, saying it had the potential to reduce what they saw as the burden of federal regulations. This burden is of great concern to many groups, including small businesses, that have given strong political and financial backing to Mr. Bush.
Consumer, labor and environmental groups denounced the executive order, saying it gave too much control to the White House and would hinder agencies’ efforts to protect the public.
Typically, agencies issue regulations under authority granted to them in laws enacted by Congress. In many cases, the statute does not say precisely what agencies should do, giving them considerable latitude in interpreting the law and developing regulations.
(More ...
New York Times > Washington)
Labels: Bush, Congress, New York Times
Congress Moving on Climate Change (SFGate.com)
Industry, GOP, Dems try to curb greenhouse gas riskZachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Monday, January 29, 2007
01-29) 04:00 PST Washington -- The U.S. Senate, showing a new enthusiasm for the fight against global warming, begins hearings this week on competing proposals by lawmakers to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Last year, the Republican-led Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held regular hearings on whether global warming was a hoax. But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who now chairs the panel, is staging a rare open-microphone hearing Tuesday, where senators will offer their ideas for tackling climate change.
Calls for action will probably grow when the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change issues a report Friday in Paris that is expected to show increased certainty among scientists that human use of fossil fuels is causing warming. The report also includes projections about the damage that various regions could suffer from rising sea levels, heat waves and droughts.
The Democratic takeover of Congress, combined with growing calls from industry, religious leaders and the public for action, has dramatically improved the chances for legislation that could set limits on carbon dioxide emissions, raise fuel economy standards, and require greater energy efficiency for buildings.
"There is just a coming together of so many different groups and so many individuals in favor of moving forward to combat global warming," Boxer said in an interview last week. "It's very, very encouraging."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is putting pressure on House Democrats to act fast by creating a new select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and setting an ambitious deadline of passing climate change legislation by July 4.
"Global warming is an increasing threat to our world, with implications for our health, food supply, and the survival of many species and perhaps entire ecosystems," Pelosi said in a speech last week to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "We cannot afford to wait."
The groundswell for action has been so great that even President Bush is recalibrating his stance on climate change.
(More ...
San Francisco Chronicle > News)
Labels: Climate Change, Congress, San Francisco Chronicle
Democrats Not Ruling Out Higher Taxes for Rich (CNN.com)
POSTED: 10:17 a.m. EST, January 8, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending.
"As we review what we get from ... collecting our taxes and reducing waste, fraud and abuse, investing in education and in initiatives which will bring money into the Treasury, it may be that (repealing) tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of America's children," Pelosi, D-California, said in an interview aired Sunday. (Interactive: What House Democrats pledge to pass in the first 100 legislative hours)
A budget rule, known as the pay-as-you-go rule, that was approved by the Democratic-run House on Friday requires that tax cuts have corresponding cuts in government spending or tax increases elsewhere to pay for them. (Full story: New budget rules could straitjacket Democrats)
"What we're saying is Democrats propose tax cuts for middle-income families. And we want to have 'pay-go,' no new deficit spending. We're not going to start with repealing tax cuts, but they certainly are not off the table for people making over half a million dollars a year," Pelosi said.
(More ...
CNN > Politics)
Labels: CNN, Congress, Taxes
Ethanol's Success Story May Have Downside (Boston.com)
As more corn is needed, food costs may riseBy John Donnelly, Globe Staff | January 5, 2007
WASHINGTON -- US factories producing ethanol fuel for cars may consume as much as half of the country's corn crop next year -- more than double earlier government predictions -- creating competition for grain stocks that could drive up supermarket prices for cereals, meat, eggs, and dairy products, according to a report released yesterday.
"The world needs a strategy to deal with this unfolding competition between automobiles and people for the grain supply," said Lester R. Brown , president of the Earth Policy Institute , a Washington- based advocacy organization that wrote the report. Brown called for a moratorium of ethanol plants in the United States "so we can catch our breath and determine how much we want to harvest our corn for ethanol."
Democrats in Congress are expected in the next two weeks to begin a major push for alternative energy, including ethanol, as a way of reducing the country's reliance on foreign oil.
Ethanol plants use corn to create a synthetic form of oil. Feedlot owners, who intensely feed corn to cattle and pigs for four to six months before slaughter, have seen their costs rise dramatically because of ethanol production. The growing competition for corn is expected to create price hikes that will be passed on to consumers who buy anything from milk to pork chops, Brown said.
Ethanol production doubled from 2001 to 2005, and the report said it could double again by 2008 to more than 15 billion gallons, or roughly 6 percent of US auto fuel needs.
(More ...
Boston Globe > News > Nation > Washington)
Labels: Boston Globe, Congress, Energy
Congressman to Take Oath on Jefferson's Quran (CNN.com)
POSTED: 7:27 p.m. EST, January 3, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will use a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in Thursday.
The chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division, Mark Dimunation, will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and then walk it back after the ceremony.
Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, contacted the library about the book last month, Dimunation said.
Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead. (Full story)
Ellison was born in Detroit, Michigan, and converted to Islam in college.
Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the new congressman "wants this to be a special day, and using Thomas Jefferson's Quran makes it even more special."
"Jefferson's Quran dates religious tolerance to the founders of our country," he added.
An English translation of the Arabic, it was published in 1764 in London, a later printing of one originally published in 1734.
(More ...
CNN > Politics)
Labels: CNN, Congress
Democrats to Go on Offensive as New Congress Convenes (Guardian.co.uk)
· Bush faces questioning over additional troops
· Battles loom on stem cell research and war finance
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday January 3, 2007
The Guardian
President George Bush, who for nearly four years had a free hand in decision-making over the war in Iraq, faces a series of concerted challenges starting from tomorrow from a newly installed and assertive Democratic Congress.
In a much-anticipated speech, Mr Bush is expected to reveal his new strategy on the war as early as next week, amid widespread speculation that he intends to bolster the US presence in Iraq in the short term by an additional 30,000 troops.
That troop "surge" and a White House request for an additional $100bn (£51bn) to pay for the war this year are expected to encounter strong opposition from a previously supportive Congress.
To add to Mr Bush's challenges, following the Democratic capture of Congress in last November's mid-term elections, the incoming Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who is to be sworn in tomorrow, has announced her determination to push through half a dozen pieces of legislation during the first 100 hours of Congress's assembly. On Ms Pelosi's agenda are issues that have been anathema to the Bush White House, such as an increase in the federal minimum wage and federal funding for stem cell research.
But it is regarding policy on Iraq where Mr Bush could face his most bruising battles from Democrats, as well as moderate Republicans who have grown increasingly skittish about the prospect of fighting the 2008 elections in the shadow of a historically unpopular president and the war in Iraq. Now they have a share of power in Congress, Democrats too are reluctant to be saddled with responsibility for the war.
(More ...
Guardian Unlimited > Special Report > USA)
Labels: Bush, Congress, Guardian, Pelosi