Hard-Right Republicans Forcing Moderates Right

Over the past several weeks, Republicans have bragged about their unity in opposing President Obama’s economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, predicting that their obstruction would “give us a shot in the arm going forward.”

In reality Moderate Republicans likely signed up to oppose President Obama’s economic recovery bill because they are more worried about the threat from Hard-Right Republicans in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles than about potential fallout from the general electorate in opposing a popular president.

The Hard-Right House Republican Study Committee is taking names of those who do not tow the hard-right conservative line and are threatening the prospect of primary challenges according to an article in CQ Politics. (CQ Weekly has a must read piece on the Republican Study Committee, the caucus of the most rightward thinking members of the House.)

But Moderate Republicans may be in a no win situation judging from the mood of the general electorate as reported in a new Pew Research poll. The Pew poll shows nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) approve of President Obama's job performance, while 56% approve of his handling of the economy, 52% of his handling of foreign policy, and 50% for the threat of terrorism.

Interesting: "There are sizable ideological differences among Republicans over Obama's early performance. A plurality of self-describe moderate and liberal Republicans (46%) approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president. By contrast, just 28% of hard-right conservative Republicans approves of Obama's job performance."

A new AP/GFK poll taken in the days just before the final House and Senate votes for Pres. Obama's stimulus bill shows that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Republican efforts to block Obama’s plan:

Congress’ approval is only 31%-59%, but additional questions show a much more complicated picture. The number for Congressional Democrats is at 49%-45%, while Republicans are at 33%-59%.
[…]
Only 30% say Obama hasn’t done enough to cooperate with Republicans in Congress — the GOP base vote, basically — while 62% say he’s doing the right amount and 6% say it’s been too much. Flipping it around, only 27% say Republicans have done enough to cooperate with Obama, with 64% saying not enough and 5% saying too much.

Meanwhile, people are increasingly confident that Obama is leading the country in the right direction. Since Obama’s election, there’s been a 23 percent rise in those saying the country is headed in the right direction. In October, only 17 percent of Americans felt that way, while 78 percent thought the country was headed in the wrong direction.

And, for proof positive that moderate Republicans being forced to vote with hard-right Republicans is not playing well back home:

Congressman Joseph "Anh"Cao, a Republican, who defeated William "Bill" Jefferson is facing a recall petition because of his vote against President Obama's stimulus package. The recall has been initiated by a group of ministers.

Cao had originally announced his intention to vote for the stimulus package, but House Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor whipped him and other moderates into a solid 'No' vote. Without Cao's 'No' vote, Cantor could not have boasted about the GOP being "back in the saddle" by touting the GOP's big ZERO votes for the stimulus. The GOP's branding strategy is literally dependent on being the party of NO and, thanks to Cantor whipping Republicans into a unanimous NO vote, Cao may not even make it to 2010.

Papers have been filed with the Office of the Louisiana Secretary of State which started the process requiring sufficient signatures to force a recall election for the office held by Representative Cao.

The two Congressmen in the U.S. House that represent Collin County residents, Sam Johnson (R) and Ralph Hall (R) and both Texas’ Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) and John Cornyn (R) voted against the stimulus bill.

The bad news is stacking up for Moderate Republicans across the U.S. and in Texas.

A recent Gallup report on its survey of political party affiliation by voters at the state level shows only five states now have a statistically significant majority of voters who identify themselves as Republicans.


The same Gallup report also shows Texas as among the “most political balanced states” in party identification among all the former Republican strong hold states.

We see Moderate Republicans have good reason be worried.

And, adding all that to the Texas GOP survey of unhappy Texas Republicans conducted the respected Republican political research firm, Hill Research, and we see Moderate Republicans have good reason be very worried.

Gov. Perry Says Yes To Stimulus After Saying No

Gov. Rick Perry today accepted stimulus dollars after a weeks long aggressive campaign opposing the needed funds. Gov. Rick Perry, who co-wrote an op-ed piece with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford about all the things that were wrong with the bill, informed the White House that he'll accept the money.

Perry is, however, leaving the door open to not taking all of it, as he doesn't want to accept money that would fund social programs to which he, and presumably other state Republicans, are opposed. Perry's spokeswoman said that they are studying the aid package "line by line to determine what is in the best interest of Texas taxpayers."

Texas House Democratic Leader and Chairman of the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, Jim Dunnam, sent a memo to Gov. Perry explaining the importance and benefits of the infusion of federal money.

As you know, President Barack Obama will today sign into law H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the federal economic stimulus bill. The stimulus bill contains nearly $790 billion in tax cuts and key federal investments, including billions of dollars for infrastructure funding and incentives for job creation in Texas.

[...]

I respectfully request that you immediately take the appropriate action under the Act to certify both that Texas will request and use the funds provided for by the Act and that the funds will be used to create jobs and promote economic growth. Because of ongoing deadlines, we do not need to delay acceptance, as there is a great deal of work necessary. If you would prefer to have the Legislature make the acceptance of the funds by concurrent resolution, which is also provided for in the Act, I stand ready to assist in that option. And if this is the case, I would request you designate the Legislature's consideration of the Act an emergency item for this legislative session so we can move the resolution more rapidly through the process.

Rep. Dunnam copied Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to the letter as well. It is time to act and create and preserve Texas jobs and insulate our economy from further deterioration.

If the Governor take a pass on some of the money the Texas legislature can accept all of money for the state over the Governor's objections.

Perry Remains Opposed To Texas Accepting Federal Stimulus Money

Yesterday, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Denver, Colorado, where, after a tour of a solar installation project at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Recovery and Reinvestment Act will pump money into infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation in all 50 states, with twin goals of short-term job production and longer-term economic viability.

The Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes an immediate tax break for 95 percent of Americans with a $2,500 tax credit for individuals working toward a college education and a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes.

The act provides financial incentives for people to start buying again, from first homes to new fuel efficient cars, and it provides help to poor people and laid-off workers, with increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, and subsides for health insurance. The bill also allocates $50 billion for energy efficiency initiatives and green jobs; expanding broadband services; preventing teacher layoffs; and, $8.4 billion to improve public transit and rail.

Part of this stimulus spending is entrusted to state governors and legislatures so they can avoid layoffs from their state level to local city government workforces and avoid deep spending cuts in essential programs, like road and bridge maintenance and unemployment aid.

The state of Texas is expected to receive approximately $17 billion of the economic stimulus money to aid the state in several areas including:

• Health and human services: $5.8 billion
• Education: $6.2 billion
• Transportation: $2.8 billion
• Labor: $1 billion to save 269,000 jobs and also fund unemployment programs in Texas
  
• Criminal justice: $161 million
• Housing and infrastructure: $957 million
• Job creation and stop loss: 269,000 jobs over the course of the next 18 to 24 months

The two Congressmen in the U.S. House that represent Collin County residents, Sam Johnson (R) and Ralph Hall (R) and both Texas’ Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) and John Cornyn (R) voted against the stimulus bill on the grounds that it involves deficit spending by the government.

But, our Republican representatives in Washington were for deficit spending, when Republicans controlled congress, before they were against deficit spending, now that a Democratically controlled congress is attempting to save the nation from catastrophic economic collapse following Bush's Presidency. In 2006, when the Republicans still controlled Congress, they actively rejected any attempts Democrats made to control deficit spending. The New York Times reported on March 14, 2006,

"Senate Republicans on Tuesday narrowly defeated an effort to impose budget rules that would make it harder to increase spending or cut taxes, a move that critics said that showed Republicans were posturing in their calls for greater fiscal restraint. ... Republicans said the push to add the rules to the budget was a back-door effort to make it harder to extend President Bush's tax cuts. 'The practical effect of this is to raise taxes,' said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire and chairman of the Budget Committee."

And, as tax cuts along side hundreds of billions of dollars of war spending in Iraq pushed the nation ever deeper into long term deficits, our Republican representatives never spoke a word of concern about deficit spending.When Pres. George Bush "tax cut" the nation from an annual budget surplus of $300 billion, as Pres. Clinton left office, to an annual budget deficit of $1 trillion, as Pres. Bush left office, our Republican representatives in Washington fully supported and voted for Pres. Bush's deficit spending policies and legislation without complaint. Now our Republican representatives in Washington fuss about deficit spending? This smacks more of political expediency and posturing than principled government philosophy that we can believe in.

And, here at home in Texas, after Governor Rick Perry turned a $90 million surplus in the state's unemployment fund into a $447 million deficit by cutting the fund's replenishment business tax, Governor Perry is now saying that he may not accept the stimulus money allocated to Texas.

Of particular concern to Gov. Perry is the federal funding for the state's unemployment insurance because it is contingent on the state relaxing its narrow unemployment benefit limits so that more jobless people can qualify.

A memo to the Texas House Democratic Caucus highlights that Governor Perry is intent on sticking to the same failed tax cutting and deficit spending economic strategies of President Bush and our Republican representatives in Washington:

Rick Perry and the Unemployment Fund Upon hearing the news that the Comptroller was predicting a $9.1 billion drop in [state] revenue, Governor Perry's reaction was to increase the shortfall by calling for more tax cuts. This is right in line with what he has done with the State's Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. A year ago, the Unemployment Fund had a surplus of $90 million. In a shortsighted and politically expedient move, Governor Perry halted collection of the replenishment tax. Nearly 12 months later, Governor Perry reinstated the replenishment tax. Now the Unemployment Fund faces a $447 million deficit.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, who heads the state House’s Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, said it’s hard to understand why Governor Perry is reluctant to use stimulus money.

“The governor every year comes in and wants half a billion dollars for the (state) enterprise fund to create jobs and stimulate economic growth and he’s going to say we don’t want $20 billion?” Dunnam said. “I find it difficult to understand.”

Governor Perry must certify that Texas will use the money to create jobs and promote economic growth in order for Texas to share of the economic stimulus money. If Perry declines to do so, however, the Legislature can accept the money on the state’s behalf by passing a concurrent resolution.

The following is a press release from the Texas Democratic Party:

Dear fellow Democrat, I wanted to share with you this latest press release from your Texas Democratic Party. In these tough economic times, Texans are trying to hold onto their jobs while coping with the skyrocketing cost of insurance, health care and college tuition.Now that President Obama has signed the economic recovery plan into law, Texas stands to receive much-needed assistance - unless Governor Rick Perry rejects these funds for the sake of his own partisan agenda. Call Governor Rick Perry's office and demand that he fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to him by Texans and get to work on solving our state's problems rather than rejecting funds that will improve our infrastructure, create jobs and allow more parents the opportunity to send their kids to college. Governor Perry's Austin Office: (800) 843-5789 PERRY'S OBSTRUCTIONIST ANTICS COULD COST TEXAS BILLIONS Threats to Reject Stimulus Funds Ring Partisan (Austin, TX) - Texans have already seen Republican U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and Republican Congressman Pete Sessions play politics instead of working to develop a bipartisan plan to rescue our economy. Now that the economic recovery plan has been signed into law by the President, Governor Rick Perry continues to put Texans in the crossfire of his partisanship by threatening to reject all or part of the benefits Texans would see from our federal tax dollars that would be used here under the plan. "Governor Perry's obstructionist antics demonstrate he is more concerned with political recovery for the Republican Party than economic recovery for Texas," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "If the Governor's political agenda allows our tax dollars to be shipped off to other states, 'Ripoff Rick' will cost Texans an important investment in job creation, schools, health care and transportation." "Years of failed Republican economic policy got us into this mess, and now Rick Perry is threatening to reject real solutions to cleaning up the mess he himself helped create. That's not leadership - that's reckless partisanship," continued Richie. Gov. Perry's partisan antics are at odds with the new direction our country is taking - the recovery plan is being welcomed by an overwhelming majority of our nation's governors - both Democrats and Republicans. If Gov. Perry rejects Texas' share of the federal aid, our state could lose as much as $27 billion to invest in infrastructure - funds that could create or save an estimated 269,000 jobs. "Apparently, Rick Perry would rather Texans sit in traffic on his toll roads than have the funding to build new roads," added Richie. "He should be ashamed of his threats to ship hard-working Texans' tax dollars off to other states - but perhaps he's hoping the 39% of voters who supported his reelection won't mind becoming casualties of his obstructionism." ### Your friend and fellow Democrat, Boyd L. Richie

Obama Making His Own Afghanistan Strategy Decision

Updated Tuesday February 17, 2009 at 3:20 PM This afternoon, the White House released a statement by President Obama announcing the deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan. Noting that the “situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action,” Obama said that he “approved a request from Secretary Gates to deploy a Marine Expeditionary Brigade later this spring and an Army Stryker Brigade and the enabling forces necessary to support them later this summer.”

Originally posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 at 12:21 PM

President Obama is refusing to rush his decision to send more troops into combat before his own advisers have completed a review of Afghanistan strategy. Pres. Obama's strategy will likely result in far-reaching changes in how U.S. and NATO forces are deployed in the future. The request for an additional three Army combat brigades and Marine units, totaling over 10,000 troops from Gen. David McKiernan, the senior commander in Afghanistan and is supported by the Pentagon.

President Obama's methodical decision-making offers an early insight into how the new commander in chief will approach the war in Afghanistan and has surprised some Pentagon officials, who had repeatedly predicted that Obama would decide within days of taking office on additional forces, only to find the White House taking time to think through the strategy decision.

Listen to this article on Obama making his own Afghanistan strategy decision


Raw Story - The White House on Monday promised that President Barack Obama would "shortly" make a decision on whether to pour thousands more US troops into the Afghan war. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One, as Obama returned to Washington from a weekend in Chicago, that the decision was still expected soon. ". . .without getting into broad time lines, I don't think this is anything that involves weeks," Gibbs said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan gripped by an intensifying insurgency.