McConnell Gets Choked up Over Judd Gregg

Judd Gregg is retiring and Mitch McConnell gets emotional:

Who's Going to Be at the Healthcare Meeting?

Via The Hill: Temperamental Judd Gregg is not going, though he apparently wanted to.

McConnell instead tapped Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), ranking Finance Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee member John McCain (R-Ariz.), and the Senate’s only two physicians — Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) are also attending and were previously invited. Enzi is the ranking Republican on the HELP Committee, of which Coburn is also a member.
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart had no immediate comment on Gregg’s exclusion, but did say that dozens of GOP senators had lobbied to be invited.

Asked about McConnell's choice not to invite him, Gregg declined to comment. “You'd have to ask Sen. McConnell,” he said.

Democrats:

The Senate’s Democratic attendees to the summit include Reid, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.), Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.), Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (Conn.), HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (Iowa), Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care Chairman Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) and Conrad.

The White House originally invited 21 members of Congress — 12 Democrats and nine Republicans — along with aides and representatives from the Office of Management and Budget, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Congressional Budget Office, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Office of Health Reform Director Nancy DeParle.

The meeting is Thursday at 10 am eastern.

Republican Howling Over Healthcare is Despicable

Judd Gregg calls healthcare reform a scam. It really ticks me off that republicans are howling over healthcare when they didn't lift a finger to make the bill better. They could've participated. Sen. Olympia Snowe found a way to work with Obama. They're being disingenuous and I find it highly insulting. If they wanted to make the bill better, they could have. Plain and simple. No one tied the republicans' hands except for themselves. They're a lousy bunch of trolls who are now making their last ditch efforts to destroy something they clearly didn't want any part of. Republicans were not interested in healthcare reform at the get go. They were intent on making this Obama's biggest failure. If we get a lousy bill, we can blame the democrats. But most of the blame would fall on the republicans, who've done nothing but distort, exaggerate and throw rocks as the democrats worked on the health reform.

Gregg Calls Steele's Language Foolish

Judd Gregg calls Michael Steele's "flipping the bird" comment foolish, which it is. Steele often uses foolish language, not just because he's frayed.

Yes Virginia There is an Option to the Public Option

Howard Dean likes the new option to the public option (see video below). Even Mr. I'm-so-fiscally-prudent-that-I-can't-be-your-commerce-secretary Judd Gregg says it makes sense.

The agreement capped several days of high-stakes negotiations by a group of 10 Democratic senators -- five moderates and five liberals. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) had advanced a bill that would have had the government directly operate a health-insurance plan, while giving states the right to opt out.

In place of that, the senators embraced a more limited proposal that would empower the government's Office of Personnel Management to put in place a new low-cost national health plan, congressional aides said. The office already administers plans offered to federal employees and members of Congress. The new national plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector, and would be available to the public on the new insurance exchanges that would be created under the bill. WSJ

But other liberals don't like it one bit that the public option is not on the table (there's still a trigger). At least not as of yesterday.
The public option became a left vs. the right thing, and the left thought they should win this one. They thought that they had already compromised by putting away the idea of a single payer system. They thought Obama should've took a stronger stance advocating the public option. Obama stood strong in not taking a stance for any one thing but rather whatever option would accomplish the goals that he set out.
Both the left and the right forget that their views aren't the only ones or the right ones. It's not an either or thing.

Most Americans don't even think along political lines. While my views are more aligned with the left, I prefer not thinking within an ideological camp.
Now that Dean is on board with the new compromise, liberals will probably follow suit. Even Paul Krugman offers a small blessing. Like Dean says, this is what should've been done in the first place:

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Obama Town Hall in New Hampshire Aug. 11

Obama artist Ron English's poster

Update: See video from Obama's town hall here.

Obama's upcoming town hall schedule:
Aug 14: Bozeman
Aug 15: Grand Junction

Update Aug. 11: Counter protesters show up in the pouring rain.

Update: Ticket information here.

Obama will be in the Portsmouth area of New Hampshire for another town hall on healthcare Aug. 11, according to Seacoast. The Obama family will soon be vacationing at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The town hall will be start at 1 pm at Portsmouth High School and should be live streamed at cnn.com or msnbc.com. The White House will live stream audio from the event. From Seacoast:

President Barack Obama will make the case for health care reform in person with a town hall-style meeting Tuesday on the Seacoast.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that Obama will be in the "Portsmouth area" on Aug. 11. But spokeswoman Moira Mack said "the details of the event have yet to be finalized," including how tickets to the public meeting will be distributed.

Obama's visit to rally support for reform and educate the public on what reform means comes after Congress failed to meet his goal of floor votes in the House and Senate for a major makeover of the country's $2.5 trillion health care system before the August recess.

Reaction to Obama's visit was politically mixed.

State Republican chairman and former Gov. John H. Sununu said, "I hope President Obama comes to New Hampshire prepared to listen to both sides of the health care debate. I also hope he spends a little more time listening to (N.H.) Sen. Judd Gregg and the Republicans about how to reform health care without a government takeover."

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said she will attend the event Tuesday. She said the health care crisis is taking its toll in the state and across the country.

Evidence Republicans Have No Desire Whatsoever to Reform Health Care

They simply don't see the need. They're in denial, like our friend Sen. Judd Gregg here:

Warren Buffett: We're Going to Need More Taxes Down the Road

The country can take higher tax rates, he said. It's who gets socked and when. Judd Gregg asks about the debt. Buffett says at some point you have to have tax revenue closer to expenditures and you can get that two ways and both are unpleasant. Buffett says he's watching housing starts most of all. He says he's spoken with Obama once since he's been in office.

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Judd Gregg Very Very Worried

Judd Gregg says Obama's budget triples the budget and moves us to the left. Boring. In reality republicans aren't needed to pass the budget, thanks to reconciliation, which pushes the budget through with 51 votes, a simple majority.
Gregg admits he has voted for reconciliation issues in the past. Obama might use it for the healthcare and education.

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Run over the republicans! Strong arm the budget!

Geithner Says Banks Still In Defensive Mode

As of this posting, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is speaking before the budget committee. Check out live blogging here. Here is his prepared testimony:

Chairman Conrad, Ranking Member Gregg, and members of the Committee, thank you for providing me the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the President’s Budget at this moment of economic crisis, but also of real possibility, for the United States.
What I propose to do in the remarks that follow is to:
 Describe the economic and financial challenges that greeted us upon our arrival in
office, and discuss how we are addressing them;
 Lay out the intermediate and long-term threats to our fiscal condition, and explain
how the President’s Fiscal Year 2010 Budget will return the nation to a
sustainable fiscal position; and
 Explain how this Budget puts the nation on a path towards energy independence,
better educational outcomes, and a reform of health care that both lowers costs
and expands access.
Current Economic and Financial Challenges
The economy suffers from a severe lack of aggregate demand, both from families and businesses – a problem that is driven by a slumping job market, where 4.4 million jobs have been lost in just over a year – the largest number as a fraction of total employment in more than a quarter century and the largest number in absolute terms in over a half century. This problem is made worse by a contraction of demand from many of our key trading partners. Businesses, facing or projecting fewer customers for their goods and services, are laying off workers or cutting back on their hours or wages, causing families to further reduce their demand and businesses to respond with more layoffs and cutbacks.
This dynamic is made worse by a financial system that is unable to provide the credit necessary for recovery. You can see this across America as families find it difficult to get the financing they need to buy new houses and cars while businesses have trouble lining up the credit necessary to meet payroll.
The contraction in credit is causing more job losses and further declines in business activity, which, in turn, is adding more pressure on the financial system.

Both our economic and financial problems are being compounded by problems in our housing market, where a record of nearly 2.5 million families faced foreclosure last year, undercutting overall home prices, shrinking Americans’ real estate wealth by $2.8 trillion from its peak, causing further reductions in demand, more layoffs and a greater credit squeeze that threatens another round of foreclosures.
You can see the scale of the damage in the recent announcement that the Gross Domestic Product, the broadest measure of the nation’s output of goods and services, dropped at a 6.2% annual rate during the final quarter of last year. That was its worst performance in more than a quarter century, and the third worst in more than a half century.
In addition to a deepening recession and financial troubles, the Obama Administration inherited the worst fiscal situation in modern American history, with a federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, equal to nearly 10% of GDP – the largest that the nation has faced since World War II – not counting the economic recovery or other legislation undertaken by the Obama Administration.
And we begin our time in office after a long period in which our government was unwilling to make the long-term investments required to meet critical challenges in health care, energy and education.
This is the reality that we face today. These are the challenges that shape both the American economy and the Administration’s strategy. I want to outline for you today the President’s program for addressing these challenges.
Let me start with our immediate response to the acute problems confronting the country.
A Comprehensive Economic Recovery and Financial Stability Plan Economic Recovery Plan
Immediately upon taking office, the President and the Administration worked with Congress to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a package of targeted investments and tax cuts designed to get Americans back to work and get the economy growing again.
Every agency of government is moving quickl y to implement the recovery plan in order to reignite economic growth. We have introduced three of the plan’s major tax provisions – the Making Work Pay tax credits of $400 a year for individuals and $800 for working families; a first-time homebuyer credit that could get up to $8,000 into the pockets of those buying homes before December 1, 2009; and a subsidy to ensure that unemployed Americans and their families can keep their health insurance.
We estimate that the plan will save or create at least 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, and will boost GDP – over where it would have been had we not acted – by almost 1% this year and more than 3.2% next year. Read the rest here.

WaPo's live blogging:

Geithner took a little heat from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) who said Geithner had failed to deliver "an honest appraisal of the situation we're facing today." He said Geithner "needs to get out of campaign mode" and accused him of parroting the Democratic party line laid down by David Axelrod, a top political adviser of the president.

Geithner: Banks Still In 'Defensive' Mode

10:34 A.M.: Geithner said that recovery is being impaired by forward-looking markets examining the toxic assets on the books of financial institutions and estimating greater losses if the recession gets deeper.

This has led banks and other lending institutions to maintain a "defensive" posture.

To combat that, Geithner said a more detailed look at these toxic assets is required. "We need to look under the hood more carefully, which we're doing," he said.

Gregg's Sketchy Business Dealings

Judd Gregg said he withdrew as commerce secretary because he had a change of heart. Turns out, he may not have made it through confirmation:

Swamp: Gregg steered federal tax dollars to his home state's redevelopment of a former Air Force Base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals on the property, the AP's Sharon Theimer reports -- also reporting that Gregg says the business dealings had nothing to do with his withdrawal from a Cabinet nomination. Read all of it.

Judd Gregg Bashes Budget

You remember him, the guy who couldn't make up his mind.

Why the 2010 Census is Controversial

Census counts lead to policy changes and have political ramifications. Republicans would rather under count and democrats, over count.

Time: Why does it matter who oversees the census? In very general terms, Republicans would prefer to err on the side of under-counting and Democrats would prefer to err on the side of over-counting. The options can yield very different numbers for demographic groups and localities — and they have significant political and policy implications. This most recent skirmish is more manufactured than real, the result of willful misunderstandings. But it has its roots in an ongoing battle over whom the census counts — and how.

What's at stake:

The battle over how to count people only makes sense when you look at what is at stake. The redistricting of local districts and reapportionment of congressional seats is based on census counts — a state could gain or lose seats based on its population, and shifts within a state determine plans for redrawing political boundaries. The redistricting that took place in Texas at Tom DeLay's urging following the 2000 census — which swung six congressional seats to the GOP — is just one example of how dramatically political fortunes can shift based on the use of those crucial numbers.

Census counts are also used to determine how many federal dollars may flow to a city or state based on grants and other outlays. Democrats have long charged that the undercounting of minorities and poor Americans prevents federal funding from reaching strapped communities. Meanwhile, Republicans argue that Democrats seek to boost numbers in order to create extra congressional districts in urban areas and to bring in more federal money for their constituencies. They charge that sampling — which Democrats support because it provides estimates for communities that can be hard to track accurately — is unconstitutional because the Constitution calls for an "actual enumeration" of the population.

Washington Unplugged Feb. 13

Bob Schieffer is out for this week's Unplugged. Slate's Scott Dickerson is in his place:

Gregg Says He Is Too Much of An Individual

What's with this own person business? What a bunch of hooey. I think Obama's charisma, in part, swayed him to take the position, but Judd Gregg didn't know himself well enough. At least he's being somewhat gracious. I feel bad for Bonnie Newman, who was probably looking forward to filling Gregg's senate shoes.

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Bill Maher Is A Goober

How I despise pundits -- both on the left and the right.
I can't bear to watch Keith Olbermann anymore. I could never stand Rush. Both ends of the pundit spectrum have restricted thinking. They want their republicans in one box and their democrats in another. Obama's thinking outside of the box and those on the left and the right can't stand it.
Obama's attempting to make change and people are hyperventilating. Judd Gregg withdrew and that's a good thing because republican or not, the guy is a flake. But at least Obama was bold enough to even consider a republican for the position.
Here is Bill Maher saying Obama has a lot to learn. As if Maher would know. Obama's way smarter than any of these goobers.

CNN: Larry King: A big story today, Bill. I wonder your reaction to it. Judd Gregg, the senator from New Hampshire, says I will take the job [commerce secretary]. They do a beautiful little press conference. And the president announces how close they've been through the years without agreeing. And now he quits today. ...

Bill Maher: I was crushed because, you know, having found out who Judd Gregg was two days ago, the idea that now I'm not going to have him to talk about was just devastating to me. Judd Gregg. Wow! ...

King: Well, why do you -- why would you think he took it and then didn't take it?

Maher: Well, because it's a big Washington job. I think it probably was a pay increase and a status increase and I'm in the Cabinet. And then I guess his Republican friends got to him -- you know, like the mob.

But, you know, I think Obama is learning, and he certainly is the smartest guy we've had there that I can remember. But there's always a learning curve.

And I think what he's learning, first of all, is that there's no such thing as a moderate Republican anymore, is there?

Did Judd Gregg Cave to Peer Pressure?

If so, it's good he's out. Apparently, the republicans have been hammering Gregg for selling out:

Gregg's out, who cares.
Writers for The Atlantic, Mark Ambinder and Andrew Sullivan, hash it out. Are the republicans resorting to survival tactics? This, by the way, is a great use of video:

Judd Gregg Withdraws as Commerce Secretary

Bill Richardson was the first to withdraw as commerce secretary.
Now Judd Gregg, a republican. This was either a maneuver to embarrass Obama -- he withdrew over the stimulus -- or he was forced to withdraw. If he was so concerned about the stimulus, why did he agree to be commerce secretary in the first place? It's kind of flakey on his part.
Obama's statement:

"Senator Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce. He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President’s agenda. Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama’s key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways. We regret that he has had a change of heart".

CNN:Republican Sen. Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination as President Barack Obama's commerce secretary Thursday, citing "irresolvable conflicts" over the administration's stimulus bill and the upcoming 2010 census.

"I realize that to withdraw at this point is really unfair in many ways," the three-term New Hampshire Republican said.
.....

"We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy," Gregg said in a statement announcing the decision. "Obviously, the president requires a team that is fully supportive of all his initiatives."

Gregg would have been the third Republican to join the Democratic administration, following Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The third-term Republican and leading fiscal conservative once voted to abolish the Commerce Department.

"I want to thank the president for nominating me to serve in his Cabinet as secretary of commerce. This was a great honor, and I had felt that I could bring some views and ideas that would assist him in governing during this difficult time. I especially admire his willingness to reach across the aisle," he said in a statement.

Judd Gregg Supports a Stimulus

In this video, he gets accused of not sticking to republican principles:

Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg Speaks

Judd Gregg calls stimulus bold and aggressive. He calls to put partisanship aside.