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Michigan adds muscle with two House chairs

Republicans Camp, Upton will head tax, energy committees

Nathan Hurst / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington — Two longtime Michigan lawmakers will chair the U.S. House's most powerful committees when the 112th Congress convenes in January, boosting the state's power and profile on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, got the nod Wednesday from the Republican caucus that he'll head the House Ways and Means Committee, the House's tax-writing body. Also, Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, will lead the Energy and Commerce Committee, which wields influence over regulation affecting, among other things, Michigan's auto industry.

The two legislators' leadership positions are a boon for the state's clout in the U.S. Capitol as the GOP takes control of the House next month after four years of Democratic leadership.

Michigan will have two House members and both of its senators chairing major committees. In the Democratic-controlled Senate, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, will continue to chair the Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, while in January, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, will chair the Agriculture Committee.

Camp and Upton passed their first big test Tuesday when they received approval from the Republican Steering Committee. The final stamps of approval will come in January.

Upton's new position brings the gavel for the Energy and Commerce Committee back into Michigan hands. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, chaired the committee until he was challenged two years ago by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Camp's chairmanship will mark a new direction for the Ways and Means Committee, which is expected to take a central role in House Republicans' attempts in the new year to repeal the health care reform law passed in March by the Democratic-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

In announcing his new post on Wednesday, Camp said he "will focus on a job-creating agenda and reducing out-of-control federal spending."

Longer term, Camp wants to revamp the federal tax system altogether, reducing rates paid by individuals and businesses and paperwork burdens.

"Do I believe we can cut spending, simplify the tax system to pay for what we truly need and make the whole tax burden — including all those forms — less formidable for Americans?" Camp said. "Absolutely."

In Washington, he has earned credit from his Republican colleagues for a strong conservative bent. He had the honor of officially nominating Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, this month to take over as speaker of the House next month.

Camp's fiscal conservatism has also endeared him to some of the tea party-backed Republican freshmen heading to Capitol Hill from Michigan in the new year. Three cited his leadership as a reason they were interested in joining the Ways and Means Committee.

Rep.-elect Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, who knows Camp from years of working for the retiring Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, called the Midland Republican "a great leader for the state. He sticks to his guns and knows what will get our economy moving forward… he's an asset for Michigan."

Yet Camp is far from a right-wing ideologue. He supported the $85 billion federal rescue and restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler — an important boost to Michigan's faltering economy at the height of the recession — and has voted for legislation to extend unemployment benefits in the past.

He's also stood with Michigan lawmakers on other issues of statewide interest.

Among them is insisting that any free trade agreement with South Korea have better protections for domestic automakers, a stance favored by Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal, Oak, the committee's current chair.

Levin is expected to become the ranking member of the committee in January, though he could face opposition at today's Democratic caucus meeting.

Upton's push for Energy and Commerce chair wasn't as smooth as Camp's ascension, which was virtually uncontested. Upton dodged a challenge from the committee's current ranking member, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tex., and took heat from conservatives over a measure he co-sponsored that effectively outlawed the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the United States.

In a statement, though, Upton promised that such moves were in the past: the "two year assault on the health, energy and telecommunications sectors is now over."

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101209/POLITICS02/12090416/Michigan-adds-muscle-with-two-House-chairs#ixzz182uLuNM5

Cake or Death

White House: Double-dip recession possible if tax cut/unemployment benefit extension deal falls through

White House: Double-dip recession possible if tax cut/unemployment benefit extension deal falls through

APThe White House spent much of the day yesterday drumming up support for a deal to extend tax cuts and federal unemployment benefits within its own party.

President Obama's administration continues to try to drum up support for the framework agreement it announced earlier this week that includes an extension of federal unemployment benefits and an across-the-board extension of Bush-era tax cuts for two years.

The agreement has met with opposition, mainly from Democrats who think the deal goes too far in granting Republican demands that mainly help the wealthy.

The White House insists that the deal is necessary to protect the middle class and the fragile economic recovery.

The White House issued a warning to House Democrats yesterday that failure to pass the framework agreement  could result in a double dip recession.

Larry Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser, told reporters that if the measure isn't passed soon, it will "materially increase the risk the economy would stall out and we would have a double-dip" recession. That put the White House in the unusual position of warning its own party's lawmakers they could be to blame for calamitous consequences if they go against the president.

Also, the administration circulated a memo to reporters claiming that if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, taxes for the average family would rise by $3,000 and economic growth would shrink by 1.7 percent. It's passage, the White House says,  could help add 1.5 million to 2 million jobs to the economy. 

The White House also issued dozens of statements from Democrats endorsing the deal, includingMichigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm  and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

"The President has taken a pragmatic approach that will provide Michigan’s working families the relief they need during these difficult economic times,” Granholm said in the statement.  “Without an extension of unemployment benefits, more than 181,000 Michigan residents would exhaust their benefits by the end of April.”

Bing said the deal is good news for Detroit.

"We cannot afford to turn our backs on the unemployed and the middle class in the kind of difficult times we’re facing. This agreement also sets the stage to help businesses in our city and across the country make the necessary investments to jumpstart our economy.  It is an example of the kind of difficult but necessary choice we have to make to move forward."

The deal is getting more support from Democrats in the Senate than in the House. Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated that a vote on the deal could be "scheduled within days" — a signal that he's close to having the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has said he expects the vast majority of Republicans to support the deal, which means Reid needs to secure only 25 Democratic votes.

In the House, the deal has enough Republican support that it could pass even with two-thirds of Democrats voting against it, the New York Times reports.

Wikileaks: Brought to you by the CIA

Wikileaks: Brought to you by the CIA


These guys nailed it back in July





Everything you wanted to know
about Wikileaks but didn't know to ask

Julian Assange He's a guy with a vague history... Who travels the world without visible means of support... His parents: Members of an LSD "cult" that abused kids... Hmmm... He's not against war... He hates the 9/11 truth movement... He has no info about the Bush or Obama White House...or the Federal Reserve Bank...or Goldman Sachs (but he is helping take down Bank of America)... His "leaks" paint Pakistan as a threat and foreign politicians the CIA doesn't like as jerks... He believes Osama is alive...and probably in Pakistan... Everything else he "leaks" is stuff we all already knew... The mainstream media loves him... The right wingers love to hate him and are using him as a justification to censor the Net... If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and smells like a duck... Another intelligence agency spectacle.