This year Republicans promise to undo all the progress made last year

Rep. Ross criticizes Republican rules package related to pay-go rules
Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), co-chairman of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, criticized the Republicans' rules package for letting Trillions of dollars be added to the Debt.  "This rules package, while there are a lot of good things in it, threatens to undermine all of the hard work we have done by allowing nearly $5 trillion in Government Spending to go unpaid for," Ross said Wednesday in a statement. "That’s $5 trillion the Republicans want to add to the National Debt....

White House dismisses health care repeal effort
Press secretary Robert Gibbs made the comments at his briefing Wednesday, the same day Republicans assumed the majority in the House. They plan to vote to Repeal Obama’s signature health overhaul next week. The Repeal is expected to pass the House but not the Senate, which remains under Democratic control. Gibbs says Republicans understand that it is not going to land on Obama’s desk. Gibbs demurred when asked whether Obama would deliver a major Speech defending the law, saying the p...

Administration reverses on end-of-life counseling
(01-05) 09:13 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reversing a potentially Controversial decision, the Obama Administration will drop references to end-of-life counseling from the ground rules for Medicare's new annual checkup, a White House official said Wednesday. The latest shift on the sensitive subject comes ahead of a vote next week in the new GOP-led House to Repeal President Barack Obama's landmark Health Care overhaul. The decision is not likely to have much impact on patients and doctors already d...

Hissy Victory
Hissy Victory by digby This is just sad. And a precursor of what's to come: The Obama Administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare Regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new Health Care law, administration officials said Tuesday. The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1. Many doctors and providers of hospice care had praised the regulation, which listed â€..

Pelosi: Democrats' 'first test' is defending health reform
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said her party's "first test" would be to defend its work of the last two years, particularly Healthcare Reform. Pelosi, the former Speaker who was elected on Wednesday as Democrats' Minority Leader in the next Congress, sought $100,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) before the House vote next Wednesday on Legislation repealing the healthcare reform law. "This is our first test of how Grassroots Democrats will respon...

Sen. Sherrod Brown: Healthcare repeal vote a 'colossal waste of time'
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who's a top GOP target in 2012, slammed Republican attempts to Repeal the healthcare law.  Speaking to voters at a senior center in Ohio Wednesday, Brown said the looming vote in the House for a full Repeal of healthcare is "a colossal waste of time" and that the GOP is "just playing politics." He told the crowd that no matter what happens in the House when members vote on Repeal next week, it won't even get to the Senate floor with Democrats in charge of the uppe...

Biting the Bullet on Majority Rule
Ruth Marcus says Filibuster reformers should watch what we wish for: There is a way around this, but it opens a parliamentary Pandora’s box. If Democrats succeed in establishing that the rules are open for change by majority vote, what happens if Republicans win a Senate majority in 2012? Democrats have 23 seats to defend that year compared with 10 for Republicans. Anyone want to bet the Mortgage money on the outcome? Imagine the start of the 113th Congress in January 2013. House Speake...

Rev. Jesse Jackson: GOP goes after most vulnerable
After holding the country hostage to force continued Tax Breaks for the wealthiest Americans, Republicans are now announcing their second priority: cutting Government Spending, particularly the part that goes to the most vulnerable of Americans. In the Republican New Year's radio address, incoming Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire announced that for newly elected Republicans, "Job One is to stop wasteful Washington spending. . . . The American People sent us to Congress with clear instruction...

Poll: Americans already skeptical of new Congress and its ability to slash spending (Daily Caller)
The fresh class of Republicans in Congress face an uphill battle to win over the hearts and minds of Americans who are already expressing doubt that the new members will be much different from their predecessors. Of those polled, 67 percent said it was “at least somewhat likely” that voters will be disappointed by the 112th Congress by 2012, including 37 percent who predict it is “very likely,” according to a new survey from Rasmussen Reports. The new Congress kicks of...

Obama foe Boehner takes helm as US speaker
New US House Speaker John Boehner, now the sharpest congressional thorn in President Barack Obama's side, has been both bomb-thrower and bridge-builder in his two-decades in Washington politics. Boehner, who replaced Democrat Nancy Pelosi as the third-ranking US elected official, will have to manage those two roles as he works to enact his agenda while pleasing arch-conservative "Tea Party" Activists key to the Republican romp in November 2 Elections. "We gather here today at a time of great c...

Day 1: Let the Festivities Begin
In The Conversation, David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns every Wednesday. Tags: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin David Brooks: Gail, this is going to be a fantastic year. Did you know the Chernobyl nuclear plant is going to be re-opened for official tours this month? Did you know that General Motors will run a Super Bowl ad for the first time in three years, ending our long national nightmare? Did you know that in June, Boston will host an “extreme sailing” eve...

Boehner wins enough votes to become Speaker of the House
WASHINGTON – A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to make Dayton-area Congressman John Boehner the new speaker. The roll call is still continuing as of 1:30 p.m. today. Boehner, who now is second in line to the presidency behind Vice President Joe Biden, is the first speaker from Ohio since Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati in 1931. He is only the second speaker from the Greater Dayton area since Republican J. Warren Keifer of Springfield in 1883. Boehner will be sworn ...

Lawrence G. McDonald: What You Should Know About the New Congress
Later today, all of the members of the House and a third of the Senate will be sworn in and the new reality in Washington will officially set in. The initiatives that will roll out of each body in the coming days and weeks will be a radical departure from the Democratic dominance of the past years. However, we expect that the most serious proposals will also be strikingly different from the long list of priorities that existed for both parties during the last two shifts in power. In addition t...

Citing the Constitution
A few responses to my mention yesterday of the new House rule requiring each introduced bill to cite a specific constitutional provision for Congress’s authority to pass it asked me to elaborate on what this would mean in practice. Well, this is apparently a new thing so nobody knows exactly, but the Republican leadership has provided a fascinating memo providing guidance to all (not just GOP) lawmakers. First of all, the Constitution has to be cited “as...

Obama to Address Chamber of Commerce
In the latest example of the White House’s renewed outreach to U.S. business, President Barack Obama will address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on jobs and The Economy in February, a person familiar with the plans said. The move is a significant overture by the president to a group that’s proven a political nemesis. The chamber, the capital’s biggest, Richest business lobby, has repeatedly tangled with Obama White House over health-care overhaul, industry regulations and tax polic...

Krystal Ball: 3 Political Wishes for the New Year
What is 2011 going to look like in politics? Despite having a name that implies some knowledge of the future, I have no idea what 2011 will look like and the truth of the matter is, neither do you. Sure we Democrats had huge losses in November; the 112th Congress is the most divided since the Civil War; and Republicans have already signaled their intent to cut education spending by 20%. A girl can still dream or at least make a few wishes! Here are a few of my political wishes for a productive...

Taking the House, GOP primes for fight with Obama
WASHINGTON — Ascending to speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner is ready to take the gavel from Democrat Nancy Pelosi, vowing to "give government back to the people" and bring an end to congressional gridlock. "The American People have humbled us. They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is," Boehner says in remarks prepared for his installation later Wednesday as the new speaker. "This is their Congress. It's about them, not us." Taking control of...

Robert Gibbs Is Out! Maybe Now This White House Will Learn to Communicate
Against competition from the likes of Ari Fleischer and Mike McCurry, it is tough to suggest that Robert Gibbs was the worst White House Press Secretary in modern times. Then again, the spokesman for an administration that admits it cannot seem to get its message across on even the most basic levels, would have to be in contention for the title. John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated... The Senate will not change its own rule...

House Democrats Take It In Stride
"People don't really care how I feel," a discouraged-looking Barney Frank tells me in the ornate lobby outside the House floor, where politicians new and old to this scene are milling about before the 112th Congress officially gets underway. "I wish we were in power. I think the Public Policy goals I like would be better served, but we came in here with the majority, we were in the minority, back to the majority, back again," Frank says. "I'm skeptical now. The Republicans in the House seem to ...

Republicans change the House rules
Washington (CNN) - How a bill becomes a law is the educational building block of every American civics class. But as House Republicans take control of the House today, they will shift, ever so slightly, that civics lesson. First, all bills and joint resolutions submitted for approval will be required to have an accompanying statement explaining their Constitutional Authority. Republicans and the members of the Tea Party have argued that Democrats regularly overreached the Constitutional powers ...

Democratic Party ID Drops in 2010, Tying 22-Year Low
PRINCETON, NJ -- In 2010, 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, down five percentage points from just two years ago and tied for the lowest annual average Gallup has measured in the last 22 years. While Democrats still outnumber Republicans by two points, the percentage identifying as Independents increased to 38%, on the high end of what Gallup has measured in the last two decades. These results are based on aggregated data from 21 separate Gallup and USA Today/Gallup Polls conducted in 201...

The Slow Pace of Nominations.
This is actually a fair criticism of the president: Republicans, after two years of criticism from the White House for blocking government appointments, have started to complain that the Obama Administration is failing to fill senior financial and economic jobs. The White House is expected to announce soon a replacement for Larry Summers, the top economic adviser to the president, who left the administration last week after delaying his departure to avoid leaving an empty chair for an extended ...

Key Dem eyes 'common ground' on changes to health reform
Lawmakers in both parties could find "common ground" in modifying the Healthcare Reform law, said a Democrat named to the party's leadership team this week. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said that Democrats could find room for Compromise with Republicans in modifying the healthcare law President Obama signed into law last year. "To modify the Legislation that we have, I think you can find a lot of common ground, without a doubt," Cuellar said on ABC's "Top Line" webcast. "But just to Repeal an...

GOP Boehner elected speaker of the House
Republicans took control of the chamber convincingly on Election Day, Nov. 2. While the outcome was never really in doubt, Boehner was elected speaker on a 241-to-173 vote over Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. with 19 representatives either voting for others or voting "present." Clerk Lorraine Miller presided over the chamber until Boehner was elected speaker. Pelosi still leads the Democrats, now the minority party. Before electing the speaker, members registered their presence on the House floor by...

Democrats circulate filibuster proposal details
Democrats are circulating details of their Senate rules reform package that New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall plans to introduce as a resolution on the floor later Wednesday afternoon. The proposed changes, most of which were already public, would eliminate so-called “secret holds,” end the use of Filibusters on procedural votes, and require “talking filibusters,” or requiring senators to actually speak continuously on the Senate floor if they want to block Legislation. But th...