Whip Check Time

Mar 9, 2010 — Politico

Jonathan Allen

IT’S THE JOBS, STUPIDS

New York Times Columnist Bob Herbert says Washington Democrats have it all wrong again: The American people aren’t ginned up about health care, they just want jobs. “Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Mr. Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger,” Herbert writes on the op-ed page of the Times. “But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.”

JOBS VS. UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS

The Washington Post’s Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth report that “complaints that extending unemployment payments discourages job-seeking have begun to bubble into the political debate … ‘If anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,’ [Senate Minority Whip Jon] Kyl said. ‘I am sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue it is a job enhancer.’” The Congressional Budget Office, as it is wont to do, begs to differ – at least as to the degree of the disincentive. “Although the availability of long-term unemployment benefits ‘could dampen people's efforts to look for work,’ the Congressional Budget Office said in a February report, that concern ‘is less of a factor when employment opportunities are expected to be limited for some time.’”

WAR AND REMEMBERING

Dennis Kucinich plans to force a vote this week on a resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in as early as 30 days, according to the Washington Post’s Perry Bacon Jr. He won’t win, but he’d like folks to remember the U.S. is at war. Bacon: “’We haven't had a real debate,’ Kucinich said in explaining why he was pushing the resolution. ‘We want to light the fire of the American peace movement.’”

EGO, SUPEREGO JOIN FORCES ON I.D. FOR IMMIGRATION BILL

The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler reports that New York Democrat Chuck Schumer and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham are working together to revive immigration reform by concentrating on identification.“Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker. The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past,” Meckler writes. “ The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work … ‘It's the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking,’ Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive.”

THE DEFENSE OF MONEY

Vicki McGrane, my super sharp POLITICO colleague, observes that the financial regulatory reform is drawing players from all corners of the Washington political game, including the Defense Department. “Pentagon brass want a new consumer watchdog agency to regulate auto dealers so they don’t rip off troops with predatory sales and shady financing deals. Democrats are hoping it’ll be hard for Republicans to oppose something Pentagon leaders want, at a time when troops are in harm’s way. And there’s more: Payday lenders, check-cashing outfits and rent-to-own stores operate, for all practical purposes, free from federal regulation — and President Barack Obama wants to change that with a consumer agency that spans the world of finance from high to low,” McGrane writes.

CAN PORK JUNKIES KEEP KOSHER?

Democrats and Republicans are trying to one up each other on banning earmarks, but that’s touching off tough internal debates in each caucus, reports Roll Call’s Jackie Kucinich. “While a handful of lawmakers have sworn off the practice of inserting pet projects for their districts into appropriations bills, both sides of the aisle have so far rejected the idea of a strict moratorium. But some opponents of earmarks hope the recent public backlash over spending in Washington will give their push new momentum,” Kucinich writes.

TERM LIMITS GAIN STEAM AMID LOW APPROVAL RATINGS

CQ-Roll Call’s Greg Giroux (Huddle’s trivia-night teammate) notes that more candidates are embracing term limits – and not the kind that voters informally enforce every so often at the ballot box. “[T]his year, candidates all over the nation are positioning themselves as political “outsiders” running against “career politicians” in a Congress that is the oldest and longest-tenured in history.’That’s our big issue, actually, probably the No, 1 issue I talk about,’ said Rand Paul … who is one of two major Republican candidates seeking to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).’… Other term-limits advocates include Senate hopeful Marco Rubio (R) in Florida; Stephen Fincher (R), a leading candidate to succeed retiring Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.); and Iraq War veteran Tommy Sowers (D), a long-shot candidate against Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.).”

SPEAKING OF EMERSON AND TANNER …

Retiring Democratic Rep. Tanner contributed $2,000 from his PAC to Republican Rep. Emerson’s reelection campaign earlier this year (h/t John Bresnahan). The two, who represent adjoining districts (Tanner’s 8th District is in the northwest corner of Tennessee and Emerson’s 8th District is in the southeast corner of Missouri) are longtime friends who share common values, according to the congresswoman and Tanner’s office. “Congressman Tanner feels Congresswoman Emerson is someone who tries to work across the aisle to do what’s right for the country, and he feels those members ought to be supported,” Tanner’s chief of staff, Randall Ford, told POLITICO.