Hoyer Press Staff Blog
Blog posts from the press staff of Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer
As House Republicans use up their last hours in session this month on more partisan messaging bills with no hope of enactment, we wanted to make sure you saw today’s New York Times piece highlighting the dismal record they’ve set as the least productive Congress of the modern age. Most egregiously, the Senate has passed a number of bipartisan bills that haven’t seen the light of day in the House – bills Congress used to pass easily and that affect millions of Americans. From the article:
We’ve been saying it all along, but this article in Roll Call presents some pretty stark numbers of exactly how fruitless the Republican-led House has been:
Today’s misguided decision to uphold the restrictive voter ID law in Pennsylvania is a reminder of the challenges we face to ensure that all citizens have access to the ballot box on Election Day. Democrats will continue to work to ensure all citizens have the ability to participate in elections by informing people on their right to vote.
As the Republican budget once again takes center stage, we here in the Democratic Whip Press Shop wanted to make sure you saw the latest round of criticism for their misguided plan that would raise costs for seniors while protecting tax breaks for the wealthy.
Recently, we have seen several states across the country implement restrictive and unfair voting restrictions, citing the need to prevent against alleged fraud. But as this analysis in the Washington Post confirms, there are fewer examples of this illegal activity than voter ID supporters claim:
After skipping town for the summer with a long list of unfinished business, Republicans are back home in their districts, scrambling to find an argument to explain why they blocked middle class tax relief for American families, after the Senate passed a bill and the President indicated he would sign it. By leaving town, they are continuing to hold middle class tax cuts hostage until they get additional tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that our country cannot afford.
We keep talking about how Republicans are rewriting history when they try to falsely pin fault on President Obama for the upcoming sequestration. After all, 174 House Republicans voted for the measure that Politico said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was “the chief Republican architect of.” Today’s New York Times editorial has some choice words for this blame game, calling out Republicans for their attempts to bend the truth and rightfully showing the GOP is responsible for the upcoming sequestration:
Wanted to make sure you all saw this quote from Republican Rep. Richard Hanna, which perfectly sums up the state of play on Capitol Hill right now, as Republicans refuse to work with Democrats to pass middle class tax relief—even though both sides agree on the need for it and the Senate has already passed a bill.
So much for that whole “read the bill” thing. Apparently Republicans didn’t even make it to page 3 of this week’s bill on regulations (remarkable, considering the text didn’t even start until the bottom of page 2).
Just wanted to make sure you saw these twin editorials in yesterday’s New York Times. The first chides House Republicans for their continued refusal to accept the Senate’s bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, leaving LGBT, immigrant, Native American, and student victims vulnerable. The second makes it clear who is to blame for delaying much-needed postal service reforms.
By now you have probably heard House Republicans try to tout their so-called “jobs plan” as they try and explain to voters what they have been doing for the last 18 months. (Hint: Not passing a comprehensive jobs plan.) Instead, House Republicans have wasted $50 million in taxpayer dollars in a fruitless attempt to repeal the health reform law, failed to take action on middle class tax relief and stalled critical legislation like the Farm Bill, postal reform legislation and the Violence Against Women Act—all of which passed the Senate with strong bipartisan majorities.
The list of officials speaking up in opposition to recent attacks on the right to vote across the country continues to grow. In case you managed to skip over this op-ed, your ever-helpful Democratic Whip Press Shop wanted to make sure you saw former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist condemning the latest attempt to deny access to the ballot box in Florida. In the op-ed, which ran in the Washington Post, the governor points to a key example of how these policies can go wrong in his own state:
A look at the morning news isn’t flattering for House Republicans. Not only did their “confrontation over compromise” approach to raising the debt limit take our nation to the brink of default and result in our nation’s first credit downgrade, but it also cost American taxpayers $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2011 alone:
Lately up here on Capitol Hill, the GOP has engaged in quite a bit of revisionist history on the sequester, hoping the American people will conveniently forget that 174 House Republicans (including all of the senior leadership) voted for a measure that Politico said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was “the chief Republican architect of.”
We’re excited to see a growing unity within Republican ranks –over the need for their presumptive nominee to release more than just two years worth of tax returns. The calls for transparency are growing, even from House Republicans:
Not content to trash a sequester mechanism House Republicans themselves voted for, Congressional Republicans are now taking their obstruction a step further, with their ludicrous attempts to pin the pending “fiscal cliff” squarely on Democrats, even as they refuse to yield an inch in their drive to protect tax cuts for the wealthy at all costs.
Recently, several states across the country have made unprecedented attempts to undermine voters’ rights across the country. We knew these policies will keep many voters from being able to cast their constitutional right to vote, and according to a report released today by the Brennan Center for Justice, several obstacles, including transportation, office hours, and costs, make compliance with Voter ID laws a challenge:
We’ve been saying it all along: Republicans should work with us on a deficit reduction plan that prevents sequestration from occurring through a balanced mix of spending cuts and revenues. And today, defense firm Pratt & Whitney President David Hess agreed, urging Republicans to put everything – including revenues – on the table.
Republicans have already wasted $50 million of taxpayer money, but don’t let that stop them from wasting even more time and taxpayer dollars attempting to roll back patient protections and put insurance companies back in control of health care.
Just in case you missed it yesterday (or you wanted to read about the law House Republicans have wasted $50 million of taxpayer money in fruitless attempts to repeal), we here in the Democratic Whip Press Office wanted to pass along this op-ed from the New York Times entitled “Five Obamacare Myths.”
Looks like another high profile Republican is speaking out against Grover Norquist’s tax pledge. According to the preview of the Parade magazine article coming out this Sunday, former President George H.W. Bush doesn’t believe the Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge is the answer to bringing down our deficit:
A look at the morning news highlights what we’ve been saying all along: Republicans spent yet another week on a political show vote to take away health care benefits and patient protections – wasting taxpayer dollars and time that could have been spent on growing the economy and putting Americans back to work.
After more than 30 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, you begin to hear a repeat of the same arguments. So tonight, after two days of debate, we're going to leave you with the craziest one we heard this time around, courtesy of Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Of all the claims Republicans have made against health care reform, this is one of the more remarkable ones:
Instead of focusing on jobs, Republicans have wasted today on yet another repeal of the Affordable Care Act and are offering no replacement, despite their promises to do so. A look at today’s headlines shows we aren’t the only ones who noticed:
We wanted to make sure you saw this scathing Washington Post op-ed by Eugene Robinson that blasts Republicans for their blatant attempts to undermine Americans’ rights with restrictive voter ID laws. Under the false pretense of eliminating voter fraud, Republicans have been pursuing voter ID laws which would be especially harmful to voters that are from low-income and urban communities.
