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The Bush Assault on Climate Science

On Tuesday, the House Government and Oversight Committee, captained by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), held an oversight hearing investigating the Bush administration's meddling in climate science. The hearing featured the release of a joint report by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project. The good people over at Think Progress have summarized the report, in which about half of the scientists interviewed report some kind of interference. There are 435 instances of manipulation reported. Try to pick your favorite. Waxman was provoked into holding the hearing when the Bush administration repeatedly refused to allow Congress to review certain documents related to global climate change. At the hearing, Waxman announced he will be re-requesting those documents. Hopefully, with the issue gaining more media attention, the administration will not continue to misinform the public on global warming. The Bush Assault on "Global Warming" On a similar note, the Bush administration appears to be waging war on "global warming." No, not the environmental crisis, just the phrase. At the hearing, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) revealed that Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte is prohibited from using the phrase "global warming." Read more on that here. In another effort, rumors are flying on the blogosphere that the White House website search function turns up only one result when users search for “global warming.” Keep your eye out for more on this lame attempt to censor legitimate science.

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Task Force to Examine House Rules

As promised, an outside panel will decide how to enforce the new House rules. The group will make recommendations by May 1 on such matters as the proposed Office of Public Integrity. Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner announced yesterday the bi-partisan eight member panel. Pelosi and Boehner each named four members and according to CQ ($) Representative Capuano (D-MA) will be chairing the panel.

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Bush's Health Care Plan and the AMT?

Brad DeLong has a question about Bush's health care plan as described in the SOTU speech: A question. When George W. Bush said: [Although we are adding the value of health insurance contributions by employers to the income subject to personal income and payroll taxes, we are adjusting things so that] families with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on [the first] $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on [the first] $7,500 of their income...

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Congress Hearing Middle-Class Midterm Message

Washington seems to have gotten the midterm message from middle-class voters. No less than three congressional committees held hearings yesterday on the economic plight of the American middle class. The problem, in a word, is "insecurity," caused chiefly by:
  • steadily declining real wage growth in the the middle class over the 25-30 years (see chart)
  • technological change
  • increased international competition
  • rapidly rising education costs
  • large-scale corporate downsizings

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Sawicky on Min. Wage Tax Bogusness

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the minimum wage package today at 2:30 PM...but now's a good time to check out Max Sawicky's erudite take on the unnecessary tax cuts attached to the minimum wage bill. One key passage on the tax cuts, AKA the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007 (SBWOA):

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That Settles It

President Bush on Congressional war powers, in an interview with an incredulous Wall Street Journal editorial board (emphasis mine): WSJ: There's a lot of discussion in Congress about putting caps on troop levels or defunding or saying you can't deploy, as commander in chief, troops in Baghdad. Do you think Congress has the constitutional authority . . . GWB: I think they have the authority to defund, use their funding power . . . WSJ: You do?

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Lobby Reform in the House

Roll Call ($$) is reporting on some of the troubles the House is having in crafting a lobbying reform bill. There is some question on whether or not the legislation should include a requirement that lobbyists disclose the amount of donations that they "bundle" together and then give to candidates. A staffer was quoted in the article that they are hoping to have a draft within the next two weeks. Representatives Van Hollen and Meehan introduced this bundling proposal as a separate bill, H.R.633.

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House Passes $463.5 bn. FY2007 Spending Resolution

This afternoon, the House passed its $463.5 billion "CRomnibus" spending resolution for FY2007 by a 286-140 vote. Approval by the Senate and the President are required to keep the government operating after Feb. 15.

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OMB Watch Statement on Joint Resolution

Click here for OMB Watch's statement on the joint funding resolution that the House will soon vote on.

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