The battle over refinancing student debt has been playing out-- badly-- in the Senate. Senate Republicans have filibustered Elizabeth Warren's bill so that it couldn't even be formally devoted on the floor.And in the House? Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman, John Kline, has bottled up the House version, H.R.
Since 1990, the Insurance Industry has contributed $306,387,653 in congressional races, almost two-thirds of it to Republicans. So far this year, they've doled out $17,600,207, again, most of it to Republicans. So far in the cycle they have carefully selected the incumbents who have been most willing-- in each house-- to put the special interests of the insurance industry ahead the interests of their own constituents and of the American people.
John Kline is a right-wing extremist from southeast Minnesota. His district, MN-02, stretches from south of St. Paul through Eagan, Burnsville, Apple Valley, and Northfield all the way down to Wabasha and the Zumbro Bottoms State Forest. Although the PVI is still classified R+2, Obama took the district in both 2008 and 2012. Kline is the chairman of the House Workforce and Education Committee, where he has been able to do a great deal of damage to working families.
Over the weekend Minnesota Democrats had their congressional district nominating conventions. There were two we were watching. One ended badly and one ended well. The one that ended badly was for the open red district (PVI is R+10) that Michele Bachmann is leaving. Joe Perske, a hopeless conservative won the right to challenge whomever wins the GOP primary, in all likelihood, far right sociopath Tom Emmer.
Louisville Congressman John Yarmouth, a Democratic member of the House Budget Committee, was right when he said the latest edition of Paul Ryan's annual Austerity budget "is pretty much a rhetorical exercise" that isn't going anywhere. It passed Thursday 219-205, every Democrat voting NO, as did a dozen Republicans:
Last week, U.S. Trade Rep Mike Froman made corporate America's case on behalf of the Obama Administration for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the hated fast track legislation to ramrod it through Congress. Almost all House Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, and even some Republican corporate whores oppose fast track authority.
The Depeche Mode double platinum award for Violator is very nice-- and I hope you're the winner. It isn't something anyone can buy in a store, no matter how rich they are. Very few of this particular RIAA plaque were ever made, basically just for the band members and a few of their colleagues. The double platinum (for achieving 2 million) is ultra-rare; by the time it was delivered, the record had already sold 3 million. Eventually the album sold 15 million.But there's even a better reason to participate in Blue America's final contest of 2013.
Keith Ellison stood out as a principled, values-driven progressive when he was a member of the Minnesota legislature. Blue America backed him back then, hoping for more of the same in Washington. And we haven't been disappointed. Co-chair of the Progressive Caucus and Democratic Chief Deputy Whip, Keith is one of the only Democrats on a leadership track who speaks to the interests of ordinary working families. As Raúl Grijalva told us, "Keith, above all, isn't posturing.
In recent days, we've been talking a lot about the push from progressives in the Senate, particularly Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to combat the never-ending conservative goal of whittling away at Social Security by actually fighting to expand it.
