Monday, September 12, 2011
The GOP strategy to sacrifice jobs for politics
We were struck last week when Darrell issa started
criticizing President Obama's jobs plan before the President had even been given the chance to explain what was in it -- especially after Issa's working to cost the country millions of jobs. But over the weekend, Politico dug into what might be really going on --
electoral jockeying.
Turns out that "behind the scenes, some Republicans are becoming worried about giving Obama any victories — even on issues the GOP has supported in the past." That sheds a bit of light on where Issa might be coming from. Remember, last year Issa was calling for Obama to beimpeached and
labeled him "one of the most corrupt presidents" less than two years into his term.
He's been forced since to backpedal on the hyperbole, but he was back at it again in April, offering support for Donald Trump's challenge to President Obama's
birth certificate. Of course, this is all against the backdrop of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell's stated priority of making Obama a one-term president and Issa's commitment to "a hearing a day." The strategy is clear: skip governing, throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.
It's been transparent for a long time that beating Obama is a higher priority than delivering for the American people, and as the Politico article reminds us, it's getting even more transparent now. Try figuring out this one from Congressman Pete Sessions:
“To assume that we’re naturally for these things because we’ve been for them does not mean we will be for them..."
Um, right. Incidentally, Sessions is in charge of every Republican House campaign next year. Well, as the President reminded us earlier today, the election is still 14 months away. We're still further away from the next election than we are from the last one -- the one that gave Issa control of the Oversight Committee.
The Oversight Committee will begin wading into the proposal tomorrow morning with a
hearing in the Regulatory Affairs subcommittee. Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings had asked Issa for a series of
six hearings over two weeks on the jobs plan, but so far only the single subcommittee hearing has been publicly announced.
One of the freshman Republicans on that subcommittee, Raul Labrador, was also sharing the GOP perspective with Politico in the recent article, explaining that the priority is perception:
“Take a page from Clinton — when you’re willing to come to the Hill and work with Republicans, it actually makes both sides look better."
It's an interesting argument to make, suggesting that Obama hasn't tried to work with Republicans since taking office. But even more telling is the focus on making people look good instead of accomplishing good things. Tomorrow's hearing should be interesting.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Issa’s job elimination plan, blackouts and freeze outs
~ Before even allowing the President to present his jobs proposal last night, Darrell Issa was slamming it on Twitter. Despite rejecting the plan before knowing what it was, Issa's primary criticism was that jobs have been lost since the stimulus, therefore the stimulus, by his logic, didn't work. But Darrell Issa's agenda --
including the debt ceiling deal that will cost 1.8 million jobs next year, the 400,000+ jobs he wants to eliminate and his proposal to gut the postal service -- would result in the elimination of even more jobs than have been lost since passage of the Recovery Act. And that's what Issa's doing on purpose to "create" jobs. Hard to figure where he gets credibility criticizing another plan that at least includes 'creating jobs' as its goal.
Meanwhile, Ranking Oversight Democrat Elijah Cummings has
requested a series of six hearings on the proposed jobs package. No word yet on whether Issa will agree to the hearings.
~ The entire San Diego region and parts of Orange County were hit yesterday with a full blackout lasting about 7 hours. It came as a stark reminder of the importance and fragility of our infrastructure on the same day of reports that the recent East Coast earthquake shook a Virginia nuclear plant
twice as hard as it was designed to withstand. The San Onofre nuclear plant in Issa's district was part of yesterday's blackout (still not back online), and has been at the center of a
string of safety problems that have garnered more attention since the nuclear disaster in Japan.
Despite promises to the contrary, Issa has thus far declined any investigation into safety conditions at San onofre, where a Japan-sized disaster would displace more than
100,000 people in addition to the health threats and environmental destruction. Instead, Issa has consistently impeded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ability to deliver improved safety, diverting resources to Issa's
subpoeanas over political squabbles.
~ Also this week, word that Issa Enterprises is playing it very personal with the media. An Issa
release said that their reaction to the recent New York Times story was largely driven by a long-standing personal grudge with the specific reporter. And now, there are reports that a second New York Times reporter is being
frozen out by Issa for not delivering sufficiently favorable coverage.
Issa fired then-press secretary Kurt Bardella earlier this year for playing favorites with reporters and surreptitiously sharing communications between them. At the center of that controversy was a third New York Times reporter. Bardella has since been
hired back by Issa after a few months in time out working for the Issa transcription service at the Daily Caller, but it looks like they've stuck with the 4th-grader approach to media outreach.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Issa criticizes federal efficiency after slashing budget to improve efficiency
In February, Darrell Issa -- the co-founder of the House Transparency Caucus -- voted to
cut more than 94% of federal funding for transparency programs. Two months later, he gave his "
personal pledge" to save the transparency programs he had previously tried to starve of funding. At the time, we
predicted here that Issa would let the cuts breathe for a few months and then use the cuts as cover to attack new-found inefficiency. And this week, that's
exactly what he's doing.
A new investigation has found a reliance on "manual processes" to handle financial reporting across a range of federal agencies. The research is concerned with the inefficiency and inaccuracy that can come from the manual processes, and criticizes many agencies for not moving more quickly to transition away and incorporate more technology. That transition was specifically the aim of the funding that Issa voted to eliminate earlier this year -- the committee report even singles out the same specific sites that saw funding evaporate earlier this year, aided by Issa's vote.
Which calls for a recap of Darrell Issa's record on jobs. A month ago, he was lamenting that "so little is being done" in the first year of the debt ceiling deal he supported, even though it's projected to
cost the U.S. 1.8 million jobs in 2012 alone. Before that, he was proposing a plan to create jobs by... eliminating more than
400,000 jobs. And now, after pressing for budget cuts that force federal agencies to stick with manual processes, Issa is criticizing the results. Like his plan to create jobs by eliminating jobs, he's now arguing that cutting capacity should have improved capacity for federal agencies. And since eliminating federal jobs is the central tenet of Issa's job-creation plan, it's not difficult to see this as the first step towards an attempt to justify further job cuts.
So to recap how this has unfolded: First, Darrell Issa voted to eliminate funding destined to help federal agencies transition to better technology for transparency. Second, he pledged to find a way to compensate for the lost funding. Third, as we predicted, he used the budget cuts as a pledge to attack those trying to deal with the budget cuts. And now fourth, having voted for budget cuts that force federal agencies to be inefficient, he's seizing on that inefficiency to call for reducing jobs.
It's almost cliche by now to accuse conservatives of getting elected by accusing government of not working, and staying elected by making sure it doesn't work. It may often be hyperbole, or an over-simplification, but this is a case that exhibits exactly how it can work. Start by cutting off resources that could allow federal employees to do their jobs, then cast them as the problem when they can't do the job without resources. The question then, is where will it end?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Issa’s meddling hampered by too much and not enough other meddling
If you want confirmation of how far out of whack things have gotten with the NLRB situation, look no further than South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. She called President Obama "
cowardly" last week for failing to weigh in on the ongoing case. You read that right -- Haley, who Darrell Issa has held up as a good example in this mess -- is now saying that it's the President's responsibility to attempt to bias an ongoing legal proceding.
For months, the crux of Issa's opposition to the ongoing NLRB case has been his belief that courts should not be allowed to operate independently of his politics. Further, that the NLRB has overstepped its mandate by... investigating in
direct accordance with its mandate.
This gets all mixed up though when it's lined up against Issa's concern that the Obama administration has been meddling in the NLRB's affairs to force a preferred outcome. In other words -- Haley says the President is a coward for not trying to interfere, but Issa says Obama has been interfering too much. Meanwhile, Haley delivered a
$900 million corporate handout and complained that not everyone is trying to make the court case a political fight and Issa is trying to
eliminate the NLRB entirely, in the process attempting to expose internal documents in the legal procedings. It just doesn't make sense.
So the argument of Issa, Haley and their allies boils down to a declaration that an independent judicial branch is illegitimate, and now that anyone who doesn't try to interfere is a coward. It's a tough spot for them though, since the target of the case -- Boeing -- is only in this situation because its executives
came out unprompted and admitted to an apparent violation of the law. The NLRB has said openly that the investigation only began after the de facto confession. Which has left Issa scrambling, and
without much justification for his actions:
The committee has presented no reason for needing agency documents related to ongoing litigation against Boeing — other than the political one of interfering with an agency that is congressionally mandated to balance the power between everyday working people and Big Business.
Against that backdrop, allowing an independent judicial investigation to proceed without political meddling isn't likely to turn out how Darrell Issa and his corporate allies want. It has the potential to be a kettle of fish no matter how it turns out, because since other businesses haven't spoken so openly about it in the past, this case will eventually set precedent one way or another.
Just like the Bush Administration's attempt to argue that if the President does it, it must be legal, Issa is arguing that if a corporation does it, it must be legal. Issa is trying to ensure that this NLRB investigation is the case that establishes that workers have the opportunity to object to illegal corporate behavior.
An odd sort of government oversight.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Issa’s weasel words on possible CEO pay investigation
As the drumbeat grows louder to revisit CEO compensation, including via a
damning report from Oversight Democrats, it's even pressed Darrell Issa to issue a
statement, declaring that "saying that it's time to examine whether 'the problems in CEO compensation led to the economic crisis continue to exist today.'”
Issa has often called for things to be investigated before working to block their investigation. He was spending hundreds of thousands on Goldman Sachs bonds while
protecting them from an SEC investigation. Meanwhile, he brought on a former Goldman Sachs VP to help shield Wall Street from any new regulation. Then he cancelled his own hearing on the Financial Crisis because it turned out the facts "
didn't fit the narrative." Those facts included Republicans from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission coordinating with political allies to undermine their own commission's findings -- before they were made public.
Meanwhile, he appointed Patrick McHenry to chair the finance subcommittee. McHenry is notorious for a number of things, including the
campaign donations he was pulling in from Countrywide while investigating Countrywide and others over... their CEO compensation. And after Issa put a Goldman Sachs executive on the payroll, McHenry also worked with him to set up the berating hearing where McHenry
twice accused Elizabeth Warren of perjury.
After the nuclear disaster in Japan, a series of
major safety problems were highlighted at the San Onofre nuclear facility in Issa's district. Despite saying that it would be important to review safety standards, Issa has instead not only refused to investigate but proactively diverted resources to conduct safety improvements -- despite the
hundreds of thousands that could be displaced by a disaster.
Issa, of course, is one of the richest (if not
the richest) person in Congress. And since he has remained unconventionally hands-on with his vast financial empire, he knows that any threat to CEO compensation is also eventually a problem for his own bottom line. And we know what happens when
Issa's business comes into conflict with the people's business.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Issa ignores more than a hundred at district office
Well over 100 people visited Darrell Issa's district office in Vista
this morning, demanding that he finally start working to bring jobs to Main Street instead of working from the pocket of Wall Street.
It was the same office that Issa vehemently defended from claims of overlooking a golf course. While there wasn't an opportunity to to check all the views from the building, there were a number of gated communities all around that looked as though they would probably be nice for those rich enough to afford the isolation. Those were different from the country club community that surrounds the golf course a couple blocks over.
The crowd was impressively energetic for an early morning event, and included members of the San Diego Labor Council, Machinists Union, California Nurses Association, National Associations of Letter Carriers and the California Alliance for Retired Americans.
All of those groups represent some of the people facing the spectre of serious threat from Issa's agenda. Whether it's Issa's plan to
close the legal system to workers, or his proposal to
gut the postal service, there's no prospect of better or more secure jobs in Issa's agenda.
Whether it's Issa's support for the debt ceiling deal that will
cost 1.8 million jobs in 2012 or his legislation to eliminate
400,000 jobs, these folks aren't buying Issa's pitch that losing all those jobs is a job-creation plan.
Most amazing, if probably not surprising, was the reaction. Spokesman Frederick Hill, who's based in Washington DC, seemed to be
reacting to a different protest entirely -- one that didn't have anything to actually do with his employer or the issues discussed this morning. Hill went on a diatribe about taxes and the campaign to re-elect Obama, neither of which was a topic at all this morning.
Nobody was talking about tax policy. Nobody was talking about a presidential election. There was certainly a conversation about creating jobs, but it had more to do with Issa's proposals. The proposals to hand out
$900 million tax breaks to huge corporations who promise to slash wages and cut benefits. About the far-reaching influence of
Koch Brothers money on his committee. Hiring
executives from Goldman Sachs to protect Wall Street after it devastated our economy. About blocking any hearings that don't fit his partisan,
pro-Wall Street narrative. About the
increasingly blurry line between Issa's public work and private quest for personal profit.
And now, it's also about a member of Congress who claims to be working for his constituents but doesn't even know what his constituents are concerned about after they come en masse to his office and tell him.
It's not surprising any more that Issa and his staff were unwilling to field the concern of so many constituents and hard working Americans -- they've systematically ignored anyone who
couldn't afford to buy an audience. Heck -- the entire agenda of Issa's Oversight Committee is
set by corporate interests -- at Issa's request. Yet it's a particularly new level of flagrant dismissal to not even know what concerns Issa's constituents were attempting to raise when they raised those concerns
in his own district office.
Issa and his staff may imagine that the only thing that anyone cares about is partisan posturing ahead of next November's election, but those who are impacted by his behavior have to live with the challenges every day. If Issa can neither recognize his constituents or what they're concerned about, well... it's a pretty clear indication of who he's really working for.
1 comments
posted by Lucas O’Connor at 8:13 am