Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 5, 2009 - Tuesday Results Should Make Dems Nervous About Obama Agenda

The Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2847, the fiscal year 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill. The bill provides $65 billion in funding, including $7.3 billion for the Census Bureau. At 12:15 PM, the Senate will vote on cloture on the substitute amendment to the CJS bill. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will then consider pending amendments to the bill. One of those amendments is offered by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would prohibit funding to try 9/11 co-conspirators being held in Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts in the U.S. They would instead be tried by military commission. Earlier today 150 family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks released a letter supporting the amendment. A vote could come this afternoon.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 98-0 to pass the unemployment insurance extension bill, H.R. 3548.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has taken the lead in calling for citizens concerned about a government take over of health care to rally at the U.S. Capitol today (Nov. 5th) and make “house calls” on their members of Congress. Info on that event can be found here. Fox News is reporting that people are already rallying at the Capitol. In addition, today, the House Republicans will release their proposed health care alternative.

Politico writes today, “Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own. While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.” Democrats getting nervous over the liberal agenda of their leadership in Congress and the White House seems to be the theme of the day.

The Wall Street Journal editorializes today, “Tuesday's GOP gubernatorial sweep revealed an electorate deeply anxious about jobs, the state of the economy and the wider Obama agenda.” And The Washington Post’s David Broder writes, “Despite White House efforts to discount the importance of the loss of the only two governorships on the off-year ballot, especially in New Jersey, where Obama had campaigned heavily for embattled Gov. Jon Corzine, the implications were clear to other Democrats. Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a leader of the moderate-conservative ‘Blue Dogs,’ called the result ‘a wake-up call for Congress. A tidal wave could be coming.’” Even a skeptical Washington Post editorial mostly critical of a number of Republicans admitted, “There is a lesson here for Republicans, and perhaps also for Democrats: The results in Virginia and New Jersey may or may not represent a repudiation of the Obama presidency; we tend to think they do not. But they did signal to Democratic members of Congress -- especially those who represent Republican-leaning states -- that voters are getting nervous about the size and indebtedness of the federal government.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner sat down with ABC News to discuss the impact of Tuesday’s elections yesterday. ABC writes, “McConnell, R-Ky., said the election results will make it more difficult for the president to convince Democrats to support a sweeping health care bill. ‘You’ve got a lot of newly elected Democrats -- as they had two good years in a row -- who are hanging on by their fingernails, and being pushed by the speaker and the majority leader to support legislation that they now know for sure their constituents don’t approve of,’ McConnell said.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial examines why the Democrats’ health care bill should make rank-and-file members so nervous. “Mr. Obama campaigned on a pledge to spare 95% of Americans from tax increases, but the American middle class is slowly figuring out that it will eventually be asked—that's the polite way of putting it—to pay for all of this. These looming bills, and not only from the $787 billion stimulus, are clouding the investment outlook. Nowhere is this more true than on health care.”

Sen. McConnell warned this morning:

“Taken together, the health care plan we’ve seen would impose roughly half a trillion dollars in new taxes, fees, and penalties at a time when Americans are already struggling to dig themselves out of a recession. What’s worse, an independent analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation suggests that nearly 80 percent of the burden would fall on middle-class Americans. So a reform that was meant to make life easier is now expected to make life harder.”

“This is not the reform Americans were asking for. And that’s precisely why more Americans now oppose this health care plan than support it.” Certainly, that, combined with Tuesday’s election results must be weighing on the minds of Democrats as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushes for a vote on her health care reform bill this weekend."

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