Where’s the change behind rhetoric? By: Rep. Aaron Schock February 21, 2012 09:40 PM EST

As the campaign season heats up, I can’t help but notice President Barack Obama is dusting off the same old sweeping rhetoric and speechwriting skills that catapulted the first-term senator to the presidency three years ago. Unfortunately, despite promising us all that “change was coming,” this president has fallen back on his tried-and-true platitudes that are shrouded in anti-business oratory. The latest proposal is the president’s push for “insourcing American jobs,” which he intends to accomplish via tweaking our convoluted Tax Code by adding new layers of credits, deductions, exemptions and writeoffs. This should come as no surprise, he’s been beating the “shipping our jobs overseas” drum since Sen. Hillary Clinton was the front-runner in Iowa. This seems great on the surface, but digging a bit deeper, you can see the tax changes he continues to propose actually make our position in a global economy even worse. Not only will any new tax loopholes proposed by the president decrease yearly revenues and add to our debt, but the president’s proposal will do nothing to address the fact that the U.S. currently houses the second-highest business tax rate of any OECD countries, nor the fact that the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world to tax business earnings on a worldwide level, subjecting it to another level of taxation. Unlike almost all of our major trading partners, we tax our companies on their foreign income when that income is brought back to the United States, even though that income already has been taxed in a foreign country. This discourages our companies from bringing profits back to the U.S. to invest at home. Rather than developing a tax system that addresses these issues, the president’s proposal panders perfectly into his time-tested rhetoric of demonizing job creators. In reality, his proposal will do nothing to simplify and reform our Tax Code and instead will add another section to more than 70,000 pages of taxes while simultaneously punishing American-based companies that have attempted to earn profits by also selling to the 95 percent of the world’s population that lives outside the United States. While the president pays lip service to simplifying the Tax Code, his recently unveiled budget actually moves in the opposite direction of simplification. His proposals go against the very tenants of tax reform and Tax Code simplification by having in the fiscal 2013 budget at least 24 provisions that either create new targeted tax breaks or expand existing tax breaks such as his new insourcing proposal. This administration simply cannot have it both ways. What the administration should do is highlight that corporations are making meaningful investments in the U.S. and that there are smart changes we can make to continue to encourage such. In my home district, Caterpillar just spent $200 million in East Peoria, Ill., to modernize production of the track component of its tractors. Additionally, Caterpillar will soon be opening a facility in Texas and another in Georgia that will be doing work that currently is done in Japan. Caterpillar is planning to open more of these facilities nationwide. To be strong in the United States, Caterpillar also has facilities abroad so that it can locate near some of its worldwide customers. A strong Caterpillar abroad helps provide corporate, research, construction, repair and assembly jobs for the company here in the U.S. To encourage more of these success stories, we should create what our employers truly need: a tax plan that will level the playing field against our global competitors. We need to get in the game to compete with other countries that are putting points on the board and are frankly running up the score. The House Ways and Means Committee, of which I am a member, has begun this process. Last year, we unveiled a proposal to switch to a territorial system of taxation for American-based businesses. We did so by soliciting input from job creators all across this country. Most important, we did so in a way that wouldn’t hurt any current revenues. We will soon unveil ideas for how to also bring down individual tax rates to help Americans of all income levels keep more of their paychecks as well as help the 30 million small businesses that file as “pass through” entities compete in a worldwide economy. But these efforts have been matched against an unwilling president set on spending a year on rhetoric-filled anecdotes and catchy one-liners while ultimately raising taxes on American job creators of all sizes and the American citizens. We need a president who is willing to level the playing field with our competitors abroad and help make the U.S. once again a place where businesses want to invest, expand, grow and hire, creating more American jobs in the long run. It’s my hope President Obama finally delivers the “change we can believe in” by embracing this proposal to change our Tax Code and create more jobs. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) serves as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

© 2012 POLITICO LLC

Rep. Aaron Schock Looks to Build Political Profile

The Republican Has Embraced the Attention He Garnered After a Splashy
’09 Entrance to Congress

By Jessica Brady
Roll Call Staff
Feb. 16, 2012, Midnight

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Now in his second term and his first in the majority, Rep. Aaron
Schock has sought to bolster his policy profile. He earned a spot on
the Ways and Means Committee last year, has introduced legislation to
roll back tax reporting requirements for small businesses, and created
the Colombia Caucus.
Rep. Aaron Schock’s youth and media strategy might not fit the
Congressional mold, but neither does the 30-year-old lawmaker, who is
using his notoriety to build his legislative and political profile.

“Obviously, there are people that are going to say, ‘Oh you know, I
don’t like that style’ or ‘I don’t think that makes sense.’ But I’m a
big believer if you want to change people’s minds or get someone to
vote for you, either a voter or a colleague, you’ve got to first get
their attention,” the Illinois Republican said during a recent
interview in his office.
“If people don’t know who you are, they’re not going to listen to your
message. And not everybody pays attention to politicians by watching
Fox News and CNN,” he said.

Schock came to Congress in 2009 with a bang, thanks in large part to
shirtless pictures on celebrity gossip website TMZ. Rather than cower
from the attention, Schock embraced it, most notably by posing
shirtless for Men’s Health magazine last May.

“When Men’s Health reached out and said, ‘Will you be on the “Today
Show” and do a fitness challenge?’ I said, ‘OK. I’m not showing them
anything they don’t already know,’” he said. “But I’m going to take
what some would argue is a negative or not substantive and turn it
into a substantive thing to hopefully do some good for people.”
Schock noted that 40,000 people participated in what he described as
the most successful fitness challenge campaign ever launched by the
magazine.

“It made an impact,” he said unapologetically.
Schock is also building up his own political profile back home. He
helped recruit freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger and campaigned for many of
the four other House GOP candidates who won in Illinois in 2010. He
gave $319,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee
during the 2010 cycle, and during the past two election cycles, he has
raised more than $1.3 million for Congressional and statewide
candidates.

Schock also started the Majority Makers program this year to target
state House and Senate races back home. He created it with $250,000 of
seed money and some financial buy-in from Rep. John Shimkus and
Illinois state House lawmakers. Illinois Republicans need to win seven
state House seats to win the majority in that chamber, and Schock’s
Majority Makers aims to clear 10 victories this year.
For Congressional races, Schock has his GOP Gen-Y PAC.

“I hope I’m building a record of being a good team player and not just
standing for my principles but being willing to work for them,” Schock
said. “I think when you do that and you work really hard, people take
notice.”

Now in his second term (his first in the majority), Schock also has
sought to bolster his policy profile. He earned a spot on the powerful
Ways and Means Committee last year and recently unveiled legislation
to roll back tax reporting requirements for small businesses. He
created the Colombia Caucus and, after visiting the country twice,
advocated strongly for the free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama
and South Korea, which passed the House last fall.

Schock’s style may be vastly different from that of his buttoned-down
colleagues, but many agree it is effective.

“I think he likes people misperceiving him because it works to his
advantage,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, whom Schock replaced as the
youngest Member when he was elected in 2008.

“I don’t know if he’s actively cultivating it or amused by it, but
it’s an interesting case study in figuring out how to be both young
and effective,” the North Carolina Republican added.

Schock is a Whip team member, and more recently, he added campaign
surrogate to his résumé as one of Mitt Romney’s presidential
supporters and a member of his national finance team. Schock committed
to raising $250,000 for the former Massachusetts governor and traveled
to Iowa ahead of the Hawkeye State’s January caucuses, leaving some to
wonder whether it would be the Illinois Congressman campaigning for
higher office there some day.

Still, aides say Schock’s unique approach to the job, including the
magazine photos and fashionable suit choices, gives some Members pause
when judging their colleague. And some have quietly grumbled that it
might not be sustainable if he wants to project a wonkier persona.
Schock’s prodigious rise in politics, beginning with his successful
run for a seat on the Peoria school board at the age of 19, is
well-known. Less clear is his future, which could stretch for decades.

Political observers note that Schock’s new district in central
Illinois was drawn so safe that it has led to suggestions that
Democrats are trying to keep him happy in the House and away from any
statewide bid.

“I think he would be the top candidate on the Republican side if [Sen.
Dick Durbin] retired or if he wanted to run for governor,” one
Illinois Republican said. “His ability to fundraise and be popular
with conservatives without coming across as an ideologue would suit
him well if he chooses to run.”

Schock would not allude to his future ambitions, saying, “In the case
of where my future may lie, I kind of chuckle when people ask me,
‘Where are you going to be in 10 years?’ I mean, 10 years ago, I was
in [college].”

“The idea that I know what my future is going to be in four years or
six years or 10 years, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m certainly not
going to rule anything out.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 13, 2012 

 Camp on Obama Budget: A Government that Takes More and Spends More Cannot Create a Climate for Job Creation

Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) made the following statements in response to President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal.

On Taxes & the Economy “The President’s budget includes the biggest tax increase in history and the biggest budget deficit ever proposed. The President’s $2 trillion tax increase will destroy jobs and further weaken our economy. Furthermore, the President is filling the tax code with even more special interest lobbyist loopholes, instead of joining Republicans in job-creating tax reform.

The President has decided to play the age-old Washington game of picking winners and losers and handing out favors to industries he thinks will help him politically, making the code less fair and more complex for average Americans. “It is time for the tax code to treat American workers and employers fairly. The tax code should not favor one company or industry over another. The tax code should treat auto manufacturers no differently than those making solar panels, and it should treat those making wind turbines no better and no worse than those innovators making new cancer treatment drugs. “On the individual side of the tax code, the President’s proposals would push federal tax rates close to 45 percent. No matter how much money someone makes, the federal government should not be taking almost half of everything they earn, especially not on top of all the other state, local and gas taxes Americans already pay.”

On Unemployment “Though the President’s budget lacks many of the critical reforms necessary to move Americans from an unemployment check to a paycheck, his proposal highlights the fact that he continues to support reducing the number of weeks available in the Unemployment Insurance program to a maximum of 79 weeks – down from the 99 weeks available today.”

On Medicare & Social Security “Again the President has refused to address the looming bankruptcy in our entitlement programs. These programs provide critical income and services to our nation’s seniors and those with disabilities, and they deserve Presidential leadership. His inaction has put not only these programs at further risk, but also the Americans who rely upon them.”

On Trade “The need for enforcement of our trade laws is critical to ensuring that we have a more level playing field with our global competitors, and the President has made strengthening trade enforcement with China a priority. I look forward to seeing the details of the trade enforcement unit that the President mentioned in his State of the Union speech. “However, I continue to be concerned about the President’s push to diminish the role of USTR in the Administration through the recently announced reorganization efforts. USTR is one of the most effective and efficient operations in all of government when it comes to opening up new opportunities for American workers and employers. “In addition, enforcement is only one side of the trade equation. We must still push forward aggressively with opening new markets, including by promptly implementing the three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea and by concluding the Trans- Pacific Partnership this year. I am disappointed that the President’s budget fails to incorporate any meaningful mention of the TPP or any future trade negotiations.”

On Health Care “Today’s budget does nothing to actually strengthen Medicare for the future. Instead, it will only further jeopardize seniors’ access to health care. “The budget is also noticeable for what is not addressed – any assurance that continued spending on the Democrats’ unconstitutional health care law will make health insurance more affordable – something that has eluded consumers since the law was enacted.”

                                                               ###

                                  Ways and Means Press Office

                                 www.WaysandMeans.House.gov

Weekend payroll-tax-cut talks fail By: Jake Sherman and Manu Raju February 12, 2012 08:10 PM EST

A weekend of talks between the two top tax writers in Congress failed to bridge gaping partisan differences over the payroll tax cut package, increasing the odds of another Washington showdown ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) traded offers throughout the weekend in an attempt to cut a deal on extending the payroll tax holiday and jobless benefits for millions of Americans — along with avoiding a rate cut for physicians who treat Medicare patients. Talks appeared to turn sour late Sunday. Several GOP aides began portraying their Democratic counterparts as unserious, saying Baucus is being held back by President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). A GOP aide familiar with the talks said Democrats have “walked back” offers, including allowing spectrum sales and higher co-pays for federal civilian pensions to pay for jobless benefits. Reid, according to several Republican aides, pushed for an increase in Transportation Security Administration fees. “They are just not serious,” the Republican aide said, “which makes it hard to avoid the conclusion that they are trying to scuttle the negotiations to provoke a fake crisis for political gain.” Several Democrats dismissed that characterization, saying Republicans were holding up a deal by refusing to negotiate seriously over taxes, demanding to cut Medicare and calling for unrelated policy riders. “By anonymously leaking faulty information while talks are still going on, Republicans are yet again showing that they simply do not want to extend this tax cut for middle class families,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid. “Democrats will continue working to extend this middle class tax cut, and Republicans will rightfully get blamed if Americans see their taxes go up on March 1.” A senior Democratic official with knowledge of the talks added: “Everyone knows the Republican leadership has long had trouble getting their caucus to support this middle class tax cut and is clearly still figuring out ways to do so. We are continuing to work with them to get this done and remain open to a number of different avenues to get there.” Sources familiar with the talks said the two sides made progress on a plan to extend the unemployment benefits but were still far apart on paying for the so-called doc fix and the payroll tax cut, a package that could cost $160 billion. Late Sunday, aides in both parties said the talks were ongoing as Baucus was reviewing a new offer from Camp. Aides in both parties said late Sunday the negotiations were ongoing, as Baucus reviewed a new offer from Camp, followed by a counteroffer from the Senate Finance Committee chief. While both sides are clearly bracing for a deadlock, Democrats privately expressed cautious optimism about a breakthrough, meaning Monday’s talks could prove critical. One of the major differences seems to be over how to finance the plan — an issue that has brought the government to the brink time and again during this divided Congress. Democrats have signaled they’re willing to drop their demands for a surtax on millionaires. But they’ve been proposing ways to limit how some wealthy earners can skirt paying higher Medicare and Social Security taxes by routing their self-employment income through companies known as Subchapter S corporations, a tactic used by both Newt Gingrich and John Edwards. Changing the formula could raise $7 billion over a decade. And they’ve sought to limit certain exemptions for U.S. taxpayers who work abroad and increase taxes for corporate jet operators. “They are not the solution they are always touted to be,” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a negotiator, said of the Democratic ideas. “When you raise taxes, if you tax something, you reduce it.” Moreover, Democrats want to use unspent war money for Iraq and Afghanistan to pay for some of the costs, a tactic most Republican leaders call a gimmick. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been open to putting that money to work in exchange for overhauling the payment scheme for doctors who serve Medicare patients. And some House Republicans have quietly supported using the war savings — although House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is diametrically opposed. The “next 24 hours will be critical,” one Democrat close to the negotiations said in an email Sunday afternoon. “Republicans are refusing to let any revenues … be part of the package.” Neither party wants to leave town Friday for the weeklong Presidents Day recess with a tax hike unresolved, and Senate officials said it is possible that next week’s break could be delayed if the stalemate is not resolved. “There is disagreement over the amount of offsets and where those offsets should come from,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), one of the negotiators. “We want balance, so we want fairness. There’s more than one way to get fairness. So we are trying to be reasonable. We think the [millionaires’] surtax makes abundant sense, but there may be other suggestions that can deal with fairness.” The package expires at month’s end. If there’s no deal, 160 million workers would see their Social Security payroll taxes increase by 2 percentage points, unemployment benefits could lapse for millions and Medicare doctors would face sharp reductions in federal reimbursements. The White House sought to keep the pressure on Congress on Sunday. “Our No. 1 priority is Congress needs to do its work and extend the payroll tax cut,” White House chief of staff Jack Lew said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” A mere two months ago, House Republicans were bloodied by a botched fight to extend the payroll tax holiday. But now, weighed down by Congress’s barrel-scraping 10 percent approval rating, the two sides appear to be girding for another round of combat over the same issue. Reid is preparing a fallback plan, and he will discuss his strategy in a small leadership meeting Monday evening and with his full caucus at a lunch Tuesday. House Republicans will try to pass their own plan as soon as Tuesday to extend the payroll tax credit until the end of 2012, hoping to once again jam the Senate. If the two parties take their battle to the Senate floor, it could upset the sensitive negotiations and chances for a bipartisan deal in the House-Senate conference committee. Or it could force one of the parties to cave. This looks to be an especially trying week for House Republicans. Relations between rank-and-file members and leaders have become particularly strained over the past few months, and tensions over the payroll tax and a massive highway bill could put Boehner’s political skills to the test yet again. The Ohio Republican is expected to work feverishly to convince his party to vote for a highway bill that many observers and participants say has no chance of passing in the Senate. And even if Baucus and Camp manage to hatch a bipartisan payroll tax deal, House Republicans are likely to find problems with it. That would mean another hassle for leadership to build and sustain a coalition of 218 lawmakers willing to pull the lever for another payroll holiday extension. At the same time, if House leaders push through a plan that the Senate won’t go along with, criticism from Democrats could be withering. Still, after a year of leadership-driven talks, the Camp-Baucus negotiations — which were held in person Friday and largely by phone over the weekend — is a rare instance of member-to-member negotiating. “Progress,” a GOP aide close to the negotiations said, “is being made on all fronts.”

© 2012 POLITICO LLC

Payroll Deal Deadline Looms

Top Conferees Meeting in Private While Terms of Tax Cut Deal Shift

• By Daniel Newhauser and Meredith Shiner
• Roll Call Staff
• Feb. 13, 2012, Midnight

Despite a week of public grousing and finger-pointing, payroll tax cut conferees and staff still hope their ultimate deal will avoid both a tax increase and a reaffirmation of a do-nothing Congress.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp(R-Mich.), the conference’s co-chairmen and top negotiators, were speaking one-on-one and in private last week, an indication the once-public talks have moved behind closed doors.

“It’s a good sign that our two leaders on the conference are talking, and I think the general atmosphere is positive right now,” conferee Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) said Friday. “Hopefully, they have a framework for a final conference agreement” this week.

Speaker John Boehner indicated Thursday he is not interested in imposing deadlines on his conferees, and although he and Camp have been in communication, it seems unlikely the Ohio Republican will intervene this week.

It’s also unlikely at this point that House leaders will cancel recess, although conferees will almost certainly work through the scheduled Presidents Day district work period if a deal is not closed by Friday.

Senate Democratic aides have speculated the Senate might not recess as scheduled to allow conferees to wrap up their work.

Early last week, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said publicly if conferees did not appear close to a deal by today or Tuesday, then Senate leaders would bring their own plan to the floor.

But Democratic sources tracking the issue suggest Reid might not move that quickly, noting that leaders do not want to pull the rug from underneath the panel.

“He still is reserving the right to bring something to the floor,” a senior Democratic aide said of the Majority Leader. “But we’re in the course of seeing offers being made in the context of the conference committee.”

Regarding the terms, Democrats were tight-lipped. But sources inside and outside the conference committee suggested the party would be dropping its push for a millionaires’ surtax. Instead, any offer made on how to pay for the package  will likely include closing tax loopholes — such as a corporate jet provision Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to include in their original payroll agreement — and provisions affecting oil and gas companies.

Previous bipartisan efforts also have considered non-tax revenues, increased government fees, as well as using war savings to offset spending, and even telecommunications spectrum auctions. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said conferees were close to a deal on the spectrum auction to offset $16.5 billion of a total deal. But Thursday, Boehner said war savings offsets don’t “pass the straight-face test.”

Throughout the process, the same issues that have defined the 112th Congress, from the negotiations led by Vice President Joseph Biden on a debt ceiling deal to the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, still face these lawmakers — particularly when it comes to taxes.

In a public meeting last week, Republican conferees proposed an extension of a federal worker pay freeze, health care premium adjustments and further Medicare prescription adjustments for higher-income beneficiaries. Democrats rejected those offsets on the spot.

“We put up what we thought were three of the most easy ones to get and everyone rejected them,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a conferee. “So at this point, we’re waiting to see what the Democrats come back with.”

Democrats, confident that they are in a good negotiating position after December’s House Republican flameout over the payroll tax cut extension, put the heat on their counterparts Wednesday evening with an offer on unemployment insurance benefits that included no offsets.

“We made a proposal. The ball is in their court to make a counterproposal,” conferee Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Thursday.

The federal pay freeze had been one of the final offsets considered by Reid and McConnell before their full-year extension talks collapsed at the end of last year, but a source indicated that in these talks, “Democrats have taken a hard line on the pay freeze.”

Lawmakers need to come to an agreement by Feb. 29; otherwise, the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and a staving off of cuts to Medicare doctor reimbursements will lapse.

This week could be a crucial one for the committee, as it could reveal some of the final positions taken by the parties. Senate aides suggested that Reid might bring to the floor some iteration of what Baucus floats this week.

Despite the apparent lack of progress with only two and a half weeks left before the deadline, lawmakers of both parties seem loath to pass another short-term extension.

“I want these negotiations to succeed. We’ve got to reach a conclusion to it and nobody I know of is talking about a short-term extension,” conferee Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said.

A Familiar, Sinking Feeling Develops on Payroll Tax Cut

By Daniel Newhauser and Meredith Shiner Roll Call Staff

 Feb. 8, 2012,

Members of the payroll conference committee fought to a draw in their fourth public meeting Tuesday, making no progress toward finding a way to pay for a payroll tax holiday and dimming the prospects that a deal can be struck by the month’s end.

A Senate Democratic offer on unemployment insurance issues is in the works, and Members said they want to pick up the pace of the talks. But — barring a major breakthrough in the next few days, Members acknowledged — the latest high-stakes negotiation in a year of botched cross-party talks will go the way of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction: abject failure.

“I was very discouraged after today’s session,” conferee Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said. “We may be facing what Congress has faced every step of the way — in the super committee, on the debt ceiling.”

All the while, Congressional leaders are sniping at one another from afar and calling into question the very willingness of the other side to come to an agreement on a full-year extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits and lapsing Medicare doctor payments.

“We have significant concerns about whether Senate Democrats are really willing to step up and work with House Republicans on the payroll tax cut bill,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters. “Senate Democrats have never come to the table with a plan to offset this new spending that they’re all for. And I’m concerned about the actions that they’ve taken.”

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leaders continued to put pressure on the conference committee, with Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) telling reporters Tuesday that the panel needs to come up with a product by early next week.

“We need an agreement next Monday or Tuesday. Otherwise, we’ll have to go to the floor with something,” said Reid, who last week said he had begun preparing a “backup” plan.

The back-and-forth was enough to drive House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, the conference committee’s co-chairman, to call for both sides to back off.

“Frankly, I guess my only point would be: Let’s let the conferees work,” the Michigan Republican said. “I don’t think the comments from either side of leadership from either body are particularly helpful.”

Camp’s counterpart, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), will present a second offer on unemployment insurance this week, this time dealing with the major points of contention.

 The House-approved bill cuts the weeks of eligibility to 59 from 99 and allows states to require drug testing and education thresholds.

But, as has been the case all along, the two sides are far apart on how to pay for the policies. Tuesday’s meeting was the first to even broach the topic, but three proposals floated by the House GOP to offset $70 billion were unceremoniously shot down by Democrats in an often testy meeting.

Republicans broached a pay freeze for federal workers and a reduction to Medicare subsidies for seniors with a retirement income of $80,000 or more. They also proposed an increase to the maximum amount of money that must be paid back if someone receives a greater subsidy than he or she is entitled to under health exchanges created by President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Democrats accused Republicans of cherry-picking policies from Obama’s deficit reduction proposals instead of taking into consideration the full proposal, which also included their favored surtax on millionaires.

“If we’re serious, we’re going to have to compromise,” Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) told Camp in one of the more-heated exchanges of the meeting. “But to go through this list that you are isolating, I’m not so sure is helpful to reaching an agreement on a set of offsets that I think we should get to.”

Republicans, on the other hand, hold that Democrats are harping on the millionaire tax when the proposal has already been shot down several times in the Senate.

Further complicating things is the fact that Senate Democrats have their annual retreat today, disrupting the workweek, and both chambers are scheduled to recess the week of Feb. 20.

There have been discussions about another short-term extension, and though both parties have expressed an outward reluctance to make such a move, the difference between Republicans and Democrats might yet again be too great to resolve.

“I guess the time-honored response in Washington is to split the difference, and the other one is, ‘Didn’t we just do this on a short-term basis?’ So I would just say that I hope it doesn’t get to that,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said.

Earlier Tuesday, in a demonstration of the stickiness of the situation, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) sent a letter to Camp asking him to consider keeping current levels of jobless benefits in states such as Nevada, where unemployment has run rampant. Heller is up for re-election this November.

“As the Conference Committee sets priorities, I urge you to preserve unemployment benefits at their current levels in states like Nevada that continue experiencing high unemployment,” Heller wrote.

Senate Republicans have not formally put forth a position on the change to the unemployment system, but sources close to the committee suggest their general position aligns with their House counterparts.

Energy and Commerce Committee Leaders Set the Record Straight on Keystone 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – The Energy and Commerce committee held opening statements yesterday on the markup of H.R. 3548, the North American Energy Access Act. Republican members touted the pipeline’s numerous economic and energy security benefits while some Democrats attempted to distract the debate by suggesting the pipeline would be built to facilitate oil exports.

 

“This argument is nothing more than red herring,” said Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY).

 

Whitfield pointed to a Department of Energy memorandum which refutes Democrats’ argument that the oil transported by Keystone would be sent to China, concluding Gulf Coast refineries will likely consume additional Canadian oil sands well in excess of what would be provided by the Keystone XL pipeline. It also concludes that exports of Canadian oil sands from Port Arthur, Texas, are unlikely.

 

To suggest the Keystone XL pipeline would be built to ship oil to China defies both common sense and economic sense. If the goal were to get Canadian oil to Asian markets, it would be far easier to build a much shorter pipeline to the west and ship the oil to China—a project Canada is considering now that President Obama has further-delayed the pipeline’s construction.

 

“We have been told that the new pipeline is not designed to increase supplies here, but rather to export supplies from the Gulf to other countries, including China. But that doesn’t pass the common sense test,” said Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). “The real risk of losing out on this energy comes from not building the pipeline. If the U.S. refuses to allow this project to move forward, then not a single drop will come through Keystone XL to refiners in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. The Canadian government would have little choice, as they have made clear, but to pursue other markets for its growing oil production, including construction of a pipeline to the Pacific coast for export to China.”

 

The U.S. needs oil to supply our refineries and fuel our economy, but our oil supply is currently threatened by instability and political turmoil in nations that may not share our interests, or may be outright hostile towards us. The primary benefit of linking Canadian supplies to U.S. refineries and markets is not to export petroleum products, but rather to increase our energy supplies from our friend and ally so that we can displace imports from unfriendly nations.

 

“The Keystone XL pipeline will greatly enhance America’s energy security. With this proposed pipeline our crude imports from Canada could reach 4 million barrels a day by 2020, twice what we currently import from the Persian gulf. Enhancing our energy partnership from Canada will strengthen America’s energy future. Each additional drop of oil from Canada offsets a drop of OPEC oil,” said Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), author of H.R. 3548.

The U.S. is both the largest importer of oil and the world’s largest consumer of petroleum products. Common sense dictates that the goods from Keystone XL will get consumed here in the U.S., but flexibility is essential to a functional market. Factors such as economic ups and downs and energy efficiency gains have a major impact on our energy needs at any given time. But one thing that won’t fluctuate is our need for jobs—including those that will be created to build this pipeline. To punish refiners and manufacturers with unnecessary restrictions would be counterproductive.

Main Street member Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA) delivered the Weekly Republican Address this week.  You can find the video of his address here.