Tag: steny hoyer
Danziger: Madam Speaker!

Danziger: Madam Speaker!

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.

Can Congress Be Responsible?

Can Congress Be Responsible?

WASHINGTON — There was a moment in the last quarter-century when the Congress of the United States made the nation proud. It did so across all its usual lines of division: Republican and Democratic, conservative and liberal, hawk and dove.

In early January 1991, the Senate and the House staged searching and often eloquent debates over the first President Bush’s decision to wage a war to end Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait. The arguments, a prelude to votes on resolutions endorsing military action, were almost entirely free of partisan rancor and the usual questioning of adversaries’ motives.

The war was so successful we now forget how divided Congress was. In the Senate, the vote was 52 to 47, with 10 Democrats crossing party lines to embrace  the Republican president’s policy. The House backed the war resolution, 250 to 183. Roughly a third of Democrats voted yes.

Far from leaving the country torn and bitter, the debate brought us together. No one on either side pretended that the choice was easy. And staging congressional consideration of the decision to act in Kuwait after the 1990 election meant that short-term political strategies were not dragged into a debate about longer-term global strategy.

One person who remembers that earlier debate is Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House minority whip, so it’s not surprising that he has proposed that Congress hold a full debate about President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State after this fall’s elections.

In an interview last week, Hoyer said he believes the president already has the authority to act. But voters have a right to expect Congress to take a stand on a matter this serious, and he added that “we are stronger if we are acting in concert in a bipartisan way.” Hoyer proposes a two-step process involving, first, quick congressional approval of Obama’s proposal to train and arm Syrian rebels, and then a broader debate about the president’s overall policy after the country votes on Nov. 4.

Hoyer’s idea is wise for another reason that a practicing politician probably can’t voice: A post-election vote accepts that politics is what it is. We can get all moralistic about this. We can sermonize that politicians should always vote their consciences and should never, ever think about their own fates or the fate of their party. But to say this is to demand a degree of selflessness from men and women in the political trade that we never ask of anyone else — with the exception, of course, of our soldiers in combat.

And let’s face the fact that most politicians and the vast majority of our citizens typically feel a much larger investment in matters outside the realm of foreign policy. Most care primarily about the impact the elections will have on taxes, spending, economics or social issues. When politicians debate war policy, they shouldn’t be worrying about electoral outcomes that will affect all these other concerns in the next Congress.

A post-election debate would make it easier for Republicans who support the president’s policy to say why, and for Democrats who oppose it to ask the difficult questions his approach invites. Both sides could more frankly weigh the costs involved against other priorities.

The major objection to Hoyer’s plan is that delaying a full debate is itself  irresponsible and the president shouldn’t be acting without a new congressional vote.

Here again, the parallel with 1991 is instructive.

Without congressional authorization, Bush had already sent 500,000 American troops to Saudi Arabia to prepare for war. He insisted he did not need Congress’ approval to put them into action. His request for a resolution was essentially a courtesy. It came just a week before the deadline he had set for Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait — and, as it happened, just nine days before the war started.

There is reason to admire Bush for waiting. Politically, he might have profited from making the war an issue in the 1990 midterm campaign. He preferred to wait. The second President Bush demanded a congressional vote on the Iraq War in the fall of 2002, before the midterms. This almost certainly helped Republican candidates and drew additional votes for his policy from Democrats fearful of bucking the president so soon after Sept. 11, 2001. But the result was a politicized debate that did not help build consensus. This came back to haunt the 43rd president.

We need a responsible Congress to begin the search for a sustainable foreign policy. An unconstrained debate after this fall’s campaign is the place to start.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.

Photo: Ralph Alswang/Center For American Progress Action Fund/Flickr

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U.S. Senators Strike Deal To Extend Jobless Insurance

U.S. Senators Strike Deal To Extend Jobless Insurance

Washington (AFP) – U.S. senators struck a bipartisan deal to reinstate emergency benefits for two million of America’s long-term unemployed, easing a months-long congressional impasse.

A group of 10 senators thrashed out the agreement, which would extend for five more months the benefits that ran out in late 2013 amid congressional bickering over how to pay for the insurance.

President Barack Obama had pushed hard for an extension of the emergency benefits last year, but the effort fell apart, leaving 1.3 million jobless in the lurch when their standard 26 weeks of jobless aid expired.

“The president has repeatedly called on Congress to take action on a compromise solution to extend this vital lifeline for millions of hard-working Americans as they look for work and support their families,” a White House statement said.

“This is not just the right thing to do for these Americans looking for work, it’s the right thing to do for our economy.”

Lawmakers stressed that the latest compromise is fully paid for, in part through “pension-smoothing” provisions that were set to expire, and by an extension of customs user fees through 2024.

It would also include skills assessment and referral programs to help get people back into the workforce, and would bar all millionaires from collecting the unemployment insurance.

The cost of the current compromise was not immediately clear, but a proposed three-month extension that failed to pass Congress in December carried a price tag of $6.5 billion.

“We’re not at the finish line yet, but this is a bipartisan breakthrough,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed, an architect of the deal, said in a statement.

The measure will likely need to clear a 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate before going to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where it could face opposition from fiscal conservatives.

But lawmakers sounded confident that the agreement they worked out had traction.

“Restoring this much-needed economic lifeline will help job seekers, boost our economy and provide a little certainty to families, businesses and the markets that Congress is capable of coming together to do the right thing,” Reed added.

Senator Dean Heller, the agreement’s chief Republican author, applauded colleagues on both sides.

“This deal extends these important benefits for five months, pays for them and brings buy-in from both sides of the aisle,” he said.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer warned that “every week Congress fails to act will see another 72,000 Americans lose access to this emergency insurance and states lose $400 million in economic activity.”

“Once the Senate has acted, I hope House Republicans will work with us to approve a bill quickly that can restore peace of mind to those who continue to search for work,” Hoyer added.

AFP Photo/Mark Wilson