All Blog Posts Tagged 'congress' (39)

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The dust had barely settled on the Senate’s vote to shortstop the GOP filibuster against the compromise deal that some GOP and conservative Democratic senators brokered on the gun control bill before other GOP and conservative Democratic senators began pecking away at it. The deal was to support background checks for private gun sales, and other lessor gun curb measures. The list of ways that these senators can dither,…

Earl Ofari…

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THE WHITE HOUSE

EMBARGOED UNTIL THE START OF THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS

January 16, 2013

Attached are a fact sheet and executive summary on the package of proposals to reduce gun violence and a list of gun violence reduction…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

President Obama’s unilateral White House action on gun control is a good start. But Obama took the action precisely because he knows that gun control legislation is a virtual dead letter in Congress at least for the time being. To force the issue, Obama would have to spend precious time, energy, and resources jawboning anti-gun control congressional Democrats, wage an all-out battle with the gun lobby, and the NRA, and…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell drew much derision, snickers, and ridicule for falling flat in fulfilling his oft repeated goal to make President Obama a one term president. Obama’s smash electoral vote and solid popular vote win made the GOP’s aim seem more comical. The fiscal cliff battle seemed to render it even more absurd. Obama was the big winner. He preserved the Bush tax cuts for the middle and working class,…

Congresswoman Maxine Waters appearing on The Hutchinson Report News Talk Show on Pacifica Radio on Saturday, January 5 hosted by political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson warned that she and other ranking Congressional Democrats will vigorously oppose proposed draconian slashes by GOP House members to vital programs for working persons and the needy. Waters is the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee. She said that the…

Hutchinson Report Town Hall of the Air

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The last minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff brought fiscal relief, but that relief will be short lived. A year ago GOP congressional leaders made clear that if they have their way they will weld the meat ax on vital domestic programs. In March, they will get their chance. This time they have the cover and leverage of the debt ceiling battle, and they will be under even fiercer pressure from conservatives not to make any more…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

GOP congressional leaders and officials never tire of accusing President Obama of trying to blame them for the chaos that would result if the nation tumbles over the fiscal cliff. They are right and they deserve every bit of the blame for pushing the nation to the budget brink. Surveys and polls consistently show that the overwhelming majority of Americans say that they want a deal on the budget, and that deal must include the…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

President Obama took much heat a year ago when he floated a series of proposed budget cuts that would have slashed programs for the poor. The cuts would have reduced funding or eliminated out right community service block grants that fund an array of community education, health and social service programs in poor, underserved, largely inner-city neighborhoods, cut programs in science, technology, youth mentoring programs, and…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

This past September the National Rifle Association swung into high gear. It posted these blunt action alerts on its website to its tens of thousands of members and backers. “Senator Ben Nelson needs to go.” Outgoing Nebraska Senator Nelson’s alleged sin was that he helped put Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. It reminded its supporters that the Nebraska Senator can’t be a pro-gun senator when he backs anti-gun judges. It’s…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers implored President Obama to simply issue executive orders toughening gun curbs. They made their impassioned plea three years before the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. They and others will make even more impassioned pleas to Obama to put his executive pen to paper and enact one or more measures that put some clamps on the types of guns that can be bought and sold and who…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The Sandy Hook Elementary School monstrous massacre guaranteed that the heat will be turned up on President Obama to take the “meaningful action” that he called for on gun control. The heat is justified, but it’s not the White House that has routinely killed life-saving gun control measures during the past decade. It’s been Congress.

 The spectacular scope and magnitude of the congressional wipe out is barely known to the…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

A compassionate and tearful President Obama minced no words following the Sandy Hook, Connecticut school massacre and demanded action. Though Obama did not specify what action he had in mind, the action that has and will again spark colossal debate is how to crack down on the manic and senseless gun violence that has caused indescribable pain and suffering for so many victims, and now those victims are the innocent of…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The resignation of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint from the Senate followed close on the heels of the desertion from the Tea Party of Freedom Works head Dick Armey took some by surprise. DeMint and Armey were the two biggest and most identifiable fish in the Tea Party affiliated pond. DeMint could be relied on to broker his name ID and prodigious fund raising prowess to every Tea Party backed Senatorial candidate—and…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

House Speaker John Boehner didn’t bother to go through the pretense of recommending more women and minorities to chair House committees. All nineteen of his chair picks were white men. The committee chairs determine what legislation gets heard or stonewalled in the House. So Boehner’s naked move to assure that white guys still rule in the House seemingly makes mockery of all the GOP’s big post election…