10—Cleveland Daily Banner—Sunday, January 3, 2016
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Health care repeal vote to open a political year in Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been
like a long-delayed New Year’s
resolution for Republicans. But
2016 will finally be the year
when they put legislation on
President Barack Obama’s desk
repealing his health care law.
The bill undoing the president’s prized overhaul will be the
first order of business when the
House reconvenes this coming
week, marking a sharply partisan start on Capitol Hill to a congressional year in which legislating may take a back seat to politics.
There are few areas of potential compromise between Obama
and the GOP majority in the
House and Senate in this election year, but plenty of opportunities for political haymaking
during the presidential campaign
season.
Obama will veto the health law
repeal bill, which also would cut
money for Planned Parenthood.
The measure already has passed
the Senate under special rules
protecting it from Democratic
obstruction. But that’s the point
for Republicans, who intend to
schedule a veto override vote for
Jan. 22, when anti-abortion
activists hold their annual march
in Washington to mark the
anniversary of the Supreme
Court decision in 1973 that
legalized abortion.
Despite dozens of past votes to
repeal the health law in full or in
part, Republicans never before
have succeeded in sending a full
repeal bill to the White House.
They insist that doing so will ful-
fill promises to their constituents
while highlighting the clear
choice facing voters in the
November presidential election.
Every Republican candidate
has pledged to undo the health
law. The Democrats running for
president would keep it in place.
“You’re going to see us put a
bill on the president’s desk going
after Obamacare and Planned
Parenthood so we’ll finally get a
bill on his desk to veto,” House
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told
conservative talk host Bill
Bennett over the holidays.
“Then you’re going to see the
House Republican Conference,
working with our senators, coming out with a bold agenda that
we’re going to lay out for the
country, to say how we would do
things very differently,” Ryan
said.
In the Senate, which reconvenes Jan. 11, a week later than
the House, early action will
include a vote on a proposal by
Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky
Republican who is running for
president, for an “audit” of the
Federal Reserve. Democrats are
likely to block it. But, like the
health repeal bill in the House,
the vote will answer conservative
demands in an election year.
Also expected early in the
Senate’s year is legislation dealing with Syrian refugees, following House passage of a bill
clamping down on the refugee
program. Conservatives were
angry when the year ended without the bill advancing. Senate
Republican
leader
Mitch
Clinton campaign reports
$37M in primary money
WASHINGTON (AP) — allowing Sanders to return
Hillary Clinton’s presiden- to them repeatedly.
While Clinton has built a
tial campaign said Friday it
raised $37 million in the steady lead in national
past three months and more polls, Sanders remains
than $112 million in all of competitive against her in
2015 to support her bid for Iowa and holds a slight
advantage in New
the
Democratic
Hampshire, his New
nomination.
England neighbor
Clinton’s
team
which holds its prialso said she raised
mary on Feb. 9. The
$18 million for the
third
major
D e m o c r a t i c
Democrat in the
National Committee
race,
former
and
state
Maryland
Gov.
Democratic parties
Martin O’Malley,
nationwide in the
has lagged behind
fourth quarter, putClinton
Clinton
and
ting her total haul
Sanders
in
for the past three
months at $55 million. The fundraising and polls.
The Clinton campaign
fundraising for the DNC and
state parties is aimed at said more than 60 percent
helping Clinton in the gen- of its donors in 2015 were
eral election should she win women. It also said 94 percent of the donations it
her party’s nomination.
Clinton’s fourth-quarter received in the fourth quaramount exceeded the $28 ter came in increments of
million she raised in the $100 or less, but it did not
three months that ended say what percentage of its
Sept. 30. Heading into the overall fundraising total
January sprint toward the came from such small-dolleadoff Iowa caucuses on lar donors. The campaign
Feb. 1, Clinton’s campaign spent about $75 million in
said it has nearly $38 mil- 2015, building large organizations in the early voting
lion in cash on hand.
“Thanks to the hundreds states and a data-driven
of thousands of Americans operation to connect with
who have joined together voters.
Helped
by
several
and powered this historic
campaign, we are now head- fundraisers headlined by
President
Bill
ing into Iowa and New former
Hampshire
with
the Clinton, most of Hillary
resources we need to be Clinton’s money came via
fundraising
successful,” campaign man- traditional
ager Robby Mook said in a events, where the price of
statement. Clinton’s cam- entry was often the legal
paign had set a goal of $100 maximum donation of
million for the primary in $2,700 for the primary. The
presidential
candidates
2015.
Clinton’s chief rival, have until Jan. 31 to report
Bernie Sanders, did not such details to federal reguimmediately report his lators.
Clinton isn’t alone in
fundraising totals for the
quarter that ended on Dec. releasing some selective
31. But the Vermont sena- details ahead of that schedtor has collected more than ule. Earlier this week,
2 million individual contri- Republican Texas Sen. Ted
butions and raised money Cruz’s campaign said it had
online at a vigorous pace, raised nearly $20 million in
taking in about $40 million the fourth quarter.
Cruz’s campaign said in a
through
the
end
of
September and ending that memo to supporters that he
period with about $27 mil- will finish the year having
raised more than $45 million in the bank.
His campaign has noted lion, but it did not disclose
that most of its donors have how much the campaign
given in small increments — has spent or how much
about $20 to $30 apiece — cash it has on hand.
Guest lineups for news shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — Guest
lineups for the Sunday TV news
shows:
—ABC’s “This Week” —
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders; Republican
presidential candidate Ben
Carson.
—NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Not
available.
—-
CBS’ “Face the Nation” —
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
—CNN’s “State of the Union” —
Sanders; Republican presidential
candidate Carly Fiorina; Rep.
Dave Brat, R-Va.
—“Fox News Sunday” —
Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Chris
Christie.
McConnell of Kentucky promised
a vote, though without specifying
whether it would be the House
bill or something else.
The House Benghazi committee will continue its investigation
of the attacks that killed four
Americans in Libya in 2012, with
an interview of former CIA
Director David Petraeus on Jan.
6. That comes amid new
Democratic accusations of political motives aimed at Hillary
Clinton after the committee
chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, RS.C., endorsed Sen. Marco
Rubio, R-Fla. for president.
Clinton, the front-runner for the
Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of state at the
time of the Benghazi attacks.
The bold agenda promised by
Ryan after succeeding former
Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as
speaker last fall will begin to take
shape at a House-Senate GOP
retreat this month in Baltimore.
Thus far Ryan has pledged
efforts to overhaul the tax system
and offer a Republican alternative to the health overhaul.
In the Senate, McConnell’s primary focus is protecting the
handful of vulnerable Republican
senators whose seats are at risk
as Democrats fight to regain the
Senate majority they lost a year
ago. That means weighing the
political risks and benefits of
every potential vote to endangered incumbents in Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania
and New Hampshire.
That could determine whether
McConnell allows criminal jus-
AP File Photo
In thIs nov. 22, 2015 file photo, The Capitol dome is seen on Capitol Hill. It’s been like a longdelayed New Year’s resolution for the GOP. But 2016 will finally be the year congressional Republicans
put legislation on President Barack Obama’s desk repealing Obamacare.
tice overhaul legislation — the
one issue cited by Obama and
lawmakers of both parties as ripe
for compromise — to come to the
floor.
McConnell already has suggested that prospects for
approval of Obama’s long-sought
Asia trade pact are dim, and the
senator has ruled out major tax
overhaul legislation as long as
Obama is president.
McConnell could try to put his
thumb on the scales of the pres-
idential race with two GOP senators having emerged as leading
contenders.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has
been a thorn in McConnell’s
side, once calling the GOP
leader a liar, and has frosty
relations with his fellow senators. Rubio is on good terms
with fellow lawmakers and has
been endorsed by several of
them. McConnell could schedule debate on an issue with the
potential to favor Rubio politi-
cally over Cruz, such as
National Security Agency wiretapping authority.
But McConnell insists he is
staying out of it.
“We all have a big stake in
having a nominee for president
who can win, and that means
carrying purple states, and I’m
sure pulling for a nominee who
can do that,” McConnell told
The Associated Press, refusing
to elaborate on who might fit
that description.
Abrasive Cruz tries to use
personality to advantage
MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (AP) —
Ted Cruz’s reputation as an arrogant, grating, in-your-face ideologue has dogged him throughout
the Republican presidential race.
But it hasn’t stopped the Texas
senator’s rise.
Cruz is increasingly embracing
his irascible persona, trying to
turn what could be a liability into
an asset.
“If you want someone to grab a
beer with, I may not be that guy,”
Cruz said at a Republican debate
this fall when asked to describe
his biggest weakness. “But if you
want someone to drive you home,
I will get the job done and I will get
you home.”
Cruz and his supporters relish
his outsider status, highlighting
his
conflicts
with
fellow
Republican senators. Not one has
endorsed him for president.
A group backing Cruz’s candidacy sent out a fundraising email
plea in December with the subject
line “Washington hates Ted Cruz.”
Cruz frequently rails against the
“Washington cartel,” which he
argues is scared that conservatives are uniting behind him, and
says he’s glad that “Washington
elites” despise him.
Cruz supporters, including
some who turned up for a large
rally at an evangelical church
near Richmond, Virginia, in
December, are embracing the
abrasiveness that’s caused Cruz
to clash with other Republicans.
“They view him as a renegade in
the GOP,” said Carter Cobb, 56
and retired from the Navy, from
Mechanicsville, Virginia. “He
doesn’t toe the party line. That’s
what we’re trying to get away
from.”
To Cobb and others, Cruz is the
only candidate willing to make
anyone angry and stand up for
what he believes in.
“It makes me like him all the
more. I’ve always liked people who
were on the outside,” said Daniel
Daehlin, 51, from Richfield,
Minnesota. “Ronald Reagan never
got along with the establishment.
They hated him in 1976 and ‘80. I
like Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington — someone who goes
there, speaks his mind and
doesn’t try to cater to the insidethe-Beltway crowd.”
Myra Simons, a Cruz backer
from Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
agrees.
“Are we going to elect someone
just because you can’t sit across
the table and have dinner with
them?” Simons said. “Or are you
going to stand with someone who
stands with the Constitution and
is serious about the trouble our
country is in?”
Cruz made his reputation in the
Senate by refusing to compromise.
He filibustered for 21 hours
against President Barack Obama’s
health care law. The confrontational strategy he championed
resulted in a 16-day partial government shutdown and alienated
GOP leaders.
But his reading of “Green Eggs
and Ham” during that filibuster
became a seminal moment for
Cruz. He frequently refers to it,
AP File Photo
including in a recent television ad
In
thIs
Dec.
23,
2015 file
he ran in Iowa where he reads to
his two daughters from reimag- photo, Republican presidential
ined holiday stories with a conser- hopeful Ted Cruz speaks in
vative bent such as “The Grinch Oklahoma City.
Who Lost Her Emails.”
While the ad was designed to be would be happier with anyone
funny, Cruz is not known for his other than Cruz as president. “I
sense of humor.
would rather pick somebody from
Foreign Policy magazine once the phone book,” Mazin said.
described him as “the human
But Cruz has shown a lighter
equivalent of one of those flower- side that his campaign says
squirters that clowns wear on demonstrates he’s not as unliktheir lapels.”
able as his reputation suggests.
The national collegiate debating
Cruz acted out scenes from “The
champion has shown his brusque Princess Bride” during a
side in the presidential debates, November interview at WMUR in
including the most recent one in New Hampshire, and that clip has
Las Vegas when he refused to stop been watched more than 250,000
talking even as moderator Wolf times on YouTube. After rival
Blitzer of CNN tried to shut him Donald Trump referred to Cruz as
down.
“a little bit of a maniac,” the Cruz
Craig Mazin, who was Cruz’s campaign tried to laugh it off by
freshman roommate at Princeton, posting a video on Twitter of the
went so far as to tell the Daily song “Maniac” from the film
Beast in a 2013 interview that he “Flashdance.”
Sanders campaign raised $33M since October
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders raised more
than $33 million during the past
three months in his bid to win the
Democratic nomination, his campaign said on Saturday, just
short of the amount brought in
by rival Hillary Clinton during the
same period.
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has now collected $73 million for the primaries
through a powerful online
fundraising apparatus that
should help him compete with
Clinton deep into spring. His haul
will allow him to spend money at
a comparable rate with Clinton,
who raised $37 million since the
beginning of October and $112
million during 2015 for her primary campaign.
“This people-powered campaign is revolutionizing American
politics,” said Jeff Weaver,
Sanders’ campaign manager, in a
statement. “What we are showing
is that we can run a strong,
national campaign without a
super PAC and without depending on millionaires and billionaires for their support. We are
making history, and we are proud
of it.”
Clinton is the Democratic
front-runner in national polls,
but Sanders remains within
striking distance against her in
Iowa, which holds its caucuses
on Feb. 1. Sanders is hoping to
surprise Clinton in Iowa and then
use his New England ties to
defeat her in the New Hampshire
primary on Feb. 9, where polls
have shown him with a slight
advantage.
The campaign finance estimates indicate that Sanders
should have the resources to
mount an effective challenge: His
campaign said it had $28.4 million in the bank at the end of
2015.
Clinton’s campaign, which
spent about $75 million during
2015 to build a large data-driven
organization, ended the year with
$38 million in cash on hand.
Sanders spent about $45 million
in 2015. He stepped up his
expenditures during the fourth
quarter when he began television
advertising and increased the
size of his paid staff in early
states.
Most of Sanders’ fundraising
came through 2.5 million dona-
tions, most of them made online,
a number that his team said surpassed
President
Barack
Obama’s record number of 2.2
million donations in 2011.
Sanders’ average donation was
$27, an amount that will allow
him to return to his contributors
for more money during the
spring. Only a few hundred of his
1 million individual donors gave
the maximum of $2,700 for the
primary, the campaign said.
But Clinton is also helping
build the party for the general
election. She raised $18 million
for the Democratic National
Committee and state Democratic
parties nationwide in the fourth
quarter, putting her total haul for
the past three months at $55 million. The DNC money is aimed at
helping Clinton in the general
election should she win the
party’s nomination.
Sanders, by comparison, did
not raise any money for the DNC
last year, although his campaign
has said it plans to fundraise on
behalf of the national party.
The third major Democrat in
the race, former Maryland Gov.
Martin O’Malley, has not yet provided fundraising estimates for
the quarter but has struggled
against Clinton and Sanders in
both donations and polls.
Both Clinton and Sanders have
raised money at strong clips compared to a large field of
Republicans. Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz’s campaign said it had
raised nearly $20 million in the
fourth quarter and estimated that
he would finish the year having
raised more than $45 million.
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