Republicans block action on Bush trade pacts (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked action on three free trade agreements they have long supported to protest against President Barack Obama's decision to include a retraining program for workers hurt by trade in one of the bills.

"We gave the administration fair warning on this," said Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, referring to the fight over the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

"We made it clear time and time again that we would not stomach attaching a program as big as this on to these agreements. The president knew where we stood and he decided to ignore those who don't agree with him," he told reporters.

The deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia are expected to boost exports by $13 billion, helping to support or create tens of thousands of jobs.

But the dispute clouds chances of their approval by the end of July, as both the Obama administration and many Republicans have said they want.

Democrats accused Republicans of a political stunt aimed at hurting Obama ahead of the 2012 presidential elections, after demanding for years he send the deals to Congress for a vote.

"Today the agreements were there -- and Senate Finance Committee Republicans were not," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

"Americans need their leaders at work -- in their seats, eyes on the ball, pushing every day to enact policies that create jobs here at home, advance this country's economic recovery, and help our working families."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus canceled a Thursday meeting of the panel after the Republican boycott.

Hatch said Republicans were making a principled stand and tried to persuade Democrats to reschedule the meeting to give senators more time to review the legislation and the 97 amendments expected to be offered.

"Why isn't this reasonable to give the senators on the committee the time to consider these agreements? What is the White House afraid of?" Hatch said.

$1 BILLION A YEAR

TAA was broadened in 2009 to cover more workers and provide more healthcare assistance. But those new benefits, which boosted the cost of the program to about $1 billion per year, expired early this year and Republicans in the House of Representatives, fresh from their victory at the polls in November, balked at renewing them.

That made Obama's job to win approval of the trade pacts more politically difficult since many Democrats blame previous agreements for the loss of manufacturing jobs.

In May, the White House warned it would not send the trade deals to Congress for votes until there was also a deal to renew TAA. They negotiated a compromise TAA program with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Republican, and stuck it in the implementing bill for the South Korea deal, although Camp did not agree to that move.

Baucus, a Democrat, said U.S. exporters would pay a price for the setback.

"Every day we delay, we lose ground to our competitors. Tomorrow, Korea's trade agreement with the European Union goes into force. In August, Colombia's deal with Canada enters into force," said Baucus.

He said after the aborted meeting that he still hoped for action in July on the pacts.

The House Ways and Means Committee could take up the agreements next week, but Republicans in that chamber also are insisting on a separate vote on TAA.

The three deals were signed during the administration of former Republican President George W. Bush and have been languishing for more than four years.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a letter to Baucus and Hatch, said it strongly supported both the trade deals and renewal of TAA, as well as two trade programs for developing countries included in the Senate draft version of the Colombia implementing bill.

"A U.S. Chamber study has warned that the United States would lose more than 380,000 jobs and $40 billion in export sales if the pending agreements suffer further delays," said R. Bruce Josten, the group's executive vice president.

(Additional reporting by Donna Smith; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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How Michele Bachmann's Surge Reshuffles the GOP Presidential Race (Time.com)

Last week's Des Moines Register poll tells us - assuming nothing actually happens in Iowa over the next six months - that about 22% of the 125,000 or so Hawkeyes most likely to show up for next year's Republican caucus will do so intending to vote for Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

The Bachmann Express is the first big surge by a fresh face in the 2012 Republican primary sweepstakes. Reporters have dropped their obsession with Sarah Palin and scampered in Bachmann's direction like dogs ditching chewed-up bones for a fresh slice of porterhouse. Liberals already nervous about the President's failures on the economy and his cynical wiggling on gay marriage now curse at a new villain on their television screens, secretly hoping Tina Fey does something and quick, because this new GOP bogeywoman seems far more polished, and therefore more worrisome, than Palin ever was. GOP professionals curse under their breath and reach for another Excedrin. Damn, they say, what is it about our party base and hopelessly unelectable women in snappy outfits? (See Michele Bachmann in the 2011 TIME 100.)

Meanwhile, poor Tim Pawlenty thumbs through the St. Paul Yellow Pages looking for a discreet therapist. For years, Bachmann sat howling on the noisy backbenches in the Minnesota senate while Pawlenty became the Sun King of state Republican power. Now Bachmann is the new Queen of Iowa, and Pawlenty, at 6% in the Register poll, cannot get arrested. That and a slew of bad press reviews after his New Hampshire debate performance have put his fundraising prospects in peril.

What to make of all this? For starters, a Bachmann candidacy is catnip for the social-conservative wing of the GOP. It's been waiting for a true believer, and unless Texas Governor Rick Perry decides to jump in late, Bachmann can grab a sizable piece of the GOP base, especially in Iowa and South Carolina. Her narrative of a tax lawyer turned antigovernment crusader is the perfect Tea Party rewrite of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. (See a review of Bachmann's performance at the New Hampshire Republican debate.)

Already, the Bachmann boomlet has reset the expectations game in Iowa. The odds on Palin's jumping into the race lengthen once again. With Pawlenty fighting to survive in Iowa, Jon Huntsman has an easier shot at breaking through in New Hampshire. The Huntsman hype machine must switch from selling the idea of his candidacy to reporters to selling the man himself to real voters. Without stronger New Hampshire poll numbers in the fall, the only precinct Huntsman is likely to carry will be the Morning Joe?roundtable. The hopeful news for both Pawlenty and Huntsman is that for most primary voters, the campaign has yet to begin.

Finally, the billion-watt electron microscopes of the national media will soon be trained on Bachmann now that she's the Official Iowa Front Runner. I'll bet dollars to Minnesota lutefisk that despite her new squad of professional handlers, we are in for more of Bachmann's factual fumbles. Her latest mix-up, confusing beloved American icon John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, hints that Michele's next moves on the national stage may receive more than a few boos and flying vegetables from the voting public. While media criticism of her factually erroneous rhetoric will only help her with her populist base, what is gold for America's comedians is a 500-ton lead sinker for any candidate trying to build enough partywide support to actually win the Republican nomination. (See portraits of the Tea Party movement.)

This is why the uncontrolled giggling you hear coming from behind the big blue curtain is from Mitt Romney, who must be delirious with joy. For Romney, a two-way contest with Bachmann is a strategic dream come true. (Disclaimer: I worked for Romney in 2002.) It would draw attention and money away from his two real rivals, Huntsman and Pawlenty, and give him a simple race against a candidate who would remove much of the ambivalence many big-league Republicans still harbor about him. Make no mistake: faced with the terrifying prospect of nominating Bachmann and handing the presidency to Obama, the Republican establishment would rally hard and fast behind Romney. And while a unified Republican establishment in full combat mode cannot compete with the Tea Party when it comes to making cardboard Uncle Sam hats, GOP Inc. can easily crush a candidate like Bachmann over the full series of primaries.

But for now, front runner Romney is more than happy to lie low and let Bachmann eclipse the rest of the GOP field. For now, Michele Bachmann is the change Mitt Romney's been waiting for.

See photos of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

See photos of the Republicans invading New Hampshire for the first debate.

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Michigan Rep. McCotter to run for president (The Ticket)

(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Little-known Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan on Friday called on Americans to "Seize Freedom" via his newly unveiled presidential campaign website following reports the conservative Republican is planning to officially enter the 2012 race.

Advisers to McCotter told USA Today Thursday that the lawmaker will kick off his presidential campaign Saturday in his home state of Michigan. He will make his plans official today, Politico reports, by filing presidential paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and other reports indicate the announcement will be made Saturday in his home of Livonia.

As The Ticket has reported, McCotter has been inserting himself into 2012 discussions, even going so far as to offer some less-than-friendly advice to members of the burgeoning 2012 GOP field.

His representative made a scene at last week's preparation for the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. Kellie Paschke, an Iowa-based conservative lobbyist working informally with McCotter, attempted to participate in the traditional "buy-in" for the poll (an auction where campaigns bid on plots of land on which to host straw poll supporters) without identifying for whom she was bidding.

After participants stormed out in protest, Paschke identified herself and successfully bid $18,000 to secure a plot for the Aug. 13, 2011 event for McCotter.

In the run-up to his campaign rollout this weekend, McCotter has been talking to the press about themes he hopes the build his campaign around: fiscal discipline, challenges created by globalism, and core Republican principles including smaller government.

McCotter pledged on ABC's politics webcast "Top Line" last week to offer blunt honesty to the American people. "I have no doubt that if I run I will be reviled across the country in many quarters," he said, arguing that unlike other candidates he won't change his position to suit a particular audience. The lawmaker said voters "have to hear an honest difference of opinion."

McCotter has served as a Michigan congressman since 2003 but holds virtually no national profile--a major obstacle for his projected presidential run. He is known for holding staunchly conservative positions as well for his willingness to buck his party on issues of importance to his home state and on proposals he believes defy his core principals, such as the financial bailout.

And for all those lamenting the absence of bass player Mike Huckabee from the 2012 race, take heart--McCotter is an avid guitarist.

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Special session ends 170-day Perry, GOP dominance (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Gov. Rick Perry and fellow state Republicans spent the last six months flexing their political muscle and emerged from the Legislature's 30-day special session boasting significant victories, while sidestepping two notable defeats.

Lawmakers left town Wednesday after voting to cut $4 billion from public education in the final piece of deep state budget cuts over the next two years, approved new congressional districts for the 2012 elections and reforms to the state hurricane insurance association.

But two of Perry's priority items — an illegal immigration enforcement bill and a measure to curtail invasive body searches of air travellers — failed to pass. Still, the outspoken state leader who is considering a presidential run congratulated Republicans for using their massive numbers in the House and Senate to pass an agenda fueled by tea party conservatives.

"The decisions made were difficult, but lawmakers should take pride in the fact that they did what families all across Texas are doing: living within their means," Perry said, touting the fiscal conservative message that has become his hallmark.

After landslide elections in 2010, Republicans held a 101-49 supermajority in the House and a 19-12 edge in the Senate.

With those numbers behind him, Perry pushed the Legislature to pass a balanced budget without raising taxes. The result was a $15 billion reduction that prompted protests that lawmakers were cutting too deep in social services and education in the $172 billion overall spending plan.

Republicans shoved aside Democrats to pass several of Perry's priority items, including a measure requiring pregnant women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound performed, a bill requiring voters to present photo identification before casting ballots and a "loser pays" bill aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits. Perry and Republicans knew they had limited time to use their unprecedented power.

Republicans' 101-member majority in the House likely won't last beyond 2012 when new voting districts will pit several GOP lawmakers against each other and Democrats are expected to pick up seats in new districts dominated by Hispanic voters. Even if they aren't likely to grab a majority, more seats in the House would give Democrats a fighting chance to block Republican bills.

Democrats and teachers groups warned the education cuts could lead to firings of thousands of teachers and school staff and rising local property taxes to make up the difference. The cuts sparked several teacher rallies and harsh words from liberal groups, who argued the state should use an estimated $10 billion in reserve funds, a move Perry flatly rejected.

"This Legislature will go down in the history books as the worst for public education in a generation," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio. "Now it's time for legislators to go home and explain to their communities why they voted for or against these historic education cuts. I imagine they will be a few uncomfortable town hall meetings."

Even some Republicans acknowledged the school cut was a tough vote. Several Republicans representing rural districts voted against the measure on Tuesday before turning around an hour later to pass it. Democrats said the Republican agenda was fueled by the political ambitions of Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican who is considering a run for U.S. Senate.

"The regular and special session were dominated by 'red meat' partisan wedge issues that divide Texans at a time we should be working together to secure our future," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. Democrats made desperate bids to block Perry's agenda but had few weapons at their disposal.

Voting rules in the regular session gave Democrats just enough votes to block a bill allowing concealed handgun license holders to bring their weapons into college classrooms. Perry was forced to call the special session when a filibuster by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, killed the school cuts bill without of a Senate vote.

But even that move was only temporary as Perry called the special session the next day.

Democrats got a boost from some unusual allies to block the immigration enforcement bill.

Perry and the Republican leadership wanted to give police more authority to ask people they detain about their citizenship status. Perry said it would help police crack down on crime by illegal immigrants. Hispanic Democrats called it racist and a tool to harass Latinos.

The immigration bill passed the House in the regular session and a new version passed the Senate in the special session. But it lost momentum when business groups typically allied with Perry lobbied to kill the bill without a final vote in the House in the final days of the special session.

The airport pat-down bill also died in the special session without a final House vote. Perry and the House blamed Senate Republicans, who in turn told Perry to back off and blamed the House. Perry then flew to California to give a speech and fuel more speculation that he'll run for president.

"It took a little longer than any of us wanted, but we're finally closing very successful and productive, although difficult, legislative sessions," Republican House Speaker Joe Straus said

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Recess canceled; Senate to work next week on debt (AP)

WASHINGTON – The Senate canceled its planned July Fourth recess on Thursday, but partisan divisions remained razor sharp as the clock ticked on efforts to strike a deal to avoid a government default and trim huge federal deficits.

A day after President Barack Obama accused congressional leaders of procrastinating over the impasse, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced that the chamber would meet beginning next Tuesday. The Republican-run House is not in session this week but had already been scheduled to be at work next week.

Despite the Senate's schedule change, there was no indication the two sides had progressed in resolving their chief disagreement. Democrats insist that a deficit-cutting package of deep spending cuts also include higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans and fewer tax breaks for oil companies. Republicans say any such agreement would be defeated in Congress, a point Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made anew when he invited Obama to meet with GOP lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

"That way he can hear directly from Republicans why what he's proposing won't pass," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "And we can start talking about what's actually possible."

McConnell's invitation seemed almost like a taunt, since well before McConnell spoke the White House had announced that Obama was heading to Philadelphia to attend Democratic fundraising events.

White House spokesman Jay Carney defended Obama's decision to attend the fundraisers, saying, "We can walk and chew gum at the same time." He also said McConnell had merely "invited the president to hear what would not pass. That's not a conversation worth having."

The Obama administration has warned that if the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit is not raised by Aug. 2, the U.S. will face its first default ever, potentially throwing world financial markets into turmoil, raising interest rates and threatening the economic recovery. Many congressional Republicans indicate they're unconvinced that such scenarios would occur, and some administration officials worry that it could take a financial calamity before Congress acts.

One Democratic official familiar with the debt talks said the real deadline for reaching an bipartisan agreement on the debt and deficit reduction is mid-July, in order to give congressional leaders time to win votes and put final details of a deal into shape. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of private negotiations.

Obama has said that in talks, Republican and Democratic negotiators have found more than $1 trillion in potential spending cuts over the coming decade, including reductions favored by both sides.

The Democratic official said Thursday that of those cuts, roughly $200 billion would come mainly from savings from Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health insurance programs for the poor and elderly.

Another $200 billion would come from cuts in other automatically paid benefit programs, including farm subsidies. Another large chunk would come from cuts in discretionary spending that Congress approves every year — presumably over $1 trillion, which is more than the White House but less than Republicans have proposed.

Both sides would then also count whatever interest savings they achieve through those deficit cuts.

The White House is also proposing about $400 billion in higher tax revenues. Republicans want no tax increases and deeper spending cuts than Democrats have proposed.

The overall goal would be to cut at least $2 trillion over 10 years.

Increasing the current borrowing limit by about $2.4 trillion would carry the government until the end of 2012 — thereby avoiding another congressional vote on the issue until after the next presidential and congressional elections. Republicans have insisted on coupling any extension with at least an equal amount of budget savings.

For next week, Reid laid plans for the Senate to debate legislation authorizing U.S. involvement in Libya. He told reporters that Democratic senators would also discuss the deficit standoff with Obama next Wednesday at the Capitol or the White House, meet with administration economic advisers and learn about a deficit-cutting plan crafted by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

"What we have to do is too important to not be here," Reid said.

But GOP senators belittled the plans, saying little would be achieved.

"Talk about Libya? How does that answer the concerns expressed by the president" about the debt limit, said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

A confrontational tone dominated the day, with each side accusing the other of lacking seriousness about finding a way to extend the debt ceiling.

"Where is the president? Campaigning," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., one of a parade of GOP senators who took to the Senate floor to accuse Obama of not tackling the deficit standoff. "We're here, Mr. President."

Democrats focused on the GOP refusal to consider tax increases, including loophole closers Democrats have proposed on companies that ship jobs abroad and on wealthy owners of yachts, race horses and aircraft.

"Protecting them is not protecting America," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democratic leader.

The stakes of the debate were underscored when a Standard & Poor's executive said the credit-rating agency would give the government its lowest rating should lawmakers fail to agree on raising the borrowing limit and cause a federal default.

Should that occur, S&P would drop the U.S. rating of AAA to D, John Chambers, managing director of sovereign ratings for the company, said on Bloomberg Television.

The United States pays an average of about 3 percent on its existing debt, according to the Treasury Department. In 2010, that added up to $197 billion in interest payments.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects interest paid will rise from $463 billion by 2015. That's under the assumption that the U.S. keeps its AAA credit rating. A D rating from Standard & Poor's would force the government to pay sharply higher interest rates.

Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, noted that one of the biggest challenges if the U.S. defaults would be finding enough investors who could buy junk-rated bonds. Pension funds and other institutional investors who buy a large number of Treasurys aren't generally allowed to buy securities with such low credit ratings.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

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Buzz Aldrin Breaks with Obama, Lobbies GOP Candidates for Space Exploration (ContributorNetwork)

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, addressed a business conference in Ann Arbor, Mich., Wednesday and called for a "coordinated, international initiative to expand space exploration," according to Ann Arbor.com.

Aldrin indicated that he had become disenchanted with President Obama, especially due to his failure to even acknowledge the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's speech to a joint session of Congress to land a man on the Moon. Previously, Aldrin had supported Obama's space policy that canceled the Constellation program to send astronauts back to the Moon and instead send them to an Earth-approaching asteroid. Subsequently, Aldrin seemed to change his mind and endorse a return to the Moon goal as part of a larger space exploration program after all.

Aldrin also announced his intention to lobby the Republican presidential candidates on the subject of space exploration.

Aldrin's breaking with President Obama, whose space policy he used to support, represents a growing discontent among supporters of that policy about its efficacy and the seriousness of the president in pursuing it. Aldrin sat in the audience at the Kennedy Space Center during the president's April 15, 2010, speech in which Obama announced the mission to an asteroid goal. Clearly he regrets having taken that route, which was at odds with many of his fellow Apollo astronauts.

Aldrin's new mission to talk to the Republican presidential candidates about space exploration is a daunting one indeed. Whatever the benefits of space exploration, the debt crisis is still upon the United States. Budget cutting rather than spending on new programs is all the rage in Washington. Any idea of augmenting NASA's budget to pursue space exploration beyond low Earth orbit will be a tough sale indeed.

Still, President Obama's stewardship of the nation's space program, which has thrown it into chaos, with finger-pointing and blame shifting between NASA, Congress, and various factions of space activists, is certainly a potential issue. Space could bound up many larger themes of American exceptionalism, economic vitality, and national security. One or more of Obama's political opponents, if he or she is adroit enough, could go far with space as an issue.

The trick, of course, for a presidential candidate would be how to propose the kind of spending a space exploration program would require while calling for deep spending cuts everywhere else in the federal budget. The demagoguery about "favoring Mars over kids and seniors" practically writes itself.

There will also be the problem of sorting out various space proposals. Some will want to send astronauts directly to Mars. Others favor the Moon. And there is also the vexing problem of how best to encourage the development of a commercial space industry.

Aldrin should be congratulated for facing reality and setting out to rectify the damage he helped cause the nation's space program. Certainly any presidential candidate would profit by giving him a hearing. But his should not be the only advice listened to by anyone who wants to include space as an issue in pursuit of the presidency.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

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Huntsman’s son crashes Romney rally (The Ticket)

(Mel Evans/AP)

Will Huntsman, teenage son of Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, was spotted at a rally for his dad's competitor Mitt Romney in Salt Lake City Wednesday.

Sporting a fresh buzz cut in preparation for his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy, Huntsman's son made it to the front of the line, where Romney was shaking hands with supporters.

The Salt Lake Tribune has the details and the picture:

"Will Huntsman created a small headache for the presidential campaign of his dad — Jon Huntsman — when he flashed a "hang loose" sign and asked a buddy to snap a photo of him mugging with rival White House hopeful Mitt Romney.

...

"As Romney worked the rope line, Will Huntsman found his way to the front and was photographed posing — with pinky and thumb extended — with the former Massachusetts governor, arguably Jon Huntsman's chief competitor."

Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller told the Tribune that Will "wanted to see another campaign event" and "it was not his intention to be disrespectful in any way." For good measure, Miller added that the young Huntsman still supports his dad's bid for the White House.

Huntsman and Romney, distantly related, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and both have deep roots in Utah. Huntsman served as governor of the state until 2009 and Romney directed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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