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Quick Facts
Personal Details

Caucuses/Former Committees

Former Member, Appropriations Committee, United States House of Representatives

Former Member, Banking and Financial Services Committee, United States House of Representatives

Chair, Biomedical Research Caucus

Former Member, Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics), United States House of Representatives

Former Member, Intelligence Committee, United States House of Representatives

Education

  • BA, Trinity College, 1962

Professional Experience

  • BA, Trinity College, 1962
  • Former Intern, Senator Daniel Brewster
  • Employee, Jerry Brown Presidential Campaign, 1976

Political Experience

  • BA, Trinity College, 1962
  • Former Intern, Senator Daniel Brewster
  • Employee, Jerry Brown Presidential Campaign, 1976
  • Speaker, United States House of Representatives, 2006-2011, 2019-present
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, California, District 12, 2013-present
  • Candidate, United States House of Representatives, District 12, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020
  • Minority Leader, United States House of Representatives, 2003-2006, 2011-2019
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, District 8, 1993-2013
  • Minority Whip, United States House of Representatives, 2001-2002
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, District 5, 1987-1993

Former Committees/Caucuses

Former Member, Appropriations Committee, United States House of Representatives

Former Member, Banking and Financial Services Committee, United States House of Representatives

Chair, Biomedical Research Caucus

Former Member, Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics), United States House of Representatives

Former Member, Intelligence Committee, United States House of Representatives

Religious, Civic, and other Memberships

  • BA, Trinity College, 1962
  • Former Intern, Senator Daniel Brewster
  • Employee, Jerry Brown Presidential Campaign, 1976
  • Speaker, United States House of Representatives, 2006-2011, 2019-present
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, California, District 12, 2013-present
  • Candidate, United States House of Representatives, District 12, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020
  • Minority Leader, United States House of Representatives, 2003-2006, 2011-2019
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, District 8, 1993-2013
  • Minority Whip, United States House of Representatives, 2001-2002
  • Representative, United States House of Representatives, District 5, 1987-1993
  • Member, 30 Something Democrats
  • Co-Chair, AIDS Task Force, House Democratic Caucus
  • Honorary Member, Board, National Organization of Italian-American Women
  • Former Chair, Congressional Working Group on China
  • Vice Chair, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
  • Member, Democratic Homeland Security Task Force
  • Member, Democratic National Committee
  • Chair, Democratic Steering Committee
  • Former Vice Chair, Executive Committee, Democratic Study Group
  • Founder, Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey Foundation
  • Chair, Democratic National Convention, 2008
  • Chair, Democratic National Platform Committee, 1992
  • Finance Chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, 1985-1986
  • State Chair, California Democratic Party, 1981-1983
  • Chair, Northern California Democratic Party, 1977-1981

Other Info

Astrological Sign:

Aries

  • Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro, Jr.

  • Congressman for Baltimore, Mayor of Baltimore

  • 9

Policy Positions

2021

Abortion

1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Pro-choice

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

2. Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare?
- Unknown Position

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Yes

Crime

1. Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct?
- No

Defense

Do you support increasing defense spending?
- No

Economy

1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- No

3. Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19?
- Yes

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

Energy and Environment

1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)?
- Yes

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- No

2. Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19?
- Yes

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- No

2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- No

National Security

1. Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)?
- Unknown Position

2. Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts?
- Yes

Trade

1. Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)?
- Yes

Congressional Election 1998 National Political Awareness Test

Abortion

Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning abortion.

1. Abortions should always be legally available.
- X

2. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- No Answer

3. Abortions should be legal only when the pregnancy resulted from incest, rape, or when the life of the woman is endangered.
- No Answer

4. Abortions should be legal only when the life of the woman is endangered.
- No Answer

5. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer

6. Abortions should be limited by waiting periods and notification requirements as decided by each state government.
- No Answer

7. Prohibit the late-term abortion procedure known as "partial-birth" abortion.
- No Answer

8. Prohibit public funding of abortions and public funding of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer

9. Other
- No Answer

Budget and Spending

Indicate what levels of federal funding you support for the following categories. Select one number (level) only.2) Indicate what levels of federal funding you support for the following defense-related categories. Select one number (level) only.4) Indicate how you would apply the expected federal budget surplus.

1. AIDS programs
- Greatly Increase

2. Arts funding
- No Answer

3. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase

4. Environmental programs
- No Answer

5. Foreign aid
- No Answer

6. Housing projects
- Greatly Increase

7. Job training programs
- Greatly Increase

8. Law enforcement
- No Answer

9. Medicaid
- Greatly Increase

10. Medicare
- X

11. NASA
- No Answer

12. Student loan programs
- No Answer

13. Welfare
- Greatly Increase

14. Other
- No Answer

15. Armed Forces personnel training
- No Answer

16. CIA appropriations
- No Answer

17. Defense plant conversion
- No Answer

18. Development of new weapons
- No Answer

19. Military hardware
- No Answer

20. Military space shuttle missions
- No Answer

21. National Missile Defense Program
- No Answer

22. Pay for active duty personnel
- No Answer

23. Do you support amending the U.S. Constitution to require an annual balanced federal budget?
- No

Indicate what levels of federal funding you support for the following categories. Select one number (level) only.2) Indicate what levels of federal funding you support for the following defense-related categories. Select one number (level) only.4) Indicate how you would apply the expected federal budget surplus.

1. Social Security
- X

2. Tax cuts
- No Answer

3. Federal debt reduction
- No Answer

Campaign Finance Reform

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding campaign finance reform.

1. Remove all legislative limits on campaign financing.
- No Answer

2. Establish spending limits on congressional campaigns.
- No Answer

3. Provide public funding for federal candidates who comply with campaign spending limits.
- No Answer

4. Support legislation that would increase the federal limits on individual contributions.
- No Answer

5. Strengthen and enforce legislation that encourages full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information.
- X

6. Prohibit Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions to candidates for federal office.
- X

7. Provide free or low-cost television advertising to candidates who agree to voluntary campaign spending limits.
- X

8. Ban the unregulated campaign contributions known as soft money.
- X

9. Pass legislation banning issue advocacy commercials by outside groups within 60 days of an election.
- X

10. Prohibit non-U.S. citizens from making contributions to federal campaigns.
- No Answer

11. Other
- No Answer

Crime

Indicate which principles you support (if any) to address crime.

1. Broaden use of the death penalty for federal crimes.
- No Answer

2. Increase spending to build more federal prisons.
- No Answer

3. Impose "truth in sentencing" for violent criminals so they serve full sentences with no chance of parole.
- No Answer

4. Fund programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- X

5. Expand funding for community policing programs.
- X

6. Increase penalties for the possession of any illegal firearms.
- X

7. Prosecute youths accused of a felony as adults.
- No Answer

8. Increase funding for local Boys & Girls Clubs and other independent organizations in communities with at-risk youth.
- X

9. Reduce prison sentences for those who commit non-violent crimes.
- No Answer

10. Deport all permanent resident aliens convicted of a felony.
- No Answer

11. Other
- No Answer

Drugs

Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning illegal drugs.

1. Increase penalties for selling illegal drugs.
- No Answer

2. Impose mandatory jail sentences for selling illegal drugs.
- No Answer

3. Impose capital punishment for convicted international drug traffickers.
- No Answer

4. Strengthen current laws dealing with non-controlled substances, including inhalants and commercially available pills.
- No Answer

5. Increase funding of federally-sponsored drug education and drug treatment programs.
- X

6. Decriminalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
- X

7. Increase funding for border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.
- No Answer

8. Other
- No Answer

Economy and Employment

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the economy and employment.2) Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding affirmative action and discrimination.

1. Provide tax credits for companies that move job-creating industries into areas with high unemployment.
- X

2. Increase funding for national job-training programs that re-train displaced workers or teach skills needed in today's job market.
- X

3. Reduce government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- No Answer

4. Establish empowerment zones in areas with large numbers of unemployed people.
- X

5. Eliminate any federal programs designed to reduce unemployment.
- No Answer

6. Increase the minimum wage.
- X

7. Pass legislation that encourages employers to offer their employees the options of flex-time scheduling, comp-time and unpaid leave to attend to their family responsibilities.
- X

8. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide on-site child care.
- X

9. The federal government should consider race and sex in making government contracting decisions.
- No Answer

10. The federal government should continue affirmative action programs only if such programs do not include quotas.
- No Answer

11. The federal government should discontinue affirmative action programs.
- No Answer

12. The federal government should prosecute cases of discrimination in the public sector.
- X

13. The federal government should prosecute cases of discrimination in the private sector.
- X

14. The federal government should include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination laws.
- X

15. Other
- No Answer

Education

Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning education.

1. Support national standards and testing in reading and math.
- X

2. Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any publicly funded school.
- No Answer

3. Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any participating school: public, private or religious.
- No Answer

4. Allow parents to use tax-free savings accounts to send their children to any publicly funded school.
- No Answer

5. Allow parents to use tax-free savings accounts to send their children to any participating school: public, private or religious.
- No Answer

6. Support creation of more charter schools where teachers and professionals receive authorization and funding to establish new schools.
- X

7. Give all federal education funding to states in the form of block grants and allow them to spend it as they see fit.
- No Answer

8. Support voluntary teacher testing and reward teachers with merit pay.
- No Answer

9. Increase funding for block grants to states to help them hire additional teachers.
- No Answer

10. Other
- No Answer

11. Do you support amending the U.S. Constitution to guarantee the right to religious expression and voluntary prayer in public places, including schools?
- No

Environment

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding America's environment and natural resources.

1. Require the state to fully compensate citizens when environmental regulations limit uses on privately owned land.
- X

2. Strengthen the Clean Water Act.
- X

3. Change the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to limit the number of habitats eligible to be designated as endangered.
- No Answer

4. Increase fees charged to ranchers who graze cattle on federal lands.
- X

5. Revise the 1872 mining law to increase the fees charged to mining companies using federal lands.
- X

6. Encourage development of alternative fuels to reduce pollution.
- X

7. Strengthen emission controls on all gasoline or diesel powered engines, including cars and trucks.
- X

8. Increase federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels to promote conservation and alternative fuel development.
- No Answer

9. Promote the selling of pollution credits between nations to encourage industries to decrease pollution levels.
- No Answer

10. Impose stricter national air quality standards.
- X

11. Adhere to the United Nations treaty regarding global climate change.
- X

12. Strengthen the restrictions on clear-cutting on federal lands.
- X

13. Other
- No Answer

Federalism

Indicate which level of government that should have primary responsibility for the following services. Select one level only.

1. Border security
- Federal

2. Civil rights enforcement
- Federal

3. Education
- Local

4. Environmental cleanup
- Federal

5. Job training
- Local

6. Law enforcement
- Local

7. Low-income housing
- Local

8. Medicaid
- State

9. Medicare
- Federal

10. Transportation infrastructure (highways, roads, bridges)
- State

11. Welfare
- State

12. Other
- No Answer

Foreign Policy

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding Bosnia/former Yugoslavia.2) Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the Middle East.3) Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the United States-United Nations relationship.

1. The U.S. should lift the arms embargo against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- No Answer

2. The U.S. should maintain a military presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a certain deadline for withdrawal.
- No Answer

3. The U.S. should maintain a military presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina without a certain deadline for withdrawal.
- No Answer

4. Other
- No Answer

5. The U.S. should resolve future disputes with Iraq through diplomatic means.
- X

6. The U.S. should take unilateral military action if Iraq does not comply with all accepted UN resolutions.
- No Answer

7. The U.S. should take military action against Iraq only as part of an international effort.
- No Answer

8. The U.S. should not continue to play a prominent leadership role in the peace process between Israel and Palestine.
- No Answer

9. The U.S. should contribute more funding and troops to United Nations peacekeeping missions.
- No Answer

10. The U.S. should contribute less funding and troops to United Nations peacekeeping missions.
- No Answer

11. The U.S. should participate in UN peacekeeping missions only when vital U.S. interests are involved.
- No Answer

12. The U.S. should not commit military troops to UN peacekeeping missions.
- No Answer

13. The U.S. should withdraw from the UN completely.
- No Answer

14. The U.S. should pay its debt to the United Nations.
- X

15. Should the U.S. have diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba?
- Yes

16. Should the U.S. recognize and extend full diplomatic relations to Taiwan?
- No Answer

Gun

Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning gun issues.

1. Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
- X

2. Increase federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
- X

3. Maintain federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
- No Answer

4. Ease federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
- No Answer

5. Repeal federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms by law-abiding citizens.
- No Answer

6. Favor allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms.
- No Answer

7. Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.
- X

8. Other
- No Answer

Health

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding health issues in America.

1. The federal government has no responsibility in providing health care.
- No Answer

2. Implement a universal health care program to guarantee coverage to all Americans regardless of income.
- X

3. Implement a government-financed, single-payer national health care system similar to that of Canada.
- X

4. Support health care strategies focused on prevention, including health education and natural medicines and remedies.
- X

5. Support legislation to define and enforce the rights of insured patients, including greater access to specialists and emergency rooms, wider choice of health care providers, and appeal mechanisms when claims are denied.
- X

6. Allow small business owners, the self-employed and workers whose employers do not provide health insurance to have the same deductibility for health costs as corporations and large employers.
- X

7. Expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts, which would be taxed if used for any purpose other than medical costs.
- No Answer

8. Establish limits on the amount of damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- No Answer

9. Allow states and local communities to use federal funds for needle-exchange programs to combat the spread of HIV.
- X

10. Classify nicotine as a drug and cigarettes as drug delivery devices, which should be regulated by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
- No Answer

11. Provide citizens age 55-65 the option of purchasing Medicare health coverage.
- X

12. Other
- No Answer

Immigration

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding immigration.

1. Decrease the number of immigrants allowed into the country.
- No Answer

2. Increase the eligibility of legal immigrants for certain social programs (i.e. HUD housing, food stamps).
- X

3. Require the Immigration and Naturalization Service to reduce to six months the time between applying for citizenship and taking the oath of allegiance.
- X

4. Provide extra federal aid to states with higher numbers of immigrants for necessary medical and social services.
- X

5. Prohibit states from passing laws that deny human services (medical care, education) to illegal immigrants or their children.
- X

6. Children of illegal immigrants, born in the United States, should not automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
- No Answer

7. Increase the immigration quota for computer scientists and other information technology workers.
- No Answer

8. Establish English as the official and recognized language of the United States government.
- No Answer

9. Other
- No Answer

Morality and Ethics

The American people have consistently mentioned the decline of morals and ethics in America as a major problem facing the country. On an attached page, in fifty words or less, explain what you will do as a member of Congress to address this concern.
- No Answer

Social Security

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding Social Security.

1. Allow workers to invest a portion of their payroll tax in private accounts which they manage.
- No Answer

2. Allow workers to invest a portion of their payroll tax in private accounts which are managed by the government.
- No Answer

3. Invest Social Security's assets collectively in stocks and bonds instead of U.S. Treasury securities.
- No Answer

4. Increase the payroll tax to finance the program in its current form.
- No Answer

5. Invest a portion of the budget surplus into the Social Security trust fund.
- X

6. Increase the minimum age that determines when retirees are able to receive full Social Security benefits.
- No Answer

7. Lower Social Security's annual cost-of-living increases.
- No Answer

8. Limit Social Security benefits based on recipients' other income and assets.
- No Answer

9. Require individuals to pay the Social Security tax on income above $68,400, which is currently exempt.
- No Answer

10. Other
- No Answer

Taxes

Indicate the levels you support concerning taxes in the following categories. Select one number (level) only.Income Taxes:Other Tax Issues:

1. Retiree income over $40,000
- No Answer

2. Family income less than $25,000
- No Answer

3. Family income $25-75,000
- No Answer

4. Family income $75-150,000
- No Answer

5. Family income over $150,000
- No Answer

6. Alcohol Taxes
- No Answer

7. Capital Gains Taxes
- No Answer

8. Charitable deductions
- No Answer

9. Child tax credit
- No Answer

10. Cigarette Taxes
- Greatly Increase

11. Corporate income taxes
- No Answer

12. Earned Income Tax Credit
- Greatly Increase

13. Estate taxes
- No Answer

14. Medical expense deductions
- No Answer

15. Mortgage deductions
- No Answer

16. Other
- No Answer

17. Do you support replacing the U.S. income tax structure with a flat income tax?
- No

18. Do you support eliminating the Internal Revenue Service?
- No

19. Do you support instituting a national sales tax?
- No

20. Should a married couple filing jointly pay the same taxes as if they were an unmarried couple filing separately?
- No

21. Do you support requiring a super-majority vote in both houses of Congress to raise taxes?
- No

22. Other
- No Answer

Term Limits

If you support term limits, how many terms should each serve?

1. Do you support amending the Constitution to limit the number of terms which members of Congress can serve?
- No

2. Senator (# of 6 yr. terms)
- No Answer

3. Representatives (# of 2 yr. terms)
- No Answer

Trade

1. Do you support the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)?
- Yes

2. Do you support broadening NAFTA to include other countries in the western hemisphere?
- No Answer

3. Do you support the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)?
- Yes

4. Do you support the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
- Yes

5. Do you support imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products?
- No Answer

6. Should a nation's human rights record affect its "most favored nation" trading status with the United States?
- Yes

7. Do you support granting the President "fast-track" authority?
- No

Welfare and Poverty

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding poverty and the welfare system.

1. Provide tax incentives for companies to hire and train homeless people who want to work.
- X

2. Increase funding of homeless shelters and low income housing projects.
- X

3. Increase funds for housing assistance for welfare recipients who need housing to get or keep a job.
- X

4. Provide homeless families with apartment vouchers they can use to supplement the cost of an apartment.
- X

5. Continue to give states and local governments responsibility for welfare programs through block grants.
- No Answer

6. Eliminate federal funds for welfare programs at the federal, state or local levels.
- No Answer

7. Maintain current welfare-to-work requirements in order for states to qualify for block grants.
- No Answer

8. Convert government-funded low-income housing projects into private housing, managed and owned by the residents.
- No Answer

9. Require that unwed teenage mothers live with a parent or guardian (if possible) and attend school to receive benefits.
- No Answer

10. Other
- No Answer

Legislative Priorities

Please explain what your two main legislative priorities will be if elected. Please explain how you would obtain any additional government funding needed to implement these priorities.
- No Answer

2019

Abortion

1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Pro-choice

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

2. In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending?
- Yes

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Yes

Economy

1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- No

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

Energy & Environment

1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- Yes

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- No

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- No

2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- No

Marijuana

Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- Yes

National Security

1. Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- No

2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- No

Congress Bills
Speeches
Articles

Dem Candidates Give Pelosi, Party Leaders a Pass on SBA Loans

Apr. 21, 2020

John Hickenlooper, Colorado’s two-term governor whose 2020 Democratic presidential bid morphed into a Senate campaign, wants voters to know he’s not an average politician. The former Denver mayor is trying to unseat freshman Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, and his campaign literature is sprinkled with references to his small-business beginnings and the brewpub chain he created with a loan from the city more than three decades ago. Hickenlooper would go on to sell his stake in the chain for a reported $7 million.   “Change is on tap,” his website bio page proclaims, describing Hickenlooper’s “different path to public office.” The life story is accompanied by beer-tap icon and black-and-white photo of a 1980s-styled Hickenlooper and his three business partners, all clad in T-shirt and jeans, standing below a Wynkoop Brewery-coming-soon sign that promoted the undertaking as a project of the city and county of Denver’s Revolving Loan Fund Program. Now that a global coronavirus pandemic has workers locked down in their homes and more than 22 million Americans out of work, business-friendly Democrats like Hickenlooper are urgently pressing for more loans and action to help small businesses survive. “We must accelerate our efforts to enable small businesses to keep workers on payroll,” Hickenlooper said in a statement over the weekend. Last week he unveiled his multi-point plan to do just that. It starts out by acknowledging that “half of small businesses only have about a two-week cash buffer before they collapse.” Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., have been  holding up hundreds of billions in federal funds intended to rescue the same kind of restaurants, stores, breweries and other small businesses across the country. A $350 billion loan program, part of the CARES Act, was paused last Thursday after quickly burning through all of its money. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been facing heat over the last week for their role in the stalemate. While acknowledging that small businesses are being crushed, Democrats have insisted on tying the rescue to their own priorities, including $150 billion funding for state and local governments that are facing spiraling budget deficits – many COVID-related, but some not — and some $75 billion for hospitals. All of this is occurring during an election year, and Republicans have hammered Democratic candidates over it while playing up what they see as a wildly out-of-touch moment for Pelosi last week. The wealthy Democratic Party leader joined comedian James Corden from her California home on his late-night show, taking shots at President Trump’s handling of the pandemic while showing off how much designer ice cream she has in her two gleaming sub-zero freezers. “While Nancy Pelosi sits in her ivory tower in San Francisco eating $13 dollar a pint ice cream out of her $24,000 fridge, she is cheering on Democrats for blocking coronavirus relief aid that has so far been distributed to 1.3 billion small businesses that is about to run out,” Republican National Committee spokesman Steve Guest tweeted. “Question for Nancy Pelosi: How many more jobs will you eliminate while you and your fellow Democrats continue to block more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program?” Guest followed up in an email to reporters on Monday. Critics on the left also panned the appearance as unseemly. “Millions of Americans are waiting for crappy one-time 1200 checks that Congress passed before they went on holiday, and the Speaker is on a late-night comedy program showing off how much ice cream she has stored in her freezer,” tweeted Mehdi Hasan, a columnist for the Intercept. The Trump campaign this week started running a brutal digital ad showing the pain of out-of-work people looking into their own near-empty refrigerators intercut with Pelosi’s comedy segment where she titters about how much ice cream she’s eating while under lockdown. The ad ends with the words, “Let them eat ice cream—Nancy Antoinette.” Stalling legislation to get more of what you want is part of normal Washington sausage-making. But during a pandemic with the economy cratering, two days can make or break companies, advocates warn. The National Federation of Independent Business released a survey on the small business loan program Monday, showing that 80% of small business applicants are still urgently waiting for financial assistance and many have no idea of where they are in the application process. “Every day that goes by without financial support for these small firms is hugely detrimental for those who have to adjust their workforce or operations to keep afloat,” Holly Wade, NFIB director of research and policy analysis, told RealClearPolitics. “It’s incredibly stressful, frustrating and scary.” The urgency certainly isn’t lost on Hickenlooper and other prominent Democratic candidates with business backgrounds, but most have tried to frame the debate as Washington politics delaying the funds, instead of Democrats wanting add-ons that could be pursued later. Astronaut-turned-small-business-owner Mark Kelly is one example. The husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords is challenging Arizona Sen. Martha McSally in a closely watched election battle. Kelly, a part owner of near-space tourism company World View, recently said he is acutely aware of how difficult it is to start a small business in the best of times, never mind trying to keep it running during a pandemic. “Washington needs to get out of its own way, immediately put more resources into this program, and fix some of the issues that have made it harder for Arizona small businesses to get this relief,” he said. “The Arizona small businesses I've spoken with aren't receiving the help they need and can’t wait any longer.” M.J. Hegar, an Air Force veteran and teacher who also has her own business consulting firm, casts her frustration over the delays in similar terms. Hegar is challenging Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn. A spokeswoman for her campaign told RCP the Democratic candidate “has been clear that Washington needs to put politics aside and provide immediate relief for Texas small businesses.” She also faulted Cornyn for the $2.2 trillion relief package Congress passed in early April for failing to fund enough virus tests, which could, if conducted extensively enough, help state and local leaders in Texas assess how to best open the state’s economy. Less than 1% of Texans have been tested for COVID-19, the spokeswoman said. “Texas small business owners deserve both economic relief and peace of mind that, because of adequate testing, once they can reopen, they will stay open,” she added. Other Democrats with business backgrounds in tough races argue that it’s good policy to delay the funds to make sure they’re going to the small businesses that need them the most. Clearer guidelines are desperately needed, they say, after embarrassing examples of the loans being awarded to more than a dozen companies with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions, such as Ruth’s Chris Steak House chain and Shake Shack, which received $10 million but has since pledged to give it back. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, whose state of Michigan is getting hit hard by both the pandemic and the accompanying economic free fall, said Democrats have delayed the new funding to try to fix a problem with the first tranche already passed, namely that many small businesses were left waiting while bigger businesses, restaurant chains and some big hotel groups were given money instead. “We need to be focused on those businesses that are most damaged – folks that need the help the most,” he told MSNBC on Monday. “Help can’t wait much longer, but we want to do this right as well and to make sure there’s proper accountability,” added Peters, who has an MBA and spent his early career as a Merrill Lynch financial adviser before becoming an executive at PaineWebber. Peters, one of the most vulnerable senators this cycle, maintains only a four-point lead over challenger John James, according to a poll conducted in January, before the pandemic. Republicans say they were close to a deal late last week but Democratic leaders are still not appreciating the urgency of the situation. “Apparently, Senate Democrats decided over the weekend that providing financial relief to small business owners and their employees was not an urgent priority,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Jesse Hunt told RCP. Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Joe Biden who now works for TransparentBusiness, a consulting firm, brushes off the notion that voters will blame Democrats for holding up the funds for two weeks. Vela, who sat on the White House emergency preparedness and continuity of government council during Barack Obama’s presidency, argued that Democrats are fighting to ensure that the money goes to those who truly need it, such as minority- and women-owned small businesses -- and voters are smart enough to see that. “Shake Shack got some, but Mrs. Gonzales’ tortilla factory didn’t?” he asked. A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pressed similar points. “Democrats had to fight for more money for small businesses in the original relief package, and are now fighting to ensure this aid actually gets to small businesses, including those that work with community leaders, are in rural communities or are owned by veterans, people of color and women,” said DSCC spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua said in a statement. “They’re also fighting for more hospitals and coronavirus testing so we can safely reopen the economy – why aren’t Republicans?” But at least one prominent Republican, President Trump himself, has expressed concern over bigger businesses getting the loans while smaller ones struggling to find the money to stay afloat are having more trouble. “Some people will have to return it, if we think it’s inappropriate,” he pledged during Monday’s press conference. “If somebody got something that they think is inappropriate, we will get it back.” When it comes to more money for testing, Trump was less trusting of Democrats’ motives. Earlier Monday, he tweeted that Democrats are pushing for more testing as a way to shift responsibility onto the federal government for any problems involved in re-opening state and local economies. “States, not the federal government, should be doing the testing,” he said. “But we will work with the governors and get it done.” Source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Nancy Pelosi Is Already Attacking the Legitimacy of the 2020 Election

Nov. 22, 2019

"Nancy Pelosi just stated that 'it is dangerous to let the voters decide Trump's fate.' @FoxNews In other words, she thinks I'm going to win and doesn't want to take a chance on letting the voters decide. Like Al Green, she wants to change our voting system. Wow, she's CRAZY!" tweeted Donald Trump Tuesday. Well, not exactly. Trump's tweet quotes a Fox News reporter summarizing Pelosi's position, not the speaker's statement verbatim. Left-wing Twitterverse, of course, immediately jumped all over the president's clumsy wording and acted as if the substance of his contention was wholly untrue. It wasn't. In her "Dear Colleague" letter pushing back against Republican anti-impeachment talking points, Pelosi wrote this: "The weak response to these hearings has been, 'Let the election decide.' That dangerous position only adds to the urgency of our action, because the President is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections." Is he? If a Republican had suggested that a presidential election was a "dangerous" notion, he would have triggered around-the-clock panic-stricken coverage on CNN and a series of deep dives in The Atlantic lamenting the conservative turn against our sacred democratic ideals. What Pelosi has done is even more cynical. She's arguing that if Democrats fail in their efforts to impeach Trump -- and, I assume, remove him from office -- then the very legitimacy of the 2020 election will be in question before any votes are cast. Though most liberals have long declared the 2016 contest contaminated, as far as we know, absolutely nothing -- not even the most successful foreign efforts in "interference" or "meddling" -- damaged the integrity of the election results. Notwithstanding the belief of more than 60% of Democrats, precipitated by breathless and often misleading media coverage, not one vote was altered by Putin, nor was a single person's free will purloined by a Russian Twitter bot or Facebook ad. And, contra Pelosi's implication, whatever you make of Trump's request from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden's shady son, not one voter will be restricted from casting a ballot for whomever they please in 2020. In truth, voters will know more about the inner workings of Trump's presidency than they have about any other administration in memory. Maybe they care, maybe they don't, but that's not up to Pelosi. Rather than safeguarding the integrity of our elections, Democrats have corroded trust in them. Post-2016 calls for increased control over speech on the internet, for instance, pose a far greater danger to American freedoms than anything our enemies at the Kremlin could cook up. And if the contention is that the only truly legitimate election is one that is free of any attempts to mislead voters, as seems to be the case, then we might as well close up shop. The presence of unregulated political rhetoric is a feature of a free and open society. We will never be able to, nor should we aspire to, limit discourse. It shouldn't be forgotten, either, that this habit of injecting doubt into the electoral process is nothing new. For the past 20 years (at least), Democrats have shown a destructive inability to accept the fact that a bunch of voters simply disagree with them. If it's not "dark money" boring into their souls, it's gerrymandering, special interests, confusing ballots, voter suppression, crafty Ruskies or the Electoral College. Democrats can't lose on the merits. Someone, somewhere, has fooled the proles into making bad decisions. All that said, it is Pelosi's constitutional prerogative to try to impeach Trump for any reason she sees fit, even if her goal is only to weaken the political prospects of her opponent. No, it isn't a "coup," but it's certainly not a constitutional imperative, either. It's a political choice. In the end, the presidency happens to be one of the things we do decide via elections. That will almost surely be the case when it comes Trump, and Pelosi knows it. And if Trump isn't removed by the Senate, and if the results don't go the way Pelosi hopes, she's preemptively given Democrats a reason to question the legitimacy of yet another election. Source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

The Three Main Questions About Ukraine and Impeachment

Oct. 24, 2019

Democrats are ecstatic over the latest closed-door testimony by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor. They say it damns the president. We’ll have to take their word for it -- or not. For us poor folks not on the guest list of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, it’s impossible to know what’s happening behind closed doors. The testimony has not been released, even though no classified materials are involved. It’s not even clear why Schiff’s panel, rather than the House Judiciary Committee, is leading the investigation. Like so much about this process, it is unprecedented, with ad hoc rules made up along the way. All we know about the testimony is what trickles out in fragments, leaked by each side to advance its case. This kind of secrecy is shameful in a democracy. So is the refusal to let the accused call his own witnesses or even send his attorney to the proceedings. Given this “fog of secret impeachment,” it helps to step back and ask what the debate is really about. I see three main questions so far. All are related to President Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the delay in providing U.S. aid to Kiev. (1) Did President Trump demand a quid pro quo? That is, did he require Ukraine to do something specific before the U.S. would release aid money? Or did he simply request it? (2) Did Ukraine’s leaders believe that aid would be withheld unless they complied with Trump’s dictum? Apparently not, at least until several weeks after the phone call. “How can there be a genuine quid pro quo,” Trump supporters ask, “if the people allegedly being coerced don’t know about it?” (3) Did the U.S. ask for anything improper? No one doubts that corruption is pervasive in Ukraine, that the U.S. has good reasons to reduce fraud, bribery, and insider deals in its aid recipients, or that the Burisma energy company was considered a “corruption problem” deserving investigation. The question is whether it was proper for Trump and his surrogates to seek a Ukrainian investigation of this alleged corruption or, alternatively, whether it was illicit because it directly involved the Biden family and Trump highlighted their role? Democrats say such a request is clearly improper, whether or not it involved U.S. aid or a quid pro quo. Why? Because Trump used his official power, they say, to seek an investigation involving one of his main rivals in the 2020 election. That assertion could gain more traction as Schiff’s investigation (and that of U.S. attorneys in Manhattan) look into the actions by the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Republicans respond that Burisma was corrupt and needed to be investigated, that it hired Hunter Biden simply to provide political cover at home and abroad (he had no other qualifications for the highly paid job), and that Vice President Joe Biden, who oversaw Ukrainian policy in the Obama administration, stopped a much-needed inquiry as it was closing in on his son. Biden’s defenders say his actions were justified because the local investigator was himself corrupt and that other Western entities with interest in Ukraine, including the IMF, were calling for his ouster. Biden’s adversaries say he employed strong-arm tactics to protect his own interests. That charge, ironically, is the same one Democrats are now making against Trump. It’s easy to see how personal and national interests were intertwined for both Biden and Trump, and it’s easy to see what their defenses are. Each says his only interest was in protecting U.S. national security. Their critics don’t believe it. If Joe and Hunter Biden were not in the picture, it would be perfectly fine for Trump to demand Ukraine reopen its investigation of earlier corruption and possible interference in the 2016 U.S. election. With the Bidens in the picture, however, Trump’s actions raise troubling questions. Rep. Schiff’s investigation is not designed to answer them. It is designed to build a case against the president, and to do it speedily and secretly. When he has assembled whatever he thinks is enough evidence, he will release a partisan report and hope it gains public support. Republicans will rebut the substance and claim the whole process was a kangaroo court. Democrats seem confident they can win an impeachment vote in the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a large enough majority to do it, even if it imperils some new members from swing districts Trump carried in 2016. As of now, it’s unlikely House Democrats will garner – or even seek -- any Republican votes. That means the Democrats’ main hurdle is public relations: explaining to nonpartisan Americans, who will be crucial in the 2020 election, the urgency of removing a duly elected president only months ahead of their chance to vote on him. Without more evidence or a general collapse in Trump’s poll numbers, Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans will fall short of the two-thirds needed in the Senate to remove the president. They know it, and they fear it. So, what’s the point? Democrats hope to accumulate more hard evidence, enough to convince some GOP senators and more independent voters. They hope to rattle Trump, generate more chaos in the White House (never in short supply), and prompt damaging, unforced errors from a furious, frustrated, and thin-skinned president. Most of all, they hope to mire Trump in enough dirt and scandal to weaken him badly in 2020. Democrats are betting voters will tire of the endless drama, blame it on Trump, and vote him out. That’s the aim of their strategy: win the vote in the Electoral College, not the Senate. To do it, they are counting on widespread distaste for Trump personally, especially among educated voters and suburban women, and the perception that he’s only out for himself. Among younger voters, they are counting on “social justice,” inequality, and racial issues. Trump is counting on a strong economy, significantly higher incomes for average Americans, success in curbing illegal immigration, and revulsion at the Democrats’ unending “resistance.” He may be blessed with a Democratic opponent on the far left, proposing unaffordable programs and fundamental changes that would eviscerate America’s market economy. This nasty election battle comes, oddly, at a time of peace and prosperity. What truly divides the country are not traditional pocketbook issues or foreign policy quagmires, but sharply divergent visions about how a constitutional democracy should be governed, how powerful its central government and bureaucracy should be, and, ultimately, what path forward America should take. Impeachment is part of that deep-seated struggle, just as the venomous battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination was. Impeachment will be resolved in a few months, the 2020 election in a year. But these larger issues will not be settled nearly so fast, not definitively. The divisions are too deep, the stakes too high. The best advice, to paraphrase Bette Davis, is to buckle your seat belts because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.Source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/