Hoyer: Democrats Will Keep The House

By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service

Despite increasing doubt over the Democrats’ ability to keep their majority past November, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) remains confident.

“We will hold the House,” he stated firmly during his weekly briefing with reporters.

Hoyer and other Democrats are using a sound bite from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who said just days ago on Meet The Press, “We need to go back to the exact same [Bush] agenda.”  

Hoyer predicted the American public would not vote for the “Bush fail policies.”

“I don’t think that’s what the American people wanna do,” he said. “I’m convinced that they don’t wanna do that. They want [Democrats] to continue to create jobs and grow the economy.”

Hoyer promoted what he called the “Make It In America” agenda. According to the Majority Leader, the goal of the agenda is to encourage people to make goods and to expand manufacturing in the United States.

“If we make it in America, in terms of products, more people will make it in America in terms of opportunity and success,” said Hoyer. The agenda includes about 20 bills and would include tax benefits for companies, however, Hoyer stressed that exact numbers and dollars are yet to be discussed.

When asked about the biggest problem facing the Democrats this fall, Hoyer said it was inheriting “the worst economy in three-quarters of a century.”

He repeatedly spoke of the success the Obama Administration has had with a Democratic majority when it comes to addressing the struggling job market. “Over the last 6 months, we have had over 700,000 new jobs created as opposed to losing 786,000 jobs in…the last month of the Bush administration.” 

“The American public gets it. They know that President Obama inherited the worst economy of any president in their lifetime,” he added.

DoD Official Assures Skeptical McCain On START

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Multiple members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today expressed deep concerns over elements of the new START Treaty, saying they have doubts regarding the trustworthiness of Russia.   

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited a Russian unilateral statement, which said the nation would pull out of the treaty if there is any build up in U.S. missile defense. McCain also pointed to a statement issued by U.S. officials promising to deploy missile defense to protect against nuclear attack. 

“I still don’t know how you reconcile those two statements,” McCain told Dr. James N. Miller, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense under Pentagon chief Robert Gates.

Miller replied that the current U.S. missile defense system is far from a threat to Russia.

“We have 30 ground to air interceptors, we have a long way to go before we have any capability that’s close to affecting the strategic stability of the balance. They will have over 1000 warheads with new START.”

Miller praised the treaty, arguing that it will promote stability and transparency within U.S-Russian strategic relations. He added that it would allow the U.S to deploy non-nuclear global strike capabilities.

New START would not affect the U.S.’ ability to renew and rebuild nuclear enterprise, nor would it affect the ability to improve ballistic missile defense capabilities, Miller added.

Today At TRNS

Legal Affairs Correspondent Jay Goodman Tamboli will be covering the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court.

The Washington Bureau will be covering:

Senate Armed Services hearing on implementation of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

 House Energy and Commerce Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and Energy and Environment Subcommittee joint hearing on “Role of the Interior Department in the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.”

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s pen and pad session.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nominations of James Jeffrey to be ambassador to the Republic of Iraq.

Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee hearing on the nomination of James Clapper to be director of national intelligence.

The House Democratic Caucus holds a closed meeting, beginning at noon, on party matters.

The Center for National Policy holds a discussion on “The Future of Counterterrorism: The View from New York.”

Public Citizen holds a rally to mark the three month anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, and underscore how Congress, even in the face of the ongoing ecological disaster, has been complicit in the destructive practices of the oil industry.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hold a photo op prior to a meeting with with UK Prime Minister David Cameron.



Military Action Against Iran Not Imminent, Says Expert

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Michael Adler, a public policy scholar with the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., today dismissed recent worries of military intervention in response to Iran’s growing nuclear program.

Adler said that the Iranian nuclear crisis is nearing the “endgame,” and that while an agreement is not likely to occur soon, it likely will in the “coming months or years.” Adler added that military action by the West against Iran is “not imminent” and “not on the table.”

Adler also highlighted new data showing that the Iranian nuclear program has been greatly stalled. The expert cited US officials, who have said that the nearly 5,000 spinning centrifuges found in Iran in June of last year, is down to under 4,000. Adler said that this can be credited to the outdated centrifuges that Iran uses, which break down frequently.

According to Adler, with the current levels of low-enriched uranium, the Iranians could one day develop 1-2 atomic bombs. But, Alder said, if Iran was to “kick out international inspectors, and go full bore to raise its uranium stockpile from its low-enriched state to the high level needed to make a bomb, it would take 18 months to two years to make enough of this high-enriched uranium for one weapon.”

Adler suggested that the US strategy going forward should be to try to negotiate with the Iranian government, adding that the Iranians “might deal if their right to enrichment is honored.”

START Provisions Could Weaken U.S. Missile Defense, Say Experts

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Vague language in parts of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) could limit the United States’ ability to improve its missile defense system, according to experts at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C..

Currently the treaty would link missile defense limits to limits on offensive missile systems. Russian officials are using this to claim that their nation has the right to ignore the treaty and increase their nuclear missile count if the United States upgrades or expands its missile defense system in any way (provide a link to a story that confirms this).

“It was so important to the Russians, this one piece of preamble langauge in the treaty, that on the day the treaty was signed they released a unilateral statement saying that ‘Based on this preambluar language, the United States cannot…enhance its missle defenses, otherwise we’re going to withdraw under article 14,’” said Steven Groves with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C..

Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said the U.S. should stop confronting Russia, but instead should try to work with the Russians on issues such as growing weapon stocks in China. He said the U.S. should support denuclearizing some of its warheads if Russia and China agree to do the same.

In addition to the START treaty, Sokolski recommended that the U.N. begin to impose heavy sanctions on nations that violate nuclear agreements.

He also noted that it would be very helpful for the U.S. to use economic leverage over nuclear suppliers like China, Russia, France, Japan, and Korea. Currently, these nations are selling reactors unregulated in the Middle East, effectively under-cutting the restraints the U.S. is pushing for.