"THE WEEKLY WRAP" - Battle Over the Deficit and Spending; Obama's Foreign Policy

Diane W. Collins

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap. I’m Diane Collins. Let's look at some of the activities on Capital Hill this past week and then move to a summary of the situation in Egypt.

President Obama paid a visit to the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, February 7th. His purpose was to stress the importance of government and business “working together” to get the economy going again. The President recognized his not-so-perfect relationship with the Chamber and suggested, "...maybe if we'd brought over a fruit cake when I first moved in we'd have gotten off to a better start." He attempted to bury the hatchet by telling those present what the “government was willing to do… invest.” The new code word for spend. Following his offer to give, President Obama clarified what he expected from business in return... to create more jobs in America, "support the American economy and invest in this nation."

There were a number of House Committee meetings this week as Republicans geared up to take on the Obama Administration regarding the budget, the deficit, financial reform, energy, homeland security, foreign affairs, and intelligence. (Okay, breathe. It was a busy week.)

We heard testimony before the Budget Committee from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke and Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf. Watched with unabashed glee as the Financial Services Committee Chairman, Spencer Bachus (R-AL)

Chairman Bachus & Rep. Frank
House Financial Services Committee

presided over the Markup of the Committee’s Oversight Plan for the 112th Congress… not Rep. Barney Frank (D- MA). Side note: I found it interesting when Rep. Frank remarked on the “mean spirited” nature of the hearing. Mean spirited? Did you catch then-Chairman Frank’s maneuvers during the mark-up of the Dodd-Frank Financial Services Reform Bill? There were times I thought Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) was going to come right out of his chair as consistent blocks to offering amendments on the inclusion of Fannie and Freddie were encountered... more