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GOP Plans Fast Track for Tax Overhaul

The Hill
Speaker John Boehner said in a speech Tuesday that House Republicans would try to attach a timeline to fast-track a broad tax overhaul to a vote extending the George W. Bush-era tax rates before the November elections. The effort is part of a bid by the Speaker to get started early -- and out in front of Democrats -- on a raft of year-end tax and spending provisions that could await congressional action in a lame-duck session. “Our bill to stop the New Year’s Day tax increase will also establish an expedited process by which Congress would enact real tax reform in 2013,” Boehner (R-OH) said in remarks to a fiscal summit in Washington. “This process would look something like how we handle Trade Promotion Authority, where you put in place a timeline for both houses to act. “The Ways & Means Committee will work out the details,” Boehner said, “but the bottom line is, if we do this right, we will never again have to deal with the uncertainty of expiring tax rates.” Democrats have also pushed for far-reaching tax reform, but they reacted skeptically to Boehner’s remarks on Tuesday.

Moderate Democrats Frustrated by
Reids Failure to Produce Budget

Politico.com
The Democratic-led Senate on Wednesday is expected to reject all four GOP budget plans, including the contentious House-passed proposal authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). A fifth budget, offered by Republicans and based on President Barack Obama 2013 spending blueprint, also will likely fall short of the 50 votes needed to pass, dealing the White House an embarrassing election-year blow. But Democratic leaders have defiantly refused to lay out their own vision for how to deal with federal debt and spending, arguing that last summer’s debt-ceiling deal essentially serves as an actual budget. While a budget resolution is non-binding, they say, the Budget Control Act was signed into law. But a few centrists in the 53-member Democratic conference expressed frustration with their party’s budget inaction.

Senate Reauthorizes Export-Import Bank

RollCall.com
The Senate approved legislation today that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank after rejecting five Republicans amendments, including a proposal to shut down the bank. The bill was approved 78-20 -- with all 20 “no” votes cast by Republicans -- and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. The House passed the measure last week 330-93. Passage of the legislation came after the Senate defeated an amendment 12-86 from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) that after one year of reauthorization would terminate the bank, which is designed to facilitate the purchase of US exports by foreign buyers. While many Republicans back the bill, conservatives see the bank as a form of corporate welfare that comes at a time when the annual deficit has been more than $1 trillion in recent years.

Border Agents Dispute Claim That
Illegal Immigrant Tide Is Slowing

The Washington Examiner
The once red-hot issue of illegal immigration has cooled considerably in recent months, in large part because of studies like one from the Pew Hispanic Center that said the flood of people entering the US from across the Mexican border has slowed, and that the number actually returning to Mexico from the US has increased, reversing a decades-long trend. But federal law enforcement agents on the border are skeptical that the illegal immigrant tide is slowing. And new information from the US financial sector shows that more money is flowing from American cities to Mexico in the form of remittances from immigrants than last year. Federal law enforcement officials security is being compromised as the government seeks to keep a lid on the border as a campaign issue during the presidential election cycle.

Secret Meeting of Soros Progressive
Groups Takes Place in Miami

Washington Free Beacon
A secretive network of left-wing billionaires and their political operatives descended on the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Miami over the weekend to discuss strategy for the coming elections. The location of the conference had been kept a closely guarded secret by the members and guests of Democracy Alliance (DA), a collection of ultra-wealthy liberal donors formed in 2005. The conference was attended by the biggest names in liberal politics, including billionaire financier George Soros, who has already pledged at least $2 million to Progressive groups this cycle. The actual amount Soros has contributed may be much higher, according to experts. Attendees roamed the grounds at the 150-acre tropical resort on their way to cocktail gatherings and workshops such as “Occupy the Voting Booth” and “The 1 Percent Rule.”

Labor Board Suspends Rule on Union Elections

The Hill
The National Labor Relations Board suspended implementation on Tuesday of a rule that would speed up union elections. On Monday, US District Judge James Boasberg struck down the regulation. In his ruling, the judge said the labor board only had two members vote on the final rule in December 2011 when it needed three members to form a quorum. In the wake of the court decision, the agency is temporarily suspending the rule's implementation, which went into effect on April 30. Further, Lafe Solomon, the NLRB's acting general counsel, withdrew guidance he sent to the labor board's regional offices and told those offices to follow the old union election rule instead. The agency is still considering its response to the court ruling. Unions have criticized the decision. In turn, business groups are pleased by the decision.

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Greece Attempts to Form Caretaker
Government, Avoid 'Panic'

The London Telegraph
Greece's political leaders are to meet to form a caretaker government to steer the country to a second election in just over a month, with its euro membership at stake and its president speaking of "fear that could develop into panic." President Karolos Papoulias was forced to call a new vote after failing to cobble together a coalition government. An election on May 6 saw Leftist opponents of Greece's EU-IMF bailout deprive the parties that ran the country for generations of a majority. Polls suggest the Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza, is poised to win the re-run. That prospect has shaken faith in Greece's ability to remain in the single currency and stay solvent, sending the euro and European shares lower, and raising the bond yields that reflect the risk that other European countries will be hurt.

EU Airstrike on Somali Pirates
Echoes US Drone Strategy

Chistian Science Monitor
This morning's airstrike on Somali pirates by a European Union military helicopter brings the EU more in line with US military methods in the country, but key differences in priorities remain. The raid, launched from one of nine EU Naval Force warships patrolling off the Somali coast, wrecked five pirate attack boats and destroyed fuel supplies and a weapons cache, officials and witnesses said. It follows a strengthening of the EU force’s mandate, approved two months ago, that now allows airstrikes on known pirate “logistics” on the ground, not just at sea. Military commanders with the EU Naval Force, headquartered in Britain, took pains today to stress that the mission was conducted entirely from the air. “At no point did EU Naval Force ‘boots’ go ashore,” the force's press office said in a statement.

North Korea Upgrading Missile Launch Site

The London Telegraph
North Korea has started work to upgrade its Musudan-ri missile launch site and potentially make the facility capable of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile. Undeterred by the catastrophic failure of what Pyongyang claims was a rocket putting a satellite into orbit in April from its facility at Tongchang-ri, North Korea is now investing in a larger launch pad at its alternative launch site, diplomatic sources said. Officially known as the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, Musudan-ri is in the far north-east of the Korean Peninsula and was originally used in the 1990s to test-fire Scud missiles that it built based on Soviet designs. The site underwent a major upgrade in the 1990s and the site was used to launch numerous weapons, including the intermediate-range Taepodong-1 missile.

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Dems Attack Romney Over
Layoffs Made by Obama Bundler

BigGovernment.com
President Obama's campaign has released a two-minute ad slamming Mitt Romney for layoffs made at a company controlled by Bain Capital. The ad is built around interviews with former steelworkers at GST Steel, a mill in Kansas City, who were laid off as the company collapsed in the wake of a downturn in the steel market. The ad is certainly gripping and emotional. It is also, however, completely wrong. The company was shut down in 2001. Romney left Bain in 1999, long before the plant closing, to run Winter Olympics. Two years is an eternity in the business world. Blaming Romney for decisions made two years after the left the company is at best disingenuous. However, there was a political power-player serving as a director of Bain at the time of the company's bankruptcy and layoffs -- an Obama bundler.

Jarrett’s ‘Chicago Connections’
Led to Obama’s Solyndra Visit

The Daily Caller
Revelations from a new unauthorized biography of President Obama called “The Amateur,” continue to trickle out. The latest involves White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. According to the book, written by former New York Times Magazine editor Edward Klein, many of Obama’s most liberal and costly political mistakes stemmed from Jarrett’s advice. Jarrett reportedly hatched the idea of Obama flying to Copenhagen to “make a dramatic presentation to the International Olympic Committee” for Chicago’s Olympic bid -- and also encouraged Obama’s visit to “the Bay area solar company Solyndra” -- despite the protestations of Lawrence Summers (who in 2009 warned against the loan guarantee) and others. Klein implies Jarrett’s pro-Solyndra position was a result of her “Chicago connections.”