The real civil war this year is going on in the Democratic Party -- and it is going largely unreported.
Three years ago, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaned on hedge funds to lobby more. The funds soon hired his banking staffer as a lobbyist. She began raising money for Schumer. Now he's championing financial regulation that would benefit these hedge funds. "Racket" might be the right word here.
This year, lawmakers promised doctors a long-term fix if they would back the Democratic health care reform bill. Initially, this expenditure was included in President Obama's $1 trillion national health program, but it was stripped out in order to keep the bill from adding $59 billion to the deficit.
Now it comprises nearly one fifth of the cost of the jobs package.
Congress is headed for a showdown this week over two major spending bills as lawmakers cringe at passing another round of legislation that would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit.
Bowing to pressure from border state politicians, President Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to the region and seek $500 million for border security.
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