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WASHINGTON Democrats may now be in the minority in the Senate, but a clutch of their centrists will hold particular sway as bridge-builders and powerbrokers.

In order to get anything done, the Republican majority of 54 still needs six Democrats more if some GOP members peel off to clear procedural hurdles and bring legislation to a vote.

And Republicans will be under substantial pressure to get things done in the next two years. To give themselves the best chance to hold the Senate and win the White House, Republicans will have to show that they can govern effectively, the thinking goes. And to do that, they will need at least a handful of Democrats in the Senate.

"Democratic senators from purple and red states will play a decisive role in consensus-building, writes former Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key Republican bridge-builder herself during her years in Congress, in an e-mail.

In interviews, potential aisle-crossing Democrats expressed willingness to work with the new Republican majority, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. But dont expect them to be pushovers. They have their own issues and interests to watch out for. They also cant be considered as a voting bloc, because their votes will depend on the issue.

Still, several say they want to help break the gridlock that has come to characterize Congress.

If there was one message I heard from a much closer election than I or others anticipated, it was that people want us to get stuff done, said Sen. Mark Warner (D) of Virginia, in the waning days of the 113th Congress the second least-productive Congress in modern history.

Senator Warner is on the Republicans go-to list of Democrats, along with Sens. Tim Kaine (also of Virginia), Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, is also a top prospectfor Republicans.

The dealmaking is moving quickly.

On Wednesday, Senator Donnelly joined Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine to unveil proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act. The legislation would change the ACA definition of full-time employment from 30 hours per week to 40 in order to prevent companies from reducing employees' hours to avoid the employer mandate. The House is expected to pass a similar measure this week.

Read more:
Can Republicans fix Congress? It could be up to these Democrats.

Democrats have introduced a bill (again) that would ban ISPs from entering into "paid prioritization" deals.

The net neutrality issue has been bouncing around the Federal Communications Commission for years now. But the easiest way to get something on the books is for Congress to introduce and pass a bill.

Given that net neutrality is a very partisan issue, previous attempts to enact legislation on the issue haven't gone very far. But two Democrats are trying once again, and have introduced a bill that would ban Internet service providers from entering into "paid prioritization" deals.

The Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act from Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Rep. Doris Matsui of California would prohibit an ISP (like Comcast, for example) and a content provider (like Hulu) from joining forces and hammering out a deal whereby Hulu streams would load faster for Comcast customers than they would for those on Verizon FiOS, AT&T, or Cablevision.

This is the second time Leahy and Matsui have introduced this type of bill; they did so in June, but it didn't go very far, in part because Republicans are so vehemently opposed to any sort of net neutrality legislation at all.

But this time around, the bill comes as the FCC is preparing to vote on a set of net neutrality rules from Chairman Tom Wheeler at a Feb. 26 open meeting. We don't yet know what Wheeler's proposal will include, but he created a firestorm last year when he suggested that paid prioritization might be on the table for use in some rare cases. Wheeler has denied, however, that he would support the creation of "Internet fast lanes."

As a result, the Leahy and Matsui bill would require the FCC to use its existing authority to ban paid prioritization deals.

"The Internet must be a platform for free expression and innovation, and a place where the best ideas and services can reach consumers based on merit rather than based on a financial relationship with a broadband provider," Sen. Leahy said in a statement.

"As the FCC develops rules of the road for the Internet, we must ensure there are no tolls, gatekeepers, or a two-tiered Internet system in this country," Matsui said.

The move comes as Republicans this week took control of the Senate and the House. As The Washington Post points out, getting any net neutrality legislation passed - from Republicans or Democrats - will be a rough road. For now, we'll probably have to wait and see what Chairman Wheeler comes up with.

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Democrats Try Again With Net Neutrality Bill

About half of American adults have no retirement account beyond Social Security, 4 in 10 dont have a credit card, and 1 in 5 lack a checking account.

Statistics like that paint a picture of the widespread nature of financial insecurity in the U.S. The numbers, from an in-depth study by the Pew Research Center, also provide significant information about politics.

Americans who are most financially secure were, by a large margin, the most likely to have voted this last fall, the study found. They were also the most likely to favor Republicans.

By contrast, Americans whose finances are precarious tended to reject the GOP, but were also much more likely to have dropped out of the political process, either not registering to vote or not planning to cast a ballot.

The studys most striking finding was that financial security affected support for the two major parties in very different ways.

Support for a Republican for Congress depended hugely on how financially stressed a person was. Among the most well-off, about half favored the GOP. That support dropped to fewer than 1 in 5 among the least well-off, the study found.

Support for Democrats was very different - pretty much constant at about 4 in 10 at all levels of financial security.

The problem for Democrats was that among the less well-off, that support usually wasnt translating into votes. Among those facing the most financial stress, for example, 42% said they favored a Democrat, but only 12% seemed likely to show up and vote for one in the midterm election, the studys pre-election survey indicated.

Although race plays a major role in politics, and blacks and Latinos are overrepresented among the financially insecure, the study found that the pattern of support for the two parties was very similar whether they looked at the overall electorate or just at white Americans. Democrats got less support among whites than among the electorate as a whole, but the level of backing was fairly consistent at all levels of financial security. Support for Republicans dropped sharply among whites in the least financially stable groups.

The fact that wealthier Americans are more likely than the poor to favor Republicans is not new. But by gauging overall financial security, rather than just income, the new study provides a clearer picture of how personal finances affect politics.

Originally posted here:
The financially stressed favor Democrats, don't vote much, study finds

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asserts an objection to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a Democratic sponsor of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline bill, as the committee met to advance the controversial project, Thursday, Jan. ... more >

Democrats launched the first filibuster of the new Congress on Thursday, objecting to the GOPs effort to try to bring the Keystone XL pipeline bill to the floor early next week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to schedule action early next week on the bill, and promised an open process, including allowing both sides to offer amendments to the bill an attempt to break with the previous few years, when Democrats controlled the floor and kept a tight lid on amendments.

But Democrats objected to Mr. McConnells request, forcing him to begin the procedure for breaking a filibuster.

Well work through this because were determined to get bipartisan jobs legislation on the presidents desk as soon as we can, Mr. McConnell said.

The proceedings represented a role-reversal from the last Congress, when Democrats tried to push bills to the floor only to face a GOP filibuster. In many of those cases, however, Republicans said they were filibustering because Democrats led by Sen. Harry Reid blocked out all amendments. This time around, Mr. McConnell promised to allow amendments from all sides.

Keystone has bipartisan support, but President Obama has vowed a veto. Sen. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, said he thinks there could be enough Democrats willing to support the pipeline that the Senate could overturn an Obama veto, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said her troops in the lower chamber would sustain Mr. Obamas veto.

Originally posted here:
Democrats launch first filibuster of the year on Keystone

TIME Politics 2016 Election Why Democrats Are Losing the Working Class Getty Images Hint: they don't vote.

Its true that wealthier Americans tend to vote for Republicans and that the less well-off tend to vote for Democrats. And its true that, in theory, such a demographic breakdown would be good for Dems. After all, in raw numbers, there are moremany, many times moreworking-class Americans than there are folks at the top of the income pyramid.

The problem, as Democrats well know, is that it doesnt much matter who the working class supports if they dont show up to vote. And theres the rub.

According to a Pew Research Center study released today, the least financially secure Americans, despite being significantly more likely to back Democrats, tend to opt out of the political system altogether.

While 94% of the the most financially secure Americans were registered to vote, only 54% of the least financially secure were, according to the study. Even fewer actually make it to their polling booths. While 2014 voting records are not yet available, in 2010, 69% of the most financially secure cast ballots, while just 30% of the least financially secure did, according to Pew.

The least financially secure Americans also tended to avoid other aspects of the political system as well, the study found. Working class Americans called and wrote to their representatives at much lower rates than their richer neighbors, and paid much less attention to basic facts in national politics. Roughly 60% of the most financially secure Americans could correctly identify the parties in control of the House and Senate when the study was conducted before the 2014 midterm; just 26% of the least financially secure could do the same.

These findings will not come as much of a surprise to Democrats, who were trounced in last years mid-term election in part because so few peopleand particularly those at the lower end of the income spectrumactually turned up to vote. In November, less than half of eligible voters showed up at the polls in 43 states, marking the lowest voter turnout on record in 72 years.

While voter turnout generally increases during presidential election years, and is therefore likely to tick up again in 2016, low voter turnout remains a huge problem for Democrats efforts not only to win over but also collect votes from the American working class.

Thats one reason they have been committed to making it easier for all Americans to vote. Working-class folks, who tend to have less flexible hours at work, vote disproportionately more in states that allow early voting and mail-in ballotsmeasures that are overwhelmingly supported by Democrats. In Colorado, for example, which began allowing mail-in ballots saw much, much higher turnout in 2014 than itd had in 2010. Oregon and Washington, which also allow for mail-in ballots, had turnout rates that were higher than average in 2014, too. In North Carolina, where early voting measures allowed people to go to the polls over the course of seven days also helped increase voter turnout in that state by 35% from where it was in 2010.

The Pew study was based on data collected from a nationally representative panel of 3,154 adults, who were surveyed online and by mail between Sept. 9 and Oct. 3, 2014. The survey determined respondents financial security by asking about their difficult paying bills, whether they receive government aid, and whether they had access to financial assets and tools, like bank accounts and retirement savings.

Excerpt from:
Why Democrats Are Losing the Working Class