Rep. Van Hollen on the tea party: Voters have buyer’s remorse

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Wednesday that Democrats “had the momentum” going into the 2012 elections in November.

“People absolutely do have buyer’s remorse,” he said on MSNBC. “They did not know what they were getting themselves into with this tea party dominated House, which has focused on providing tax breaks to special interests and trying to help millionaires at the expense of everyone and everything else.”

“It is very clear that the House Republican priorities are way out of touch with the country, and that is why momentum is growing,” he added.

Van Hollen said that Democrats were unlikely to have a fundraising disadvantage against Republicans, and could actually have an advantage. However, he decried the “outside money” that was “flowing into campaigns” thanks to Super PACs.

“The Democrats support an end to the secret money in campaigns, we believe voters have a right to know who is bankrolling these campaigns,” he commented.

In January, Van Hollen introduced legislation called the DISCLOSE Act that would require Super PACS to publicly take responsibility for their ads.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

Speaker Cuts Off C-SPAN Cameras When Dems Attempt To Bring Vote On Payroll Tax Cut

By Alex Seitz-Wald/Think Progress

During a quick pro-forma session of the House this morning, Republicans rebuffed a Democratic attempt to force an up-or-down vote on the Senate-passed payroll tax holiday extension, which Republicans have thus farrefused to allow. Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who was serving as the speaker pro-temp, ignored shouts of “Mr. Speaker!” from Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), quickly adjourning the House.

Hoyer continued talking undeterred, saying, “You’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from middle-class taxpayers [and] the unemployed.” “We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing this issue of critical importance to this country,” Hoyer added.

Moments later, the mic appeared to cut out. A few seconds after that, the video feed switched away from the House floor to a still image of the Capitol Dome. It appears someone in House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office cut the feed, as C-SPAN tweeted afterwards: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

Watch it: