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| Democrats' message to GOP in budget plan: We don't need you |
| 2009-04-30 |
| There's a powerful weapon buried in the $3.6 trillion 2010 budget agreement that Congress passed Wednesday without any Republican support. It's a fast-track rule called reconciliation, and it means that the president can move two of his top priorities -- healthcare and education reform -- with only a simple majority of votes in the Senate, instead of the 60-vote threshold that has derailed countless reforms in the past. President Obama, marking his 100th day in office Wednesday, won't need to sign the agreement. It's not legally binding. But it does lay a path for moving an ambitious agenda, including a plan to jump-start a conversion to cleaner energy. With budget reconciliation, it also gives the majority an edge in moving those priorities through the Senate. Democrats had considered including the president's third priority, clean energy reform, on a possible fast-track as well. But opposition from senators in coal-producing states proved too powerful an obstacle. On March 12, eight Democrats and 25 Republicans sent a letter to the Senate Budget Committee urging that reconciliation not be used to enact a cap-and-trade regime for controlling global warming. They warned that it was likely to impact "nearly every feature of the US economy." "Legislation so far-reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate, something the budget reconciliation process does not allow," they wrote. In a booming voice during Wednesday evening's vote, Sen. Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia registered his opposition to the resolution over the possible use of reconciliation to pass health care and education reforms. It violates the intent and spirit of the budget process, he says. Sens. Ben Nelson (D) of Nebraska, Evan Bayh (D) of Indiana, and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who yesterday pulled out of the Republican Party, also voted against the budget resolution. The resolution passed the House earlier Wednesday on a 233-to-193 vote, also with no GOP votes in support. Now comes the hard part -- moving those priorities into law. Democrats say they doubt that the Senate will have to rely on reconciliation to pass healthcare reform. "Most of the participants in healthcare negotiations have come to the conclusion that that is not the way to reform," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D) of North Dakota, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, after the vote. Senator Conrad, on record opposing the use of reconciliation, nonetheless endorsed the package as a conferee. Challenged on the floor by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R) of Tennessee to explain that inconsistency, he said: "If I hadn't agreed, I wouldn't have been a conferee. There are higher powers around here." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 by blocking repub's they take all the cedit, AND ALL THE BLAME Oh, come on. By 2010 and 2012 the MSM will convince the yahoos [as in Gulliver's Travels] that the Trunks have run Congress for the last 10 or 12 years. The Donks have run it since 2006, but ask the average zombie citizen on the street who has been in charge. Why expect it to change? I haven't caught any advertising by the various Trunk committees [you know like the Trunk Senate outfit that keep sending requests for donations for the like of the Alan Spector re-election campaign] that point out that single basic fact to the American electorate. The inbred beltway Trunk crowd just 'assumes' people know these facts when a little check up would reveal something different. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-04-30 22:21 |
| #4 They've given Republicans a way out, by blocking repub's they take all the cedit, AND ALL THE BLAME. this will be good for repubs in the long rin, think the first time a repub pres and a repub Govt tells the dems STFU,(Beautiful mental image and they did it to themselvs, it also shiws the Dems plan to NEVER lose power. a pure pipe dream. gawd I'm waiting for 2010-2012. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-04-30 19:34 |
| #3 Don't worry dhims, you can own this one. Please take full credit and responsibility for it when the US is broke and taxes are going up in '10 to pay for all the shit in this bill. Really, please take full credit. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-04-30 19:29 |
| #2 I don't care who is who, this is bullshit. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-04-30 14:16 |
| #1 It's all crap. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-04-30 12:00 |