http://l.wbx.me/l/?p=1&instId=d4937...4576019810447429074.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
You tell em McConnell! Stand up for what's right! Those goddamn Dems trying to ram it down our throats without any input or voice whatsoever! Who the hell hates America enough to have supported this awful omnibus bill?Democrats controlling the Senate abandoned on Thursday a huge catchall spending measure combining nearly $1.3 trillion worth of unfinished budget work, including another $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 1,924-page bill collapsed of its own weight after an outcry from conservatives who complained it was stuffed with more than $8 billion in homestate pet projects known as earmarks.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., gave up on the bill after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for it pulled back their support.
GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky threw his weight against the bill in recent days, saying it was "unbelievable" that Democrats would try to muscle through in the days before Christmas legislation that usually takes months to debate.
"Just a few weeks after the voters told us they don't want us rushing major pieces of complicated, costly, far-reaching legislation through Congress, we get this," McConnell said. "This is no way to legislate."
facepalm.jpgMcConnell had earlier quietly backed the effort to produce the legislation, which had significant input from Republicans on the Appropriations panel.
But release of the bill on Tuesday sparked an outcry among the GOP's conservative political base. Senate Republicans held two combative closed-door meetings in which the rank-and-file turned up the heat on those few Republicans who were considering voting for the bill.
After long deliberations with Republican principals Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor that nine GOP members had reneged on their pledges to vote for the omnibus spending bill, which reflected months of bipartisan negotiations, and included earmarks benefiting both parties.
That left Reid several votes shy of the 60 he'd need to overcome a filibuster and essentially vaporized a year's worth of work by the Appropriations Committee.
Democrats on the floor -- including Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye -- were visibly wounded by the development, and were unable to contain their anger after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rubbed in the salt. "There is only one reason cloture is not being filed," McConnell said. "They don't have the votes. And the reason he doesn't have the votes is because members on [the Republican] side of the aisle increasingly felt concerned about the way we do business."
Durbin barked under his breath at McConnell, but ultimately vented his frustrations through Reid. "I would like to ask the Majority Leader, does he recall the time when I returned from the Appropriations Committee and said that Senator McConnell had come to the committee and said that he was going to establish the maximum amount that he would vote for in all the appropriations bill...$1.108 trillion?" said Durbin in a veiled accusation of hypocrisy. "And I said to the Majority Leader, I think ultimately that's what we're going to be voting for is Senator McConnell's number?"
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) weighed in. "We had to cut the money to meet the [Republican] level...and that's what we have before us and that's what we're being told, after a year's worth of work, that somehow we don't have the capability of knowing what's in this bill."
START has been on the board for 9 goddamn months. But man, it feels like we've been here before huh? Lil deja vu? The headline from August 2nd, 4 goddamn months ago:Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) signaled Sunday night that he would move ahead with a vote on the treaty despite Republicans' complaints about a lack of time. Reid filed a motion for cloture, which will probably lead to a final vote between Tuesday and Thursday.
McConnell told CNN that he still has concerns about the treaty's verification provisions and about a few phrases in the document regarding missile defense. But above all, he appeared angry that the pact is being debated in the final days of the session, against the wishes of top Republicans, who have pressed to have the vote moved to February.
"I don't think this is the best time to be doing this. Members are uneasy about it, don't feel thoroughly familiar with it," he said. "We'd have been a lot better off to take our time."
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), whom the White House had hoped would support the treaty, also sounded a negative note.
"If you really want to have a chance of passing START, you better start over and do it in the next Congress, because this lame duck has been poisoned," he said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Graham echoed Republican concerns that Democrats had pursued "special-interest politics" in the lame-duck session - such as passing the bill allowing gays to serve openly in the military - instead of providing more time to debate the treaty.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is leading the effort to pass the pact, responded that plenty of time had been allotted to consider the pact, which has been public since spring.
"We are looking at having more days of debate on this treaty than START I, START II and the Moscow Treaty all put together," he said in a speech, referring to arms control treaties from the past two decades.
http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2...-ask-whats-the-hurry-on-the-new-start-treaty/Senate Republicans ask: What’s the hurry on the new START treaty?
They have to earmark $80 billion to Kyl.Kyl is pushing the administration to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The White House has proposed spending over $80 billion to do this over the next ten years. But McConnell suggested that some evidence of the administration’s commitment will need to be written into appropriations bills pending in Congress to convince Kyl.
“All they have to do is find enough money to satisfy Senator Kyl that they are prepared to do what they said they would do,” he said. “If it’s important to you, you can find a way, in an over a trillion dollar discretionary budget to fund it. In my view they need to do that, because without that I think the chances of ratification are pretty slim,” McConnell said.