Senate

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Wednesday decried floor tactics from Senate Republicans that he says are unlike anything he has seen in his 27 years in the upper chamber.

"Everything we try to do, the folks on that side of the aisle make us take longer and longer and longer than we've ever taken before because they push every single procedural objection possible," said Kerry. Read more...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Wednesday criticized President Obama and the Senate's Democratic leadership for failing to propose a plan that would solve the nation’s fiscal crisis.

“I wish I could report that Washington is serious about addressing this spending problem, but in the last week we seem to have hit a new low,” Hatch said.

“President Obama’s contribution last week was a press conference slash temper tantrum where he offered up policy proposals that might appeal to his left-wing base but will do nothing to avoid the bankruptcy."

In that press conference at the White House last week, President Obama shifted much of the blame for lack of progress in budget and debt-ceiling negotiations to Congress and exhorted the House and Senate to get back to work. 

Hatch went on to roast the Democratic leadership in the Senate for a bill currently being considered that would express a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution that Americans earning more than $1 million a year ought to pay higher taxes. 

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Republicans would rather "tank the economy" than end a single tax break.

Sen. McConnell on Wednesday criticized the decision to transport a suspected Somali terrorist to New York for trial.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday he is "eager" to hear from President Obama at a White House meeting on the debt talks Thursday.

“We're eager to meet with the president to see if he's really willing to do something big here for the country," McConnell remarked about a Thursday meeting at the White House.

"It's an opportunity to see if the president is finally willing to agree on a serious plan to pay our bills without killing jobs in the process," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Reid on Tuesday said Republicans were controlled by ideologues either devoted to or scared by conservative activist Grover Norquist.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. Wednesday and is expected to debate a bill from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that calls for higher taxes on people earning $1 million a year or more.

Reid put forward the bill, S. 1323, as a way to meet Republican demands to begin considering bills related to the debt ceiling and budget deficit crises. But Republicans on Tuesday already began criticizing the bill by saying a tax hike is not the answer (in addition to noting that Reid's bill is only a sense of the Senate measure).

The Senate has put off a vote on legislation authorizing military action in Libya to focus on the debt talks.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Tuesday that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is "serious" about attacking European cities in order to pressure European officials to cease their airstrikes against Libya.

"He actually means it," Graham said of Gadhafi. "Hitler meant it. He means it."

Senate Democrats on Tuesday evening called up new legislation, S. 1326, that would implement President Obama's request to increase the debt ceiling. The bill, the text of which is not yet available, was introduced just before the Senate adjourned shortly after 6 p.m.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

The new bill was introduced after a lengthy vote on a motion that asked the Senate's sergeant at arms to request the presence of all senators on the floor. The Senate approved this motion in an 83-8 vote.