Lawmaker News

Christmas is coming. But apparently the Senate Republicans didn’t get the memo.

Despite getting everything they wanted by securing $800 billion in tax cuts for the richest 1.5 percent of Americans when they should have received a sock full o’coal for holding hostage tax cuts for every American to secure their deal, the Republicans are still in a very grumpy and non-Christmassy mood.

Now that the expiring Bush tax cuts have been extended another two years, it’s an interesting exercise to return to the debate and analyze some of the reasons given for not supporting the measure.
 
Democrats proffered the usual class-warfare lines, but not many paid attention to them. Republicans, sensing they claimed the high ground on the overall argument it’s not wise to raise taxes on anyone during these harsh economic times, simply ignored them.

One would have thought that Sen. Roland Burris (D) would leave Washington and come home to Chicago and just keep quiet. His boneheaded decision to lobby Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) for an appointment to Barack Obama’s Senate seat landed Burris the appointment, but ruined his reputation. Blago was soon arrested and impeached, and the FBI released tapes of Burris appearing to offer Blago a donation and a fundraiser in exchange for the seat.

The Democrats tried to deny Burris the seat until the optics of barring an elderly African-American from a body in which he would be the only African-American became too ugly.

In political campaigns, rule No. 1 is never doing anything that ends up hurting your campaign. It’s pretty simple. If you want to attack your opponent for unpaid parking tickets, you’d better have paid all yours.
 
In the earmark-ban era we are in now, Republicans are conflicted by their past support for — wait, I mean drunken spending on — earmarks. Last week I wrote about reports that the House GOP is considering repealing and replacing its ban on earmarks with something that allows what they call “member-directed spending” and exemptions for transportation and other priorities. The disarray on earmarks at the federal level is trickling down into nascent races for the U.S. Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is threatening to keep the 111^th Congress, also known as the Congress that wouldn’t go away, in session until the new Congress is sworn in.

The ultimate party guest who overstays his welcome by refusing to leave after the rest of the revelers have long departed, Reid is threatening to ruin Christmas and New Year’s for those who support limited government through his antics trying to pass legislation that he and his cohorts did not have the courage to bring up prior to the November election.

What's worse — the Republican Party becoming an agent of influence for the wealthiest among us while they fight to death against any major program to create more jobs? Or a Democratic party that surrenders again, refusing to fight against tax cuts for millionaires and refusing to fight for a major program that would create more jobs?

The deal the president cut with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is a sign of things to come for soon-to-be ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Obama announced that he had a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts (or prevent tax increases, if you prefer) and at the same time extend unemployment insurance to 99 weeks for slightly more than a year. There are also a variety of other cats and dogs included in the package, including a package of tax extenders that various industries desperately needed.

House Majority Leader John Boehner has a reputation for being colorful. No, I’m not talking about his orange skin — I’m talking about his blue language.

As early as next week, House Republicans are expected to present and vote on several new initiatives or rules governing its caucus. Call it getting your house in order before you set out to fix the nation's larger problems. One idea of keen interest and noteworthiness if the Republicans can maintain the discipline to honor is the notion of "cut as you go."
 
Read more...

So much for bipartisanship!

Less than 24 hours after sitting down with President Obama and pledging a new era of bipartisanship, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent him an ultimatum signed by all Senate Republicans: “Until you give us tax cuts for millionaires, we will block any other legislation.”

It sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit, but that is, indeed, the new mantra of the party of, by and for plutocrats: “Tax cuts for millionaires — or else!”

Which not only shows how out of touch Republicans are with the American people, it proves they had no intention of trying to work in a bipartisan manner with  Obama on anything — not tax cuts, spending cuts, immigration, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the New Start treaty, extension of unemployment benefits, or anything else.

In fact, McConnell’s definition of bipartisanship is: You buy what my party wants. Period.

Well, maybe, at last, President Obama will learn a lesson. Stop being so nice to Senate Republicans. Stop thinking he can work with them. It should be obvious to him what became obvious to all the rest of us a long time ago: Republicans have only one goal. Mitch McConnell’s even admitted it. Their one goal is not to solve problems or cooperate with Obama. Their one goal is to destroy him politically.

So much for bipartisanship. It was born Tuesday. It died Wednesday.