Senate Democrats want Republicans to make a decision during this week’s debate over an economic stimulus package: Support GOP leaders, or back disabled veterans, senior citizens and the growing number of unemployed workers. The choice does not come by accident.
Lawmakers, aides and party strategists say this showdown signals the shape of future Senate debates heading into November. Democrats will attempt to make the most vulnerable Republicans cast politically sensitive votes, and Republican leaders will look for ways to protect their colleagues in tough races. The vote strategy will likely become even more calculated with the growing chance that each party will nominate a sitting senator as its presidential nominee.
“If you’re a vulnerable or half-vulnerable Republican, the Democrats are going to try to make you walk the plank with your party,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist and a former aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
With Election Day nearing, Democrats say they have the upper hand in this year’s policy debates, after being thwarted time and again last year. They are betting that fewer Republicans — especially some of the 23 seeking reelection this year — will be willing to stand with the White House on politically volatile issues like this week’s economic stimulus debate, allowing the majority to push its preferred measures through Congress. And if Republicans do block those bills, Democrats argue, it will give them ample ammunition on the campaign trail.
“Let me tell you what, there’s going to be incoming fire on their ground,” said Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), warning Republicans not to block a bill approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee.
But Democrats also will not be able to escape volatile votes this year. On Tuesday, they will be forced to cast votes on an electronic surveillance bill that Republicans say is needed to defend national security and their liberal base derides as an infringement on civil liberties.
The Senate on Monday voted to begin debate on a $117 billion bill negotiated delicately between House leaders and the White House. The most critical votes will occur Wednesday, when Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are expected to return from the campaign trail to vote to substitute the House bill with the Finance Committee’s measure, which would expand the House’s eligibility requirements for rebate checks to include $500 for people living on federal disability payments and senior citizens on fixed income. Unlike the House plan, the bill would also extend unemployment benefits for 13 weeks.
The $155 billion Senate Finance bill also would provide businesses with generous tax write-offs for losses, allocate funding for coal companies and extend $5.5 billion worth of tax credits for renewable energy use.
“Senate Democrats on Monday also added $1 billion for low-income heating assistance, a move that angered GOP leaders but is politically appealing to a number of Republicans.”
Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) expressed confidence Monday that Democrats would be able to attract six additional Republicans — in addition to the three who supported the committee bill — to secure the 60 votes needed on the floor to break a GOP filibuster.
At a Monday morning news conference, Baucus stood alongside an 84-year-old Washington native who lives on a fixed income, Mattie Carvon, as well as Jos Williams, head of the DC Labor Council, and Joe Violante, legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America.
