Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 16, 2008

On The Floor: The Senate will resume consideration of the fiscal 2009 Defense authorization bill (S. 3001) at 3 PM. Later in the week, the Senate could be action on tax extenders or an energy package, depending on what agreements are reached on consideration.

The House is set to vote today on an energy proposal being offered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat leadership. Unfortunately, the Democrats’ plan falls short in a number of areas.

From Senate & News Sources: USA Today described the House drilling provisions as “look[ing] timid” in an editorial last week. And a McClatchy article noted that the bill lacks provisions for revenue sharing with states. Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu said yesterday that a bill without revenue sharing would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate. Roll Call points out that the bill also includes “a 15 percent renewable electricity mandate.”

The left leaning, New York Times urges support for Pelosi’s energy plan, lest the offshore drilling moratorium simply expire which would allow drilling in a much larger area than the Democrats’ proposal. Given the Times’ steady opposition to more offshore drilling, the editors write, “Congress has sensibly renewed the moratorium each year for the last 26.” The "Drill Here, Drill Now" efforts appears to have had a major impact when the The Times are so eager for its passage.

Clearly, the Democrats’ bill is problematic. This might explain today’s Roll Call story discussing how desperate Democrat leaders are to prevent defections to a Republican alternative that could be offered in a motion to recommit. Roll Call writes, “[Democrat leaders] will be nervously watching the scoreboard on the Republican alternative.” Indeed, “Democrats chafed at the possibility of Republicans hijacking Pelosi’s carefully whipped strategy.” The article goes on to observe that “[f]ailure to support the Speaker would be a huge embarrassment for Democrats on such a high-profile measure with the elections just a month away.”

While House Democrats work feverishly to secure the votes they need for their energy bill, Senate Democrats are looking beyond the energy debate and calling for a second economic stimulus package. Sen. Carl Levin told reporters yesterday, “The uncertainty of the future of markets confirms need for another economic stimulus package.” Politico reports, “Levin and Sen. Sherrod Brown, outlined the contours of the roughly $50 billion package Democrats will be pushing in the coming weeks, which involves a large increase in spending on infrastructure, an extension of unemployment benefits, aid to states facing rising Medicare costs and an extension of alternative energy tax credits, among other proposals.” What these proposals have to do with stimulating the economy wasn’t immediately clear.

Roll Call notes Republican skepticism of Democrats’ calls for a new stimulus, writing, “They contend that Democrats are bound to overreach and lard up the bill with what voters will think is pork-barrel spending. . . . Plus, Republicans said they believe Democrats are just setting up the stimulus bill as a political ploy in advance of the November elections.” It seems that Democrats are always quick to turn to big spending and political plays. A senior Senate aide commented, “Perhaps if Democrats spent half as much time monitoring the slowing economy as they did holding political Iraq votes in 2007, American taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for all their ill-prepared knee jerk reactions to this economic crisis.”

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