The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3364, Democrats’ latest messaging effort, this time on outsourcing. At 2:15 PM, the Senate is scheduled to vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to (i.e. whether to take up) S. 3364.
The House reconvened and resumed debate of H.R. 5856 - Appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013.
Yesterday, the House passed up H.R. 5872 ( 414 - 2) - Sequestration Transparency Act (H.R. 5872), requiring a report from the White House on its plan to implement across-the-board defense and discretionary spending cuts scheduled to take effect on January 1st under the Budget Control Act of 2011.
Speaker John Boehner addressed the passage HR 5872 and the potential to severly place America's defense at risk: "The enormously critical and challenging missions facing our armed services members across the globe will not diminish on January 1st, but, if President Obama and Senate Democrats continue refusing to act, the resources they have to carry them out will. Under current law, the military will be hit with devastating, across-the-board spending cuts next year. The bill passed by the House with broad, bipartisan support today requires transparency and accountability from the president on how he will implement those cuts, and what impact they will have on specific programs and activities that keep our country safe – information Congress has repeatedly sought from the White House, but not received.
“The president’s own Defense Secretary warns that the scheduled defense cuts will ‘inflict severe damage to our national defense.’ House Republicans have addressed that threat by passing a plan to avert the devastating cuts and replace them with common-sense reforms and reductions that go beyond the savings mandated under current law, without compromising our defense capabilities and national security.
“President Obama has offered no plan of his own to replace the arbitrary cuts with a more responsible approach, and Senate Democrats have made clear they support allowing the scheduled cuts to take effect, regardless of the consequences. The bill passed today will provide a clear picture of what Democrats’ inaction will mean for our men and women in uniform, and for all Americans who depend on the freedom and security their countless sacrifices provide.”
The Hill reports today, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) again blocked a Senate vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Republicans had offered it as an amendment to the Bring Jobs Home Act, which has a procedural vote Thursday afternoon. Reid said Republicans aren’t taking the ‘insourcing’ bill seriously based on the amendments they’ve offered. . . . Reid said unless Republicans get serious, he’s ‘very doubtful’ that they will be able to offer amendments. . . . [Senate Republican Leader Mitch] McConnell has said he would keep fighting for a healthcare repeal vote before the August break.”
The Weekly Standard has video of Reid announcing he’ll block GOP amendments and writes, “In a statement to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, McConnell pledges not to give up--and that the votes on Obamacare and tax cuts will be held. ‘The American people won’t stand for this,’ says McConnell. ‘These votes are going to happen whether it’s next week, the week after, in September, or after they’ve lost the Majority for failing to do their jobs.’ ‘It’s pretty obvious now that he’s trying to run out the clock to protect Obama and other Dem senators from voting on this ahead of November,’ a senior Republican aide says. ‘It isn’t going to work.’”
Reid is apparently upset that Republicans aren’t taking seriously a bill that was brought to the floor by Democrats without any committee hearings or votes and is little more than a politically-timed messaging bill. In contrast, the amendments Republicans wanted to offer are serious legislative efforts to address real problems facing the country. The first was an amendment to repeal Obamacare, which, aside from all the other important reasons to repeal it, will cost thousands of jobs and amount to a tax on middle class Americans if it is implemented. Another was an amendment to prevent tax increases on any American in January, since a massive tax hike is scheduled for New Year’s Day if nothing is done.
But Democrats don’t want to address any of these critical issues. Instead the Democrat Majority Leader continues to push messaging bills that are not serious attempts at legislating and then block all amendments.
As Leader McConnell said in an exchange with Reid yesterday, “[A] good example of the problem is the bill we're on right now. The Stabenow bill bypassed the committee entirely, introduced a week ago, a week ago, placed on the calendar. This is not the way legislation is normally done. It's crafted in somebody's office, rule 14, brought up by Majority Leader. I expect it has something to do with the campaign. . . . What are we doing here? Is the Senate a messaging machine?”
He also expressed his frustration at Reid’s continual efforts to block amendments: “So the reaction on this side is if the Majority Leader is not going to let us have amendments, if the only result of invoking cloture on the motion to proceed is he fills up the tree and doesn't offer us any amendments, why would we want to do that? All of this is much more easily avoided than you think. The Majority Leader is basically trying to convince the American people that it's somebody else's fault that the Senate is not doing the basic work of government. And, you know, regardless of the blame game, the results are apparent. No budget, no appropriation bills, no defense authorization. We're not doing the basic work of government here. And that really ought to stop."
Tags: US Senate, Harry Reid, blocks amendments, budget, appropriations, defense authorizations, US House, Sequestration Transparency Act To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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