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| "It is the Republicans fault; because, they are supporting jobs. Did you see my Unicorn?" |
Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3630 (234-193) which included $202.4 billion to cover extending the two-percent payroll tax cut for one year, preventing a tax increase on every working American. The bill would reform the unemployment insurance program by lifting the ban on drug testing, decreasing the number of weeks of eligibility from 99 to 59 and require certain recipients enroll in a GED program if they have not finished high school. It also would provide a two-year fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians to ensure seniors continue to have access to quality health And, the bill also required speeding up the approval of a Canadian pipeline by creating the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline that would stretch to Texas. This pipeline doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime and unlike the stimulus bill, which relied on vague promises of jobs “saved or created,” the pipeline would create 20,000 direct job and 100,000 indirect jobs.
The Senate resumed consideration of S.J. Res. 10, the balanced budget amendment cosponsored by all 47 Senate Republicans, and S.J. Res. 24, the weak Democrat alternative.
Then they voted. The Democrat alternative balanced budget amendment was defeated by a vote of 21-79. Them all 47 Senate Republicans voted for S.J. Res. 10, their strong balanced budget amendment, but Democrats voted along party lines to kill the amendment, with all 53 voting against it.
Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to move a vote to kill the House-passed bill (H.R. 3630), which would extend the payroll tax cut and require the State Department to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline, ahead of an already-agreed upon bill to fund the government (H.R. 2055). Leader McConnell objected to this request, because government funding runs out on Friday night, while the payroll tax cut expires on Dec. 31.
It’s possible the Senate could take up the conference report on the Fiscal Year 2012 Defense Authorization bill today or later this week.
Senate Democrats, working with President Obama, are currently threatening a government shutdown. They’ve decided to hold hostage an agreement on appropriations bills, which includes funding for our troops, over political considerations.
As Roll Call reports today, “With only three days left before a government shutdown, Democrats took a gamble Tuesday, strategically linking a package to extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits to an all-but-agreed-upon bill that wraps up fiscal 2012 appropriations. . . . [I]n the process, they’ve made themselves vulnerable to the attack they’ve been using all year against Republicans: that they’re holding the government hostage until they get what they want. . . . A frustrated Rep. Mike Simpson [R-ID] — who as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment has slogged his way through dozens of riders to reach a bipartisan deal — said Democrats are playing shutdown politics. . . . ‘After six months of trying to blame Republicans for trying to shut down the government, they’re the ones that won’t sign the conference report that would keep the government open.’”
Recall that Democrats spent most of the year saying things like “one thing we can’t do is take extreme steps like shutting down the government,” as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in February. At the same time, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned, “Because make no mistake about it - if you start playing with shutting the government down, the same credit markets that abhorred default get very nervous. And we don’t know the consequences of what would happen. It’s too risky to even entertain.” Schumer later said, “It would be a tragic mistake to force a government shutdown . . . .” In April, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) said, “The American people did not elect us to shut down the government.” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said, “It’s insanity that we would hurt our economy by shutting down the federal government . . . .” and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) claimed that “any shutdown would injure or at least slow down the recovery that we’re in the midst of right now.”
Earlier this year, Democrats seemed to believe that shutting down the government was an “extreme step” that was “too risky to entertain.” Yet this week Democrats are threatening just that: shutting down the government, holding funding hostage to another priority of theirs.
Speaking on the Senate floor earlier, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained the situation, “Our most immediate concern is that despite federal funding expiring on Friday night, my friend the Majority Leader is blocking action on the funding bill. That is our most immediate concern and we should address it first because the deadline is literally just days away. . . . Since there is agreement on the funding bill, but no agreement and no plan at all from our friends across the aisle to pass a payroll tax cut extension in the Senate . . . we ought to finish our most immediate concern first.” He added that Democrats “have no plan, and some might suggest no desire, to pass a payroll tax cut extension—the President’s top priority . . . . They’ve made no attempt at all to produce a bill that can pass the Senate. It is their responsibility in the majority to do. Instead we’ve wasted week after week with one senseless show vote after another. Votes that one member of the Democrat Senate leadership recently admitted were designed solely to ‘score points on millionaires.’”
As Roll Call points out, “Even some Democrats were frustrated at the tactic. ‘Our [government funding] bill is done, and it should go to the president immediately,’ said Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), ranking member on Simpson’s subcommittee. ‘We’re not holding it up. ... I can’t speak for Harry Reid. I can’t speak for him. As far as I’m concerned, it should be done.’”
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