The U.S. Senate is a train wreck. The partisanship of the majority Leader Harry Reid has reached new levels as he killed the only piece of legislation currently written to address the debt limit.
Using a Senate maneuver Friday morning, a majority of the Senate voted, strictly on party-lines, to “table” the House Republican bill to “cut, cap and balance.” Tabling the legislation prevents any debate or vote on the House bill, effectively killing it. Majority Leader Reid said the House bill was the single worst piece of legislation ever to hit the Senate floor, adding, “Cut, Cap and Balance” (measure) is now over. It’s done, dead.”
Without an opportunity for debate, proposal of amendments or votes, Reid has proven he is incapable of bi-partisanship. The failure of the people of Nevada to send Reid into retirement last November may well end with irreversible damage to the U.S. economy. Lawmakers must now go back to the drawing board to try and formulate another solution when there is insufficient time. Fortunately, the entire debt ceiling matter is a complete falsehood.
Inevitably without an increase in the debt ceiling the government will be forced to shut down services; the vast majority of which would represent a major step forward for the people of the America.
The fact is that Mr. Reid could care less about the U.S. economy, services provided to its citizens or our position in the world. Majority Leader Reid sees a political opportunity to tar the Republicans with shutting down the government, defaulting on the debt and crushing the economy. What Reid is trying to accomplish is to save as many of the Democrats Senate seats as possible in the next election.
Republicans in the Senate are outraged by Reid’s use of the tabling tactic. “The Democrat-led Senate’s failure to both produce a budget and pass the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 underscores the Democrats’ irresponsible commitment to the status quo,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement after voting against tabling the bill. “While the president and Senator Reid refuse to produce a plan to deal with our debt crisis, Republicans will keep working to meet the nation’s fiscal challenges.”
Anger has spread from the Senate to the House, where a large majority passed “Cap, Cut and Balance,” including a number of Democrats. “Senate Democrats have defied the will of the American people who overwhelmingly support real spending cuts, caps on future spending, and a balanced budget to create a better environment for private-sector job growth,” House Speaker John Boehner said.
If there was a fragment of bi-partisanship left in Washington, Reid’s ploy has erased it from existence. Full-blown warfare is about to break out on Captiol Hill and it will likely be lead by the House Republicans.
“Republicans are standing with the American people and, as I’ve said before, will not pass a bill that fails to cut spending by more than it increases the debt limit, restrain future spending, or that raises taxes on families and job creators,” said Speaker Boehner.
In an exceptionally rare event, 50 House Republican freshman, all members of the Tea Party Caucus attended the Senate vote and walked out in disgust.
Like rats from a sinking ship, after the vote Democratic senators bolted from the Senate floor. Even the majority of Republicans hit the road or the airways headed back to their homes. Despite an originally scheduled Senate session for this weekend and Reid’s chastising of House Republicans for taking the weekend off, Reid dismissed the Senate till Monday afternoon.
As much play as ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets as the most partisan legislator in Washington, Reid stands on equal footing. This is a man so deep into the pockets of special interests that he’d never allow a balanced budget amendment to come up for a vote, and make no mistake, the key piece of “Cut, Cap and Balance” that Reid opposed was losing his ability to dole out paybacks to his political donors.
Generally one of the calmest members of the Senate, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. expressed her frustration Friday before the Senate vote. Feinstein explained how she blew up at the Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew on Thursday, because Lew would not say whether there was a deal at hand, even though the newspapers were reporting progress.
The White House and Speaker have stridently denied that a deal was completed or even close. “There was no agreement, publicly, privately or nowhere,” Speaker Boehner said, adding, “It’s going to be a hot weekend here in Washington, D.C.”
Feinstein said, “I represent a huge state where huge numbers of people are dependent on us. We always knew what was going on (with Presidents Bush and Clinton). None of that (information) is available to us now, and that’s not good. … It doesn’t help you build a team.”
Fox Business Network is reporting that a source close to the negotiations has stated that an Obama-Boehner deal will likely include a deceptive savings ruse by counting more than $1 trillion in budget savings over the next decade, after withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq, but assuming current costs of the wars continue at current levels the entire time. Completing withdrawals in 2014 allows Obama and Boehner to proclaim a magical $1 trillion in savings against costs that would never have been incurred plus hundreds of billions in interest savings on the phony war savings; such a ploy would likely cost Mr. Boehner his speakership.
Mr. Obama has shown Mr. Boehner the plank and apparently the Speaker has chosen to commit political suicide. Should Mr. Boehner participate in this fraud, expect the next Speaker to be Eric Cantor.