We Have a Jobs Deal… Er, No.

Holy sh!t, who knew Harry Reid had a pulse? Thank God he stopped this.
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The last time a major bill was put in the bipartisan hands of Baucus and Grassley, things didn’t work out so well. If he’d left it with them, it was only a matter of time before Grassley would have hit the town hall circuit to tell people that the government was out to destroy all private employment. Baucus would have then spent four months incorporating more and more Republican ideas in exchange for their explicit promise that they would never ever vote for it.

Wonder if there will be White House pushback on Reid’s decision given that the president approved the Baucus/Grassley and cheered it as a bipartisan victory. Will Reid get iced out?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Jay, welcome back from TN (didn’t get to say so earlier). Hopefully you had fun Memphis side trip and got souvenirs from there and Tea Party. Good luck with the snow. Hot alcoholic drinks always work (rum punch, Irish coffee, wassail bowl – wine + brandy with apples, spices, etc.)
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As for Baucus, is he close friends with Grassley or are they allied by common biz interests? We’ve noted his corporate leanings on HCR – stuart calls them “centrists” but I prefer “corporate senators” (represent corps., not people). Since you’re at Congress when not snowed in, do you see much D infighting over Baucus and conservative D’s, or is there still some gentility within the party? Certainly the D’s and R’s are NOT playing kissy-face right now …except for rare times like Baucus / Grassley. Thanks for your thoughts, Jay. Stay warm.

Mad Max giving away the ranch to the Republicans? Imagine that.

This is a good thing. Hooray for Reid.
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The bill had been so larded up by the R’S with everything from tax breaks for the rich to an extension of the PATRIOT Act that it was a joke. We need a JOBS bill, not more tax cuts for those who already have jobs.
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Let the Dems put a real jobs bill on the table and dare the R’s to vote against it, and if they do pass it through reconciliation.
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It seems the only thing the R’s are for is tax cuts. If you went to a Conservative doctor with a broken leg he’d probably tell you to take two tax cuts and call him in the morning.

“How much bipartisan support there is for Reid’s bill, which will include Build America Bonds, small business tax relief and a one-year extension of the Highway Trust Fund, remains to be seen.”
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JNS-will you please give up on the bipartisan support bullsh*t. As if the democrats and republicans would all just hold hands things will be just great and the American public can sleep well at nite.
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Lets face a couple of facts here. The democrats are proposing on issue after issue bad, watered down, ineffective and not well thought out laws and regulations that will do more harm than good to the American ecomony. Only to be thwarted time and time again by the republicans who have no real interest in introducing sound laws themselves.
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Let me be clear here. I am not suggesting in anyway that the democrats are just hapless good guys here. They are an aweful lot of them in the pockets of the corporations. They just use the republicans are being mean to us crap as cover. None of these people care about us voters and struggling Americans.

JNS-Another thing. How many times do the republcian have to say “we will not cooperate” until the media gets the message?

He didn’t like it because he couldn’t say government “created” the jobs, as in subsidized them by 2x. I have yet to see one job “created” by stimulus that adds more value than it costs. If there are some, will somebody please point them out?

The Finance Committee estimated that Reid’s proposal would cost approximately $15 billion.
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The bill now includes four components: tax credits for employers who hire new workers; a provision allowing businesses to write off the cost of capital investments; Build America Bonds, which allow state and local governments to lower their borrowing costs; and a one-year extension of funding for transportation programs in the Surface Transportation Act.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/80787-reid-overrules-baucus-chops-jobs-bill
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Thanks, Reid.
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We’ve got an unemployment of 9.7% and he wants to throw $15 billion at it, some of it in tax cuts.
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Don’t go overboard there or anything, buddy, we’ll just keep on keeping on here.

Could you point out one stimulus-created job that costs more than the value it adds for us?
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And could you explain why all the Congressional Republicans and GOP governors love to dish out stimulus funds so much?

Tax cuts. Lots and lots of tax cuts. Especially for the rich! We’ll be back to work in no time.

As much as I disdain Pres. Clinton’s ethics and personal behavior, why can’t we go back to the Clinton+Rep Congress that made a dent in our deficit? People… all of these efforts will come to not if we do not start finding a serious group of people to deal with the deficit. It is at the root of all our other problems. Do none of you balance checkbooks? Run businesses? Doesn’t anyone think that the trillions of debt, trillions of $ of INTEREST will undermine in the long run all these pitiful efforts to intervene and keep us from our “owies?” We created (government help included) this mess, and no one wants to pay the piper. It is so obvious to a common sense mind (also check Bush’s Comptroller of the Treasury, David Walker, out-iousathemovie.com and his tireless efforts to get the attention of both parties-his comment: “I gave up on the politicians because they don’t have the will to do the right thing”). We need to change the mentality of our country… THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW. All the silly intellectual answers to this based on faulty economic thinktank crap will not work. We need to STOP THE INSANE spending. Yes it will hurt. Yes, it will make things worse before it gets better. But as a therapist I can assure you, that is a normal phenomenon when change is necessary. No more “smoke and mirrors.” There’s no cavalry coming to rescue us (read government). People are responsible for their own lives, poop happens to good people, let’s band together in local communities, neighborhoods, and start fixing our own problems. You will LOVE the result, even if it hurts a lot for awhile. I believe it’s coming anyway, it’s just how much denial will cost us in raising the stakes and the damage that will ensue…

I bet any real “jobs” bill is so “bipartisan” that Lieberdem/corporacrooks like Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson teabag it.
If the choice is between a jobs bill that actually creates jobs and yet can’t pass, and one that lumps a bunch of Republican-style tax cuts for the rich and a Patriot Act extension (that ironically doesn’t create any jobs), I would prefer the real Dems go down bringing up the real jobs bill.
And yes, make them filibuster.

Does that prostitute that works for Blackwater count?

Here in LA hundreds of police, firefighters and teachers escaped layoffs and still have jobs paid directly from funds from the stimulus package.
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Unless you consider that these jobs have no value. And, of course, the money injected in to the economy by them spending their paychecks, which would be otherwise non-existent, means nothing as well.
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Stop repeating right wing talking points, open your eyes, and if need be, get a brain.

“Reid told reporters he had the blessing of the caucus to turn away from the Baucus/Grassley measure”

Just when you thought the Democrats could not get any dumber, you can always count on Dingy Harry. Republicans could not have written a better script. The laser beam focus of Obama is jobs. There is a bipartisan bill. The Democrats kill it.
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Result is the perfect outcome: Demos line that Repubs offer nothing but saying “no” is gone. Next the Repubs can say without hesitation that bipartisanship to Demos means doing what they want.

See you Harry. Hope you enjoy retirement.

This represents the most pertinent analysis I’ve seen in a long time:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/02/11/this-is-what-obstructionism-nihilism-the-wurlitzer-looks-like/

You are in desperate need of an explanation of the meaning of analysis.

And you are in desperate need of analysis. Seek help.

Next the Repubs can say without hesitation that bipartisanship to Demos means doing what they want.
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Doing what WHO says, free?
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I’m still trying to figure out how a Dem stumble automatically means a GOP victory. Is it your position that if the GOP obstructs enough, we automatically let them run the country again?
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EXACTLY what have they proposed as a solution? Somehow, “I’m not a Dem” doesn’t seem like a very good platform or position from which to govern the country..

Thanks so much for this reporting Jay Newton-Small.
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This will be the Democrats’ last chance to get governing right before the midterms, most likely.
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This is very, very important, both for the country and the politics.

“And you are in desperate need of analysis. Seek help.”

Another half-wit response from the designated half -wit

They have help propose the job bill that Dingy Harry has rejected. They have proposed HC reforms which the Demos rejected.

Contrary to the continued lies here and elsewhere, not agreeing with what the Repubs propose does not equal they have proposed nothing. Repeating it doesn’t make it so either.

Judging by approval/disapprovel ratings the voting public has figured that out too.

@Paul: FAB-ulous article! Thanks for the link. Well worth the read.

@decon: BTW: Props for catching the sockpuppets red-handed on the previous thread!

“Here in LA hundreds of police, firefighters and teachers escaped layoffs and still have jobs paid directly from funds from the stimulus package.”

At best this a specious arguments the left keeps try to foist on the public. The stimulus $$ allowed CA & LA to continue hiring government personnel while their budgets were blowing up. Number of folks sucking at the public trough increased. Now the money is gone and public payrolls have skyrocketed.

Now see what you can do about getting that brain.

This is stunning. I didn’t think that Reid had the intellectual capacity – or the cojones – to stand up to Baucus and Grassley.

Now if Obama could kindly ask Roger Ailes to return his testicles them maybe he could start leading instead asking – pretty please – for the Republicans to start being nice to the people in this country.

Jay Newton-Small:
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This was the question I asked at a politics discussion earlier tonight:

[18:58] Stuart: FINAL QUESTION: Just to touch on jobs for one minute, the Finance Committee looks to put out a jobs bill with Chuck Grassley’s support, making it potentially a bipartisan effort, but a much, much weaker –maybe insignificant in terms of affecting unemployment– bill coming to the floor.
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If the measures produced by bipartisanship on the Democrats watch fail to reduce unemployment meaningfully, are the Democrats more in danger of being tarred with ineffective, money-wasting policy than being blamed for getting nothing done?
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In other words, is it becoming worse for Democrats’ political fortunes to produce ineffective legislation than to produce gridlock?

What are your thoughts, Jay Newton-Small?

Shorter freeinpa: “Let the children starve!”

screw the WH

They have proposed HC reforms which the Demos rejected.

Yes, the Democrats are completely off their rockers here. Imagine the audacity to have said no to some Republican and included many others. It’s like they are doing some kind of bargaining and give and take. What’s the word, oh yeah, compromise.

I’m beginning to understand that nothing I explain to you will ever penetrate your fortress of delusion, but I’m a glutton for punishment. Read this slowly if you must. In politics you don’t get whatever you want, you get what you can negotiate.

Yes and yes.

It’ll never get through to them, Gunny. The Republicans have taken Washington, D.C., hostage and the media has a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Judging by approval/disapprovel ratings the voting public has figured that out too.
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Oh, really?
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Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Feb 08, 2010 – Feb 11, 2010 (last week’s results in parentheses)
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FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON’T KNOW
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (56) 41 (42) 3 (2)
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PELOSI: 39 (40) 52 (51) 9 (9)
REID: 25 (26) 65 (64) 10 (10)
McCONNELL: 19 (20) 63 (62) 18 (18)
BOEHNER: 19 (20) 61 (62) 20 (18)
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CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 39 (38) 58 (58) 3 (4)
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 20 (20) 65 (64) 15 (16)
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DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 40 (39) 55 (56) 5 (5)
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 31 (32) 60 (59) 9 (9)

kevin, you do realize that numbers and statistics aren’t worth squat if they don’t come from a FoxNews/Rasmussen poll. You know, the only two reliable data sources.

2/3s- when the CEO if a major corporation has an extra $30 grand after taxes, he/she doesn’t hire anyone- the money usually ends up in a trust fund. When that corporation has an extra $300K from tax cuts, it’s possible that they won’t lay someone off, but more often they’ll show profit to keep the stock price up or (most likely) put it in bonuses.
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Only 2% of Americans make over $250K, most of us work for small businesses. Why do you constantly advocate policies to help the elite few?

Contrary to the continued lies here and elsewhere, not agreeing with what the Repubs propose does not equal they have proposed nothing.
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Are you counting the oft-repeated call for a tax break on small businesses, that are supposed to bring us back to major employment nirvana?
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Was watching one of the programs the other day in which they interviewed a small businessman. He said he doesn’t hire more people because someone gave him a tax break. He hires more people because he needs to make more of his product. If no one’s buying anything, why would he hire more? If no one gets added to the workforce, who’s gonna buy more of his product?
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Are people with jobs going to start buying 2 big-screeen TVs or microwaves instead of 1 just to help the economy, when they’re worried about having a job next summer?
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I don’t stop worrying about job security simply because the Dow goes up a few points. And I don’t go on a spending spree for the same reason.

Cliff

“”Let the children starve!”

Ok exactly where was their ANY mention of children? I argued it was a canard for liberals to insist the stimulus saved jobs of teachers, fireman or police but was the easy way out for governments not to tighten their belts and in fact increase public employees hiring that is bankrupting states.

Starving children is your own delusional misdirection when your arguments are bankrupt. Tick tock. November is coming Keep up the lies and nonsense.

Stuartzechman,
Let me answer your question with a question: if a bill is bipartisan is it, by definition, ineffective?
JNS

I’d venture to say that any bill that comes out of Congress is mostly ineffective.

hotbbq:

“Yes, the Democrats are completely off their rockers here. Imagine the audacity to have said no to some Republican and included many others”
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How can this be?? We have read and heard for months here, the MSM and from Dumos in Congress and the WH that Repubs offered nothing. So which lie do you want to push?

==

And you like Kevin only like stats or parts of articles that support what you believe. If not they are false and liars. Only problem, YOU are the delusional liars. What were the numbers a month ago? 2 months ago? Even from your selected sources. They have gone downhill faster than Jean Claude Killy (look him up). A Presidential poll shows Obama in an statistical deadheat with an unnamed Repub or its a toss-up between him and nobody!

JNS, that’s a joke, right?
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Of course not. But, conversely, a bipartisan bill is NOT automatically a beautiful thing and great for the country. Especially if some of the players have made a point of saying that they don’t want anything to pass. At some point, you have to wonder if the negotiations are for show and the ultimate intent is to create something that NO SANE PERSON can support.
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Then, they get to kill it because of the poor quality of the product (which was what they wanted all along anyway).

Thanks! Memphis was fun.

Baucus and Grassley are extremely close friends. I think, at times, they’re more loyal to each other than to party lines. When Grassley was chairman you’ll remember Baucus was one of two Democrats who negotiated the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. And he always leapt to Grassley’s defense whenever Ways & Means Chairman Bill Thomas rolled Grassley — which was often.

I think Dems have grown a little impatient with Baucus’s slow, deliberative ways. But I think this particular situation was more bout Reid than Baucus. Reid needs to rebuild street cred with the left — he’s in desperate straights at home. And, judging by the commentators response, this move helped him.
JNS

I am starting to think that things on Capitol Hill are going to have to get so pathetic and ridiculous that we reach almost a “tar and feather” moment, where even the lords and courtesans up there can’t defend what’s happening, even from a partisan point of view.
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If THEY lost their health care and had to deal like the rest of us, we would not be having the conversations we are having. But, mostly, they have shielding themselves from the effects of their own decisions and inaction. When they all start to remind of of our own teenagers maturitywise, MAYBE then we’ll start to try to hold them accountable.
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I’m just afraid it’s going to have to get worse in order to get better up there.

JNS, the word is “straits” not “straights”.

freeinpa, as usual, you are full of bologna. The Republicans haven’t offered a comprehensive bill that even remotely pretends to be effective or finance-able. What they have offered is a list of mostly half-a$$ed and half-baked amendments. The few amendments that they have proposed that warrant being in the bill, are. If you need proof go watch the recording of the President humiliating the House Republicans at their own retreat. You then go on to rant about some other nonsense about “articles”. I won’t bother ripping into you over it because you haven’t made a coherent statement.

By the way, to the rest of Swamplanders, I’m sorry that I come across as a bellicose partisan. I’m generally side with Democrats on the issues de jour, but I don’t tow the party line. I really enjoy reading most of the comments here, even if I disagree with them. Most of you make an effort to submit to reasoned argument. What I won’t stand for is out right bull$h1t. I just can’t stand it and that is precisely why I keep pestering freeinpa and similar folk.

You want jobs?
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1) Drill baby drill.
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2) Identify 10-15 major transportation projects that would significantly reduces traffic headaches/bad infrastructure, e.g., a Tappan Zee bridge rebuild. Cut through environmental reviews.
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3) cut CG taxes, allow quicker asset depreciation.
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4) reduce corp tax rate
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5) sell more arms overseas
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6) permanently reduce payroll tax

Didn’t Obama approve of the measure?

hotbbq;

I would think if you could not stand bull$$it you would be on suicide watch.

In one breath you say Repubs offered nothing, then next many amendments offered and accepted then not a comprehensive bill. You psychotic reasoning is the liberals rationalization for passing a nightmare of a bill that would have catastrophic consequences not only on our HC system but economic system as well. As the old saying goes the liberals have no idea where they are going but they are making great time.

As far as Baltimore if by schooling you mean the Repubs were again lectured by an arrogant fool you are correct. Ask about your point of not offereing Obama did his best Bill Clinton. I diod not say that in that particular line of that speech. Seems your BS detecter was off when you were listening. Obama and th elibs are sinking fast. He is now praising banks, asking Repubs for HC help and changing his mind on the location of terror trials (and love his defense – Bush was right on trials in US courts).
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He like you are in over your paygrade with this.

if a bill is bipartisan is it, by definition, ineffective?
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Certainly not. But too many in the media seem to believe in the inverse — that a bill is only effective if it is bipartisan.
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I wish the media would start evaluating policies by their effectiveness and their impact, rather than acting like this is middle-school field day where the important thing is that everyone got a chance to participate.

5) sell more arms overseas
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Perhaps spob’s onto something here. How about a “twofer” – we start another war with someone else, THEN sell arms to the other side. Think the markets wouldn’t love that?
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I watch the Discovery and History Channels a lot. How about a series based on the “After People” when they show what would happen to the world if people were removed from it. In effect, you find that the animals take over.
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Let’s entitle it “After Taxes”. Show what would happen to the country and the cities if ALL taxes were cut and ALL regulation and enforcement on corporations and people were removed. We have perfect, total freedom to do whatever we want. No infrastructure maintenance, no pollution regulations, no public services (police or fire), no government to speak of. Grover Norquist’s dream is realized.
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I think you would also find that, in this case, the “animals” would take over then too. And I’m not necessarily talking about the four-legged kind.

Fair enough.
I have a personal objection to #5- I’m uncomfortable with us being the world’s arms dealer- seems hypocritical for a nation that values freedom and human rights.
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I’m for domestic drilling (#1) in general, I just think the expectations are a bit unrealistic. The drilling is usually in remote areas where there is virtually no “community” to support. And people are led to believe that there will be an immediate and significant impact on gas prices– realistically it will take 25+ years for new sites to be fully functional and OPEC will still dominate the world supply and can, therefore, manipulate supply and price. We can probably find more effective projects, especially in the short-term (while people are out of work).
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Your #2, to me, is a good start. 10-15 sites are not enough communities (States) to impact, IMO.
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And, at minimum, I’d start review of that $382 billion in non-essential military spending that Slate’s Kaplan pointed to (mostly weaponry advances; linked by Joe a week or two back).

And spob, I should have added:
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Companies that would drill for oil are not American-owned, they’re multi-national conglomerations (many headquartered overseas). Something to consider.
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And per the tax cuts you advocate– we all can agree that we want to decrease the burden on employers. Yet cos are not hiring because their product is not being sold. So tax cuts won’t automatically translate into jobs, especially in a recession. Also, the country is not bringing in the revenue to cover its expenses and has to borrow, you’re kinda delaying the bill. “Smaller government”, as a potential fix, would mostly cut projects that you mention in #2, or projects that don’t have powerful lobby support– and would not provide enough overall savings. The programs that are large enough to cut and see a real impact are social security, medicare, medicaid and the military. Any of those on the chopping block?

Jay Newton-Small:
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Thanks so much for getting back to me, that’s very generous of you.

Let me answer your question with a question: if a bill is bipartisan is it, by definition, ineffective?

I’m going to take your question literally, so blame my lack of subtlety if I missed your real point.
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The answer is “No, of course not.”
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A bipartisan bill is not by definition ineffective. There are too many examples of truly bipartisan and effective legislation to list here, but, if I were making a list, I would start with two of the most effective examples of bipartisan law-making I can think of:
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1)

The Iraq Resolution or the Iraq War Resolution (formally the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 [1], Pub.L. 107-243, 116 Stat. 1498, enacted October 16, 2002, H.J.Res. 114) is a joint resolution (i.e., a law) passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No: 107-243, authorizing the Iraq War.

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and 2)

The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (Pub.L. 107-40, 115 Stat. 224, enacted September 18, 2001), one of two resolutions commonly known as “AUMF” (the other being “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002″), was a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on September 14, 2001, authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001.
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The authorization granted the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups. The AUMF was signed by President George W. Bush on September 18, 2001.

The passage of the AUMF was without question a bipartisan consensus (more so in the Senate than the House).
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In the Senate, the vote was 77 for, 23 against, with 48 Republican ayes (1 nay) and 29 Democratic ayes (21 nays, 1 Independent nay).
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In the House, the vote was 297 for, 133 against (3 no votes), with 215 Republican ayes (6 nays) and 82 Democratic ayes (126 nays).
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I don’t think that it’s really even up for debate that these acts of Congress were both bipartisan and extremely effective in establishing strong policy with dramatic, important consequences for the United States.
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That said, I don’t believe that anyone would argue that Democratic participation in these bills significantly weakened them in any way. The same cannot be said for Democratic efforts to obtain Republican participation in the health care reform legislative process, nor in the stimulus process, nor in the jobs bill (stimulus II) process.
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If the effect of enticements to Republican participation in a bridge-building bill is to reduce again and again the amount of yards of river that the proposed bridge is to span, until the Democrats are left passing (virtually by themselves) legislation that funds exactly half of a bridge, I think that begs the question of whether doing nothing is a better political option than bipartisan bills, don’t you Jay Newton-Small?
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Or do you think that the public is clamoring for half-bridges?
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(Should I not have taken your question literally?)

If tax cuts spur job growth, why weren’t we swimming in jobs during the bush admin?

Thank you very much for responding to commentary, Jay Newton-Small.

Freeper says:
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“The stimulus $$ allowed CA & LA to continue hiring government personnel while their budgets were blowing up.”
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What about the difference between “continue hiring” and “not having to lay off” is it that you do not understand? Public payrolls have NOT skyrocketed and in fact insufficient stimulus has cause LA to announce the layoffs of nearly 1,000 city employees so the “number of folks sucking at the public trough” has not increased.
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Are you misinformed, or merely lying? Of course, it could be both. Now see what YOU can do about getting that brain.

Will you please stop being logical?
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It drives spob and freeinpa to distraction and makes them furiously spout utter nonsense. Don’t you know that tax cuts are the answer for everything, including halitosis?

What you think I said…

In one breath you say Repubs offered nothing, then next many amendments offered and accepted then not a comprehensive bill

What I actually said…

The Republicans haven’t offered a comprehensive bill that even remotely pretends to be effective or finance-able. What they have offered is a list of mostly half-a$$ed and half-baked amendments.

Do you know what the word comprehensive means? Do you understand the concept of finance? If you do, please give me a break down of how the HCR bill the Republicans proposed is comprehensive and finance-able?

Forget halitosis – how are they with post-nasal drip or long-term prevention of tooth decay??

Tax cuts completely eliminate long-term tooth decay. With all that money you get back from the cut you can buy yourself an awesome (diamond grill).

P.S.
How does one maintain the coloring of hyperlinks in comments?
P.S.S
Why does Swampland cause every browser I use to go into convulsions?

The best thing that Congress could do to create PRIVATE SECTOR jobs is get out of the way. If they want to keep creating more government jobs, then they should pass a jobs bill. They should really call it a “government jobs bill”. Truth in advertising is a good thing.

Yes, Obama approved the measure. In fact, he made a point of being (for a politician) fairly excited about it. This is another blow to Obama from his own party.

Isn’t it curious that so many people attribute the gridlock in DC to Republicans? It seems that the Democrats in Congress are doing their fair share to fight the president at every turn too.

How does one maintain the coloring of hyperlinks in comments?
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hotbbq, As far as I know, one can’t. Think of it as a feature, similar to having to insert a character in order to achieve a space in a reply, but not a first comment.

Would one of the esteemed contributors keep hounding the powers that be to clean up the back end code, please.

Those dingle berries must have been bothering you for some time.

I’m pretty sure it’s P.P.S. (post-post-script), not P.S.S.

Hi Jay,

Ezra Klein and Steve Benen are reporting that the Player to be Named Later in the “bipartisan” bill was that Baucus had agreed to support permanent reductions in the inheritance tax, which would have cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Did you see that? Did you try to run that down?

It certainly would explain Reid’s action – and make it much more a case of Baucus (once again) exceeding his negotiating authority, rather than Reid being a bad guy.

Thanks!

links:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/the_senate_finance_committees.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ (scroll down)

and make it much more a case of Baucus (once again) exceeding his negotiating authority, rather than Reid being a bad guy.
 
Given what’s happened to this point, can’t we believe BOTH are true?

Well, logically, both are possible, but these days, if Harry Reid is willing to stand in front of the bus when someone wants to do a stupid, counterproductive tax giveaway to the rich, then even Harry Reid can be my hero….

“It’ll never get through to them, Gunny. The Republicans have taken Washington, D.C., hostage and the media has a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome.”

Please explain how the Republicans have Washington “hostage”?

Before Scott Brown the balance of power in the Senate was 58-40 in favor the the Democrats, a filibuster proof majority! Now it’s 57-41. There are two independents in the Senate, but they generally go with the Democrats of late. In the House it’s 235-198 in favor the the Democrats, with 2 seats currently vacant.

This means that the Democrats could pass anything they wanted, they didn’t need any Republican support at all under any circumstances and they managed to blow it. It’s that simple, and that is an undeniable fact.

On the topic of this revamped bill, I ask how could any Republican support it? Reid not only stripped out many of the things they wanted, which may not have lost all bipartisan support. However, he also took advantage of a power that only the Senate Majority Leader (Reid) has, to basically rewrite the bill and claim that even amendments that were actually written by Republicans now appear as Democratic ideas! How is that not going to anger Republicans? Also why would he do that? What possible reason would he have to literally steal things from across the aisle and claim the Democrats came up with them? Could it be that he won’t allow anyone with an “R” next to their name have anything to do with bills he considers “his”?

This action was so egregious that even Blanche Lincoln came out and reproached him for it, and basically called him an ultra left lunatic who is just out to play politics.