Thursday, December 16, 2010

Harry Reid Backs Down

From the Washington Examiner: Angry Republicans, determined to block a last-minute barrage of Democratic legislation, have slowed the Senate chamber to a crawl and scored a major victory Thursday, blocking a massive federal spending bill.
Late Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pulled a $1.1 trillion bill that would have funded government through 2011. Republicans said they were opposed to the measure because it was laden with earmarks and wasteful spending, and at least one Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is up for re-election in 2012, pledged to oppose it.
The Senate was expected to begin debate on the plan late Thursday, but Reid withdrew it, apparently lacking the votes needed to pass it.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/2010/12/senate-gop-determined-derail-dem-agenda#ixzz18LSvmznq

This is a good thing. If the House goes along, then the government won't get shut down on Saturday and the shorten bill will eliminate all the pork spending that was in the spending bill, both from the GOP and the Dem's.
But I will give Reid a little credit. He is right to call out GOP senators who preach that they are anti-earmarks but yet puts earmarks in spending bills. This includes John Ensign (NV-Retched)
The GOP needs to be a good role model and just stop earmarks, unless it is a true emergency. Hopefully, the House will not allow any earmarks in any legislation and the Senate GOP will filibuster any bill with wasteful spending.
But maybe Harry is seeing the writing on the board. You can't go against Obama and the GOP in spending bills.
But Harry plans a vote on the Dream Act (I am totally against), Don't Ask, Don't Tell (not really sure) and the START Treaty (I just don't have enough information and really don't care- nuclear bombs are so 1970's)
So, the comedy troupe of Congressional Democrats continue to entertain the United States with their incompetence.

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