After refusing to take part in a budget reconciliation conference all year, Republicans now agree to it. Is there any chance for productive negotiations and compromise?
No. None. Absolutely none. Zero. Zilch. Zip.
With one fiscal crisis barely over, fasten your seat belt for another bumpy ride to the brink.
The events of the last three weeks did nothing to restore trust between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Constant stormy weather prevailed since the 113th Session began. It reached its first crescendo on May 6, 2013 when there was a hint of the government shutdown and debt default threat to come.
Here’s an excerpt from the Senate proceeding on that date:
Sen. Cruz had roadblocked the usual business of a budget reconciliation conference because he wasn't certain that he'd get the deal he wanted. |
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
"My friend from Texas is like the schoolyard bully. He pushes everybody around and is losing, and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him but changes the rules. That way, no one wins—except the bully who tries to indicate to people that he has won. We are asking the Republicans to play by the rules and let us go to conference."
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It was not to be because Cruz would not allow it.
(p. S 3082 at the link.)
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After insisting on their demands and pushing Congress and the nation to the brink, who believes the Republicans are ready to make nice now?
Let's look at the members they chose for a new budget committee that has until December 13 to come up with an agreement.
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) represents the suburbs north of Atlanta. He’s Vice-Chair of the House Budget Committee and a member of the Tea Party Caucus and the Prayer Caucus. And pray, he should, considering all the lies he tells. He voted against ending the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis.
Here’s his statement. Does it sound like he's in an accommodating mood?
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“There’s nothing historic about this agreement. It is the response to a crisis manufactured by the President and a Democrat party [LIE #1] content with the nation’s fiscal ruin.[LIE #2]
For weeks, House Republicans have given our colleagues opportunity after opportunity to focus on the real challenges before us [LIE #3] – a ballooning debt, a weak economy and a health care law that is contributing to both. [LIE #4] Finding positive solutions to those challenges is what the American people elected us to do. That there’s now an agreement in place to talk about how we solve them is a good first step, but one has to wonder why the Democrat majority in Washington needed two weeks of a government shutdown and a run-up to the debt ceiling in order to agree to talk about doing their job.[LIE #5]
We have a $17 trillion national debt and millions of our fellow Americans are out of work or being pushed into part-time jobs. In the talks to come will Democrats continue to defend that status quo? For our part, House Republicans are going to continue to fight to do something about it – to break down barriers to economic growth, to unleash more opportunity and greater financial security for American families. [LIE #6]We, as always, welcome our Democrat colleagues to the table [LIE #7] to have an honest and healthy discussion focused on solutions. What remains to be seen is whether or not Senate Democrats and President Obama will in the days and weeks ahead embrace the opportunity they claim they want to negotiate and compromise.”
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Full of piss and vinegar, Price is coming to the budget conference without the slightest hint of diplomacy or good will.
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Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) is also a member of the Tea Party Caucus and represents the counties east and north of Nashville. Black is an ardent foe of the Affordable Care Act and she also voted against the legislation that ended the fiscal crisis.
Does her statement sound any friendlier than Tom Price's?
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"The bill that came before the House tonight would give the President a blank check to continue Washington’s reckless spending.[LIE #1] I have fought hard to keep the government open [LIE #2] and am glad that this bill preserves sequester level spending cuts; however, I cannot support a plan to increase our nation’s debt ceiling that ignores the drivers of our out of control debt and deficits.
Furthermore, to continue on this dangerous [LIE #3] trajectory, Harry Reid used a procedural gimmick [LIE #4] to strip the content of my important [LIE #5] House passed legislation, the No Subsidies Without Verification Act. This bill would have protected taxpayers [LIE #6] by preventing any Obamacare subsidies from being doled out until there is an independently verified system in place to ensure there are no fraudulent payments [LIE #7]. I think it is outrageous that my commonsense [LIE #8] bill was not given proper consideration before the full Senate and was instead used in yet another Washington shell game.?
I will continue to fight in Congress against the President’s disastrous [LIE #9] healthcare law and to rein in out of control[LIE #10] spending. With a $17 trillion debt, it is long past time that lawmakers come to the table and address our looming fiscal crisis in order to preserve the security of our nation for future generations.?
I am grateful to Speaker Boehner, Chairman Ryan and my House colleagues for the opportunity to work with Members of both Chambers of Congress to address our nation’s debt and deficits. This is the first year that I have been in Congress where the Senate has passed a budget that allows us to go to conference, and therefore this is an important step in returning the work of Congress to regular order. Our nation is $17 trillion in debt, and unless we do something to address out of control [LIE #11] Washington spending, we are jeopardizing the security of our country for future generations. I look forward to participating in the upcoming budget negotiations and working to put America’s finances in order.”
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She packed even more lies into her statement than Price did.
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These two tea party Bolsheviks are led by Rep. Paul Ryan Chair of the House Budget Committee, failed Vice-Presidential candidate, and author of a fantasy literature series known as The Ryan Budgets.
Ryan also voted against ending the fiscal crisis.
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As if these three aren't enough of a roadblock, they will be joined on the budget committee by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) the Keebler elf lookalike with a temper. Sessions is the ranking minority party member on the Senate Budget Committee. He voted against ending the government shutdown and debt ceiling debacle too. What are the chances of constructive negotiations with him at the table?
Read his statement:
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“In the last five years, Washington spent more than $15 trillion and added more than $6 trillion to the debt. Never has so great a sum been spent for so little in return. Despite this huge stimulus spending, wages are lower than in 1999 and nearly 60 million working-age Americans aren’t working [WHOPPER]. Fewer people are employed today than in 2007.
But Leader Reid and the White House have adopted the extreme stance that there is to be no change in policy to help the millions of Americans being squeezed out of the middle class.[WHOPPER]
They demanded yet another increase in the debt limit – without cutting one single penny of spending. [WHOPPER]They demanded the unfettered implementation of Obamacare – a law that will add $6 trillion [WHOPPER] to the long-term debt while causing millions of hardworking people to lose their jobs and health plans, forced into part-time work that can’t support a family. And they even demanded that we spend above the Budget Control Act – a transparent effort to permanently bust federal spending caps.[MULTIPLE WHOPPERS]
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I’m cutting this crazy fucker off right there because he has obviously left the plane of reality and he is far beyond reach.
60 million working-age Americans not working, he says. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 11.3 million people are currently unemployed. The number reaches 17.6 million if the count is expanded to include all categories of individuals who say they are unemployed but want a job. Millions of other working-age Americans, like homemakers and students aren't working because that is their choice. Sessions must be dreaming of the days when he might have had a chance to crack the whip on anyone who didn’t keep busy enough to satisfy his expectations. He overstated by more than 40 million people who don't answer to him. They're never going to toil on his plantation so he can quit daydreaming.
Sessions talks about an extreme stance against policy change. That's actually the Republicans’ default position and Sessions is just projecting it onto Democrats here.
If he says that spending hasn't been cut, Sessions must have slept through something called see-kwest-ray-shun.
As for the Affordable Care Act, a CBO cost analysis projected that its repeal would add $109 billion to the deficits from 2013 to 2022.and no one demanded unfettered implementation because IT’S THE LAW.
Lastly, the Senate’s recent CR reauthorized the same level of spending approved by the House, which is the cap set by the Budget Control Act.
Sessions, in action, is a little martinet who will single-handedly ensure that nothing is accomplished by the newly appointed budget committee so that there will be a replay of the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis in January 2014.
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Part of our history is lost each time a new budget committee meets in closed hearings. We saw nothing of the Simpson-Bowles Commission and the Supercommittee was just as invisible. The Democrats don't make much effort to narrate what went on in closed-door meetings either. It is confidential? Have the Republicans been negotiating in bad faith for three years now?
The public saw a bit more of the drama during the first debt ceiling debacle but most of the bargaining took place behind closed doors in that episode too.
We need transparency. After-the-fact narratives can be spun into fabricated tales. One side seems to specialize in falsehoods. What the people see, and don't see, helps them decide how to cast their votes on election day.
There are people in our government who need to be closely watched.
Fri Oct 18, 2013 at 1:46 AM PT: I had to look twice when I saw this Spotlighted. I didn’t expect that.
Thank you, DailyKos!
One more thought about the topic:
Kicking the can instead of negotiating isn’t all bad. If negotiators can’t or won’t negotiate, let the voters decide by kicking the can past the next election. Voters should determine public policy. We’re drifting away from that when we have a minority within a minority using coercive methods to impose public policy that favors a few of the few, and haves over have-nots. There’s no justification for fabricating a series of crises and scheduling them every quarter. It erodes stability.