Witness the new Republican Party, champion of feeding programs for the poor and federally funded medical research.
Conservatives are cheering the House Republicans’ new strategy of passing “mini” bills to reopen popular programs, while White House officials and their allies dismiss the tactic as a doomed GOP effort to escape blame for the ongoing government shutdown.
The GOP’s aim is to get House Democrats on record in votes “opposing” the restoration of spending for federal initiatives such as national parks, cancer research, veterans and National Guard programs,....
The mini-bill strategy is also not one the GOP employed the last time there was a major shutdown, in the winter of 1995-96, involving a Democratic president (Bill Clinton) and a Republican speaker (Newt Gingrich). But then again, social media didn't exist in the winter of 1995-96....
“This is just what Republicans need to be doing now,” said Grover Norquist, a key conservative strategist and head of Americans for Tax Reform. “You want to pile up these votes and put Democrats on record as opposing both the specific programs and the idea of compromise."
“The Democrats will have to defend those votes next year,” he added. “You can make a lot of effective advertising spots out of that stuff.”The Huffington Post
Behold The New GOP, Defender Of Social Programs
Howard Fineman
This strategy to pass separate appropriations bills in piecemeal fashion like they used to do before continuing resolutions became the norm may dilute the perception that Republicans are to blame for the government shut down. The fact of the matter is that 85% of the government is still open for business. If the government gets fully funded in this manner before the October 17 drop dead date on the debt ceiling it is conceivable that Grover Norquist's original compromise solution to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for a 1 year delay on the personal mandate may come to pass. Problem is that President Obama does not want to have that issue maturing right in the thick of the 2014 mid-term elections. The plot sickens......
ReplyDeleteEd,
ReplyDeleteI think they need a budget resolution in any case, imo nothing is being "passed" with these House votes...
As I understand it, it is a 3 step process:
1. Budget Resolution (This is about how much we plan to spend...)
2. Authorizations bills (This is what we are going to spend it on....)
3. Appropriations bills (Here is the "money".... (in fact: 'here is the budget authority'))
You cant just skip 1 and go right to 2 or 3... this is the problem.
We need step 1 to be completed here (either via a temporary CR or the actual 2014 Budget Resolution) and the moron House Budget people (Ryan) are being butt-heads as usual... while I believe the Senate Budget people have passed a $986B CR for at least the discretionary part of the Budget....
so I dont know what these House votes accomplish other than some sort of weird-o-rama political theatre of some sort...
rsp,