Posted on 04/07/2011 12:33:58 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Barack Obama hate policy riders. They have no place in spending bills, the top Democrats have said during the latest budget debate.
Unless, of course, they’re Democratic policy riders.
“We’re happy to debate these, but on a legislative vehicle, not a spending vehicle,” Reid said Thursday.
Republicans say that’s a different tune than he was singing in 2009, when he, President Barack Obama and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi loaded such riders onto a government-funding bill similar to the one now being negotiated. A senior Democratic aide said the two aren’t comparable.
Among the legislative items Democrats attached to that spending measure were:
* A long-desired abortion-rights provision making birth-control pills and devices cheaper for Planned Parenthood and other family-planning clinics who provide them to students on college campuses and poor women. Originally, an effort had been made to include that rider on an emergency supplemental spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was removed amid political pressure.
* The repeal of a school-voucher program in the District of Columbia that is close to the heart of the current speaker, John Boehner.
* A relaxation of restrictions on travel to Cuba.
* Reid’s pet project: Delaying the development of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste storage site through spending cuts and legislative language; and
* A provision designed to facilitate the implementation of taxpayer-funded health benefits for the same-sex partners of federal employees.
“Policy restrictions are a routine part of spending bills. Senate Democratic Leaders – and President Obama – have supported hundreds, if not thousands of them, including on CRs,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said in reference to a “continuing resolution” — the vehicle political leaders are using as they try to negotiate a deal to keep the government running through the end of September.
But Democrats insist that not all riders are created equal.
“There is a difference between including riders on a bill when they are supported by a majority of the Senate and just need a vehicle and including riders on a bill because a minority is trying to ram through something that would not have support on its own,” the senior Democratic aide countered. “Here, keeping the government funded should be enough.”
While Republicans are a minority in the Senate, they hold power in the House. It’s not clear which riders would have majority support in the Senate because there has been no opportunity for the upper chamber to vote on them.
— David Nather contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52751.html#ixzz1Irp6ArV6
Doesn’t make the slightest difference.
The Democrats were all for them before, now they talk about them like they’re the scourge of good government.
Doesn’t matter. Don’t expect anyone but us to point this out, and we’ll be ignored.
When you own the main-stream media, you can get away with this kind of utter dishonesty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.