Posted on 12/17/2010 10:00:09 AM PST by BradtotheBone
Senate Democrats have given up on their plan to pass a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill in the face of unified Republican opposition.
The bill’s collapse will take with it more than 6,000 earmarks as well as more than $1 billion in funding for implementation of healthcare reform.
Democrats will move instead to two high priorities on their legislative agenda: the DREAM Act, which would grant permanent legal residency to illegal immigrants under a certain age, and a repeal of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Democrats say nine Senate Republicans had pledged to back the bill but withdrew their support at the last moment under heavy pressure from their GOP colleagues.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emphasized that Republicans helped put the bill together although they distanced themselves from it in recent days. He noted that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), the ranking Republican on the panel, worked closely together on the bill.
“Though some of my Republican colleagues in recent days have publicly distanced themselves from the idea that [their] members have a role to play in the appropriations process, nearly all of them did nothing privately to withdraw their priorities from this bill,” Reid said on the floor Thursday evening.
Republican leaders and rank-and-file members had come under fire for hundreds of earmarks they inserted in the 1,924-page spending bill.
Cochran had 281 earmarks worth $561 million, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) had 48 earmarks worth $113 million and Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander had 47 earmarks worth $75 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
That right there made my day!
Did these guys learn nothing from November?
Exactly. While everyone in here was whining about the tax rate extension bill (still trying to figure THAT one out) nobody was mentioning this at all.
When I heard the news this morning I jumped for joy!
[Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emphasized that Republicans helped put the bill together although they distanced themselves from it in recent days.]
I don’t believe that. What I heard is that the Rat leadership crafted it behind closed doors. Business as usual. They stuck Repubican earmarks in it either to entice them to support the bill, or so the media could use them as a club to try and damage Republicans (exactly what they have been doing). Reid is a sleazy, corrupt, lying scumbag. Good job NV in re-electing him.
Rush said something like that the bill was originally drafted in Feb. of this year. Way before November. That is no defense of the boneheads but apparently Reid pulled this bill out of his back pocket at the last minute.
Has anyone heard how Reid took the news last night? He was sure he had it passed, I wonder if he went into one of his little temper tantrums he is known for when things don’t go his way.
Kind of petty of me, but enjoying a little Schadenfreude with him doesn’t make me a completely bad person... does it?
“Cochran had 281 earmarks worth $561 million, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) had 48 earmarks worth $113 million and Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander had 47 earmarks worth $75 million.”
BUT THEY WERE GOING TO VOTE AGAINST THE BILL!!
Why doesn’t the article list the Rat earmarks?
Sickening biased media! Rat propagandists.
MITCH MCCONNELL HAS ONE A BIG ONE. Now, the real work begins.
‘Thud’ Cochran is an Earmark King from way back, only rivaled by the late Bobby Byrd.
Time to stop swallowing as whole cloth anything the Rats and media tells you????
Those were earmarks they considered months ago - BEFORE they made a no earmarks pack.
Sen Inouye slipped them into the bill without any notification - precisely to pull the stunt: "look! Hypocrites."
I'm thinking that may have been the tipping point that made the 9 pubbies reverse course in disgust.
The dems hoisted themselves...
Time to stop swallowing as whole cloth anything the Rats and media tells you????
Those were earmarks they considered months ago - BEFORE they made a no earmarks pack.
Sen Inouye slipped them into the bill without any notification - precisely to pull the stunt: "look! Hypocrites."
I'm thinking that may have been the tipping point that made the 9 pubbies reverse course in disgust.
The dems hoisted themselves...
Just this one time, let’s give McCain a little pat on the back. He might be grandstanding, but at least he is right on this one.
Looks as though both Cochran and Wicker need to go. Mississippi looks to be the consummate welfare state. Mississippi, home of the outdoor toilet, needs to quit living off the rest of the states.
Good perspective thank you. But there is nothing holding back such players as McConnell from getting in front of a microphone and blasting Reid for his sleazy tactics.
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