Posted on 10/07/2011 9:28:46 AM PDT by EagleUSA
In a stunning turn of events Thursday night where tempers appeared to boil over on the floor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and many Senate Democrats, through a complicated bit of legislative jiu-jitsu, managed to change the rules of the body, in a manner similar to the so-called “nuclear option.”
The vote centered around a procedural maneuver known as “a motion to suspend Senate rules.”
The tactic was an attempt by the minority to force what would have been a symbolic vote on President Obama’s jobs plan. It would have required 67 votes to pass, a target Senate Republicans were unlikely to meet.
However, upset by what he felt was an effort to filibuster by amendment a bill dealing with alleged currency manipulation by the Chinese that had passed a 60 vote threshold twice, Reid ruled the motion out of order. The chair, which is also controlled by Democrats, agreed. McConnell objected to that ruling and asked for a vote to decide the issue. That vote fell in Reid’s favor by a mostly party line vote of 51-48 (Ben Nelson, D-Nev., voted with the Republicans)
As a result of Thursday’s maneuvering, the minority will no longer be able to offer such motions after cloture has been invoked. In the past, the measure has been used by the minority to delay proceedings or force tough votes for the majority.
Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/10/06/senate-changes-rules-enraging-republicans-and-postponing-vote-china-currency#ixzz1a77EysIv
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.com ...
“Vote on China Currency”
I don’t get it. Since when don’t we manipulate our currency? What are we at now, like, QE50? Also, if currency manipulation is cheating, China is hurting itself. SO go ahead and let them. No skin off our nose.
God help America.
>> Remember when the Repubs talked about doing this and the RATS went wild and crazy
When the tide turns and the (R)s have the majority, I trust they’ll repay the favor.
(yeah. right.)
Congress is upset that every time we manipulate our currency, the Chinese manipulate theirs to match and deny us the opportunity to gain from our manipulation.
Let us not forget the gang of 14 that shut this down before.
Where were they for this vote? A question that needs to be asked repeatedly, but won’t be.
The Republicans, who control the House and its committee assignments, should remove at least one Democrat from every committee and subcommittee and tell them to thank Harry Reid for this.
uh...there’s 10 RINO’s to thank for giving Harry this power!
Write to Shelby and Chamblis to let them know what you think!
Don’t let them pretend they where doing something meaningful, regarding China currency or trade policy.
They know it won’t pass the House!
Trying, but thus far unable, to give a damn. I think any amendment to a bill should be directly related to that bill. No more poison pills or political posturing.
The answer to this, since there will be majority votes on all things: do away with unanimous consent. Every republican on the floor should deny unanimous consent on everything, even the the waiving of the journal.
There are dozens of roll call votes on the senate floor every day, all stall for time. These can now be used to actually vote on things and get their names on the record.
None of the republicans will do this of course, becuase when Senator Johnson did this without telling McConnell, he was pulled aside and probably chided.
Bottom line: we need more conservatives with guts who pay no attention to the leaders and do things without telegraphing ahead of time. There’s nothing the senate leadership fears most than not knowing what’s going to happen so they can undercut or thwart it ahead of time.
Our economic problem is very little connected by the rate of the Chinese yuan. We got ourselves into this mess by big government taxing and putting disadvantageous rules on American business and by pushing banks to make mortgage loans to the poor since the time of Clinton. When the government says lend and forget underwriting standards or else the government messes with your bank charter, what happens happens.
Wall Street is part of the financial system and a lot of the mess was on government or greed, but greed is always with us and government fixes are using a sledge hammer to put a brad nail into dry wall. Every financial consumer should look out for themselves and the market place will work OK.
I've brought up the issue of unanimous consent several times in the past. The republ;icans could have done a lot more to stop obamacare, and other obscenities, but they don't because they are ultimately on the same side as the democrats, and that side, ladies and gentlemen is not ours.
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