Posted on 07/29/2011 5:50:43 PM PDT by Para-Ord.45
The Senate voted to kill a House-approved bill to raise the debt ceiling, leaving the ball in the court of Senate leadership to produce a deficit reduction bill, with just days before the Aug. 2 deadline. The vote was 59-41.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid followed through on his promise to kill the bill, pushed through the House a day late by House Speaker John Boehner. The White House, which has thrown its weight behind a Reid proposal, had promised to veto the bill had it miraculously passed the Senate.
The Senate also killed the Cut, Cap, Balance Act last Friday and has yet to vote on a formal proposal. Having passed two proposals and with little appetite and time to attempt another bill, the House now waits to act on a Senate bill.
“I stuck my neck out a mile to get an agreement with the president of the United States,” Boehner thundered from the floor after the vote. “It’s time for the administration and time for our colleagues across the aisle to put something on the table. Tell us where you are!”
Brad Dayspring, spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, announced via Twitter that the House will vote on Reid’s plan Saturday to show that it is “not capable of passing.” First votes are expected to begin at 1 p.m.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/29/senate-kills-boehner-debt-ceiling-plan/#ixzz1TXnnsS3V
Two thoughts after reading this. I recall hearing a few Senators (don't remember the names at this point, there's been so many interviews this week) saying something like "don't be so sure" or "maybe not" when the interviewer kept declaring "CCB is DEAD!" I recall hearing/seeing this a few times lately. Also, there was something "odd" about the little briefing that Reid, Schummer, and Durbin gave Friday night. I couldn't put my finger on it, but they seemed very PO'ed and very desperate somehow, they just didn't seem to be speaking from a position of control.
Time will tell here, thanks again.
First, Reid didn't (and can't) decline the cloture vote. What he did was decline to have it Friday evening instead of Sunday.
Cloture is a parliamentary tool used to limit debate then vote on whatever the subject of the cloture motion was. The subject of a cloture motion can be a motion to take up a bill, or an amendment, or passing the bill, or any debatable point that does not have a time limit for debate.
The way cloture works is that 16 senators get tired of debate, and figure enough senators are ready to vote, or will be, after a time certain for additional debate. These 16 senators file a cloture motion. After one day intervening (unless by unanimous consent otherwise), the senate MUST vote on the cloture motion. It takes 3/5ths of members seated to pass the cloture motion. If the cloture motion passes, then there is an additional 30 hours of debate (which can be modified by unanimous consent), followed by a vote on the underlying subject. If the cloture motion fails, the underlying subject is still under unlimited debate - that is, a failed cloture vote does not kill the underlying measure, a failed cloture vote keeps it alive for more debate. Instead of limited 30 hours of debate, there is no time limit for continued debate.
The senate often (usually) withdraws the item under debate if a cloture motion fails to pass. Basically, the senate is abusing the cloture widget as a facility to require 60 votes to pass anything. The people voting NO on cloture, if they were honest, would be signaling they want more debate before voting. They might want more debate in order to make up their own mind, or to have an opportunity to persuade others to their side. But the senators voting NO on cloture are engaging in parliamentary dysfunction, using the tool to create a supermajority hurdle for passing items that are supposed to pass on simple majority.
You are welcome. We need less hysteria and more critical thinking. This didn’t just start minute ago.
He wants to postpone the Senate going on record. Pretty funny when HE is the one causing delay, to blame his opposition for causing delay! "The Republicans are filibustering!" he claimed, while he is the individual who is refusing to vote.
Anyway, my speculation is that the DEMs see advantage in delaying the vote. Pressure builds as time passes, as the public has been conditioned with false news that "something bad" will happen if Congress doesn't act by Tuesday.
The normal timeline for the cloture process has the cloture vote on Sunday. If that passes, 30 more hours of debate, putting the Senate vote on Tuesday. Also, I am certain that some GOP senators will agree to limit debate, then vote NO on the bill. Cloture might have failed on Friday, but keep in mind that "failed cloture" does not kill the bill, it just extends debate on it. Another cloture vote could be taken - in fact, there is no limit to the number of cloture motions on one item. The most I have seen in the record is eight cloture motions and six failed cloture votes, to a motion to bring up a bill to fund investigation of Whitewater.
The only way I can keep a sense of good humor when I watch the Senate is to think of it as a body of circus clowns.
I said they are not going to pass anything originating from the Republican House. So my FRiends for the first time in my life, I am hoping for the worst possible outcome for our nation(see my tagline.)
That said, we need to get the GOP out in front of this. The GOP has acted in good faith with compromise after compromise.
And now that “they” know how to control the House, look to see nothing gets done. They have eviscerated the House and made them useless.
agree.
“18 Heroes in the House tried,...”
Mmmm, no. At best that would be 16, but I wouldn’t call any of them “heros” just yet.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2756148/posts?page=5#5
No doubt.
Keep it simple.
Pass a bill to reduce the budget flat out by 50%, allow 10% to manage the implementation, you’ve answered the requirement.
Nobody at the elevated positions of government are getting meticulous enough into the budget to make fiduciary accountable decisions, except perhaps in those areas where their finances have been corrupted.
Keep the budget simple, then let the managers below make the hard decisions. Their jobs will depend upon it.
Sorry. My bad.:( I misread your post.
“Believe it or not, sometimes politicians tell the truth because that is exactly what the House and Senate pubbies have been doing ever since the health care debacle.
obama has been trying to RULE by fiat.”
“McConnell might very well be one of the best parliamentary strategists there are. He has waltzed circles around reid AND obama and so has Boehner. They have caused a huge meltdown and the dems are reeling from this. They have nowhere to go.”
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I completely disagree with you. Have you forgotten their campaign promise to cut 100 billion from Obama’s huge $3.4 trillion budget? Then it became $81 billion, then 38.5 billion in phantom cuts that Mark Levin clearly demonstrated was really only about 1 billion in real cuts. The GOP also caved on the Planned Parenthood funding as well. All because Reid and McConnell were terrified that WAPO and the Slimes would say nasty things about them if they called Obama’s bluff and the federal government had to shut down for a while.
Now we come to the debt ceiling. The freshmen campaigned on a pledge not to raise the debt ceiling. (this is still Sarah Palin’s position) They compromised by agreeing to one last hike in return for Cut, Cap and Balance, which had some Democrat support. Reid and Obama rejected it out of hand. Instead of waiting for the Democrats to pass something, Boehner came out with his first Bill which was so bad it couldn’t pass. Under pressure he improved it slightly, and then rammed it through just barely only to have 59 Senators (including Jim Demint, Mike Lee and Rand Paul, the best we have)reject it within the hour. Make no mistake about it. When they run for reelection, the TEA Party freshmen will face ads from Democrats accusing them of hypocrisy for promising not to raise the debt ceiling but doing so anyway. It will be “Read my lips” all over again for those who buckled.
I don’t see any hope for a revival of Cut cap and balance. Why would the Dems revive that when they can work off the much more malleable Boehner bill? The Boehner bill will be revived, made much worse and then in a panic passed by the Senate just on the eve of the artificial August 2 deadline. It will be sent over to the House. Boehner will bring it up and it will be passed with near unanimous Democrat support and enough GOP votes (again supplied by Boehner) to get it through.
I think it is great that you are so optimistic,but here is noting about this process or Boehner’s past record (or McConnell’s) that makes me hopeful at all. McConnell’s statement about making Obama a one term President was just rhetoric. McConnell and Reid are both members of the GOP Establishment. If the Choice comes down to another term for Obama or Sarah Palin, they (and the boys on K Street who call the tune) will do all they can to try to ensure that Obama is reelected. They are not coming out and attacking Palin publicly because that would cost them votes. Instead they send out the Laura Ingrahams and Karl Roves and Rich Galens to do their dirty work. They are trying to marginalize and to dispirit the TEA Party, which they fear because they cannot control it.
Make no mistake about it. The GOP Establishment is the problem here. Unfortunately, not enough of the TEA Party freshmen stood firm
As Rush said, we have been played.
THERE ARE 2 REPUBLICAN PROPOSALS IN THE SENATE.
THEY HAVE DONE ENOUGH.
LET DEMOCRATS HANG THEMSELVES WITH THEIR OWN SPENDING BILL.
I am not willing to believe that either Boehner OR McConnell would wllingly and wantonly preside over the destruction of this country...which is what it would be. If the country goes down, so do they. And if they PO 3/4 of the electorate and ALL of the Conservatives, they are gone anyway.
What I see is a losing harry reid and a lost president who never expected the pubbies to have the cajones to face the public and say what it is and SAY what reid and obama are straight up without mincing any words.
I am going to watch this very carefully. Stopping obama truly IS priority number one.
Am I mis-remembering McConnell supporting and leading the floor fight for Amnesty?
Damn, I hate when free floating outrage makes me spend so much misdirected time on the phone and in letter writing. Don't recall Boehner's position at that time. Maybe I pulled his chain as well.
Senate DemocRATS are holding the country hostage!
I am talking about obama. Yesterday was politics as usual...and it was a pubbie president that was completely convinced he was doing the right thing. He wasn’t. He LOST the fight.
This is not then and what is on the line now is literally the survival of this country. STOP obama. That is what MUST be done.
“I am not willing to believe that either Boehner OR McConnell would wlllingly and wantonly preside over the destruction of this country...which is what it would be”
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No. false dichotomy. They are trying to preserve their political futures. They are misguided and weak, not frankly evil.
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“I am going to watch this very carefully. Stopping obama truly IS priority number one.”
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Stopping Obama is the lowest common denominator even for a moderate liberal. But it is not nearly enough. Replacing Obama with Romney, for example, would mean a consolidation of all the evil Obama has done. Merely replacing Obama with a RINO like Bush 41 or Bush 43 or a nebbish such as McConnell or Boehner would yield a Democrat President even worse than Obama. Remember how the Bushes gave rise to Clinton (who was bad) and Obama (who was worse).
Unless Obama is replaced with a Reagan conservative, defeating him will represent nothing more than a pit stop on the road to ruin.
There is only one Reagan conservative in the field. She opposed raising the debt ceiling at all, arguing that we should force Obama to prioritize. Recognizing that the GOP lacks the will to fight, she said that “Cut, Cap and Balance” was the only other licit means.
She does not support the Boehner Proposal. Her name is Sarah Palin.
Aw come on.
There might be some truth to your sentiment but by me you’re being overly cynical. Those Tea Party guys were so beat up they could barely walk.
Give it a chance.
I live here in Delaware where we ripped apart the Delaware GOP after they so betrayed us with Christine O’Donnell. Yeah, we’re still working on it.
BUT WE DID IT!
Got Tom Ross fired, wrote new rules, lots of citizens burning midnight oil knocked on doors and started completely new.
I myself accepted a nomination to be an EDC (Electoral district chair) and every month now the meetings are filled to the max with citizens who are passionate and involved.
I’m serious. And plenty of times they mocked us and defamed us, publicly, in liberal newsrags.
BUT WE DID IT!
Stop being a sourpuss. I gave up more times than I care to admit and I’m not proud of it.
It’s happening, I can feel it.
My gut feeling is that BOZ, Harry the Twerp and Fancy Nancy WANT the “default” to create more chaos.....
Sorry, that doesn’t cut it with me. Mitch went along with it until the outpouring of citizens reaction put the fear of God into them. He’s just a slicker McCain in my book. As for Bush, I despised his father since Bush pere’s primary battle with Reagan and none of that family have given me cause not to extend the same assessment to them as well.
If McC couldn’t spot the fundamental flaw and fatal consequences of that bill then he is morally corrupt and the blood of those victims by illegal invaders is on his hands as well. He’s guilty of sins of omission and commission without any sign of remorse or redemptive action.
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