Posted on 10/20/2014 5:01:18 AM PDT by cotton1706
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wants to get all must-pass legislation completed in the lame-duck session so Senate Republicans will have a clean slate at the start of 2015 if they control the upper chamber.
Senate GOP aides say that’s the message from the leader, who could face opposition from conservative lawmakers who want to block any non-emergency measures in the window between Election Day and the start of the new Congress in January.
“We keep hearing from the leadership we’re going to clear the decks in the lame duck,” said a senior GOP aide. Under this scenario, the Senate Republican leadership would prefer to pass an omnibus spending bill or a year-long stopgap funding measure that would keep the federal government operating until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
It could also have implications for a package extending a variety of expired tax provisions. Some House Republicans would like to delay action on the so-called tax extenders package to 2015 in the hope that a Congress under unified GOP control could make some of the fixes permanent.
snip
Reid has set an ambitious agenda for the post-election session.
He said last month that he wants to pass an omnibus spending package, the defense authorization bill, a package of tax extenders and The Marketplace Fairness Act, a measure that allows states to collect taxes from online retailers.
snip
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), two Tea-Party favorites, say they will object to moving quickly on any legislation they deem “non-emergency.”
“If you do call a lame-duck session, we the undersigned will object to any unanimous consent request to in any way advance any non-emergency, substantial, and controversial legislation, nominations, or treaties,” they warned in a letter to Reid last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
“Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), two Tea-Party favorites, say they will object to moving quickly on any legislation they deem ‘non-emergency.’”
BTTT
Immediately start passing conservative legislation through the House and Senate and make Obama spend the last two years of his term vetoing everything.
That’s not enough. McConnell is planning a beltway GOP kabuki dance. First fund the govt through nearly all of 2015 neutering the power of Congress. Then he intends to pass some “conservative” bills that the Kenyan will veto. It will be a charade. No substantive engagement against the obama agenda at all because they will have already preemptively surrendered by funding it.
Come 2016 campaign season the GOP will say to the goobers on the GOP plantation: “See we tried. Really, we tried. But we need the White House to get anything done.”
“Does Senate control really matter at this point? The beltway GOP simply have no interest in being an opposition party.”
Ask yourself this. Would you rather have Ted Cruz, who could very well be our nominee in2016 in the minority party where he has no voice, or the majority, where people will have to bring his bills up for a vote?
Democrats would love nothing more than for us to stay home and stay as the minority, without controlling any committees nor having even a minute chance at changing anything Obama has implemented.
Good strategy. It didn’t work in 2010… it didn’t work in 2012. Hey, here is a great idea. Let’s stay home again in 2014.
Let’s win the senate tell the rats to piss off and align our conservatives where they can have a voice as members of the majority while at the same time, look for gaps that conservatives can fill in and position us for 2016.
Ask yourself this. Would you rather have Ted Cruz, who could very well be our nominee in2016 in the minority party where he has no voice, or the majority, where people will have to bring his bills up for a vote?
You seem to be missing the point of this article. McConnell is actively plotting to limit Cruz. The GOP losership isn’t interested in being an engaged opposition party. There’s simply no desire to substantively engage the Obama agenda. Therefore, control of the Senate is not critical.
With “leaders” like McConnell & Bohner the next two years are guaranteed to be like the last 4, unfortunately.
“Conservative lawmakers want a chance to cut federal spending in the spring but Senate GOP leaders want to avoid a potential standoff that could derail their legislative agenda if they capture the upper chamber.”
Because to the GOPe, it’s never the right time to fight for anything.
I would deeply prefer that Mitch McConnell lose his Senate seat *while* the GOP gains the Senate. One without the other leaves us very much in the same predicament we are in today
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If they would NOT vote him back as leader wouldn’t be quite as bad. BUT no telling what he would do if he was ousted.
Pull a typical Lib move and either change party or pull a Jim Jeffords - hold out for the best ‘offer’ as an I ... However Jim had the ‘balance’ in his hands, hopefully that isn’t the problem here.
If this bunch of wusses were to vote out McConnell and replace with McCain or Graham OR (shudder) split the vote so bad that Reid sneaks back in....NOW that would be a disaster... R’s in Majority with a Major COMMIE/LIB in ‘control’.
Shame on me for even conjuring up such a nightmare.....<:
I’m shocked that none of the GOPe cheerleaders are here in this thread to tell us how vital it is to get Harry.
Reid has set an ambitious agenda for the post-election session
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It is time to stop this foolishness of 3 months between election and seating.
Another ‘old’ custom whose time and shelf date has expired - Much like term limits... Maybe that is why the ‘old days’ were actually more productive.
The ‘Reps’ spent more time traveling to and fro by not having the luxury of hopping a Jet and visiting 4 parts of the country in the same day for either golfing or fund raising (Better not give them any ideas....Oh wait..forget it).
In today’s world one can have a T Shirt or such made up and ready for world wide distribution within hours of an event that one may want to cash in on.
Dissidents will say rehearsal etc BUT I wonder how much time was ‘wasted’ rehearsing how BO would get out of taking his ‘oath’ (not a good word to use in same sentence as BO) the ‘traditional’, since there was NO complaint over that, other screw tightening methods should be welcomed in place.
2) And lets not kid ourselves, Harry Reid will only be trying to pass Shamnesty.
A mild correction. When you're the GOPe the only time to fight is if you're being primaried by a conservative challenger. Then you do whatever it takes to destroy your opponent.
“You seem to be missing the point of this article. McConnell is actively plotting to limit Cruz.”
I am not missing the point. McConnel can do whatever he likes. As the majority party, McConnel cannot do a thing because he will have to face the wrath of millions of conservatives.
McConnel would like nothing more than losing the senate because if we win the senate, Cruz cannot be stopped. So by staying home, we ensure Repubicans stay in the minority and forget the conservative running in 2016.
Bottom line. Want a Conservative president in 2016? The first step is winning the senate and that cannot be done with us home. I don’t Ike it, but unfortunately that’s the cards we’ve been dealt and as much as I want to fold, 2012 is not 2014. In 2012 we had a choice. If we want to see 2016, we have to get out there and take the senate in 2014.
I disagree, from two different angles.
First, there is an argument that whichever party is in power when "bad things happen" is going to take a hit in the following election. If the GOP is in power, in Congress, before the 2016 election, and it doesn't "make things better," then it's in a worse position (to win in 2016) than it would have been in if the DEMs were in charge of Congress.
From experience we know that both parties play the blame game, whether then are the majority party or not, but still, the party in power has more at risk.
Second, I don't know who you mean by "us at home." Winning an election requires a majority of votes. If pandering to the left gets more votes, then the way to win is to pander to the left.
McConnell and a good part of the GOP is hostile to the conservative point of view, and that may turn out to be a winning strategy. He must have calculated that the number of conservative "us at home" voters is insufficient to harm GOP efforts.
Correct.
Hence # 1 on my list:
1. Get rid of McConnell.
Amnesty and any other crap the GOPE friends across the aisle wants passed before they belly up to the feeding trough of taxpayer $$$.
If obama does executive amnesty the GOPE will wail, piss and moan in public and in private quietly slap each other on the backs in congratulation and do nothing. The Chamber of Crony Communism gets their slave labor force and the rest of us get screwed-—again.
But hey the GOP will in charge of the senate! Right...
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