In the first post in this series we noted that civics 101 counsels us to realize that the House of Representatives is still controlled by Democrats, and that Nancy Pelosi is still Speaker of The House.The reason that is critical is that the House has the first say in budget matters under our federal constitution, and they must agree with the Senate, or no bill gets passed then sent to the President.
In that regard, we suggested that the Obama Tax Deal with the Republicans was not a done deal, because the House would be the final decider.
Evidently the House Democrats want no part of the Obama deal:
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is unlikely to bring up President Obama's tax cut deal to the floor for a vote in its current form in light of the Democratic caucus' rejection of the package Thursday morning, according to a key lawmaker involved in the discussions.(Huffington Post). Good, now the President should do what he should have in the first place, and try to convince the 7 Democrats in the Senate (53 agree with Pelosi) to do the proper thing, instead of playing footsie with the Republicans to do the wrong thing.
I signed a petition this morning urging them to do this very thing.
ReplyDeleteHold the fort Nancy!
Good, now the President should do what he should have in the first place, and try to convince the 7 Democrats in the Senate (53 agree with Pelosi) to do the proper thing, instead of playing footsie with the Republicans to do the wrong thing.
ReplyDeleteOr better yet, tell them to bring in the cots and let the filibustering begin. I don't believe they can go out on recess without ending the filibuster can they? And doesn't the majority leader Reid need to recogognize any motion to end the session? I'd keep the sorry bastards in session until the next session is scheduled and new members are seated.
The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has informed the President that his proposals will NOT come up for a floor vote in the House.
ReplyDeleteWhich means that the only play the President / Republicans have relates to the original House Bill, sent to the Senate some time ago, which made tax cuts for the middle class permanent, but ended tax cuts for the rich 2% folks.
The House bill can be "offset" by the Senate to reflect the Republican, including the President's, views.
A conference committee of the Senate and House would then consider amendments, etc., merging the two into one Bill in the common bi-cameral fashion.
Then, both the Senate and the House must approve by floor vote, the modified conference committee version before it can go to the President to be signed into law or to be vetoed.
The test of the mettle of the Democrats is their xmas gift from the President this year. His mettle has already failed.
"I don't believe they can go out on recess without ending the filibuster can they?"
That issue will not arise in the Senate (House has no filibuster mechanism) unless the Senate has not yet passed a Bill that the conference committee (members of House & Senate form a committee to blend the Senate Bill & House Bill into one "conference" bill) can act upon.
In that case Democrats can filibuster by not voting to allow cloture, which means the President / Republican version does not even get to the Senate floor debate where the cots come out for all nighters.
That means no conference committee, which means the tax cuts expire on the 31st.