GOP opposition forces Democrats to pull $1.1 trillion spending bill from floor

Lame-duck sessions supposed to be history
WASHINGTON — Here's the funny thing about this month's "lame-duck" session of Congress, in which frantic legislators have pinballed from Tax Cuts to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to a nuclear-weapons treaty. It's not supposed to exist. In 1933, historians say, the country ratified a Constitutional Amendment intended to kill off sessions like this, where defeated legislators return to legislate. The headline in The Washington Post was "Present Lame-Duck Session Will be Last." But, thanks to a h...

Earmarks foul body politic
Earmarks are perfectly fine if they go to a nice enough project, says Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton), who helped bring us the worst Financial Crisis since the Great Depression because he also thought subprime Mortgages were fine. I don’t believe this man has ever been right on anything. Think of him as a kind of reverse thermometer. When he says it’s hot, it’s cold. And when he smiles on earmarks, you ought to frown. These devices for localized gift giving came within a whisker ...

DREAM Act Yearbook Profiles DREAMers from Alabama to Wyoming
On the eve of an historic vote on the fate of the DREAM Act, the National Immigration Law Center and a coalition of Civil Rights, education, child advocacy, and labor organizations have released the “DREAM Act 2010 Yearbook,” featuring the personal stories of undocumented young men and women who would benefit from this Legislation. If passed tomorrow, the DREAM Act will provide undocumented Young People who were brought to this country as Children with a pathway to legal status if they att...

With big spending bill's demise, is 'earmark' new dirty word on Hill?
Deficit hawks and Watchdog groups see Thursday's demise of an omnibus spending bill in the Senate as a turning point. A critical mass of lawmakers, they say, are committed to an earmark ban. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., holds a copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday. There was no last hurrah for Earmarks - known to supporters as “congressionally mandated spending,” and to critics a...

Deficit reduction: Why it may not be dead despite the costly tax cut deal
The Tax Cut deal that President Obama signed Friday costs $858 billion, making the cause of Deficit reduction that much more challenging. But Deficit hawks still see some hopeful signs. President Barack Obama smiles after signing into law a bill extending Bush-era tax cuts at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington Friday. With President Obama's signing of a historic tax-cut agreement Friday, Deficit hawks may be in mourning. The deal costs $858 billion, and it’s all paid fo...

Graham: If START Fails, Don't Blame GOP
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) vented some frustration outside the Senate chamber Friday, pushing back at accusations that Republicans are trying to run out the clock on New START. “Maybe we’ve been spending a little time trying to beat the $1.2 Trillion spending bill that was a monstrosity… Graham told reporters. “Well, do you think [it’s] dead because we sat on our butt?” he asked. “We’ve been working our ass off, quite frankly, to keep the lame ...

GOP senators kill spending bill over $8 billion in earmarks
Reporting from Washington — Republicans on Friday reveled in a victory over Government Spending that showcased their resolve in the fight over the federal purse. By killing a $1.3-trillion spending bill, the GOP extinguished a sheaf of earmarked expenditures and drew in straying GOP colleagues — even those who had inserted the Earmarks and helped write the bill, which would have funded the government through September 2011. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nevada) withdrew th...

Harry Reid Pulls Massive Omnibus Spending Bill; Mitch McConnell Reacts Video 12/16/10
Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting to news that Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had pulled the massive $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill because he did not have the 60-votes for Cloture - which would bring it up for an Up or Down vote. The massive bill was filled with more than 39,000 Earmarks, and was 1,924-pages long . This means some kind of continuing resolution will likely be needed to fund the Government until the new Congress can act in J...

Reid adds lands bill to Senate load
As if Democrats did not have enough on their plates in the lame-duck session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday that he has introduced yet another piece of Legislation – a lands bill that would designate wilderness areas in three different states and add thousands of miles to the national trail system. Reid plans to call several votes in the final days of the lame-duck session on the DREAM Act and the Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well a ...

Obama signs tax-cut legislation
President Obama on Friday signed the bill that extends the George W. Bush-era Tax Cuts, while Congress moved to wind up its lame-duck deliberations in a session marked by the changing nature of politics and power. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Obama again defended his Compromise, worked out with Republicans. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was prominent at the ceremony, as was Vice President Joe Biden, who bargained with the Republican leader "This is real money that is going to mak...

US tax deal, budget feud set stage for 2011 cuts
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. To nations suffering Austerity, it must seem as if Washington has gone mad. First, the U.S. Congress fails to agree on a 2011 Budget. Then lawmakers overwhelmingly pass another giant stimulus. But both events actually hint at some chance of more disciplined fiscal action next year. President Barack Obama will quickly sign the $858 billion stimulus/Tax Cut bill that funds Unemployment Benefits for 13 months and...

Tea Party Kills $1 Trillion Bill But Dont Rest Yet
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com Both Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing: The Tea Party deserves credit for killing the Democrats’ $1.27 Trillion spendfest and power grab. After realizing he lacked enough Republican or Democratic votes, Harry Reid withdrew the bill last night. As tempted as Conservatives may be to pat themselves on the back and celebrate more important things, like Christmas, we must not rest. Congressional liberals have one last assault on liberty planned for thi...

Lame-duck sessions supposed to be a thing of the past, historians say
Here's the funny thing about this month's lame-duck session of Congress, in which frantic lawmakers have pinballed from Tax Cuts to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to a Nuclear Weapons treaty: It's not supposed to exist. In 1933, historians say, the country ratified a Constitutional Amendment intended to kill off sessions like this - in which defeated legislators return to legislate. The headline in The Washington Post at the time was "Present Lame Duck Session Will Be Last." Bu...

Fate of Arms Treaty Tied to Policy on Gays
WASHINGTON — Vexed and cornered, Republican opponents of the advancing effort to allow gay men and Lesbians to serve openly in the Military pulled out a final card Friday, suggesting that the future of an arms treaty with Russia was endangered by Democratic efforts to Repeal “don’t ask don’t tell” at the end of the lame-duck session. Senator John McCain wants to amend language in an arms treaty with Russia backed by the Obama Administration. “It poisons the ...

Last Call
And here's President Obama's reward for working with the Republicans on that Tax Cut deal. The $858 billion tax deal approved by Congress Thursday is "all candy and no spinach," but at least it shows that President Barack Obama and Republicans can cooperate on fiscal issues. But their new detente will be tested early next year when the Budget Deficit looms larger on the political landscape. Analysts are skeptical this week's pact can be leveraged into a broad deficit-cutting program, and fear th...

Senate GOP's concerns on nuclear treaty could indicate a close vote
Leading Republican senators charged Friday that a U.S.-Russian Nuclear Treaty could handcuff U.S. efforts to develop a missile-defense program, and they rallied around an amendment that could kill the pact if approved. Treaty supporters appear able to easily muster the 51 votes necessary to defeat the amendment. But the impassioned debate over Missile Defense, which stretched into the evening, showed the degree of Republicans' concern over the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and h...

Fate of Arms Treaty Tied to Policy on Gays
Source: NY Times WASHINGTON — Vexed and cornered, Republican opponents of the advancing effort to allow gay men and Lesbians to serve openly in the Military pulled out a final card Friday, suggesting that the future of an arms treaty with Russia was endangered by Democratic efforts to Repeal “don’t ask don’t tell” at the end of the lame-duck session. “It poisons the well,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, on the floor of the Senate during debate on the Ne

In a Victory for Earmark Opponents, Dems Drop Their Trillion-Dollar Omnibus Spending Bill
Friday, December 17, 2010 By Patrick Goodenough Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell holds up the 1,924-page omnibus spending bill on the Senate floor on Thursday night. (Screenshot: C-SPAN) (CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats Thursday evening withdrew an earmark-laden omnibus spending bill, agreeing instead to work on a short-term, stop-gap funding bill - a “continuing resolution” - to keep the Federal Government running beyond midnight Saturday. Earlier, Secretary of

At least someone will have read it: GOP to 'paralyze' Senate by reading the disastrous 2,000-page, trillion-plus spending bill
The left-leaning political journal The Hill makes the tactic sound, oh, I don't know... dire? Their headline reads, "GOP will paralyze Senate floor with reading of 1,924-page spending bill". Hey, schmucks: is it really too much to ask that our representatives read the damn bills before they vote on them? I will assert the following: the 111th Congress will go down in history as the most rabid, radical and destructive enemies of the state ever to assume power in America. Republicans will paraly...

Senate leaders drops $1.3 trillion spending bill
WASHINGTON—After wrestling with -- and finally abandoning -- a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for Military...

Republicans Beat the Omnibus, Give More Power to Obama.
Last night, Republicans walked out of an agreement they had negotiated with Democrats in recent months, killing a spending bill that would have kept government functioning through the new year. Ostensibly, this is due to Republicans' new objections to Earmarks, which mean that top Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Thad Cochran turned their back on a bill they had shaped with millions of dollars for their home states. Dave Weigel observes John McCain and newly elected Sen. Mark Kirk in a bout ...

The omnibus blows an engine
I think it is unanimous, at least on the right, that the withdrawal of the Democrat’s omnibus 1.2 Trillion dollar spending bill - larded with over 6,600 Earmarks - is a “good thing”.  Instead we can hope that a continuing resolution keeping funding at current levels (or reduced - that wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all) is passed.  Sen. Mitch McConnell was waiving around a one-page bill yesterday that essentially does that. One page.  Imagine. Not almos

Omnibust
Senate Democrats abruptly abandoned an omnibus Budget bill for the coming year, pushing major spending decisions into the next Congress and giving Republicans immense new leverage to confront President Barack Obama priorities. The decision Thursday night sweeps away months of Bipartisan work by the Senate Appropriations Committee which had crafted the $1.1 Trillion bill to meet spending targets embraced by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) himself prior to the Elections. Sen. Robert Bennet...

The Norquist Strategy: Part 2 Starts In February
David Dayen: This was the trade made in the Senate last night; the Dems will get legislative Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a couple judges, and probably the new START Treaty, and the Republicans will get the chance to massively cut spending early in the 112th Congress. If I’m a Republican, I take that trade. This all came about last night, when [. . .] Senate Republicans [. . .] informed Harry Reid that they would renege on their support of the $1.1 Trillion dollar omnibus spending bill[.

Begich: Sorry about those earmarks, Alaska
From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. -- Earmarks have taken a hit in recent weeks, and only in Alaska would a senator apologize for not being able to deliver them. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaksa, did just that, though, in a letter to Alaska organizations that had earmarks in an omnibus spending bill that fell apart last night. "I am disappointed, plain and simple, since we have worked in a Bipartisan manner to create a bill that contains projects as requested by nearly every Senator," he wrote. "M...