NYT: Feeling Left Out on Major Bills, Democrats Stall Others

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, May 2 — Senate Democrats, shut out of Congressional negotiations on Medicare and other important bills last year, are blocking House-Senate negotiations on other bills unless they are guaranteed a voice in writing the final legislation.

The tactic has infuriated Republicans and contributed to election-year paralysis as the House and Senate struggle to work out compromises needed to make law. The conflict intensified late last week and almost caused a partial shutdown of the Transportation Department.

Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, said there was a "complete stalemate" over a highway bill because Democrats were blocking the creation of a conference committee to resolve differences with the House. The bill has bipartisan support, having passed the Senate by a vote of 76 to 21.

The highway legislation is the most visible example of the Democratic strategy. The Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, explained the rationale.

"Without the opportunity for Democrats to participate, Republicans are going to be making very partisan decisions about the level of commitment to highways over the next several years," Mr. Daschle said. "That's wrong."

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http://nytimes.com/2004/05/03/politics/03CONG.html?hp

[jdj]

1. These NYT headlines are really starting to piss me off.

Thanks to our democratic reps and senators for trying to be a part of the political process any way they can. There have been some downright heroic acts in the house and senate this year, the Lautenberg chicken hawk poster the most recent.

The dems weren't "shut out" of medicare legislation, either. The scum pukes in the house held the vote open for 3 hours and bribed people, one of whom fessed up. And we came close to a filibuster in the senate if Daschle hadn't wimped out.

[frank frankly]

2. yes, the headline is awful, but the Dems are standing up!

fight back, Congress!!!

[Melodybe]

3. I am so proud, we should e-mail Dashcle and tell him he rocked

If we don't encourage this kind of behavior they'll start taking it again.

[Only Me]

5. I Totally Agree. n/t

[salin]

6. yes and no

in the medicare and the energy bills - the republicans DID shut out the democrats from participation in the conference committere bills - while the republican members met with industry lobbyists who drafted big swathes of each of the bills. They were shut out.

Per the contention of a really bad headline... You are right... what is this about "feeling left out" (sounds like we are talking about kids in second grade)... No mr NYT writers... the WERE EXCLUDED. The REPUBLICANS SHUT OUT ELECTED OFFICIALS SO THAT NEARLY HALF OF THE VOTING PUBLIC"S VOICE IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY SHUT OUT FROM THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS. That, dear writers, were it to become standard operating procedure in congress, would make democracy dead. The processes being used by DeLay, Frist etal - are unprecendented, this isn't just "the major party being the major party".

Somehow I guess it is hard to find a headline that captures it...

"Democrats, frustrated by attempts by republicans to end democracy in Congress..."

Suggest that the authors of the article read: http://www.prospect.org/print/V15/2/kuttner-r.html Kuttner's America as a One-Party State.

[Eye and Monkey]

4. "GOP minority in Congress - "architects of gridlock" and "obstructionists"

Perhaps turn-about is fair-play.

http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1994/mw19941001p1.html

"...GOP minority in Congress has routinely been portrayed as "architects of gridlock" and "obstructionists." How did the media react when the Republicans put forward a positive agenda? Over 300 House candidates signed the Contract with America on September 27, promising to vote on tax cuts, term limits, a balanced budget amendment, a revised crime bill, and legal reform if put in the majority, but were attacked for recycling Reagan policies.

U.S. News & World Report's Gloria Borger set the tone in the October 3 issue: "Republicans do not actually promise to pass anything; that would smack of governing, which they eschew." She continued: " Gingrich's list is just a collection of GOP golden oldies that pander to the public's desire to get something for nothing" and concluded: "House Republicans may come to regret it. The voters might actually make them honor their contract."

NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw introduced the contract that night as "long on promises but short on sound premises." Reporter Lisa Myers asserted: "An independent budget expert called it standard political bunk." Myers also poked at term limits, noting Newt Gingrich "already has served 16 years...Gingrich said any term limit bill will apply only to future members of Congress."

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