WASHINGTON - Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.
There's also no guarantee that Republicans will pass a multibillion-dollar measure to prevent a cut in fees to doctors treating Medicare patients.
The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.
The decision to drop so much unfinished work in Democrats' laps demonstrates both division within Republicans ranks and the difficulty in resolving so many knotty questions in so short a time. GOP leaders promised their House and Senate members the December lame duck session would last no more than two weeks, or until Dec. 16 at the latest.
Now, with the agenda shrinking, a session that will be the last for 45 retiring or defeated House members and senators should be wrapped up by Dec. 8.
Read the rest here.
GOP Leaves Their Mess for Dem Cleanup
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Doug
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GOP Leaves Their Mess for Dem Cleanup
Last edited by Doug on Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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Back in 1996 the "freshman" Rs started bumping spending bills (which are supposed to be finalized and sent to the president before 9/30 of any given year) until months after the deadline so they had to be lumped together in "omnibus" bills absolutely loaded with pork as a ploy to force their "agenda". (In 1995 they tried shutting down the government, but public opinion changed their minds about that tactic.) They haven't changed since. The changeover to Dems in charge is just an excuse. The Rs who are so worried about having a Republican "stamp" on this budget weren't upset about the equally horrendous budgets of the last 5 years. As a tactic to derail the Dem agenda, it may work. It may backfire, since the Dems can now rewrite the budget (as long as they don't send "veto bait") and can get credit for bringing fiscal sanity back to congress. Hope for the best (and yes, prepare for the worst).
Barbara Fitzpatrick