Hey, Congress: You're Fired! 02/27/10 Patricia Murphy It's hard to believe that most members of Congress, if they worked at any private company in America, would still be employed after their last year on the job. How would Democratic and Republican leaders fare on the basic performance review that most workers encounter annually? When graded on a scale of "exceeds expectations," "meets expectations" or "fails to meet expectations," what grade would they get on improving health care? Or focusing on the economy? Or teamwork? Judge for yourself. After a year of debating, cajoling, refusing and posturing, Congress seems no closer to agreeing on health care reform after the president's hire-wire bipartisan summit than they did before it. It's the president's top domestic priority, but he's done little to bridge the differences that are splitting the Democratic caucus, or to win over Republicans to make up for the difference. As Americans continued to struggle with double-digit unemployment, home foreclosures, and access to credit, the latest victim of congressional infighting this week was the Democrats' economic agenda, including a jobs bill and an extension of COBRA and unemployment benefits, which expire Sunday for more than one million out-of-work Americans. The week in Washington opened with what seemed like a victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as the Senate passed a jobs bill he crafted by a vote of 70 to 28. Reid had infuriated Democrats and Republicans alike the week before by scuttling a popular, bipartisan $85 billion jobs package for his own smaller version, but his risk seemed to pay off when 13 Republicans crossed party lines to support his revised bill. Reid's measure would put $15 billion toward several plans designed to create jobs, including $13 billion for a payroll tax holiday for small businesses to hire new workers, a reauthorization of the highway trust fund to kick-start road building, and a bond issue to finance construction of schools and energy projects. But the House of Representatives had passed its own jobs bill in December, a far broader measure that came in at $154 billion and was so different from Reid's bill that the lower chamber would have to take up the Senate measure instead. By Thursday the House Democrats had refused to go along with the Senate legislation. They felt burned by moderates in the Senate for leaving them at the altar on an energy bill and the health care reform public option earlier this year, but three factions had more specific objections. Rep. Jim Oberstar, the top Democrat on the Transportation Committee, wanted to know where the $75 billion in transportation moeny from the first bill had gone. The Blue Dog coalition, the fiscal hawks in the House Democratic caucus, complained that Reid's bill violated the pay-as-you-go rules that the House had passed just weeks ago, while members of the Congressional Black Caucus said that the Senate bill had too many tax cuts and not enough spending to actually create new jobs for the people that they represent. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assured reporters on Friday that the House would pass the bill. But the potential mutiny from Democrats' different factions pushed a vote to next week, when Pelosi and her lieutenants will try to muster more support for Reid's scaled-back bill. As the Speaker attempted to whip her members into line on the House side, another jobs-related mini-drama broke out across the Capitol on the Senate side, where retiring Kentucky Republican Sen. Jim Bunning began a filibuster on a portion of the jobs bill. It was a section that Reid had stripped out days earlier but then brought back up for a vote-- an extension of unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies for more than 1 million Americans whose benefits run out this weekend. Bunning's objection to the measure, he said, was that it would add to the ballooning federal deficit, an outcome he suggested could be avoided by using unspent stimulus funds to pay for the bill. But Democrats attacked the Kentucky senator as being nakedly partisan. Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, lambasted Bunning during an unusual late-night session, as Bunning objected to every effort by Democrats to pass the measure Thursday night. "The most vulnerable families in America are going to suffer because of this political decision by one senator," said Durbin, (D-Ill.) "We will be back, we will try to get this done. And to those families: Hang in there." Bunning promised, "I'll be here as long as you are here." Believing they have a winning issue on their hands, Democrats mobilized against Bunning Saturday, with the White House accusing the Republican of "political gamesmanship" and several Democratic senators holding a conference call to blast Bunning's moves. "Democrats understand that real Americans count on these benefits every week to keep the bills paid and put food on the table," the Democrats press release read. Without action, jobless benefits will run out Sunday for those who have been out of work the longest. But with even more deficit spending, experts warn the income taxes of future workers will have to double just to pay the interest on the national debt. The Senate will gavel back into session for votes Tuesday, with Durbin and Bunning both promising to be there to argue their sides,but whether anything gets accomplished is anyone's guess. A job review for most of these members of Congress is coming up in November when voters will decide if they should keep their positions for this kind of performance. Most Americans don't seem to think so. In Gallup's latest poll, voters gave Congress a job approval rating of 18 percent, while a New York Times/ CBS News poll showed just 8 percent of Americans think most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected. The message to Congress in those numbers-- the unemployment benefits you extend next week could be your own. comments: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/27/hey-congress-youre-fired/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ShadowGovernment" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/shadowgovernment?hl=en.
