Losers Again
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Budget Fights | Congress | Congress | Fiscal Discipline | White House — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
You know, if the Bush Administration chose to be this tough on the issue of spending when Republicans held Congress, Republicans would still be holding Congress as I write this.
But credit where it is due. Another day, another defeat for House Democrats means that the White House has finally gotten its political operation in order.
Read on . . .
In the face of stiff opposition from powerful fellow Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has abandoned a proposal she supported less than 24 hours ago to eliminate lawmakers' earmarks from the omnibus spending package.
Pelosi told the Democratic chairmen of the House Appropriations subcommittees, the so-called appropriations cardinals, that earmarks would stay in the omnibus and that Democratic leaders would accede to cut spending to levels demanded by President Bush in order to save 11 spending bills from a veto, said sources familiar with a meeting that took place in Pelosi's office early Wednesday morning.
The House Democrats' tentative plan is to finalize the package for passage in the next day or so, said sources.
By leaving earmarks largely untouched and agreeing to Bush's budget ceiling, Democrats have capitulated in their spending battle with Republicans. In the end, Democrats realized they would not be able to muster enough Republican votes to override Bush's veto. The president vowed to reject any spending package that exceeded the $933 billion limit he set.
The spin being put on this by Democrats is that they will now be able to go forward with funding their priorities. Well, no one thought that Democratic priorities wouldn't find at least some funding in the appropriations process. But given the fact that Nancy Pelosi has cut off the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, at the knees a mere day after stating that she thought his plan was "great," one has to think that there are a lot of hard feelings in the Democratic Caucus these days.
That can't bode well for future policy battles when disgruntled Democrats might work to ensure that their Speaker gets even more humiliated than she must currently feel after this most recent political battle with the White House.
Losers Again 5 Comments (0 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
care more about beating democrats than about the future of the country. If they had, spending would have been kept in check and, as you point out, we'd still have congress.
But at least they can learn ... Back in 2006 who knew. Spending needs to be reined in.
It took a while for the White House to get it's act together on spending and as disappointed as I was in what they had done previously, I'm more than pleased to see them standing up to the Democrats. They all but had GWB cowering in the corner in the fetal position as a lame duck. Oooops, the Dems were wrong again. If Pelosi and Reid had been smart, and that's asking alot, they would have tried to find a 'reasonable middle ground' to work with the White House the last two years. But know, they wanted to play their 'tough guys' cards, and now they are left eating the cards. Even better, they have done more to expose themselves and their 'plans' to the electorate who just might now take a second look at who they vote for in the '08 elections. It may not be as big a GOP disaster as some have heraled.
Assuming of course Nancy has an understanding of shame.
It is always fun to see the guy they think is sooo weak and unloved be able to win the day on issue after issue.
Maybe Harry will finally do cartwheels in the Senate.
Democratic leadership is clearly turning into caricatures of themselves.
So Nancy, want to retract that comment you made a year ago, "Democrats are ready to govern." Or were you really asking a question instead of making a declarative sentence.