U.S. Congress Part 116

[DogofWar1]

Generally speaking you don't bail in the middle of your term to start "looking" for a private sector job.  Especially not a high ranking GOPer like Chaffetz.  Either he's got something lined up or there is a scandal and he's desperately trying to keep a lid on it for as long as possible.

 

 

Also for ****s sake, take your own advice dingus.

 

“Not in any way shape or form,” he said. “I’ve been given more enemas by more people over the last eight years than you can possibly imagine. From the Secret Service to the Democratic Party. I am who I am. If they had something really scandalous, it would’ve come out a long, long time ago.”

 

Either Chaffetz is a raging hypocrite (yes), or the above is not true and stuff could still come out (also potentially true).

[Why am I Mr. Pink?]

Calm and quiet negotiations aren't everyone's cup of tea. Congress has until April 28 to pass a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, and Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations committees have been working with Republican leaders to negotiate a spending package. Any spending bill will need the support of at least eight Democrats in the Senate to pass. On Thursday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the spending bill has to include some initial funding for President Trump's border wall with Mexico, and Democrats have to play ball.

 

"We have our list of priorities," Mulvaney said Thursday. "We want more money for defense. We want to build a border wall." He said the White House would be open to throwing some money at Democratic priorities, too — mentioning paying risk-sharing subsidies to insurance companies to cover low-income health care, important to keeping ObamaCare exchanges functioning — but Democrats have to support Trump's wall and other priorities, too. 

 

http://theweek.com/speedreads/693761/white-house-ups-odds-government-shutdown-by-demanding-democrats-fund-trumps-border-wall

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The parties in a nut shell.

 

Republicans want more bombs and a concrete wall. 

 

Democrats want better health care for the poor. 

 

(Border patrol says they want a fence in strategic parts bc they need to be able to see through, flooding, costs, commons sense, etc -- I wouldnt mind a cheaper more effective anyway fence).

[Burgold]

How crazy is it that we are sprinting towards a spending bill deadline. The GOP controls the Executive and both houses of Congress. 

 

We're not even talking about passing a budget. If there was ever any question as to why D.C. Is broken the answer is easily Red. 

[Larry]

Eh. "sprinting towards a spending bill deadline" is the way budgets have been done for decades. I'm not going to be pointing fingers at either Party for that one. 

[Burgold]

37 minutes ago, Larry said:

Eh. "sprinting towards a spending bill deadline" is the way budgets have been done for decades. I'm not going to be pointing fingers at either Party for that one. 

But usually that's because the other side is obstructing and playing games. Rs don't have that excuse and this is Trump's big forte. 

[Larry]

If the other side isn't obstructing and playing games, then why does the article say it will take eight Dems in the Senate to pass a budget?  

[Burgold]

34 minutes ago, Larry said:

If the other side isn't obstructing and playing games, then why does the article say it will take eight Dems in the Senate to pass a budget?  

I'll give you a minor point, but has either the House or Senate brought a budget up for debate or a vote? I haven't even heard any proposals being hustled around. Now, I might have missed something, but you can't claim the other side is obstructing if you never even try.

 

[Larry]

59 minutes ago, Burgold said:

I'll give you a minor point, but has either the House or Senate brought a budget up for debate or a vote? I haven't even heard any proposals being hustled around. Now, I might have missed something, but you can't claim the other side is obstructing if you never even try.

 

When congress was debating Obamacare, did the Republicans obstruct it?  The Dems went a year without bringing a vote. 

 

Does that mean that they didn't try?  Or that there were nogotiations going on, and the Dems trying to get to 60 BEFORE they had a vote?  

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not condemning what's going on. I at least understand the Dems filibustering the budget. (At least a little). It's the only way to force bipartisan negotiations. 

 

And I'm willing to give some small props to the R's, for being willing to HAVE some slightly bipartisan negotiations. 

[Burgold]

1 minute ago, Larry said:

When congress was debating Obamacare, did the Republicans obstruct it?  The Dems went a year without bringing a vote. 

 

Does that mean that they didn't try?  Or that there were nogotiations going on, and the Dems trying to get to 60 BEFORE they had a vote?  

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not condemning what's going on. I at least understand the Dems filibustering the budget. (At least a little). It's the only way to force bipartisan negotiations. 

 

And I'm willing to give some small props to the R's, for being willing to HAVE some slightly bipartisan negotiations. 

Are the Dems filibustering the budget? Have the Repubs put out anything to filibuster? I haven't heard of anything. I'm sure if the Repubs put something out the Dems probably would try to make trouble, but you can't claim the Dems are making trouble if there's nothing out there making the rounds.

It's possible I'm behind the curve on this. I just haven't heard any R touting any budget plan or proposal whatsoever. I can't give the R's the benefit of the doubt on a mythical proposal because I have no idea if what they're putting out is good, bad, or even serious. Ryan, as we know, put out several budgets when Obama was President that everyone knew was just red meat for his constituency, but we also knew that what he wrote was something that no one including Ryan would ever vote for.

 

You seem to want to credit the R's for not submitting or writing a budget and running up against a deadline that could shut down the government when they pretty much own the keys to the kingdom.

[Larry]

4 hours ago, Burgold said:

Are the Dems filibustering the budget?

 

It doesn't take 60 votes in the Senate to pass a budget. Unless there's a filibuster. 

 

Now, maybe there is no filibuster YET, and the article is simply assuming that there will be one. I could buy that. But even then, you don't see people correcting the author for assuming a filibuster. (And, would the R's really be negotiating with the Dems, if they didn't need Dem votes to overcome a filibuster?)

 

And I'll point out that there appear to be negotiations in progress, right now. Maybe things aren't as detailed as we would all like. But negotiations do appear to be happening. 

[Larry]

Early this morning, some pundit on Fox News referred to the argument over how to pay for Trump's Wall as "Where's Wall Dough?"  

[Burgold]

You can't see Trump's tax reform proposals until after the vote. They are being audited.

[DogofWar1]

Can the GOP use reconciliation on the budget?

 

I was under the impression that reconciliation was available to bills involving budgetary matters.

 

I'm not sufficiently well versed in the Senate's minutiae to say with certainly there isn't some exception or reason a budget bill couldn't fall under reconciliation, but if there isn't and a budget bill could be passed under reconciliation, then the GOP really has no excuse.

 

This isn't to say the GOP shouldn't try to find common ground with Dems on the budget, but the battle lines are already drawn up that any budget failure is the fault of Dems, when really this could be another healthcare situation.

Edited April 23, 2017 by DogofWar1

[Burgold]

Whatever happened to what's good for the gander...?

 

Creating a health plan that only benefits themselves? Let's not get goosed.

[visionary]

 

[@DCGoldPants]

Dems continue to not get it. You have these people saying how awful the ACA is....but then exempt themselves from the changes they want. Seems like a pretty simple ad that could go up from some SuperPac right now. 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[DogofWar1]

From the CNN article on the deal (http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/30/politics/government-shutdown-congress-negotiations/index.html), looks like:

 - No wall money (increased border security money but nothing earmarked for a wall)

 - Increased defense spending

 - Planned Parenthood still gets money

 - ACA subsidies still in place

 

Trump will not be happy.  Or maybe he will be.  Who knows.  Guy makes zero sense.  But his big threat on ACA subsidies for wall money fell apart pretty quickly, and should make him look weak.

[visionary]

 

[thebluefood]

53 minutes ago, visionary said:

Nonsense tweet

You know? I can't even get too mad. I've heard members of my own family say the same thing. Internalized racism is a ****.

 

Still though - ho-lee ****.

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

    

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

[visionary]