The Donkey Congress is allergic to debate
Conservative stalwart Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint blew the whistle last week on a new report from the Congressional Research Service showing that 94 percent of bills passed in the Dem-controlled Senate have been rammed through without debate or vote.
Via CNS:
Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) dismissed Democratic claims of obstructionism and expressed outrage last week over a government report that shows the majority of bills that have passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate of the 110th Congress have done so without any debate or even a vote.
“The U.S. Senate has a nine percent approval rating, because the American people believe that much of our work is done in secret with no debate, no transparency and no accountability,” Coburn told reporters at press conference Wednesday at the Capitol.
“This report shows that the reality is worse than the public’s fears. Instead of encouraging open debate, I’m disappointed that Majority Leader Reid often chooses secrecy or demagoguery,” he added.
Coburn was referring to a non-partisan study released on June 10 by the government’s Congressional Research Service (CRS), which indicates that 855 of the 911 bills passed by the Senate of the 110th Congress have been streamlined by Democratic Party leadership with a procedural tactic known as Unanimous Consent (UC), which requires no debate or even a vote.
With the Senate’s traditional August recess about to start, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has repeatedly accused Republicans, however, and especially Coburn and DeMint, of blocking UC on legislation that he says is critical to the well-being of many Americans.
The world’s greatest deliberative body my you-know-what.
***
The CRS report is here (PDF).
From Sen. DeMint’s office:
The 855 bills that have been secretly passed spend more than $9 billion, though a final total is not available because many of the bills were rushed through before a cost analysis could be performed.
Senator DeMint: “It would surprise many Americans to learn that the ‘World’s Greatest Deliberative Body’ passes the overwhelming majority of legislation without any debate at all. Democrats think they are entitled to pass bills without debate or votes, and they’ve tried to ram them through right before recess to pressure us to give up. But, Senators shouldn’t fear debate on these important bills. It’s in the best traditions of our republic to demand the Senate actually do its job and have a public debate on bills that expand government and increase the burden on taxpayers. Senator Reid can complain all he wants, but Republicans represent millions of Americans whose voices are being silenced by Democrat strong-arm tactics.”
Dr. Coburn: “The U.S. Senate has a nine percent approval rating because the American people believe that much of our work is done in secret with no debate, no transparency and no accountability. This report shows that the reality is worse than the public’s fears. Instead of encouraging open debate, I’m disappointed that Majority Leader Reid often chooses secrecy or demagoguery. For instance, he has depicted my effort to reduce the number of bills that pass the Senate in secret by ten percent as ‘unprecedented obstruction.’ What is unprecedented and ahistorical, however, is the Majority Leader’s view that Senators should have a king-like right to pass massive spending bills in secret with no debate, no amendments and no recorded vote.”
The CRS report states, “[T]he vast majority of measures passed or agreed to by the Senate so far in the 110th Congress have not received formal parliamentary debate on the floor of the Senate.” This practice, known as “hotlining,” has traditionally been reserved for noncontroversial bills with little to no cost to the taxpayer, like the naming of post offices. However, the practice has been abused to sneak through large bills that cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and have significant policy implications.
***
On another front, Sen. Coburn is battling the Senate Dem bingers–and the liberal media is taking notice. In the NYT today:
Congress has dealt for decades with catchall bills known as omnibus legislation. Now, for the first time, comes the Tomnibus.
Senator Tom Coburn, in his Capitol Hill office on Saturday, has “holds” on nearly 80 bills. “I take my oath seriously,” he said.
A product of Democratic frustration with the tactics of Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican and physician who has become the Dr. No of the Senate, the Tomnibus is a $10 billion collection of Coburn-blocked measures assembled by the Senate leadership in an effort to break his solitary grip on the legislative process.
Engineered by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, the bill includes 35 of the most irresistible-sounding measures stuck on the docket, including the Mothers Act and the Protect Our Children Act.
There are items to commemorate “The Star-Spangled Banner” and to try to curb pornography, cut drug use and help victims of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Officially known as the Advancing America’s Priorities Act, the catchall legislation includes a measure to improve life for victims of paralysis, which Mr. Reid calls the Superman bill in tribute to the late Christopher Reeve.
The obvious intent is to apply a little legislative Kryptonite and embarrass Mr. Coburn into dropping his procedural objections to the measures while highlighting his willingness to put roadblocks in front of bills that have support from all corners — a textbook case of what Democrats view as extreme Republican obstructionism.
Well, as they say, good luck with that.
“I am not a go-along, get-along guy if I think it is the wrong way to go,” Mr. Coburn said, not stating anything his peers did not already know. “I am O.K. taking the consternation of my colleagues. I take my oath seriously.”
Whines Reid:
“Why in the world does the Republican leadership allow itself to be bullied by the rogue far right of its caucus, which has perfected the art of stopping good bills that help good people?” Mr. Reid asked.
The Rogue Far Right.
Sign me up! Better yet: Sign more GOP senators up. Stat.
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“No accountability”… that’s the way they like it.
Vote the bums out!
What is that sound?! Could it be congressional approval ratings plummeting even farther?
Is it possible for them to work their way into the negative numbers? I believe Reid and Pelosi are giving it the ol’ D.C. try.
What’s to debate, you either agree with them or nothing. You would think Bush and McAmnsety could figure this out earlier. Why cross over at back any of their projects knowing they will never help get anything done for your cause, no matter how just.
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet! If they gain a larger majority and a democrat president. It will be 100% without debate, and stupidity will have no bounds.
Thank you Senators DeMint and Coburn for your actions. Sign me up also as Rogue Far Right.
L
Ethical congress, indeed. Time for real leadership. Move the money-grubbing children out of the vault. Bring in real men who will do their jobs and go home.
Jerks!
Rogue far right has a nice ring…sort of like the VRWC. Time for more bumper stickers!
This is what we have so it’s not suprising that this is the kind of underhanded legislation we get. The Dimocraps do not think that we are watching them slide this country into a socialist state so they have the attitude that they will do what ever they damn well please. All and I mean all of the conservatives on the hill should be screaming foul every time this happens. Thanks to Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint for putting sugar in the tanks of the Dumbassocrats.
Ditto
Right wing bullying? … huh? …
Only bullying I have seen has been from groups like Code Pink and MoveOn and last I checked I was pretty sure they were still extreme left wing groups …
As one of the founding members of the RFR and VRWC, I hereby accept all of your applications!!!
How ya doin Barry F. here is your pic you requested Brain on Obama
I live in Coburns district. He is very well appreciated here in OK. I hope he stays the course. I would hate for him to become DC-ilised.
Reid is the poster child for constipation.
And I suppose Nancy “NO” Pelosi is any better?
Dear Lord: Please grant us a government without Harry and Nancy. Amen
Too late to vote a lot of the bums out. The primaries in most states are over and that was your chance to make a change. We are now in the general election season so for most you have what you have. In some places there may be more conservative members running on the Dem ticket and that is a call the local voter is going to have to make. You just have to hope that who you vote for does not become part of the Borg collective known as congress and bends to the whims of the party instead of their constituents.
Me I am voting against every incumbent I can and I have been all along.
Not much that can be added to that assessment.
If Hopenchange becomes president with a solid donkey majority in Congress, about the only silver lining I can think of is that Jimmy Carter also had a three-way lock on the Federal government and still couldn’t get anything accomplished, and all Clinton managed to do with the same monopoly was to so infuriate the electorate that Republicans re-took Congress in 1994.
Cold comfort that is, though, especially as it seems that the voters are about to prove Benjamin Franklin right once more:
“Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.”
I dont want to be a rogue far right guy…
gimme paladin or shaman
/sarc off
I would point out that Dingy Harry is talking about Republicans being bullied….
Strange, he never mentioned anything like that about his own party…ya know, MoveOn, Daily Kos, HuffPo…those kids. He’s a hypocritical piece of crap.
But we’re rogues.
AKA the Eeyore elites.
No Give and Take. No Exchange of Thought. It gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.
Eeyore
Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, “Why?” and sometimes he thought, “Wherefore?” and sometimes he thought, “Inasmuch as which?” and sometimes he didn’t quite know what he was thinking about.
Eeyore
They haven’t got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake, and they don’t Think.
Eeyore
“A people always ends by resembling its shadow.”
Rudyard Kipling
“Why in the world does the Republican leadership allow itself to be bullied by the rogue far right of its caucus, which has perfected the art of stopping good bills that help good people?” Mr. Reid asked.
Boo-freakin’-hoo!
If Senator Tom Coburn, my Senator, is a far-right rogue, then I’m proud to call myself one, as well.
“A Democrat by any other name is an ass.”
Chris Plourde
Not one bill should EVER be passed without a vote, let alone a debate. What the hell was in these bills?
Proud member in good standing of the rogue far right and still a proud member of the VRWC….everything Reid stands for I do not.
Unless there isn’t a challenger, it’s not too late.
If everyone would throw party loyalty aside and vote challenger regardless of party we would get rid of them in short order.
The answer is to limit each to 2 terms
. . .one in office, one in jail.
Make serving in congress a sacrifice for the good of the country, not a career as originally intended by our founding fathers.
Sign me up for the RFR.
We are beginning to see the next dictatorship. The democrats are bent on taking over the government for good. It is quite obvious by their behavior.
It’s time for Nevada constituients to RECALL Sen Reid!
As atrocious as those statistics are, I would be curious to see if they were any different with a Republican majority. (You all know it’s just a matter of time until one of our resident trolls points out the same thing.)
And Soap, sign me up as a charter member, RFR.
Rogues? Well, I guess it is better than us being called a “Maverick”, huh?
Sign me up, Soap!
Rogue far right??? Where do I sign up??? Where do I get a list of CURRENT members??? Can approval ratings for these MORONS get any lower??? Maybe they can INVESTIGATE GWB, and his administration 1 or 2 hundred more times before election day… That would sure increase their OUTPUT…
I went into look at the CRS report and this is among the few votes recorded after Senator Reid became Majority Leader. The legislative process has certainly become more transparent in the last eighteen months. The Senate and their House counterparts do not even pretend to deliberate bills any longer. Such blatant disregard for the purpose of the legislature is clearly against the spirit of the Constitution.
Sen. Colburn:
Sen. Reid:
Sen. Colburn, you were saying…..
RFR, sounds like me.
Well, in the defense of Reid and his cohorts, that particular piece of legislation may have worked to some degree, because their liberal partisan tactics are pretty transparent, IMHO.
Sorry Sen. Coburn for misspelling your name.
Oh yeah, sign me for the RFR too, Soap. I’m in.
Harry Reid is the biggest horses ass on the Hill.
aj …
There you go insulting horses …
Although, I too, like the sound of the “Rogue Far Right”; I would like to point out what the definition of “rogue” is..”a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel“. This sounds just like Dingy Harry and San Fran Nan to me. I espesially like the word “scoundrel” when it comes to describing this dishonest cowardly democratic congress.
I like it! I may even trade-in my VRWC membership far a RFR membership.
No need. They go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, if you a card carring member of both the RFR and VRWC, you get bonus points.
You’re in. As for the list, see also MichelleMalkin.com. That is a pretty complete list!
Now that’s a man who understood the nature of politics and human beings.
It isn’t a problem with non-controversial bills, as the vast majority are. The problem arises when somebody like Salazar slips a provision into the bill that nobody notices, because they haven’t been allowed time to read it, that for instance bans all development of oil shale formations on the Western slope of the Rockies in an otherwise non-controversial bill. Given the Democrat penchant for subterfuge and prevarication, Republican staff must, or at least should, read each and every line of every bill, no matter how “non-controversial”, to make sure the thieves of the left haven’t inserted a provision nationalizing the oil industry or declaring conservatism illegal.
And the Dems who are controlled and bullied by MoveOn.org aren’t far left?
Soros? PETA? Sierra Club?
Yep.
Well, if we use MichelleMalkin.com for a complete list, what does that make lgm, our ADA concession?
Kewl! I’m part of the rogue far right!
I wish I was a senator, I’d tie their panties in such knots that even Harry Houdini would be crying “No Mas!”
When Hairy Reed passes a tax cut for those who actually pay taxes, I’ll believe he’s making an effort to “help good people.” Until then Hairy, STFU.
He is kind of like our crazy uncle we keep up in the attic.
Reid’s complaints are not unlike a bank robber complaining that the bank guard closed the vault before he could empty it…these guys must have no conscience!
I’ve always wondered why bills couldn’t be limited to 2-pages, 12-font, double-spaced???
If they can’t, the author(s) haven’t clearly stated the problem and the solution.
This would also prevent amendments (or at least very many of them)
And we got the likes of Reid and Pelosi (and their cellmates) in office…how? A horribly ignorant electorate who votes with their emotions and hormones. Barf. We are so far beyond screwed.
Sorry Barry, I didn’t see him come in.
WHO LEFT THE BRIDGE DOWN???
Great comback Sen Colburn and DeMint!!!! Shove it right back in Reids face.
Expose him for what he is just like Rush did a few months ago.
The new Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy™.
Donkey Kongress afraid of debate…
Just like Obama.
Hey, Demint & Coburn – What part of Unanimous Consent (UC) do you not understand? Unanimous means everybody, all, the whole Senate! You could have blocked any of the bills by with holding your consent!
On July 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm, atheling said:
An excellent post.
riplag:
That rule subverts any thought of democracy and should be revoked for anything but procedual votes (ie motion to extend time). NO law should ever be passed without a vote.
That is the direct result of the nose-holding ritual RINOs have adopted when voting. It is impossible to think straight when circulation to the brain has been cut off.
Government of the people, by the people and for the people…..only without the people.
Milwaukee Mike , you nailed that one!
Errr…ummmm… you obviously need a Remedial Reading course.
How do you oppose a bill if there’s no debate? How do you withhold your consent when there’s no vote?
Face it, riplag: you’ve soiled yourself in public again! May I suggest you carry around one of those long handled shoehorns? You can use them to scrape out your shorts after committing embarrrassments such as this one.
Is Reid wrangling to be the next Daschle voted out of the Senate?
We can only hope and pray that he follows Daschle’s lead.