Porkulus Two follies: Harry Reid’s irony-filled snit fit
This is what desperation looks like, via the Washington Times:
A bipartisan group of senators forged agreement on a jobs bill that drew the White House’s blessing Thursday – but hours later Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scuttled the deal and replaced it with his own Democrat-written measure.
Scrambling to show Democrats are taking action to lower the 9.7 percent unemployment rate, Mr. Reid said the bipartisan proposal strayed too far from job creation and into special-interest giveaways.
“The message is so watered down, with people wanting other things in this big package that we’re going to have to come back and finish [the jobs agenda later],” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, told reporters. He said there is no reason for Republicans to oppose the smaller bill.
But Republicans said it was an about-face for Mr. Reid and accused him of kicking bipartisanship to the curb despite his and President Obama’s repeated calls for the parties to work together. They said Mr. Reid had initially signed off on the measure, crafted by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee.
Mr. Reid’s move “throws sand in the gears of bipartisan negotiation,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Grassley said.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, tried to offer the Baucus-Grassley jobs proposal on the Senate floor Thursday night but Mr. Reid blocked him. Instead, Mr. Reid set the table for a partisan fight on his version, which would forgive Social Security payroll taxes for new hires who had been unemployed at least 60 days, fund highway and infrastructure projects and extend tax benefits to small businesses. He scheduled a vote to head of a potential Republican filibuster on Feb. 22 vote – the day the Senate returns from a weeklong holiday. And Mr. Reid used parliamentary tactics to foreclose the chance for Republicans to offer amendments to his bill.
Ironies abound. In rejecting the barely “bipartisan” (as Ed Morrissey points out) “compromise” plan for the $100 billion Porkulus Two in favor of a stripped-down $15 billion version, Reid appears more fiscally responsible than his cohorts on either side of the aisle and the White House, which had endorsed Baucus-Grassley. But in trampling all over the deliberative process to get his bill done by any means necessary, Reid exposes the ultimate folly of the entire exercise. The point isn’t job creation and stimulation — remember the key features remain a $20 billion bailout of the Highway Trust Fund and anti-job tax gimmicks.
The point of Harry Reid’s plan is to save Harry Reid’s hide.
And that, praise be, looks more hopeless than ever.
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Too little, too late.
“Reid” the writing on the wall.
Repeal the 17th amendment and recall this pencil-necked robber baron back to Nevada.
They’ll never repeal the 17th because its too easily to demagogue with “They’re taking away our vote!!!”
As for Reid, the more wrenches that get thrown into that machine, the better off we all are.
I’m sure you all feel the same way as I do…the day that scumbag is defeated will be a day of joyous celebration. I felt that way when Daschle lost and I can still remember the day vividly. The gains by the Republicans held such promise. But, alas, they did nothing with their majority. We had better make sure the ones who win this November don’t squander their majority again! That crap has got to stop!!
Man, he just cannot shake that mean ole snapping turtle attitude.
Hope Nevada comes through and gets rid of this guy.
Also, I own stock in some corporations receiving stimulus (not TARP) money, money that will not create jobs. My plan is to unload. This stuff has got to stop.
WHY are the Republicans even participating in this???? They haven’t even spent the Porkulus I funds!
Because both parties are constitutionally corrupted to the very core.
It breaks my heart to see the TEA party becoming a wing of the GOP. I wanted them to actually take over the GOP.
As a side note: Social Security tipped into the red recently with more money going out than coming in for the foreseeable future. And their big plan to create jobs is to take more money away from Social Security? The system desperately needs reform – but simply eliminating contributions while maintaining expenditures is not the way to do it.
Pat is right Republicans should avoid this like the plague. Let the Democrats “cut Social Security”.
No reason Harry? How about the fact that tax cuts for hiring wont result in any additional hiring? How about that?
Cash for clunkers
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Even my very Democratic brother in Reno, Nevada can’t stand Harry Reid. The handwriting is on the wall–hasta la vista, turkey!
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And all conservatives in both houses of congress need to stonewall until the Nov. 2010 elections further erode the power of “democRAT” / liberal / socialist / statist / marxist / communist President Obama (PBUH) and his ilk. Then we can reverse some of the damage they are doing to our country by defunding these C**P SANDWICH programs.
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Slash and Burn–take no prisoners. Don’t help out the enemy when they are trying to commit political suicide.
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John Bibb
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Where are you getting your information? It hasn’t happened yet. Not even close. That “Tea Party Convention” was a fraud that doesn’t represent even a small fragment of the Tea Party. Question your sources. It’s about controlling the narrative and WE control it.
Fox has joined the rest of the MSM in attempting to reshape the narrative into recognizing Sarah Palin and Dick Armey as speaking for the Tea Party. That will only take hold if we allow it. Yesterday, Sarah’s poll numbers showed her popularity weakening although the change was within the margin of error. It was still meaningful and could turn into a trend the way she is going.
All we need to do is stage another wave of protests (which ARE scheduled) but make sure that ALL politicians who show up to speak are soundly booed. Make this “GOP taking over the Tea Party” nonsense part of the messaging in our banners and signs.
WE are in control of the narrative unless we surrender it. Stop surrendering.
This is just Reid’s way of trying to remain significant.
So if I lay off my employees for 60 days in groups, supplement their unemployment so they don’t lose anything, and I can be exempt from FICA and Medicare? Cool. It may not stimulate jobs, but it will stimulate my bottom line.
What a hair brained idea.
November can’t get here soon enough!
Hey, can we get to fall now? The November vote? I am so sicked of Harry, Nancy and the whole, sick tribe of corruptocrats my teeth ache.
Dingy Harry again slipped it to the naive, pandering Republicans. Will the Republicans ever learn that the left is their enemy and any attempt to deal with them will only lead to pain and failure. Wake up GOP . . . don’t blow it again.
The whole jobs bill should be defeated. Both sides diluted it with more pork.
Harry didn’t like it because it was too partisan. He and his like thinking dems are afraid Republicans might get some credit for doing something constructive.
The teaparty movement will collapse if they try and go national and go for the whole enchilada. Like-minded teaparties around the country should focus their attention on electing like-minded representatives in the local cities, counties, and states. If successful, it will trickle up to the national level. Members of congress will start seeing what’s happening and either start changing their ways or get booted out.
I’m confused. When did he become significant?
Chuck Grassley is Charlie Brown. The Democrats are Lucy holding the ball for Charlie Brown to kick…..
Chuck you are stuck on stupid.
Heaven save us from the curse of bipartisanship.
This isn’t the failure of bi-partisanship, it is how our system functions. Everyone wants their piece of the pie and will slip whatever they can into any piece of legislation that has a good chance of going through.
I vaguely recall a Senator amending some military legislation to include subsidies for peanut industry, because he said, protecting and supporting the peanut industry is a national security issue.
Yeah, it could be spun that either side is not being bi-partisan, but the reality is that it is our system that is the problem.
A wise cartoon character once said (paraphrasing), ‘we have met the problem, and it is us.’
I dunno… the good news so far is that the donks are rapidly approaching “canned ham” territory in the sense that by November, even a mediocre Republican candidate will stand a good chance of winning in many races.
There are, however, two ways that the Republicans can bronze the gold medal:
1. Roll over and let the donks get what they want, in the vain hope that their new overlords will remember the favor and be nice to them; or
2. Walk right into the “Knee-jerk, no-ideas, hoping-for-America-to-fail Party of No” trap that the donks so desperately want to spring on them.
The first possibility is still real, although Scott Brown’s election makes it less likely as it reduces the pressure for so-called “moderate” donks to stay in lock-step with their party’s radical agenda — and therefore reduces the “incentive” for senate squishes like Snowe and Collins to roll over.
The second possibility is more dangerous. It’s a certainty that the donks are going to run against George Bush again this year, and that they will pretend that 2009 and 2010 never happened in the hope that people will come out just as angry at Republicans as they were in 2008.
If all the Republicans can say for themselves come November is, “Whatever Hope-a-Dope is for, we’re reflexively against,” that’ll feel good to people like me; but to really sweep the donks out of Congress it’s going to take independent voters backing Republican candidates.
It was the independents who gave Hope-a-Dope and the Domestic Enemy dictatorial power in the last election. Solid evidence suggests that a majority of those independents now regret what they did, and are willing to at least partially undo it — if the Republicans can offer a comparatively sane alternative.
That is going to take ideas, and not just anti-Obamaism on the Republicans part. If we can’t offer coherent, positive alternatives to donkey rule, we may still take back seats in the election but the overall victory will be minor instead of major.
And this is where the tea party movement can play a truly meaningful role: helping the Republican Party to reclaim its soul, so as to better resonate its policies and goals with the center-right majority of the electorate.
A good symbiosis between Republicans and tea partiers would produce a win-win result: Republicans would gain more seats in the election, and conservatives would see more Republicans who they could feel better about voting for over donks.
Pas-Phil, The leaders of things generally try for moderation, but let us vote in the elections. We are the tea party, not Sarah, Dick or anyone else. WE THE PEOPLE VOTE!
He is the Senate Majority Leader. Lately, he has little to contribute and has appeared to be nothing but a rubber stamp for Pelosi. His sole contribution to the Health Care debacle was to look at the other Dems and say, “so what do you guys think?” Even people who agree with him ideologically wouldn’t call that leadership. That’s my point.
Exactly. That should have been the real story, Michelle. Forget Lost Harry. He’s toast anyway. We need to be focused on the Republican turncoats. This story definitely merits another post of the upside-down elephant.
I hope you’re not suggesting that anyone here is advocating that. Of course Republicans need to be offering their own ideas, but that doesn’t mean they should be cooperating with Democrats on passing swindle-us bills. Rocketman has it exactly right: stonewall, filibuster, take no prisoners, do not “compromise” with the socialists. That’s not the least bit inconsistent with the Republicans offering better ideas of their own.
Things look grim for Pinky here in Nevada.
He will not go down without a fight though. He has already raised a lot of money and there are commercials extolling the great things he has done all the time.
What Harry is saying is:
He yanked the bill because there were $70 billion worth pork in the $85 billion Bi-partisan bill.
The true reason for dropping the porkopulous is:
Concerns for being hammered by the Republicans in the Fall elections; without that fear, the porkopulous was fine with the best and the brightest Representatives in Washington DC
Agreed!
There’s reality, and the perception thereof. Rocket’s words can be, and will be, perceived as nothing more than anti-Obamaism in the absence of advancing a coherent, recognizable alternative.
I’m all for thwarting the Domestic Enemy at every turn, if for no other reason than I passionately hate the donks. But if that’s all the Republicans are perceived as being “for,” then the donks and their Voluntary State Media will pick up the “Party of No” rhythm with a “They just want to send us back to the failed policies of George Bush” back-beat — and it would be effective in dampening independent support.
I’m not advocating cooperation with the donks. I’m saying that in addition to opposing donk radicalism, Republicans need to forcefully advocate practical alternatives that can power past the donk media’s distortion efforts and that more than just the Republican base can understand and support.
And the tea party movement can be instrumental in generating and hammering home those alternatives.
Republicans need to be Spec Ops sappers and wear the Dems out. Break them down at every opportunity. The Dems have shown they are all about power and collectivization of our society, not reasoned legislation. As far as I’m concerned it’s open season on traitors.
Wasn”t there a lot of “pork” in the jobs bill?
Harry probably has a pork or two in it so that the Rs have to vote for it or pay a major negative msm blitz against the Rs.
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My customers need more disposable income before I could even come close to hiring anyone.
Someone figured it would take a company to spend $106,000 in order to “save” the $6000 credit.
Economics 101 stikes again.
I don’t think so. Even if the GOP could take over the email/communication apparati to protect the establishment liberal Republicans, it will not stop the movement from turning on them when they act like Democrats. Too many people have seen the slow but inexorible rise of Socialism by the hands of both the Republican and Democrat parties over the years to permit that now. In a nutshell, IMHO, such a provocation by the GOP ( actual or attempted co-option by the establishment GOP/RINOs), would in fact provoke the Tea Party movement to become an independent entity and party. The GOP/Dems don’t need that.
I guess I’ve always thought of Dingy in the Dennis Miller vein.
“You are a vague, translucent living shade who barely matters and if you really want to serve the country that affords a triffle like you the opportunity to delude himself into thinking that he matters, then you must never, ever speak out loud in public again.”
This was shortly after Reid’s profound “This war is lost” declaration. I think he has actually gone downhill since then.
I wasn’t exactly suggesting putting them on a full-page ad in the New York Times. But they lay out a reasonably good plan of action.
So just so I’m clear, it’s not that you’re opposed to Republicans actually doing what rocketman and I have advocated, it’s just that you think they should be doing a better job of explaining to voters what their position is? If so, I agree completely. But I think they undermine their ability to do that as long as they’re playing footsie with the Dems the way they are on this bill. It undermines the message of fiscal restraint which is absolutely key to winning over the independents in droves.
Dobby the house elve is toast!
Screw bipartisanship! I want both sides bickering like harpies! The more they bicker the less business for the people getting done. Because their idea of doing business for the people, is taking a great big steaming dump on our heads! And frankly, I’m a little sick of it!
Perhaps I should have said he wants to remind voters that he hasn’t retired yet.
Ok, that works – at the same time the voters want to remind Dingy that he will retire soon. Harry’s role model could well be Capt. Smith, who thought he had landed a great job as Master of the Titanic, ’till the ice water came up around is ankles.