SALON

Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 4:50 PM UTC

GOP suddenly discovers the Senate is broken

Short memory hypocrisy alert: House Republicans complain about Senate delays on budget negotiations

By

Topics: Budget Showdown, Federal Deficit, The Republican takeover, How the World Works,

GOP suddenly discovers the Senate is broken

Government shutdown odds are spiking this morning, as numerous media outlets report the outbreak of a plague of partisan bickering.

The posturing is unseemly, but is also a sign that negotiations are getting serious — there are no easy deals left. The wise thing to do would be to simply ignore the rancor, and wait for the end game. But I can’t resist commenting on one broadside from the Republican camp.

From Roll Call:

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel retorted that Democrats are desperately trying to divert attention from their own divisions and continue to back “essentially” status quo spending levels.

“Discussions with Senate Democrats and the White House over a long-term funding bill are ongoing and will continue, but the facts remain the same. The House passed a bill to fund the government while cutting spending, and — nearly 40 days later — the Senate has not,” Steel said.

Oh my goodness! House Republicans are complaining about Senate delays! Someone seems to have forgotten the lesson of the last two years, which is that, when you have a majority, passing bills in the House is easy. But moving anything through the Senate is hard, because the Senate is broken.

Forty days is but a blink of the eye. A short history lesson.

1) Barney Frank’s House version of bank reform passed on Dec. 12, 2009. The Senate did not manage to pass its own version until July 15, 2010.

2) The Waxman-Markey climate change/energy bill passed the House on June 26, 2009. The Senate never managed to vote at all on its own energy bill.

And let’s not even discuss the hoops Senate Republicans forced Democrats to jump through to get healthcare reform passed. So please spare us the whining about Senate delays. After the damage Republicans did to the legislative process in 2009-2010, they should be grateful if the Senate ever gets around to passing anything meaningful in 2011-2012.

Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 15 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
2335 points2336 points | 959 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
839 points840 points | 395 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
122 points123 points | 40 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
20 points21 points | 13 comments
vote
Recent scandals are Whitewater redux, not Watergate
13 points14 points | 2 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations