Senate Republicans threaten to derail lame duck session over $1.2-trillion omnibus sp

After a few brief days of Washington comity, Senate Republicans snapped back on Wednesday, sharply attacking a $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill and threatening to derail what’s left of the lame duck congressional session.

Republicans negotiated a compromise with the White House to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, a move some saw as a bipartisan opening for the session. But the spending bill, which opens the politically charged debate into earmarks and federal deficits, seems to have brought the cooperation to a halt.

“The government runs out of money this Saturday. Congress should pass a short-term continuing resolution immediately,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday morning on the floor. “We need to pass the tax legislation we voted on earlier this week. And we should accomplish the most basic function of government — we can at least vote to keep the lights on around here.

“Pass the tax legislation and keep the lights on,” he said. “Everything else can wait.”

Among the issues that would be forced to wait is Senate consideration of the arms-control treaty with Russia, called New START. There was also some hope among Democrats that Congress could reconsider action on allowing gays to openly serve in the military and even the DREAM Act, which deals with some aspects of immigration reform.

The issue that has riled Republicans is the omnibus spending bill. Congress needs to pass a continuing resolution to keep government funded, but the bill, released on Tuesday, goes further than bare bones.

Among the provisions, McConnell argued, is $1 billion to fund the healthcare bill that sorely divided Congress and which Republicans harshly criticized on the way to electoral victories last month.

“Yesterday, Democrats unveiled a 2,000-page spending bill that repeats all the mistakes voters demanded that we put an end to on election day,” McConnell argued. “Americans told Democrats last month to stop what they’ve been doing: bigger government, 2,000-page bills jammed through on Christmas Eve, wasteful spending. “This bill is a monument to all three,” he said, and urged the Senate to reject it.

The omnibus bill includes a reported 6,000 earmarks totaling $8 billion, special spending requested by lawmakers for favored projects. Earmarks were a campaign issue in the 2008 presidential election and an even bigger issue this year, driven by anger from conservatives and the "tea party" movement over growing federal deficits.

After the election, Senate Republicans in their caucus passed a two-year ban on what is often called pork barrel spending, or in this season, a Christmas ornament to curry votes on tough bills. House Republicans have extended their moratorium on such spending as well.

Of course, one person’s pork is another’s good government. McConnell has sought an earmark worth $4 million for marijuana eradication in his home state of Kentucky and more for a blood center and DNA research center – both also in Kentucky. Democrats have retaliated by pointing out that Republicans seeking earmarks are caught in their own web.

“Supposedly outraged Senate Republicans must have forgotten that spending requests have been online for six months, that this bill was put together in bipartisan fashion, and that government-directed spending has decreased by 75% since Democrats took control of the Senate,” Jim Manley, a top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid, said in a prepared statement.

“They also must have forgotten that it was Democrats who put a stop to the earmark abuse that festered while Republicans controlled the White House and Congress for six years. But I’m sure they won’t hesitate to claim credit for earmarks in their own states, attending as many ground-breaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies as they can. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds,” he stated.

But Manley’s comments have seemingly had little effect on Republicans who insist they will vote against the omnibus spending bill, even if it contains their earmarks.

Calling the bill shocking and disrespectful of the election results, Sen. John Cornyn (R- Texas) said he and his colleagues will push for a continuing resolution and deal with the other issues next year when Republicans will have more sway in the Senate and will control the House.

Asked if the GOP was willing to shut down the government, Cornyn, who has also requested earmarks, said Wednesday morning on Fox News.

“What we can do is if we can get 41 senators to vote against closing off debate on this omnibus bill, we can do what we should have done in the first place and go to a short-term continuing resolution to keep the lights on until February and come back and do this the right way. We don't have to do it this way. This is the wrong way to try to keep the government operating.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...wed+Stories%29

Thanks for posting, but for our sakes dreamers don't concentrate on this too much, that is not to say not to bear in mind. Reid has mentioned he would run congress up the January 5th if Republicans want to keep on stalling, now lets ring those phones and let them know why Dream Act matters to you and this nation.

I wrote about this yesterday how in the world did the democrats think they were going to pass a 1900 page spending bill full of pork on both sides before the session is out. I read one deal where republicans are going to start making some one read the bills wasting days.

Ours is not to reason why but only to do or die, Durbin has aksed that we do make the effort to call congress and say why Dream Act matters to you, it is Durbin's + Reid Job to negotiatie to bring Dream Act for a vote. Lets not concentrate on this too much, and continue pressing with your/our phone calls.

Damn, so now its this and next week it will be some other bill. By the way, I love how republicans want to sit together and read this bill. I wish they would read the Dream Act bill and then they will know that all those lies that they spit have no credibility

Well you gotta admit, this was a pretty dumb move by the Dem leadership. They just served the republicans a softball. 6000 earmarks?

i doubt its about the earmarks or the over spending, republicans are just using this as another excuse,

the entire "were for smaller govt" lie they use as their motto is dumb and should be "were for smaller govt where we want it to be smaller so our corporate masters can fuck the american people over more"

We just need to get the the president to say no today to this bill , he campaigned on it and has gone back to saying he would not accept bills like this anymore. If he comes out against it today they can vote on a temporary spending bill to keep the government open till 1/15/11.