Harry Reid had to agree to bring both Planned Parenthood funding and an Obamacare repeal to a vote.
I am not holding my breath for wins, but it is a concession to frustrated voters — represented by the House in these negotiations — all the same. It seems the House got cuts. The House got votes. The House did good, in what was only still the beginning of the fight.
No, such measures won't win in the end, but having straight up-or-down votes on these will be very, very useful to have on the records of congressmen once November 2012 comes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know that many on our side consider anything less than everything we're asking for and more a complete and total failure and defeat. However, with this deal we scored about as big a victory as we possibly could considering the circumstances.
Now instead of resting on our laurels, we need to gird for the bigger fight which is the FY 2012 budget because the Democrats know they just got rolled and will be looking for payback.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThanks, K-Lo. First bit of good news about this.
I had to enter "there is a bluebird on my shoulder" to comment. A sign?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnless there is a deadline for the votes specifically written into the agreement don't count on them ever happening.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo instead of having a $1,650,000,000,000 deficit this year, we will get a $1,611,000,000,000 deficit.
Yippee!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHa! The new CAPTCHA keeps delivering what almost seem to be inspired statements. It is telling me to type "win one for the gipper." I had to make a comment just to share that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNothing remarkable here. In fact, nothing to brag about. Everything to be ashamed about, but in the DC beltway world, they are all beyond shame.
Boehner and the GOP, as usual, caved. Making mountains out of molehills...their idea of balancing a budget is taking aluminum cans in for a refund.
Reminds me of the good old days and NRO explaining away the genius Karl Rove and Dubya spending money like crazy, not vetoing profligate spending, and pushing new entitlements.
"Don't worry...next year we promise to become fiscally responsible...'
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA vote on defunding Planned Abortionhood = Stupak Amendment in ObamaCare.
The Stupid Party-controlled House will pass it; the Senate won't; one-third million more babies die in the PP slaughterhouses and we, the People, pick up the tab.
This. Is. Failure.
We. Are. Doomed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThose discounting this are just plain wrong. This is a HUGE victory, and it shows that Harry and Barack realized that bluster-aside THEY would get the blame for a shutdown.
Folks, consider--Harry has AGREED to bring Planned Parenthood to a vote, and more importantly to bringing OBAMACARE REPEAL to a VOTE!
Sure, they won't pass the Senate. With all respect to the impatient, WHO CARES? Folks!!! We're going to get all 100 Senators, including those who are up for re-election in 2012 to go (pax Greta Van) "On The Record" BIGTIME!!!
This
Is
HUGE.
Harry HATES this, and his wavering/re-electable/swingstate/reddishblue members of the Senate HATE him tonight for having to give this up. Every step they've taken in this whole fight has been to AVOID voting at all on ANYthing. Now they HAVE to?
Celebrate! Celebrate! This is a HUGE win for Boehner, and no matter how the media types spin it and no matter how many times the President says "I" in his speeches about how HE allegedly saved the nation from a shutdown worse than death, the pols and the staffs and the lobbyists and the real players know that Boehner won BIG, ate the other guys lunch, and is a serious power to be reckoned with as the fight for the real budget continues.
The only tears the Speaker will shed tonight are those of joy, folks. The other fella, tears or not, blinked. Bigtime.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI bet many Dems vote Present.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNevada should have voted this twirp out.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. No, this isn't perfect. But with the dims in charge of the senate and the White House, it never was going to be. But it is good. In fact, it's very good.
If you are a senator with a D next to your name in a swing or red state up for reelection in 2012, the absolute last thing you want is to have to vote on funding for planned parenthood and the repeal of Obamacare. Come November 2012 they will have no place to hide. They either turn on Reid and Obama and vote against the democratic agenda, or they deal their reelection chances a serious blow.
With the GOP in charge of only one side of Congress, and nothing else, they are limited in what they can do today. But the battle for control in 2012 has officially begun and the democrats just took a serious punch to the jaw. Buy some stock in antacids. At least 23 dem senators will be going through the stuff like candy over the next 19 months.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree with you completely, Merthin.
I can't tell you how difficult it was for me to stomach listening to Toyko Rove encourage Republicans to take the deal earlier this evening. He and his former boss just about destroyed the conservative brand during their years in the White House and I suppose Rove now wants to see it buried for good.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHope E. Changery, I don't dispute Boehner & Co. won a game of "inside baseball", but in the end did the country benefit from this side show? I have my doubts.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is surprising, almost shocking, that Obama and Reid are daring to allow a straight Senate vote on Obamacare repeal.
Much time in the past few days must have spent counting noses on that one before giving it up. I’ll bet the Dems are lucky Webb isn’t worrying about re-election.
Is it possible for the president to be more clichéd, hackneyed and formulaic than in his little speech about the Washington Monument and the budget deal?
Can't they get Bill Ayers to lend a hand? Please, just a taste of the style of ‘Dreams from My Father’ would go far to leaven the mind-deadening triteness of the president’s typical speaking effort these days.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...but in the end did the country benefit from this side show? I have my doubts."
Good grief, people. The Republicans *only* have the House. Given this political reality and what was extracted from the Democrats and the administration despite this fact--yes, this is good. It is hardly enough and only a start--but no shutdown, more cuts than the Democrats wanted, and additional concessions on top of that make for a better deal than I, for one, hoped to get out of this side show.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMarco, I think so, yes. First of all, between this and the prior CR's, we did manage to cut things that never would have gotten cut, and as they say, "Longest Journey Begin With First Step" y'know? Small step, but a giant leap for Harry & The Prez.
Second, in addition to the things I mentioned in my prior note, it seems they agreed to cut any IRS funding expansion to staff the Obamacare watchers/implementers there--thats' whether the repeal happens or not! How does Harry explain that? Lots of other little ornaments are in this thing, and the fact that literally NONE were from the other side shows, once again, how masterfully Boehner played this. Give the guy some credit, please.
Beyond that, the country got a "conversation" with itself about all these issues of financial and governmental reform and did so in synch with (a) the fun election results in Wisconsin, (b) Ohio's move to act on govt. pension reform, and most of all (c) the intro of Ryan's plan which now becomes the starting point for any discussion of the future. Will we win all of that? No, but once again Harry will be forced to make his members VOTE on these issues that will spell their political pain in 2012.
I thought Obama was particularly unconvincing as he tried to channel Clinton tonight and claim personal credit for this. And that's another benefit--the nation watched as he scolded...then went out of town to raise money with Al Sharpton...cadjoled, then planned vacations....this incident, as high profile as it is, has called attention to his lack of leadership skills or even interest more than many of the other golf-outing moments have done.
So yes, in concrete terms re. the deal AND in political terms re. how it will color future debates and elections AND in image terms re. Harry and the Prez and Schumer and the rest...this was a BIG plus for the nation. No doubt in my mind.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAddendum: When judging any negotiation you ask yourself "What did we get?" and "What did we give up?" I've answered the former, but let's look at the latter.
What exactly did the Republicans give up here? Answer? NOTHING that they would have gotten anyhow. The whole reason, after all, for putting the so-called "social" provisions in the bill was to get the Dems to vote on them, not because they thought they'd win or that Obama would leave them alone and not wield his veto pen. So we got that, separate vote or included--who cares?
What did we give up???? Another umpteen trillion in cuts? That wasn't happening. We basically wrung the maximum political advantage from the Dems failure to pass a budget last YEAR--how many Americans didn't know or didn't care about that before the past couple of weeks but now do and think "Gosh, those Democrats don't do their jobs in Washington, they don't show up in Madison, and this is the President who voted "present" all the time--is that who I want to LEAD my nation?" Throw in the endless dithering over Libya and the rest....
Well, what DID we give up?
I can't find a thing--except shutting the govt. down and possibly getting more hassles from the MSM over that for the next few weeks to distract the nation from dealing with the Debt Limit and the Ryan Budget. Heck, even the "Tea Party" folks in the House got to vote "against!" tonight and keep their credentials intact and their principles clear without any chance for the Dems to say they were hypocrites.
This is, in the words of that awful ever-present commercial going on now, a "Win-win-win" and a "slam dunk" and "Home Run" too. We got a lot, and we gave up zip.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"We'll get the blame" Cry Baby Boehner has betrayed his Pledge to America. After winning a landslide election in Novemeber to put America's fiscal house in order the quisling Republican leadership has capitulated with respect to their hundreds of billions new spending during the Lame Duke, their promised 100 billion in insignificant cuts, defunding Obamacare, ending Cap & Trade through EPA & weening Obama's social agenda Planned Parenthood & NPR off the taxpayer's dime.
Given their 3.3 TRILLION budget Obama & Reid have won hands down.
Contrary to what GOP would have their constituents believe, their congressional leadership is not powerless. Mitch McConnell holds the filibuster card in the senate, the election shellacked Obama & Reid can't move without the House of Representatives, & a majority of U.S. taxpayers consistently have sided with the GOP on policy. The spoiler is Boehner is no leader. He is totally lacking in the guts, brains, and rhetorical skills to take on Obama and win in a streetfight.
The current establishment GOP leadership does not represent Republican voters. Bachmann, Demint, & Ryan are where the vast majority are.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I thought Obama was particularly unconvincing as he tried to channel Clinton tonight and claim personal credit for this."
Same here. I'm a partisan, to be sure, and opposed to just about everything the man says on principle, but the fact that he characterized this debate as "petty grievances" more than flew in the face of what the press has been reporting as deep differences between the two parties on government spending. I wonder if this looked like leadership to an independent--or if it sounded like a leader who really doesn't get it.
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