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Reid Punts on Omnibus Spending Bill

By: Brian Simpson (Diary)  |  December 16th, 2010 at 09:03 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Via William Jacobson, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has opted to forgo the porked up Omnibus Spending bill in favor of a much more slimmed down continuing resolution.  The new measure would likely only fund the government for a few months allowing Republicans to control the overall shape of the remainder of the fiscal year ending Sept 30th.

Senator Reid’s published version of what happened is that he lost the support of Republicans who had previously announced that they would support the bill. If that is true, then this surely is a big win for conservative activists who put a lot of pressure on Republicans to oppose the massive increase in spending represented by this bill. Republicans now have the opportunity to really push for some sanity when it comes the size and scope of the government.

COMMENTS

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  • redneck_hippie

    Was listening to Hannity replay, and Coburn talked to Obama early this evening. Can’t wait to hear about that discussion.

    Did Obama trade the omnibus for the tax compromise???

    Very pleased about the “slimmed down” continuing resolution.

  • IJB
  • rbdwiggins

    some sort of deal on START. This treaty doesn’t deserve to see the light of day until the administration releases the record of deliberation and the ambiguities surrounding missile defense are resolved.

  • fpete13527

    Now they need to be sent home…NOW.

  • wonkish1

    This piece of crap was the most egregious thing to come out after the election and now its dead leaving me one very happy camper.

    Now, I hope this will convince at least a few of those perpetual cynics out there that it is okay to take some delight, to have some optimism. Granted their are a lot of things to be bothered about, but guys it just seems to me that more days we are actually getting good news that we choose to dismiss and than days with bad news that we spend all our time on.

    Am I going to far to suggest that everybody take a step back and actually appreciate all of the great things that have happened in the last few months. We have been very fortunate, and one day probably several years from now we are going to be longing for days like today when the things we wanted to take down were this easy to take down.

  • izoneguy

    http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=2058925&spid=32345

    Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773

    Omnibus wheels come off, December 16, 2010

  • joecollins

    We’ll soon see what – if anything – was traded for pulling back on Omnibus.

  • speciallist

  • BigGator5

    Jumping Jehosaphat! Does anyone have a video of Sen McCaskill’s whining?

  • izoneguy

    is what did it…..No proof

    but when the 112th Congress is seated those RINO’s are going to be getting an earful.

  • wonkish1

    But the most likely answer is NOTHING. That is what is so great about what it is going today. For once we can actually entertain the belief that our movement actually has a decent amount of power, and not everything is a back door way to screw us.

  • Return to Revolution

    But I have to wonder if Reid really lost Republican support or if it was the red state dems who got cold feet.

  • fpete13527

    Do the initial thing (which I still dont like) and then go home…NOW

    Anything else and Reid can SHOVE it.

    Actually he can shove it anyway. He is lucky to get ANYTHING. The Dems should be asking what they can GIVE.

  • izoneguy

    for when she gets booted out in 2012

    Sen. McCaskill Faces Tough Race In 2012

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/ppp-poll-dem-sen-mccaskill-faces-tough-race-in-2012.php

    McCaskill was tested against three potential Republican nominees, with all trial heats ending up within the margin of error: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder leads McCaskill 46%-44%; McCaskill edges former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who just declared her candidacy today, by 45%-44%; and former Sen. Jim Talent, who lost to McCaskill in the Democratic wave year of 2006, leads her 47%-45.

  • Kyle-MI

    McCaskill was one of the few Democrats pushing against earmarks. I don’t believe she is principled, but she has been playing a great game at posing as fiscally responsible. For just a moment, her mask slipped.

  • rbdwiggins

    Increased pressure must be brought to bear in order to give the Republican squishes in the Senate enough spine to oppose this or any other non-essential legislation for the remainder of this lame-duck congress.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    but when they are losing they just become more angry and act more stupidly.

  • BigGator5

    Oh yeah, I miss it when Reid pulled the Omnibus, because I was at an REC meeting running for 2nd Vice Chair (I lost by the way, but that’s another story).

    From what I read on other blogs, she came to the floor shortly after it was pulled and starting whining about Republicans doing something or another. I would give almost anything to see that.

  • SoFiMil

    Peter DeFazio (D-Ore):

    “The White House is putting on tremendous pressure, making phone calls, the president is making phone calls saying this is the end of his presidency if he doesn’t get this bad deal.”

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/133909-obama-tells-lawmakers-not-passing-tax-deal-could-end-presidency-dem-says

  • wonkish1

    The “budget”(appropriations bill) with the tax cut deal. Rumors were that Obama didn’t even support the appropriations bill.

  • fpete13527

    Reid still 100% moving forward with the all of the Rat excrement Bills
    Dream, Start, DADT, and others from what I heard.

    http://bit.ly/hCNTkN

    I actually dont think he has gotten the message yet. I think he and the RINOs need to continue to hear it all day tomorrow and the next…..until they go home.

  • thurman

    This is a MAJOR victory for sure, not just over the lame duck liberal dirtbags but the flagrant turncoat RINOs who had no qualms voting for this before they caved under pressure

    But I have a sinking feeling that we’re just going to have to agonize through close votes now on START, DADT and DREAM now, all of which will be miserable

  • gekster

    Take your chicken elseware.
    shoo

  • IJB

    :P

  • gekster

    Time for some fried chicken.

  • wonkish1

    This was the granddaddy and its 100% dead. The rest pail in comparison to how much that bill stunk. And again that is great news.

    On a different note DADT isn’t appearing good. I haven’t been as focused on whip counts for that bill, but I do remember that Brown and a couple others are coming out in support, and have said so for sometime now.

    Personally, I don’t blame Brown for voting for DADT. I mean the guy’s from Massachusetts, and on the net he has performed better than I would expect from a Mass senator. I did kind of blame him a lot more though for backing the Financial Regulation bill a while back. That bill really pissed me off though.

  • sarg01

    There’s no way they would have stacked the DREAM and DADT cloture votes like Reid scheduled if they thought they would win on DREAM. A successful DREAM cloture vote means proceeding to the required 30 hours of debate, so there’s no chance to vote for cloture on the DADT resolution.

    Everything I’m hearing says they don’t have the votes on START and DREAM, but might on DADT.

  • SoFiMil

    Thanks for the correction.

  • izoneguy

    For a wimpy, weaker America…..

    None of this crap is good for America…..

    This all needs to strangled in the Senate.

    Republicans don’t get giddy as you see the Omnibus crash & burn….

    You still have some more filbustering to do.

    STOP the NIGHTMARE – Do Ask Do Tell

  • izoneguy

    You can count on a 15%-20% drop in military recruitment.
    This would impair America’s ability to defend herself.
    DADT works and should not be repealed.
    This is just another way for the left to weaken America.

  • msctex

    . . .or did the wind come out of the sails on this monstrosity the instant the idea of it being read aloud was seriously put forth?

  • wonkish1

    But I’ve decided to enjoy the defeat of the Omnibus tonight, and be in an overall good mood before I decide to start thinking about negative stuff like that tomorrow.

  • creditman

    From a recent discussion with a local Air Force recuiter I learned that “since the economy has become so bad, the recruiters can be very pickey.”

    He assured me that if the AF recruiters think that the applicant is gay, they will find a legal way to exclude them from service.

    On a personal note, while serving in the AF myself, I saw a couple of gays removed in basic. They were just sent home and a note put in their service jacket saying they were “unfit to serve.”

  • izoneguy

    If so then the GOP should make a new law….
    Every friggin bill must be read aloud and posted to the internet for 72 hours after such friggin reading before the friggin bill can be voted on by our friggin Congess.

  • The_Gadfly

    that stopped it. I think forcing them to read the bill was the first time Republicans really signaled that they were going to FIGHT instead of surrender. As other posters have noted, this may have had more to do with the pitchforks aimed at selected derri?res than any intrinsic desires.

  • gekster

    And the dems should post thier bills online for
    five days before a vote on………
    Hey. wait a minute……

  • OccamsRazor

    The oligarchy shifted so far left two years ago, perspective is now difficult for Conservatives. The left must be trembling at the riots in Europe-the cause to their philosophical effects.

    America requires preemptive Austerity now…we know what’s right.

  • The_Gadfly

    Only I wouldn’t stop at 72 hours and I’d make it a constitutional amendment not a law or rule. I’ve been thinking something along the lines of:

    Reolved, That neither house of Congress shall be allowed to vote for passage of a bill until a set period of time has passed between when it has been:
    1) Printed by the Government Printing Office
    2) Distributed by posting to the internet in a commonly readable and downloadable format.
    The requirement list above shall be and AND, not an OR.

    The set time period shall be determined by the size of the bill and the number of bills pending before the appropriate house of Congress but shall never be less than 3 days. The set time shall be the number of pages of the bill divided by 100, rounded up. If more than 3 bill are up for citizen review, the house of congress shall be allowed to designate the order in which the bills are considered, but no more than 3 bills will be considered to have fulfilled a review day on any given calendar day.

    I’m quite agreeable to improvements on wording. And the point of the review period requirement has less to do with the public being able to review the bill than it does with providing Congresscrittes with the needed time to review it. It should also help reduce the number of pieces of crap labeled Omnibus that are considered.

  • IJB

    Actually got 35 GOP ‘No’ votes – I’m actually pretty impressed by that.

    Of course, more than half House Dems ended up voting for it – what absolutely unprincipled asses(heh) House Dems are…

  • littlel

    These Repubs who in less than 1 day have “seen the light” on more spending and Earmarks. This is after they voted Yes to Tax hikes, Deficit Increases, Earmarks and more unpaid for Spending.

    There are already enough R Senators to pass DADT, Start and it appears enough R’s rolling on more “needed spending” without a budget.

    Yes Repubs has really gotten the message from Nov 2. Itm is that they are safe for at least 2 more years and to heck with the will of the people!

  • manfred

    Saying she was a for sure no vote on this bill and she thought Feingold was as well. It appears as though what ever republican was her cover decided to vote no as well.

    I love it!!! This steals an opportunity for her to say she voted against spending and just leaves her with a yes vote on Obamacare and the recovery act.

  • itrytobenice

    Most excellent and appropriate vid.

  • The_Gadfly

    This is such good news that even if it is a lie when the 9 turncoats say they never intended to support Reid on the 0mnibus, I will repeat it and tell people I believe them. I’ll even muster my best straight face when doing so.

  • SG_Lominac

    “He assured me that if the AF recruiters think that the applicant is gay, they will find a legal way to exclude them from service.”

    “On a personal note, while serving in the AF myself, I saw a couple of gays removed in basic. They were just sent home and a note put in their service jacket saying they were ?unfit to serve.?

    Your denigrating the Air Force by insinuating they would go outside protocol to remove suspected gay people and denigrating gay people in general by attaching the “unfit” word to them. Finally, why would anybody be “cheered” by these actions? If your not a troll, your guilty of a very clumsy post.

  • The_Gadfly

    If DADT isn’t repealed it will be because Harry doesn’t want it repealed. I disagree with repealing it, but I can count.

    We knew Brown would support that even before he was elected. We know the Bobsey twins support it. That’s three Rs who will vote for it which means all Dingy Harry has to do is put it up next and hold his own caucus together on it. Given that Lieberman (the closest thing they have to a hawk) supports repealing DADT I don’t see holding the Dems together on that as a major challenge. Which means the only reason for it not to be repealed is because the Dems want to retain it as an issue with which to whip Republicans in the next election cycle.

    Dream Act and START are both touch and go. I think both should be deferred to the next Congress, but we got enough RINOs that either could pass. I would demand an amendment to the START treaty clarifying that the US retains to develop any number and any non-nuclear missile defenses under the treaty.

  • fpete13527

    ALL of these SCUM INITIATIVES need to burn….absolutely to include DADT Repeal. DADT needs to remain in place as is.

    The SCUM RINOS….TO INCLUDE BROWN, an Army Officer no less, NEED TO GET SLAM DUNKED TODAY RELENTLESSLY IMO

    Soldiers on the front lines DO NOT WANT DADT repealed.
    Gates and Mullens simply want Obama to write them a good report card…..SO THEY SOLD OUT…..shameful.

    IMO, pressure should start NOW to end discussion of ALL these three Obaminations ….OR THE TAX DEAL IS OFF

    AND LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY FALL…probably for even better than what they would be now in my opinion.

    The followiong group needs a wake up call. Currently they are disgrace to this Nation:
    MCCAIN, BENNETT, VOINOVICH, BROWN, COLLINS, GRAHAM, LUGAR, MURKOWSKI, SNOWE

  • Scope

    names, and earmarks were exposed. As bad as the leftist media is, they had the 9 Republican names out there everywhere. Reid pulled the bill because some of the 9 changed their minds about voting for the disaster, and he no longer had the votes needed. Nothing does a better job than exposing those that need to be shamed, and they were. Now we once again have the chance to defund much of the O’s agenda, including Ocare. The Food safety bill also went down with it, as it was added to the Omnibus.

    Don’t forget the 9 names that were at one time willing to sell us down the river.

  • wonkish1

    whether that is true or not, we do need to be a little careful about always assuming the worst.

    The reason is that GOP congressman and senators do need to at least believe that doing things good the base want(like killing this bill) gets them some appreciation from the base. Otherwise they don’t stand to gain any reward for standing with the base on issues as they come up. Granted the real value is avoiding negative outcomes from the base, but to a certain extent we need to be appreciative of RINOs that vote right. Even as we work to eventually replace them with someone that is a conservative instead of a RINO.

  • melbedewy

    He came up short on 4th down. A turnover not a punt.

  • thurman

    We’ve given him a lot of [deserved] heat here, but the more I read, it seems like McConnell read the tea leaves on the omnibus and himself put a lot of pressure on the porkers to vote against it

    He was calling all of the appropriators who were so proud to vote for their porkfest and embarrassed them to switch their votes behind the scenes

    Even little Orrin Hatch voluntarily pulling his own earmarks embarrassed the rest of the RINOs who were drooling to vote for this disaster

    I’m quietly optimistic we will have some nice victories in the 112th Senate– if we can just run out the clock this month without any more disasters getting rammed through

  • runner12

    Now we have to worry about DADT, Dream, and START. I don’t think we can afford to celebrate too long. I wish these guys would just GO HOME.

  • wonkish1

    In this one instance, McConnell was one of our best friends. I hope that continues, but I’m not going to lie I am expecting any like of McConnell to be short lived.

  • izoneguy

    What military gays can expect without DADT (and what gay civilians should be ready for)

    http://colorfulconservative.blogspot.com/2010/12/life-after-repeal-what-military-gays.html

    The biggest immediate effects of the repeal will be felt by gay male troops. Overwhelmingly, their lives will become more difficult after the repeal.

  • The_Gadfly

    I’t only when I finally reach the limits of my pessimism that they turn around and do the right thing.

    While sleeping I finally worked through accepting that I might have to go without a paycheck for another month and a half, and worked out what I was going to write to Senator McConnell to suggest be his next strike:

    * Have each R senator in turn request that a single earmark he proposed be struck from the bill
    * If there isn’t a quorum before the proposal is made, make a quorum call
    * Before moving for the removal, move that Senator McConell’s alternate CR be adopted.

    After all senators have removed a single self-proposed earmark, rinse and repeat until all R earmarks have been removed. Oh, and I was going to suggest the lead pitchmen should be the R appropriators.