Today the Senate tries to get much work done, as the lame duck session comes to a close -- which includes Don't Ask Don't Tell, the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. I wonder if the media will hold the GOP up to the same bipartisan standards as they do the Democratic party? I know Villagers were very happy that millionaires got their tax cuts, thereby raising the national debt which happens to be the Tea Party Holy Grail with no real visible resistance. Now after getting their unpaid tax cuts the GOP then torpedoed the trillion dollar appropriations bill that Republicans helped craft and which contained a food safety bill because it had earmarks that they negotiated into it.
Andrea Mitchell was quite giddy on Friday as she discussed how Harry Reid got played at the game of 'chess" after he had already secured the votes from the Republican side, before they were against the bill. Doesn't that sound like bipartisan sabotage?
I expect if Democrats don't bow down to the GOP because they won the House after the midterms, even after the huge tax bill compromise, the media will attack Dems for not being bipartisan. Or when Republicans destroy legislation it's because they are principled, but Democrats are just Dirty F*&king Hippies.
Meanwhile, here's a little preview for you about how the implementation of the health care bill is going to go:
A confluence of facts and events helped McConnell convince senior appropriators in his own party -- people who, like he, don't fundamentally oppose the earmarking process -- to back off the omnibus, according to a Republican leadership aide. Part of it was that, though bipartisan, the bill itself included funding for key Democratic priorities that in the current political environment no Republican supports, or wants to be accused of supporting. The omnibus included $1 billion in spending to implement the health care law -- a provision no Republican wanted to de facto support.
"Health care money helped a lot....it added on to the urgency," the aide said.
So, will they shut down the government over health care? I don't see why not. After all, deficits are the most serious threat to the nation since Hitler and the only weapon we have to fight them are cuts in "entitlements". And while I think the President wants more than anything to preserve his signature accomplishment, they have every reason to believe he won't fight to the death for it. In any case, they can certainly use it as leverage. I don't know what they want more than to force Obama to dismantle his own legacy, but dismantling Roosevelt's might do in a pinch.
And what will happen when the debt ceiling fight comes up? What will Republicans want President Obama to give up in that fight? I shudder at the thought.
