Senate rejects the House stop-gap spending bill. Is a gov shutdown avoidable [Dems push rating down]

With near permanent brinksmanship the new normal, Congress headed into votes Friday to try to avert a government shutdown that is slated to occur on Oct. 1 if a continuing resolution bill is not passed.

The Senate has voted to reject the temporary spending bill passed by the House late last night.

In a surprise late night victory Thursday, House Republican leaders narrowly passed a stop-gap spending bill to fund government through Nov. 18.

As threatened, the Senate rejected the House bill on a bipartisan vote, 59 to 36. Senate leaders agreed to a vote on a Senate version of the bill on Monday – but only after a “cooling off period.”

“[Leaders] should just cool off a little bit and work through this,” said Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada, speaking on the floor after Friday’s midday vote.

“There is a compromise before us,” he added. “The government is not going to shut down.”

The measure failed 230 to 195. Only six Democrats voted for it, while 182 Democrats voted against. More significantly, 48 conservative Republicans opposed the measure.

According to the Washington Times and other sources, the conservative Republicans are willing to vote in favor of additional funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to deal with the recent flooding along the eastern seaboard but they want corresponding budget cuts to ensure federal government spending stays within the debt limit agreed to in July/August.

Reportedly, Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the measure because it offset $1.5 billion of $3.65 billion in disaster relief funding with a cut to a program that loans money to car companies to encourage the production of energy-efficient cars. They believe the government sponsored energy-efficient car loans program create jobs and FEMA, strained by repeated natural disasters, both need more funding.

After the vote last night, the main stream media glossed over the 182 Democrats that opposed the measure and immediately began to focus on the 48 Republicans who are "refusing to compromise". While there is no doubt more of the story yet to be told, one has to wonder why Congress (especially considering the recent struggles over the debt ceiling and the resulting dissatisfaction with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress) would immediately return to traditional spending practices.

Arguably, the general public is looking for fiscal restraint and responsibility, even if it means cutting current spending to fund emergency aid. This, however, is not necessarily where the main stream media or, for that matter, the majority of our Congressional membership is focused.

We should now expect the media to focus on the 48 House members who voted against the measure with terms like "obstructionists" and "ideologues" instead of the real problem(s) that face our nation and our future. The problem is the debt; the debt is the result of the spending. Our representatives must get control of the spending and start to reduce real (not just projected) spending.

So let the Senate pass something, and then the House and Senate can go to conference and play split-the-difference. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

But silly me ... how naive ... mustn’t forget that the dems don’t do budgets any more. It’s up to the House Republicans to pass something Harry Reid can support (as he continually moves the goalposts in ultra super-duper top secret backroom negotiations). Can’t expect the Senate dems to actually stand up and cast tough votes in the public eye, or take responsibility for anything that isn’t a preapproved “bipartisan compromise.”

It’s not a very PC thing to say, but probably disaster relief is a fairly efficient jobs creation bill.

I bet it gets money out to create jobs - temporary accommodation and structural repairs - in a far quicker and more efficient manner than green car money.

The(D) folks should go for it if they really wanted job creation...

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