Posted on 11/06/2015 9:04:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Senate Democrats launched a third consecutive filibuster of the bipartisan defense appropriations bill yesterday, once again blocking consideration of legislation that would fund the United States military and pay members of our armed forces. Yes, it's okay to be thoroughly perplexed by this development. Remember, the ostensible reason that Democrats have engaged in this obstruction over recent months -- which also entailed filibustering the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill -- was to exploit the troops and veterans as leverage to force Republicans to agree to higher federal spending on unrelated matters. It was a cynical play, but thanks in part to President Obama's hyper-partisan veto, it worked. Leadership in both houses huddled together and hammered out a noxious budget deal that raised spending caps on both defense and domestic discretionary spending, relying on gimmicks to "pay for" the increased outlays. In other words, Democrats got what they wanted. And yet, here they are filibustering the defense bill again, after the passage and signing of the budget compromise. Why? I spoke to several Senate Republican aides last evening who were mystified by Democrats' knee-jerk intransigence. The idea, it seems, is that Harry Reid is paranoid that Republicans will pass the defense bill at heightened spending levels first, then renege on the contours of the new budget agreement by passing other spending measures at lower-than-agreed-to levels as a continuing resolution. Senate Republicans have no intention whatsoever of doing this, I'm told (GOP leaders called this "delusional" and a "conspiracy theory"), but that's the excuse Democrats have conjured to justify their latest obstructionist gambit.
One source told me he suspects Reid's real goal is to run out the clock until the December 11 deadline to fund the government is imminent. This would force the Senate to roll all of its separately-crafted appropriations bills (all 12 of which have been passed out of committee for the first time in six years, by the way) and roll them into a giant "omnibus" spending bill. This serves the purpose of undermining "regular order," in which Congress spends taxpayer money according to the normal rules, along a normal schedule. Harry Reid's Democrats totally abandoned regular order when they held the majority, often declining to even propose any annual budget at all, despite their legal obligation to do so. Today's Democratic Party is bizarrely invested in a governance-by-crisis model, wherein they retain the ability to use manufactured "emergencies" to help advance their ideological agenda -- secure in the knowledge that when push comes to shove, much of the media will help them blame the resulting dysfunction and brinksmanship on Republicans (who are rarely blameless, I should add). Their latest filibuster takes this legislative nihilism to a new level, managing to draw the ire of Sen. Lamar Alexander, a mild-mannered, cooperation-minded Republican from Tennessee. He took to the Senate floor yesterday to warn his Democratic colleagues that their maneuvering is ushering in an era of even more acute partisan acrimony, vowing to help take the lead on scorched-earth tactics if this continues:
Alexander Blasts Senate Dems for Blocking Troop Funding for a 3rd Time
What [Senate Democrats] propose to do is block our moving to the appropriations bill for the defense of this country for the third time – for the third time. And there is no justification to do that. You are going to set in motion an irreversible trend of partisanship in the Senate – and I am going to lead it...[Budgeting and appropriating money] is our job. And they blocked it twice. And they're getting ready to block it again with a vote today. I'm saying, 'don't go there.' All of these Democratic provisions don't have to be in...any of the [spending] bills because we have the majority, and you don't. So if you're going to play that kind of game, we can play it too. I'm not one who usually does, but I am able to play. I'm able to play, or I wouldn't have gotten here.
The Democrats and their allies the GOPe would like very much to defund the military and render it useless. The left has always feared the military and when in power has always chipped away at it, especially purging the officer corps. Carter did it. Clinton did it. Hussein has taken the practice to new levels of destruction. The GOPe will ultimately give him what demands and will give him a lot more than he asked for in the first place.
Mitch and the gopes would only use the Nuclear Option with Democrats’ permission.
The rats couldn’t care less.
Please stop it.
McConnell should have made the change when he became majority leader instead of keeping it like it was
This is why it is important for those states that have a senatorial election to support and vote for a conservative candidate especially in the rats districts
Of course, but my point is that since he didn’t have the courage to make that move then, that Ryan’s rise to Speaker and the results of Tuesday’s election “should” send the message that it is now time to take that step.
I can honestly say that I can’t stand a Democrat, can’t stand Congress, can’t stand Obama...... they all want to destroy this country and I’m afraid that 2016 will be too late.
I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Bevin calls ol’ Mitch to the Govenor’s mansion for a little talk.
"Not My Idea,
But I Suppor it.
Death to America!"
Amen. But, then McConnell would actually have to vote honestly and he can’t do that or the Chamber of Commerce would be mad.
The Chamber likes the idea of keeping spending constant.
Remember that the GOP used to be very good at "wooden gun" cutbacks. During the Gilded Age, the Masters of the Universe fell in love with their tax rates (high protective tariffs that the gomers and plowboys paid, low everything else). They hated it when the 20th century drove their taxes up, for the privilege of continuing to speak English and not having to see Russian or German or Japanese battleships anchored in the Delaware River.
Every chance they've gotten, since World War I, they've tried to go back to the military establishment (and tax rates) we had when our biggest military problem was Geronimo or Pancho Villa. They did it at the end of the Great War, and the country's new tank force almost blinked out of existence as Congress made appropriations suitable for horse cavalry. The Coolidge Administration signed the Treaty of London so they could sink brand-new battlecruiser hulls and not pay for completing them (two of them were converted into USS Lexington and Saratoga).
There's a long tradition of "GibsmedatPeaceDividend!" in the Army and Navy, and until the Carter Communists moved in and started stripping military budgeting for GibsmedatSocialGoodies, the principal perps were always Republicans.
At least Republicans did and do not fear the military. they did not purge out all the competent officers and NCOs. They just trimmed the whole thing. The Democrats shrink it and cripple what is left.
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