REPUBLICAN RE-DO?

The continuing saga in Congress' latest never-ending must-pass legislation environment lurched ahead toward what is certain to be yet another House-Senate showdown, highlighting a partisan rift so raw that an effort to help disaster victims has become mired in disputes over jobs, the national debt and the discredited Solyndra solar energy company. The Republican-led House approved "revamped," and I use that term very loosely, legislation early Friday providing $3.7 billion to help people battered by Hurricane Irene, Texas wildfires, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The money would replenish an emergency fund that Homeland Security Secretary Janet "The Clueless Moron" Napolitano warned could be depleted early next week. The measure would also prevent a federal shutdown next weekend by financing government agencies from the October 1 start of the new federal fiscal year through November. 18. It was approved by a near party-line 219-203 vote shortly after midnight. There were 24 Republicans who remained steadfast in their opposition to this bill while 6 Democrats joined with those Republicans who supported the bill.

However, the stellar individuals who make up the leadership in the Democratic-run Senate were quick to promised that the legislation was pretty much DOA, saying it lacked sufficient disaster assistance. In other words, it doesn't spend enough money. Democrats also complained, and as usual quite loudly, about cuts the bill would make to help pay for the aid by trimming $1.5 billion from Energy Department loans, "loans" which we are supposed to believe are aimed at spurring development of fuel efficient vehicles, a program they said is creating thousands of badly needed jobs. You know, the same kind of "loans" that were made to now defunct Solyndra, whose executives are now pleading the 5th as they testify in hearings before members of Congress. "They insist on holding out on Americans who have suffered devastating losses," Senate Majority Leader "Dingy" Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of GOP lawmakers. "Americans are tired of this partisanship. They deserve to know that when disasters strike, we will be there to help them." Yea right, this coming from the biggest partisan hack in all of Congress. Shut the Hell up, Harry!


Now the Senate version, which was approved last week with the support of 10 GOP, I can only assume RINO, senators, provided $6.9 billion in disaster aid but with absolutely no cuts to help pay for it. Now I'm not sure who exactly those 10 Republicans were who voted for this thing, but I think I make an educated guess that would be pretty accurate. Mostly likely it was those usual suspects whose names we are quite familiar with as always being those who take such great pleasure in "reaching across the aisle." It was unclear how the standoff will be resolved as we move forward from this point. The House and Senate had both planned to take next week off, but neither seemed likely to risk accusations of ignoring the thousands of Americans victimized by natural calamities or of allowing the government to shut its doors. "We're establishing priorities," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif. "We have a priority, that being dealing with our fellow Americans." "The last thing Congress should do is hold up disaster assistance because of partisan politics," said Rep. Michael Simpson, R-Idaho. He said that while he hasn't always believed emergency spending must be paid for with savings in the past, "In the past we have not had a $14 trillion" deficit. "That's the danger to this country," he added.


House passage represented a reversal from an embarrassing setback the chamber dealt its Republican leaders on Wednesday. On that day, the House rejected what was a nearly identical measure, shot down by Democrats complaining its disaster aid was too stingy and conservative Republicans upset that its overall spending was too extravagant. The bill the House approved Friday morning contained just one change, that being an additional $100 Million in savings from cutting a second Energy Department loan program, this one aimed at sparking new energy technologies. Wow, merely a very small drop in a very big bucket and one that amount to nothing that would have changed my mind as to where I would have being willing to support this thing. So I guess it's safe to assume that it still provides for all of the same things that so many found objectionable during the first go round. You know not only things like funding for Obamacare implementation and Planned Parenthood, but also the funding to the United Nations Population Fund and, of all things, the allowing of funding to the Palestinian Authority all set to continue on into the new federal fiscal year that begins on October 1. All for a measly $100 Million in supposed savings.


Even with this additional $100 million in "savings" being cut from a second Energy Department loan program, the same program that financed a $528 million federal loan to Solyndra Inc., I don't see how so many who were so adamantly against the bill the day before could, in good conscious, so quickly turn to, and become willing to support essentially the same bill on the second time through. The Barry "Almighty" administration had praised Solyndra as a model for green energy companies, but now Congress is investigating the circumstances under which the government approved the loan. The California solar panel maker that had won such high praise from Barry "Almighty" has since gone belly up and laid off its 1,100 workers. Forty-eight Republicans had voted against the bill on Wednesday, a number that GOP leaders were able to cut in half in Friday's vote after hours of lobbying. One who switched from "no" to "yes" was conservative Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., who said he was swayed by the new cuts in the technology loan program. That's nothing more that pure unadulterated bullshit, and Rep. Landry knows it! So he can peddle that crap to somebody else. What was he provided with in exchange for his vote?


The present bout of "gridlock" over the spending bill is the third time this year where the two parties have clashed over legislation whose passage both sides considered crucial to their cause. Democrats, as always, see the spending of even more money as being the only solution. It matters very little to them that we are well beyond being broke. Republicans, on the other hand, at least the conservatives among them, prefer perusing a different method out of sheer necessity. Back in April with just hours to spare, the two sides reached agreement, essentially with the Republicans caving, on a bill that averted a federal shutdown and provided money for government agencies through September. Then this summer, they battled for weeks before, with Republicans again capitulating, finally approving legislation extending the government's borrowing authority and narrowly preventing a historic federal default. Against a backdrop of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections and angst over the country's dismal job market, this year's clashes have been intensified by the infusion of dozens of Tea Party Republicans who often show little inclination to compromise. And rightfully so!


Wednesday's defeat of the spending bill was only the most recent time they have made life difficult, and deservedly so, for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. And it underscored the challenges that may lie ahead this fall as Congress tackles efforts to fix the economy, create jobs and try to rein in a growing debt that now stands at over $14 Trillion. Democrats tried turning the House spending bill debate into a battle over the economy, lambasting Republicans for cutting loans for technology research that they said creates jobs. "When Americans need jobs, the Republicans are pushing an anti-jobs bill," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. The Democrats arguments just don't hold water. How much money has been wasted in their effort to "create or save" jobs with the only result being a net loss of over 2 million jobs after having spent over $1 Trillion? Republicans said the "loan" money that was cut wasn't being spent anyway, which Democrats, of course, quickly denied. And let's be honest here if we can, that loan money, like the money "loaned" to Solyndra and who knows who else, has had nothing to do with jobs. It has had everything to do with it being a method by which Barry's can use to pay back his big time campaign contributors. Barry is awash in corruption. As is the entire Democrat Party. And the American taxpayer is just expected to just continue to cheerfully pony up and cover the escalating cost of this corruption.