Republican Outrages
“I was deeply disappointed to see that Senate Republicans voted nearly unanimously to block consideration of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill today, even while a bipartisan majority of senators voted to move forward with the bill.
After the activity on the House Floor today (pulling THUD, pulling 3 suspension bills – all because they don’t have the votes), we thought we’d help the headline writers out:
As Republicans head home for the August district work period, they leave behind a disappointing record of unfinished business and partisan message bills. So far, House Republicans have not taken action on crucial legislation, including finishing a budget, stopping the sequester, completing the appropriations process, addressing the debt ceiling to give certainty to our economy, creating jobs, or passing comprehensive immigration reform.
For those who were impressed with the Republican-led 112th Congress’s unchallenged record as the least productive ever, prepare to be underwhelmed even more. As the 113th Congress reaches the halfway mark of its first session, it is already on track to outperform the last Congress in passing even fewer laws. As Dashiell Bennett noted in the Atlantic, the 112th Cong
The headlines this afternoon aren’t kind for Republican leadership after GOP division was on full display today when 62 Republicans voted against the GOP farm bill:
It was definitely a lively debate on the Senate Floor this afternoon. A great illustration of the growing rift between Republican factions, two Senate Republicans argued against their own Republican colleagues on the next step in our budget process. As Talking Points Memo explains, Sens.
Let’s hope the American people weren’t looking forward to Congress actually getting something done, since Republicans clearly aren’t interested:
Next week, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and House Republicans are reportedly planning to put forward a budget that balances in 10 years. Rep. Ryan told the Wall Street Journal that we shouldn’t expect any big surprises, but we’ve still got plenty of questions about the fuzzy math and ambiguous spending cuts. Take a look at our top 10 questions for Rep. Ryan:
Democrats continue to call for a big and balanced solution to stop the irrational and irresponsible across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. While House Democrats have proposed a solution to stop these reckless cuts, Republicans have refused on four separate occasions to bring this legislation to the House Floor for a vote.