With a THUD, Congress Kicks Another Can Down the Road

[brooklynite]

Source: Roll Call

On domestic spending, it’s been assumed all year that the two halves of Congress were on a collision course.

What came as a stunning surprise was how the appropriations process crashed in the House on Wednesday — or, as those with knowledge of congressional lingo can appreciate best — how it landed with a thud.

...SNIP...

Top Republicans decided to halt debate on the House’s version of the (Transportation-HUD appropriation) bill, probably never to be seen again, once they realized it had no chance of passage. They quickly concluded that presiding over the second high-profile defeat in a month of a bill of their side’s own making (the farm bill being the other) would further amplify their reputation as a majority leadership with steadily eroding control over its own troops — and thereby over the one slice of the government the public has elected them to run.

But abandoning the bill was also a tacit concession that the House GOP high command’s strategy for the fall fiscal fight has fallen apart.



Read more: http://blogs.rollcall.com/hawkings/landing-with-a-thud-congress-kicks-another-can-down-the-road/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Last night I was listening to a piece on Boner and...

how he allowed the wingnuts to get away with defying his leadership. Apparently he's actually a pretty nice guy, which is exactly what House does not need in a Speaker if it wants to get anything done.

He's got a rebellious crew of fresh wingnuts who promised their electorates not to bring home the bacon but to shrink government. And while that's an interesting idea, they must be punished if they hold things up. He thought he could talk to them.

He was wrong.

[alp227]

2. Two more articles, suggesting another 1995-type shutdown!

Washington Post: Budget truce seems out of reach as congressional recess looms

Third paragraph:

As Congress prepared to leave town for a five-week summer break, the prospects for progress on any front in the endless Washington budget war appeared excruciatingly dim. Without an agreement to deal with the sequester and fund federal agencies in fiscal 2014, the government will shut down Oct. 1 — barely three weeks after lawmakers return to town. A few weeks after that, the Treasury will face the risk of default unless Congress can agree to raise the $16.7 trillion federal debt limit.

New York Times: G.O.P. Rifts Lead Congress to Spending Impasse opens:

Hours before leaving on summer recess, Congress on Thursday hit a seemingly intractable impasse on government spending, increasing the prospects of a government shutdown in the fall and adding new urgency to fiscal negotiations between the White House and a bloc of Senate Republicans.