November 3, 2009 Ryan Grim As GOP Holds Up Unemployment Extension, Nearly 200,000 Lose Their Benefits First Posted: 11- 3-09 12:20 PM | Updated: 11- 3-09 04:33 PM In the world outside the Senate, time is money; inside it, time is everything. Senate Republicans are taking full advantage of that reality, using every parliamentary device at their disposal to slow down an extension of unemployment insurance benefits -- even after Democrats added billions for big business to sweeten the pot. The saga is a cast study both in the difficulty of passing even popular legislation in the Senate and the lengths to which the GOP is going to slow down the process. The extension overwhelmingly passed the House 331-83 in late September. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a motion to pass it by unanimous consent in early October; it was blocked by GOP objections. After negotiations, Reid filed for cloture on Oct. 21 to break a GOP filibuster. On October 27, the Senate voted 87-13 on a motion to proceed to consider the bill, breaking the filibuster. But under Senate rules, the GOP is still allowed 30 hours of "debate." There actually isn't much debate, but the clock is ticking while senators take to the floor to make speeches about whatever they like. To get things moving, Democrats sweetened the pot, adding in billions in tax breaks for business -- a net operating loss carry-back provision that the GOP has long favored -- and an extension of the homebuyer tax credit. Reid introduced the goodies in a substitute amendment with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a champion of the business tax break. "The two were put together as a means of greasing the skids. You know how things work around here," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told HuffPost. "Could we have gotten UI through otherwise? Yes, we could have, but it would have taken us several days. And we don't have that kind of time. And the minority is then able to, because of the time, demand certain things." The skids properly greased, Reid filed for cloture again on Oct. 29th. It came to a vote Monday night, Nov. 2nd, where it passed 85-2. Still, the GOP fights, requesting that the 30 more hours of "debate" elapse. That'll take the Senate to late Tuesday night. If Reid invokes cloture again to proceed to the underlying bill, another 30 hours would take the Senate to Thursday morning at the earliest for -- at last -- a vote on the bill itself. Following such overwhelming votes, a measure usually passes the Senate by a quick voice vote. "The common practice is when you get cloture on motion to proceed, you quickly allow it to pass," says Jim Manley, senior communications adviser for Reid. Manley and other Democratic aides argued that the goodies given to big business are acceptable to Democrats as ways to boost the economy rather than pure giveaways. The first-time homebuyer tax credit is wildly popular and Democrats had planned to pass it at some point before it expired at the end of the month. "There are only so many ways to strengthen the economy that can get 60 votes and get enacted quickly -- these happen to be two of them," said Manley. The GOP says it's been working constructively with Reid. "Sen. McConnell offered to complete the bill last week on Thursday. Sen. Reid objected," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The objection came, Manley said, because Republicans were trying to introduce unrelated amendments attacking ACORN and the financial-industry bailout, among other things. Stewart countered that Democrats, having attached a hate-crimes measure to a defense-authorization bill, have little room to talk about unrelated amendments. He added that Republicans offered to withdraw several of the objectionable amendments. It all sounds complicated, but it's simple: Behind all the bickering back and forth sits the reality that the GOP, as the minority party, has the right to slow down the Senate and is fully exercising that right. With days and days of floor time eaten up by a simple extension of unemployment benefits, chances dwindle that the Senate will be able to complete in time the appropriations bills that fund the government. "What's really going on is that the Republicans are trying to slow-walk everything, to make it as difficult as possible for Democrats to accomplish much," said Manley. "This won't be the first time that they slow things down as much as possible, then vote for final passage. While they are intent on obstructionism, they don't want the blame for opposing popular policies." In the meantime, according to a Senate Democratic ticker, more than 185,000 people have lost their unemployment benefits.
If Barry didn't piss all the stimulus money away on crap they would be employed. fox news, sarah palin, rush limbaugh blah blah blah blah.
Here is why they are unemployed professor. After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up By: Susan Ferrechio Chief Congressional Correspondent November 3, 2009 Fraud and abuse weigh down stimulus package ¡Was the stimulus worth the cost? ¡Fraudsters made the most of homebuyer tax credits ¡After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up ¡White House moves to control waste and fraud The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went: - $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state. - $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. - $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway. - $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day. - $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway. - $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. - $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid. - $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla. - $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla. - $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades. - $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased. - $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn. - $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill. - $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota. - $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan. - $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money. - $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio. - $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago. - $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech. - $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths. - $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine. - $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri - $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state. - $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival. - $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency. - $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycle
Did you even read the article Jon Boy? The skids properly greased, Reid filed for cloture again on Oct. 29th. It came to a vote Monday night, Nov. 2nd, where it passed 85-2. Or were you too busy mindlessly repeating "Baahhh, Humbug..." Good gravy, you are one dumb fuck...
How many times have you openly wept tonight? Are you curled up in the fetal position sucking your thumb?
Unlike you I believe in our system of government... Nothing to cry about at all, the system works... Shit faced voters like you remain a problem though...