Flawless Coordination.
Speaking Adriel Bettelheim, CQ, and David Drucker, Roll Call, in re the next logical aggressive step for POTUS and his allies Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as they go to nuclear weapons with regard the healthcare agenda. The process is called reconciliation. Bettelheim says that it begins next week and will bring civil war in DC. Drucker agrees. Reconciliation is a deeply strange parliamentarian maneuver between the two Houses of Congress. With healthcare, without Republican votes, reconciliation will require flawless coordination between the Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats in the House.
The Parliamentarian.
The Majority Leader in the Senate controls the parliamentarian, who rules what is and is not in order. This means that Harry Reid commands the referee from the outset. The chronology of the process to deliver a final bill to the POTUS is so arduous that it requires stages. First, the House must vote with a simple majority of 218 to approve the Senate bill that was approved by the supermajority of 60 votes on Christmas Eve 2009. Simultaneously, in order to entice the House to approve the Senate bill, the Senate Majority Leader, in coordination with the Speaker, must construct a sidecar bill that contains the adjustments to the Senate bill that please a simple majority of 218 Democrats in the House. Importantly, this sidecar must be built so that the GOP cannot endlessly delay it with amendments and points of order. This is why Harry Reid's control of the parliamentarian is crucial. The ref will rule for the Democrats when at all possible. Next, the House must vote a second time for the sidecar bill with a simple majority of 218. Finally, the Senate must vote on the sidecar. Here is where the rule of reconciliation applies. In order to reconcile the two House-approved bills, the Senate needs only a simple majority of 51 votes (in this event, only 50, because Biden is the tie-breaker). This whole batch of cupcakes then goes to POTUS for signature into law of the land.
Civil War.
Meanwhile, we can all pack picnic baskets and head out to Bull Run, Virginia, to watch the first battle of the war between the members of Congress and their constituents. There will be blood. No other business will be conducted. The wave for Republicans will build to an expectation beyond reason. Source tells me the liberal Democratic members of Congress with seniority and chairs are aiming to leave Congress after the GOP majority win. The doubts and grumbling about POTUS have now become deep resignation in the House. Senior Democrats are morose. The plea is that POTUS shove the Chicago apparatus into the re-elect campaign and start again with adult professionals from the Hill and K Street. Seniors John Boehner and Eric Cantor are preparing for their (undeserved, unearned) elevation with the same tiresome ideas of earmarks, petulance and grandstanding. But that is next year. This spring, with reconciliation, the casualties will pile up like parking tickets on Fifth Avenue.
1st Bull Run gave us Stonewall Jackson.
The 1859 Senate Chamber sign "Check your weapons before entering." had me laughing so hard I narrowly missed a snow bank.
I strongly suspect that Republican opposition in HeathCare.1 gave cover to a lot of Democrats who didn't have to show themselves to avoid mortal injury. With Healthcare.2, this mindless suicide march the leadership has undertaken will provide no such comforting cover for them. They are going to have to throw themselves on the pyre, or live to enjoy their congressional perks in coming years. The leadership cannot deliver on promises that would make suicide tolerable, because come Nov 3, they won't be the leadership any more. Is this high drama or what!
Politco
The President, in his weekly address: “I said at the end of Thursday’s summit that I am eager and willing to move forward with members of both parties on health care if the other side is serious about coming together to resolve our differences and get this done. But I also believe that we cannot lose the opportunity to meet this challenge. …It is time for us to come together. It is time for us to act. It is time for those of us in Washington to live up to our responsibilities to the American people and to future generations. So let’s get this done.”
Civil War? About what? Who are the antagonists? All these are questions that are unanswerable to most Americans. If asked, they would hesitate; they'd stumble. And yet, all would feel the answers just on the tip of their tongues. It's just that if they were to allow them to slip (out), they would invariably be made to sound foolish.
The truth is, although Americans know something momentous is underway, most have no idea of what's truly at stake. A 'Civil War' implies at least two sides. Most Americans are reluctant to take sides. Taking sides implies a commitment similar to adopting the mindset required after just having been told one has cancer. One problem is that the sides in this nascent struggle cannot be defined by visible – geographical or racial - markers. Neither is it a war between Republicans and Democrats (which is usually the first default answer given). It's not even between conservatives and progressives; or between blacks and whites, young and old, male or female, etc. All these are purely proxy skirmishes that are always enlisted in service to a greater cause. The real war pits the American people against big, bloated, arrogant, unresponsive and corrupt government.
Whereas one might say that a ‘conservative progressive’ or a ‘totalitarian democrat’ are oxymorons and cannot be; I would say, all these can and do exist as long as they exist in the right measure. Nobody (in theory) would mind a small Marxist dictatorship in Washington if that dictatorship would not intrude on our (the peoples’) liberty and hobble the private sector. But that is exactly what we’ve come to. Our political leadership – right and left alike – have brought us this nightmare whereby we, the people, are being literally enslaved to irreconcilable debt for generations to come. Washington has broken our savings plans, our business plans and is trying to interfere with our natural instincts for self-preservation.
We, on the other hand have refused to cooperate. We have decided we will break Washington even if it means we break our own legs in the process. We will stop doing what we do best. We will not expand our businesses. We will not create jobs. We will not spend our money. We know we’re the ones who keep this big economic engine running – not Washington (that keeps promising better times ahead). Washington has nothing to say about it. Washington will have to backtrack on that promise time and time again because we will see to it that nothing happens. We will only resume pulling our share again once Washington becomes more acceptable to us – and that means primarily ‘smaller’ and less intrusive into our personal lives.
So far, neither side has blinked. Washington thinks it’s in charge. Career politicians of both parties think that if they can just choke the golden goose a little bit harder, it’ll cry ‘uncle’ and begin genuflecting. The people are beginning to understand that they themselves are in charge. They know they alone can bring this government to its knees by simply sitting on their hands.
Little by little, as the truth of it leaks out, the antagonists reveal themselves. On one hand there’s a handful of puppet masters with strings attached both to themselves and their fingers; on the other, there are the good people of the America who have vowed that they will no longer bother to come to the show. Once the elites finally get it, their puppet theater will collapse and they will be forced to move out of town.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
Spending hasn't been tied to revenue for so long that Washington doesn't even remember that they are suposed to be connected. A purposefull reduction in economic activity will not cause them to stop spending, it will only hasten the destruction of the dollar.