Toothless House Republicans are upset about an effort by Democrats to shut them out of the legislative process.
Democratic leaders decided to severely cut back on Republican amendments to a major appropriations bill that funds the Commerce, Justice and other departments. The Republicans wanted to introduce 127 amendments to the spending package which would delayed the legislation and had the effect of a filibuster that can only be used in the Senate.
The Democrats cut off debate and called members back to the Capitol. The Democrats closed the vote with 179-124 victory.
Republicans tried to argue that Democrats had adopted a pattern of high spending and the GOP was just trying to limit spending. The House is a rules based organization that is for the most part a “winner takes all” approach
The winner is almost always the majority party. The minority party in the House will often use amendments to either slow down the process or use an amendment to delete specific earmarks. The importance of earmarks has been overstated by the GOP because only .5 per cent of federal budget is used for earmarks.
“It is time for us to insist that we are accountable for the money that we are spending,” whined House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
“This is not about process,” muttered GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.). “This is about runaway federal spending.
Where were these two when George W. Bush was president?
The Democrats cut off debate and called members back to the Capitol. The Democrats closed the vote with 179-124 victory.
Republicans tried to argue that Democrats had adopted a pattern of high spending and the GOP was just trying to limit spending. The House is a rules based organization that is for the most part a “winner takes all” approach
The winner is almost always the majority party. The minority party in the House will often use amendments to either slow down the process or use an amendment to delete specific earmarks. The importance of earmarks has been overstated by the GOP because only .5 per cent of federal budget is used for earmarks.
“It is time for us to insist that we are accountable for the money that we are spending,” whined House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
“This is not about process,” muttered GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.). “This is about runaway federal spending.
Where were these two when George W. Bush was president?
The dust-up took started after Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) offered an amendment. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer reportedly complained that it took nearly 20 minutes to complete debate on the amendment.
“I guess my question is, why would they be so afraid of amendments?” Schock told reporters. “Certainly a dictatorship is faster than a democracy.”
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it, " said Bush when he was referring to the give and take that went on between the White House and Congress.
House Minority Leader John Boehner was vague when pressed on what the party’s options were, and he only smiled when asked if Republicans would walk out of the House, something they have done before to protest the majority party's floor rulings.
“We have options,” Boehner told reporters.
Actually the House minority party doesn't have a lot of options. Boehner said in March:
"As I told my colleagues, we don't have enough votes to legislate," Boehner said, according to Saturday's New York Times. "We are not in the majority. We are not kind-of in the minority; we are in a hole. They ought to get the idea out of their minds that they are legislators. But what they can be is communicators."
Source:
www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23845.html
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