GOP to load Democrats with unfinished work
CBS News:
Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.
Are the Republicans being petty or lazy in leaving behind their unfinished work? No. For once, they’re being smart:
Driving the decision to quit and go home rather than finish the remaining budget work is a determined effort by a group of conservative Republicans to prevent putting a GOP stamp on spending bills covering 13 Cabinet Departments — and loaded with thousands of homestate projects derided as “pork” by critics.
…
Some Republicans also look forward to using unfinished budget work to gum up an early Democratic agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, cutting interest rates on college loans and repealing some tax breaks for oil companies. “Other stuff may get pushed off the table,” said GOP lobbyist Hazen Marshall, a former longtime Capitol Hill aide. “It kills (Democrats’) message.”
When the new Congress meets in January, the Democrats will have something else to deal with as well — something likely to strain their party’s unity. In early 2007, President Bush will send Congress a $130 billion appropriation for the war in Iraq.
Game on.
Technorati tags: Congress, Democrats, Republicans, politics
Leave a comment