Senate GOP Set To Block Troop Funding Bill

Republicans in the Senate may be walking into a political trap this week, in which their insistence on considering energy legislation leads them to block significant increases in funding for the troops in Iraq.

Going into this week, the Senate Republicans insisted that they would block all the legislative measures until an energy bill was first brought to the floor.

Democratic leadership, initially furious over the obstructionism, is now calling their bluff. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last night introduced a Department of Defense Authorization bill that would, among other things, include a 3.9 percent across-the-board pay raise for military personnel; major funding increases for research into traumatic brain injury treatment and troop suicide prevention efforts; $26 billion for the Defense Health Program, and $500 million for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. A vote could come as early as tonight.

Should the GOP stick to its guns and filibuster the measure while insisting on an energy bill vote, they may effectively remove a talking point from the party's playbook. Going into the November elections, it will be the Democrats who can argue that the other party stood in the way of funding for the troops.

Certainly, the process will create touchy questions for John McCain, who will likely miss the vote but will be asked for a position. The McCain campaign's recent ad, "Troops," accused Obama of "vot[ing] against funding our troops."

Republicans in the Senate have dug in this week, filibustering a number of bills, including legislation dealing with energy assistance for the poor and a package dubbed the Tominbus after Sen Tom Coburn, who personally blocked a number of bipartisan measures. In addition, the GOP twice filibustered efforts by Reid to bring to legislation dealing with renewable energy, which the GOP has subsequently rejected as either ineffectual or piece-meal approaches.

Comments

[UnbiasView]

So i f you ask me Reid is just trying to throw a massive spending bill up there with a troop title on it so they can say you voted against the troops . . . gotta love Washington.

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

Now that Democrats are supporting our troops as long as they're there, "Support The Troops" is a bad thing? You sound like a cut-and-runner.

[casengo]

It's time to kill the fillibuster! In the past it was tolerated as an outlet for a principled minority. That is no longer true. It is now making the minority the majority. Let the majority rule and accept responsibility for that rule. No other country in the world allows a minority to veto the will of the majority.

[tel8034]

Are the Democrats finally growing a spine?

Great move for the Democrats in calling the GOP bluff.

The GOP cannot afford to refuse to vote for the DOD Authorization Bill if the Democrats first refuse cede to the GOP demands............... They are in between a rock and a hard place.

To bad we didn't see more of this political prowess earlier from the Democrats.

[neuron]

Where does Johnboy stand on this?
Oh, he won't be in Washington...

[JohnFromCensornati]

How is it that the Greedy Old Predators can block legislation, but when they want their bills passed, they get passed? I was under the impression they were an unpopular, on-the-run, minority in the congress.

[kmac23va]

Because the Senate rules let them. Any action in the Senate can be stopped by one person (DeMint held up the housing bill, Coburn's held up a bunch of others that the Dems tried to pass together as a "Tomnibus" - simple stuff like an ALS register, paralysis legislation in Christopher and Dana Reeve's names, etc). in the old days, to filibuster you had to literally stand on the floor of the Senate and speak, and if you gave up the floor, too bad, but if cloture was filed and voted on (requiring 60 votes), the filibuster ends that way.

Nowadays though, they don't bother with that...if a matter is controversial, they just put it at a 60 vote "supermajority" threshold. So the Dems need 9 GOPs (10 if it's a war matter, since Lieberman will go with the GOP usually) to overcome the filibuster. Enough of the GOP is holding together to prevent things from moving. They get their bills passed because those are the ones the Dems agree with...if they don't agree, they're going nowhere.

Frankly, I think the supermajority idea is dumb. Make the senator wishing to filibuster actually filibuster, like in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. They spend enough time in quorum calls, they've got time for someone to just yammer on and try to hold things up.

[kmac23va]

Oh, and for your "tricks" book, the other one the GOP has used is that they force the Dems to file cloture on motions to proceed to a bill - not to vote ON the bill, just to go TO the bill - to which they might agree. But then they force the Dems to run out the 30 hour post-cloture debate clock to eat time. Then they force another cloture vote to end debate and to vote on the bill - and then that's another 30 hours to wait. That's how DeMint got them in on a Saturday, he held it up.

Not that the Dems are innocent with this "filling the amendment tree" thing, which both majorities have done, and basically clogging the amendment process so no one can file amendments unless the majority leader agrees. Not an open process and it causes more whining on the floor...Mitch loves to do that. I just hope he goes bye-bye in November.

[Ramirez]

Good grief. Is this Senate stupid or what?

[JohnFromCensornati]

We know that Miss Mitch is for sure.

[poco767b]

As much as I like to see anyone sucker punch the RNC I don't like the military being a pawn.
(even though they have been countless time)

[wm1066]

I agree.
I like it that the RNC is going over that cliff but for the fact that they are hurting alot of other people doing it.
I really hope mitch burns in.....you know.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

Another stunningly awful picture of Mitch "I haven't been able to c rap in weeks" McConnell......

[JohnFromCensornati]

It's unclear how someone could take a good one of him.

[Denemator]

Just keep on calling their bluff and make sure these blocks get widely broadcast to the American people. Why do goppers hate America and our armed forces.

[GeeBee]

Nice to see the Repugs hoisted by their own petard for once (as long as the troop funding bill does get passed in the end).

[several]

Hey, they can carry handguns in DC again so they're going to use them to shoot themselves in the foot! Yeeehaaaa!

[tea in the harbor]

Oh Boy! It's like a gunfight in the old west, except when the smoke clears and the dust settles, both will still be standing and between them will be a heaping mass of our money, our rights, and our fellow citizens dead on the floor. Behind each will be a larger mass of dead and dying Iraqi civilians.
Many of us will stand and applaud one side or the other, not realizing that we have ALL been gravely wounded!

[Titonwan]

You got that right.

[OhioJan]

So, what the republiC0Ns are effectively saying is that the Democrats MUST pass OFF-SHORE DRILLLING legislation as "an energy bill"...NOT legislation for "reNEWable energy". Am I close?

Like jj30 said from Dan Abrams, yet "ANOTHER reason 'Why America HATES Washington'"!!! November 4th can't can soon enough!!!!!

[larry278]

This is rich; the ever patriotic GOP members of the US Congress are planning to with-hold support for the troops on an absurd pretext. Who will be the 1st to say, "Why does the GOP hate American GI's?".

[blp58]

It's amazing how many GOP filibusters there have been in this Congress yet never get reported by the SCLM!