Elections have consequences, and I won. Remember that quote from our president? He said it just three days after he took the helm as our president.
The meeting was at the White House in January of 2008 when he met with the Democratic and Republican leadership from Congress. It was in response to House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) when he presented some alternatives to the proposed $787 billion stimulus bill.
This scenario is repeating itself on Nov. 18 when the Democratic and Republican leadership from Congress meet with the president at the White House at what has been dubbed the slurpee summit. This writer is hoping that folks in attendance will remember the quote and choose not to utter it. While the urge might be great, the legislative workload left over by the Pelosi/Reid Congress that must be addressed in November and December needs to be seen as the greater good in this slurpee summit.
The president acknowledged that his party received a shellacking in his press conference held the day after the midterm elections. He also seemed to stand by his belief that the losses resulting from the midterm elections had nothing to do with his extreme government policies. This was restated several different ways when he responded during the Q&A segment of the press event.
It is the presidents dug-in mindset that could lead some attending the November meeting to want to shout the presidents quote from the rooftops. After all, the losses received by the Democrats in Congress exceed all midterm election losses going back to 1946. The other historical midterm losses are as follows:
- Harry Truman in 1946(Republicans gained 55 seats).
- Dwight Eisenhower in 1958(Democrats gained 47 seats).
- Lyndon Johnson in 1966(Republicans gained 47 seats).
- Richard Nixon in 1974(Democrats gained 43 seats).
- Bill Clinton in 1994(Republicans gained 54 seats).
Notwithstanding the urge to try to convince the president that he needs to reconsider his policy choices, the task at hand for the summit is to plan a way to get the unfinished congressional legislative schedule concluded before the failure to pass these bills does further harm to our economy and country. The items the Pelosi/Reid Congress punted to the two-legged lame-duck session include:
- Federal unemployment benefits (expires Nov. 30).
- Doctors' and hospitals' reimbursement payment fix (expires Nov. 30).
- Extension of 69 or so tax deductions -- the so-called Bush tax cuts (expires Dec. 31).
- Full funding of all agencies and departments of the federal government -- the so-called Omnibus Appropriations Bill (expires Dec. 3).
- FAA authorization (expires Dec.31).
- Tax extender, including indexing the alternative minimum tax and small-business tax deductions (expires Dec. 31).
This list is not exhaustive, although it may be exhaustive for Congress and the president to come to terms with processing and enacting all of this leftover legislation. Click here for a complete list of all of the expiring tax provisions.
In the meantime, the Democratic House leadership, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will be jockeying and lobbying their caucus for the leadership positions that will be afforded the minority party in the House of Representatives for the 112th Congress.
This minority status leaves the Democrats in the House with one less leadership position than they enjoyed when they were in the majority. Therefore, someone could be left off the leadership roles as a result of these leadership elections -- which are coincidentally scheduled to occur the morning of the slurpee summit, Nov. 18.
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Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. Currently she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of www.GradeGov.com.
