The Senate met in an unusual Saturday session to vote on two tax proposals doomed to fail from the start.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,teed up for votes on Thursday just two days after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., unveiled a letter signed by 42 GOP senators saying they would oppose any legislation unless and until Congress extended all of the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of December.Notwithstanding the clear message contained in the letter, Sen. Reid still felt the need to have the Senate go through the motions and vote on two proposals that only extended some of the Bush tax cuts.
So these proposals failed to get the needed 60 votes required in the Senate to advance a bill over a senators objection. The vote was 53 to 36. The absent senators were all GOP senators who would have voted no.
When the Senate convenes this week, the tax negotiators will resume their sessions after having had a very late night meeting Saturday hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at his home in D.C. The meeting did much to help move the effort along after the failed Senate votes earlier in the day seemed to stall the process a bit.
The Senate floor will see the senators become jurors in the impeachment trial of Judge Porteous at the beginning of the week. The House voted unanimously in March to bring four articles of impeachment against G. Thomas Porteous. A two-thirds vote in the Senate is required in order for the Senate to convict. House prosecutors say Porteous began accepting cash and other favors from people with business before his court. If convicted by the Senate, Porteous could become the eighth federal judge to be removed from the bench in U.S. history. This impeachment trial is the first such trial to be conducted by the Senate since the impeachment proceeding of President Bill Clinton back in 1999.
After the trial, beginning on Wednesday, the following four legislative items will command procedural votes in the Senate, all the while awaiting some results from the tax negotiators. The items are:
- A 9/11 health care bill.
- Firefighters collective bargaining bill.
- The DREAM Act.
- A $250 payment to seniors in lieu of an annual COLA.
These four items require 60 votes to advance them through the process. Once again, the McConnell letter will show its muscle by proving that the 42 Republican signers mean what they say.
The House side of our nations Capitol will be considering a version of the Senate-passed Food Safety Modernization Act and other authorization bills while also awaiting the results of the tax negotiators. Also under consideration by the tax negotiators is the full funding of our federal government and extending federal unemployment benefits.
In a White House press event on Saturday afternoon, President Barack Obama announced that he would get involved in the tax negotiating process, saying he will be calling congressional Republicans. He said that during his call he would ask all involved to redouble efforts to resolve this impasse -- in the next few days -- to give the American people the peace of mind that their taxes will not go up on Jan. 1. The president went on to say, It will require some compromise, but Im confident that we can get it done. And the American people should expect no less.
Phew, this writer now has confidence that the crisis that has been created by Congress will eventually be solved by Congress in conjunction with the president, as early as late this week.
In the meantime, the barackobama.com website is sending out a fund-raising appeal letter which demonizes congressional Republicans as obstructionists on the issue of the Bush tax cuts. The letter goes on to ask the recipient to donate money to make sure that the tax issue gets resolved. It is amazing how much money can be raised by creating a crisis and then solving the crisis, just in the nick of time. Stay tuned to see when the knights in shining armor, better known as Congress and the White House, will ride in to save the day and save the American public from higher taxes.
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 GradeGov.com.
