GOP Senator blocking 100 bills. Reid hits back.

[SirNitram]

Link

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning a “Coburn Omnibus” for July that would wrap most if not all of the bills held by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) into one large measure to be voted on by the Senate, according to a Coburn aide and two Democratic leadership staffers.

Coburn is blocking roughly a hundred bills that are generally non-controversial or have broad support. By placing a hold, Coburn prevents the bills from passing quickly through the Senate under a unanimous consent request. With floor time at such a premium, Reid would have trouble bringing up each bill for an individual debate and vote.

But in a stroke of legislative creativity that may have no precedent, Reid could lump all of the bills into one package and bring up the Coburn Omnibus for a single vote. Coburn can still object, but the broad popularity of the bills means that there would likely be more than enough support for veto-proof passage.

Julian Zelizer, a professor of the history of public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, said that the move is most unusual when viewed in historical context. “I haven’t heard of something like this,” he said.

There are very few moving vehicles left in the Senate this session, and seats on those rides are pricey. Two Democratic aides said that the details of which specific Coburn bills would be lumped into the package were still being debated. One leadership aide said that even some semi-controversial bills not uniquely associated with Coburn, such as the media shield law, could become part of it.

Reid, stop being clever. I can't hate your centrist ass so much when you're being clever like this.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I like how Reid named it the Coburn Omnibus, so that not only will all the bills he opposed be permanently labeled with his name, but the legislative maneuver itself, which may be precedent-setting and therefore of long-term historical interest, will go down in the books under that name.

Anyway, a look at some of the bills (like money for breast cancer research and a NRA-endorsed law to prevent the sale of firearms to the mentally ill) he's blocking reveals that Coburn is basically a complete cock. Even worse than the specific content of the bills, he's also shitting on the concept of responsible representative government. A previous Politico article about Coburn said that other senators thinking about passing any bill he might disapprove of have to run it by him and make the changes he wants, regardless of whether he's on a committee that has anything to do with it, because he'll roadblock any bill on a whim. Hence, an asshole from one of the lamest states of the union (Oklahoma) has a stranglehold on Senate business. Brilliant.

It's not like there will ever be any electoral consequences, though, because the Okies automatically elect any Republican candidate and the GOP would never hit him with a primary challenge.

[Pelranius]

This might become positive reinforcement, since that Coburn dipshit might be happy enough that his name is making it into the history books, one way or another.

[Lusankya]

Out of curiosity, how screwed up is your system that one guy can block 100 bills like that?

[Darth Wong]

Out of curiosity, how screwed up is your system that one guy can block 100 bills like that?

It's designed to encourage gridlock. Many Americans are proud of that characteristic, because they think that government is inherently harmful, so it is beneficial to neuter government so that it cannot function (well, not without massive influence peddling, which is why political back room dealings are so crucial to the American system).

[Lusankya]

Out of curiosity, how screwed up is your system that one guy can block 100 bills like that?

It's designed to encourage gridlock. Many Americans are proud of that characteristic, because they think that government is inherently harmful, so it is beneficial to neuter government so that it cannot function (well, not without massive influence peddling, which is why political back room dealings are so crucial to the American system).

I guess I should have remembered that, but it still seems odd to me. I guess that comes from living in a country where you can go to the polls for a SUPER ELECTION if a bill's held up for more than three months.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Out of curiosity, how screwed up is your system that one guy can block 100 bills like that?

It's designed to encourage gridlock. Many Americans are proud of that characteristic, because they think that government is inherently harmful, so it is beneficial to neuter government so that it cannot function (well, not without massive influence peddling, which is why political back room dealings are so crucial to the American system).

Well, for the last 8 years our government has been inherently harmful....

[Patrick Degan]

Out of curiosity, how screwed up is your system that one guy can block 100 bills like that?

It's designed to encourage gridlock. Many Americans are proud of that characteristic, because they think that government is inherently harmful, so it is beneficial to neuter government so that it cannot function (well, not without massive influence peddling, which is why political back room dealings are so crucial to the American system).

It was not always the case, but a quarter-century of Reagan Mythology combined with an utterly shitty civics educational programme has taken its toll.

And a phenomenon like Coburn is possible only because of the tight balance between the parties in the Senate. A bare-majority isn't enough to stop crap like this, but a 2/3rds or better majority could run over Coburn as if he was a ketchup packet on a highway.

[Pablo Sanchez]

And a phenomenon like Coburn is possible only because of the tight balance between the parties in the Senate. A bare-majority isn't enough to stop crap like this, but a 2/3rds or better majority could run over Coburn as if he was a ketchup packet on a highway.

Actually a lot of the bills he's blocking had broad bipartisan support. Some of them had 66 co-sponsors, meaning an automatic 2/3s majority. It's not a political party issue, it's a "Coburn is an asshole and the US Senate is poorly designed to get work done" issue. Coburn claims to be against pork-barrel spending generally and he's gotten in fights with other GOP senators, especially Ted Stevens, over some bills in the past. It's just as I said--one asshole senator from Oklahoma is exploiting Senate rules to give himself obscenely disproportionate influence.

I think that this kind of thing really should get an official censure or maybe the other senators should refuse to seat him until he agrees to stop being a dick.

[SirNitram]

The whole maneuver works because Reid is trying to keep a high tempo of business through the Senate. The hold doesn't kill the bill or act as a one-man filibuster, but it does prevent moving in a timely manner. With the mass of bills that need done(And some that don't, FISA got thrown to the lions though, thank gods), the investigations, the contempt votes, Reid and his paper-thin majority has to abandon Held bills because 100+ of them would bog down the whole works.

Now one bill, one bill is easy...