House Democrats have been saying for quite some time now that they just don't trust the Senate to hold up its end of the bargain on any "fixes" to the Senate-passed health insurance reform bill, which is why they want the Senate to pass the "fix" first, before they agree to passing the Senate bill that needs all the fixing.
Though things may be loosening up a bit on that front, the fact remains that the House's concerns are very real, as demonstrated by the recent revelation that the Senate is already sitting on 290 House-passed bills on which they've taken no action. Is that a situation that gives you solid ground for trusting that the Senate will come through on an I.O.U. for this "fix" bill? Probably not.
Well, how about today's story about the filibuster of the unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits extension bill, then?
Recall that last night, in the heat of the fight, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) promised a knock-down, drag-out that'd see this thing fought out to the last man standing:
Bunning’s quixotic pursuit of deficit offsets at the potential expense of payments to unemployed or uninsured citizens enraged Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Democrats, who vowed to keep the chamber in session until Bunning relents or collapses.
A senior Democratic leadership aide said Durbin would ask for unanimous consent to pass the extensions without Bunning’s payment scheme every half hour for the foreseeable future. "We’re going to keep doing it until we break him," the aide said.
...but which later turned into:
[A]fter three hours of often heated debate — during which Bunning could be heard yelling obscenities at other lawmakers — Durbin dropped his efforts for the evening shortly before midnight.
...and this morning became just one more unanimous consent request that got objected to, followed by the Senate's adjournment for the weekend.
I'm a big Dick Durbin fan (believe it or not), but look at this from the House's perspective. Not only are 290 House-passed bills still sitting idle for lack of the Senate's ability to take them up and pass them, but when a high ranking member of Senate leadership tells you he's going to fight until Bunning relents or collapses, and then decides later the same day that missing prime time television is really quite enough, well... how much confidence does that give you that if you do your job first, the Senate is going to make this time different from the 290 times before it?