Stick 'em up, America. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is preparing to
reignite the Senate's filibuster wars:
Not all Republicans were celebrating Monday about the fine print of the $38.5 billion in cuts House Republicans managed to wrangle in last week's 11th-hour budget showdown. Tea Party loyalists who wanted tens of billions more cut from this year's spending were shaking their heads, and at least one senator was lamenting a budget omission he said would hit his state's economy hard.
In fact, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was down right incensed over the decision not to include a mere $50,000 for an Army Corps of Engineers study on deepening the Port of Charleston in his home state and vowed to "tie the Senate in knots" by holding up Obama administration nominations.
Leaving aside for the moment the fact that Graham's hissy fit could be said to threaten the undoing of the already-too-thin fabric of the "gentleman's agreement" on the filibuster reached earlier this year, what this really means is that Graham's insists that unless the feds pay fifty grand for a study that will say the fed should pay millions for a big South Carolina public works project, he'll "tie the Senate in knots."
Even the Teabaggers know this is a bullshit position:
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler is not happy with Graham's sudden burst of pro-spending zeal, telling TPM that the senator "sounds like a petulant child."
"If it's that important to his state, perhaps Senator Graham ought to pay the $50K out of his own pocket," he wrote in an e-mail to TPM. "Or perhaps the citizens of his own state would like to volunteer to fund it. Or perhaps the companies who would benefit from the deepening of the port might want to fund it."
Of course, nothing is ever this simple. The study has to be conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and that may well mean that the money to pay for it has to come from the federal government. But it's interesting, especially in these times, that Graham's first option is, "I'll 'tie the Senate in knots,'" rather than, "I'll seek a legislative solution that permits local and state governments to contribute toward the costs of such studies, in order to help improve their economies."
It's especially interesting given the renewed popularity of the old "Istook amendment" theories now fueling such extremist crusades as the drive to impose huge tax increases on anyone who buys private health insurance that covers abortion. The Istook amendment was designed as a mechanism for "defunding the left" back in the 1990s, the idea being that it was left-wing organizations that used "fungible" federal payments to offset the costs of lobbying the government to spend yet more money on them.
Which is, of course, exactly the aim that underlies the Graham tantrum. The federal government must pay for South Carolina to make the case that the federal government must pay for South Carolina's big public works project.
Thank God the adults are back in charge, eh?