Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Cornyn (R-TX)
Republicans are
getting all braggy about how much they've accomplished since taking control of the Senate. Their
big claim is that already in 2015 they've held votes on more amendments than the Senate did in all of 2014 under Harry Reid's leadership, and that this represents not just productivity but openness to Democratic ideas. Let's take a look at all this Senate productivity and openness, shall we?
First, here's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell being open to and respectful of Sen. Ed Markey's (D-MA) amendment "To ensure that products derived from tar sands are treated as crude oil for purposes of the Federal excise tax on petroleum."
"Can I have one minute to talk about this?" "Nope."
Under Republican leadership, nine Democratic amendments have been tabled rather than getting votes on their substance. Apparently Republicans think if they can kill an amendment calling for the Keystone pipeline to be made with American steel, but not actually vote on the amendment itself, it won't be a political liability. They've also voted down a host of amendments introduced by Democrats and Republicans alike. So what have they accomplished? They agreed that climate change is not a hoax, but only because the amendment did not say anything about what causes climate change. Even a weak-tea Republican amendment saying that humans had a role—but not a "significant" one—in climate change fell short, with its own sponsor casting the deciding vote against.
Three other amendments did pass:
One, proposed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), seeks to protect property owners from getting their land seized under eminent domain for the purpose of building the pipeline. The other, put forth by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), expressed the “sense of the Senate” that all types of oil companies should be required to pay a per-barrel tax that goes into a government fund for oil spill cleanup.
Finally, a bipartisan energy-efficiency provision
not directly related to Keystone XL passed.
This is what Republicans are bragging about? That in two weeks, they've managed to vote on one amendment that wasn't part of the Keystone bill, they've tabled nine Keystone amendments, rejected 11, and passed four, one of which was Republicans trolling Democrats as they attempted to troll Republicans? Call me crazy, but this doesn't look like overwhelming productivity.