It's been a good day...and I have tomorrow off...woo-hooooo!!!
+++and now the
New York Times+++
Democrats and other House officials said they had been informed that the budget vote that had been promised repeatedly by the leadership would be postponed. The turmoil was the latest sign of Republican dissension and represented a
major embarrassment for the Republican leadership, particularly Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is serving as temporary majority leader and would like the job on a full-time basis if legal troubles persist for Representative Tom DeLay.
The leadership problems with moderates were not only in the House. In the Senate, resistance by
Republican centrists there snagged an emerging tax cut plan.
+++Update from
CQ Today+++
Nov. 10, 2005 – Updated 3:59 p.m.
House GOP Leaders Give Up on Budget Bill for Now
By Liriel Higa and Steven T. Dennis, CQ Staff
After a fruitless day of arm-twisting, GOP leaders late Thursday gave up for this week on their effort to push a $50 billion, five-year budget savings bill (HR 4241) through the House.
Although the leaders earlier had expressed confidence that they had made enough changes to bring their moderates on board and pass the bill, they clearly miscalculated. Steps taken to appease the moderates angered other Republicans, and not all moderates were won over in any case.
The leaders said they would try again next week, although it was not clear how they would have any more success then.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!
Just got word from the sources that be (ok - from Pelosi's office) that the Republican leadership has pulled the nasty budget cutting bill (aka The Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportions) from the floor today because they don't have the votes to pass it!
Kudos to all the Kossacks and other advocates who made thousands of calls to their Representatives to stop these draconian cuts.
The Dems held strong and once again forced the Repugs into a wonderful bought of in-fighting.
But....
Don't count out any dirty tricks and don't think we've seen the last of this bill. They'll go into recess tonight, but they're still gonna be trying to cut deals and will be back next week with some kind of "compromise."
If anyone out there has the capacity to do state-by-state impact studies of the cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, SSI, etc...get them to your Republican reps offices. Gotta keep it personal and local. We need more things like this - (sigh - when will my home state learn).
Unfortunately, I still haven't learned all of the bells and whistles of this blog stuff, so nothin' fancy here - just GOOD NEWS!!
I'll try to update if need be, but I'm gonna do a little celebratin' for the moment!
Peace y'all.