He's not going to go away without a fight.
He's not going to go away without a fight.
Senate Democrats, along with 11 Republicans,
temporarily blocked a highway bill negotiated by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) from moving to the floor Tuesday. McConnell attempted to move the 1,030-page bill to the floor just hours after was released to members, a move that Democrats unanimously protested with their refusal to move it forward.
According to the bill text released later Tuesday, the money that will be funneled into the fund if the bill passes would come from a variety of pots, ranging from current extensions to Transportation Security Administration security fees, which would contribute $3.5 billion, to requiring the Energy secretary to draw down and sell 101 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve through 2025, which would offset $9 billion.
Another $2.3 billion offset, would revise the Social Security Act to limit benefits given to so-called "fugitives" who have outstanding warrants for their arrest. It would include a safeguard allowing the Social Security commissioner to dole out payments to individuals for "good cause."
Boxer, the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, mentioned earlier Tuesday that some of the money would come from those Social Security cuts. She also noted another measure that would prevent Social Security Disability Insurance recipients from simultaneously collecting unemployment insurance.
Those Social Security cuts could—and should—be a deal-breaker for Democrats. Taking money from the Social Security trust fund for unrelated purposes needs to stop, particularly when Republicans keep using the fund's eventual shortfall to argue for cutting benefits for
everyone. What did get cut from this deal were
proposed cuts to the federal retirement system. Other objections to the pay-fors in the bill come from the Republican side—Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
opposes reducing the dividends the Federal Reserve pays to member banks. And other members have serious problems with some of the provisions that loosen existing safety restrictions.
The real stumbling block, however, will remain the presidential campaigns of Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) who are doing their level best to grab some of Donald Trump's attention. Paul wants to use the bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Cruz has already threatened it over Obamacare and the Export-Import Bank and is now tossing in Iran just for the hell of it. With the two of them competing with each other, it's going to be all but impossible for McConnell to get either to back down.
Then, of course, he would have to convince House Speaker John Boehner and his large bloc of problem children to go along with it. The House has already passed a funding bill that lasts for the rest of this year and having achieved that, Boehner might not want to open this can of worms again. McConnell is threatening to make the Senate work the weekend to get this done by July 31, when current funding dries up. But it might not make any difference when there are this many variables at play.
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