U.S. Senate: Burning Down the House

[CountArach]

Well, just a few months in and we've got a $700bn+ stimulus that was promised to keep unemployment under 8%

Keeping in mind that most of it hasn't even hit the economy yet - I don't think you can blame rising unemployment on the stimulus package.

[Xiahou]

Keeping in mind that most of it hasn't even hit the economy yet - I don't think you can blame rising unemployment on the stimulus package.

So what are you arguing? That Obama didn't claim it would keep unemployment under 8%? You just seem to be confirming what the critics have said- that the spending is too slow to make a difference.

[CountArach]

So what are you arguing? That Obama didn't claim it would keep unemployment under 8%? You just seem to be confirming what the critics have said- that the spending is too slow to make a difference.

I think that Obama's promise was irresponsible and he shouldn't have made it. But to then draw that out into an attack on the Stimulus package as a whole is wrong. I think that it will bring unemployment back into check far faster than doing nothing or tax cuts and that is all I was saying.

[KukriKhan]

The Rumble in Minnesota is over. No, really, it's over. I can't decide if I'll miss the abusrdity, or if I'm glad that a no-longer-funny joke is at its end.

Whew. The people of Minnesota finally have the same level of representation as the rest of the States. I'd be plenty mad if I were them, being taxed without representation and all.

Meanwhile, they still haven't fixed the disparate way their precincts count votes, which led to this debacle in the first place. If they don't get to work on that soon, and there's another close election, they'll face the same problem again, and again.

[Lemur]

Although the Dems have a 60-seat supermajority in theory, the reality may be a bit more squishy:

First, even if Franken is seated, he will not make for a particularly crisp #60. Though no one wants to say it, it is not clear that Sen. Ted Kennedy will ever vote again in the Senate, given his medical condition. Massachusetts lawmakers are already quietly jockeying for his seat. A replacement senator in Massachusetts needs to be chosen by the electorate (the governor has no role), which could mean weeks, even months, for primary and general election campaigns to be conducted. Meanwhile, after a month in the hospital, Sen. Robert Byrd was released today to continue his recovery at home, but the 91-year-old remains in delicate health.

Even if senators always voted party-line, which they don’t, it takes 60 senators present and voting to vote cloture. Democrats aren’t there yet.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Although the Dems have a 60-seat supermajority in theory, the reality may be a bit more squishy:

First, even if Franken is seated, he will not make for a particularly crisp #60. Though no one wants to say it, it is not clear that Sen. Ted Kennedy will ever vote again in the Senate, given his medical condition. Massachusetts lawmakers are already quietly jockeying for his seat. A replacement senator in Massachusetts needs to be chosen by the electorate (the governor has no role), which could mean weeks, even months, for primary and general election campaigns to be conducted. Meanwhile, after a month in the hospital, Sen. Robert Byrd was released today to continue his recovery at home, but the 91-year-old remains in delicate health.

Even if senators always voted party-line, which they don’t, it takes 60 senators present and voting to vote cloture. Democrats aren’t there yet.

Good reminder. All due respect to both Senators Kennedy and Byrd, but it would be best for their respective constituencies if both gentlemen were to resign as of X date in the not-to-distant future so that their states might get the appropriate wheels turning. I do not say this for partisan purposes -- both would be replaced by fairly like-minded "noobs" in all likelihood -- but they are leaving their states as under-represented as was Minnesota until recently.

I think Franken's a putz, but he should have been seated in January -- the numbers were never on Coleman's side albeit by a thin margin -- Minnesotans deserve the representation they chose.

On the other hand, I think the direct election of Senators (17th ammendment) has had profoundly negative effects on the United States as a whole and that however well-intentioned, the unintended consequences are horrific and we should revert to the previous set-up. But what do I know....