The "Take it or Leave it" Democrats By Betsy Newmark

Source: http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2009/02/look-to-conference-committee-report.html

February 11, 2009

The three Republicans, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter have all claimed that they won't vote for the final bill if the conference report does much to change the Senate version of the bill. Well, they should get ready to bend that statement because, as the American Spectator reports, the White House is working with the House Democrats to restore the rather minor spending cuts that they are so proud of having carved out to come up with their compromise bill. I predict that much of the spending will be re-imposed and the three Republicans will suddenly find that that spending isn't so bad after all.

It sounds like the approach that the conference is looking towards is to restore some of the spending cuts from the Senate bill and scale back the tax credits and the patch for the AMT that the Senate compromisers had put in.

Meanwhile, the Pelosi Democrats are ticked off at the Republican Three's demands that they don't change the Senate bill.

When MSNBC asked Collins how she would react to the restoration of the House spending plan, she replied, “The Democrats will lose my vote.”

Similar remarks by Specter prompted House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), not known for his bellicosity, to fire back at his weekly pen-and-pad session with reporters: “I’m shocked that any senator of any party would say this is the bill we passed, take it or leave it.”

But privately, House Democratic staffers see several areas of potential accommodation, including alterations to the mixture of tax cuts and spending that could result in scaling back a $15,000 homebuyer tax credit, a favorite of the Senate GOP, and $11 billion in deduction of taxes on auto purchases, strongly opposed by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

Pelosi’s ultimate leverage in conference talks, those close to her say, is the fact that Obama himself has indicated he’s willing to go to the mat to partially restore some of the Senate cuts. And they expect a week of intense lobbying by the president personally on behalf of the Obama-Pelosi agenda.

“I can’t imagine that three Republicans would deny what the president wants at the end of the day,” said a top House Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.

So they don't like being told "take it or leave it" by those Compromise Republicans, but they sure want to tell the Republicans in both houses to "take it or leave it." I guess it all depends on who is doing the taking and who is doing the leaving.

The Democrats seem to be happy to come through with a package and then dare the Republicans to filibuster it.

There was another revealing moment from Tuesday’s Democratic powwow, courtesy of another member in attendance.

“There was an outcry within the caucus that was, like, we’d actually like to see them [Senate Republicans] go ahead and filibuster. Let ’em follow through on their threats. ... I don’t think the speaker disagreed.”

That's a dare I'd like to see the Senate Republicans take, but I have no confidence in the Compromise Three and their fine-sounding vows to oppose a conference bill much different from the Senate bill.