Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Republi-CON 'Regular Order' Budget CON

UPDATE:  "Republicans don’t want to enter into conference negotiations over the budget (even though they had previously insisted on 'regular order' for a long time). Instead, Ryan wants a pre-conference agreement before regular conference negotiations. He gives a bunch of procedural reasons for this, such as the fact that if conference negotiations fail, the House minority has the authority to force Republicans to take uncomfortable votes (on so called 'motions to instruct'). . .

The simple fact of the matter here is that Republicans are not willing to enter into negotiations over the budget unless they can use the threat of crashing the economy to get more of they want. . .

At the same time, it’s politically problematic to openly admit they are only willing to enter into negotiations in which they can avail themselves of the threat of something as destructive as default to maximize their leverage. So Ryan is forced into the above contortions to explain the Republicans’ strategy — or, more accurately, their lack of any coherent strategy."

Read the Washington Post, Paul Ryan admits GOP can’t govern without a hostage crisis.

Republi-cons have "spent years calling for a return to 'regular order' in which the House writes a budget, the Senate writes a budget, and the two chambers move to a conference committee to hash out their differences. This year, for the first time since 2009, Senate Democrats wrote and passed a full budget, shepherding it to passage through an open amendment process. Now various Senate Republicans are blocking the move towards conference — blocking, in other words, the move towards the regular order they demanded."

Read  the Washington Post, GOP moderates feud with conservatives over stall tactics on budget