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Originally Posted by Rlukas79
love the fact that these media articles fail at reporting what the vote was. It was a vote to rocket the standalone bill through quickly. That vote didn;t get 2/3rds so now it goes up for an up and down vote tomorrow where it will easily pass.
My concern is the Senate. We have one Republican senator on our side and we need 2 more. We may get Collins but I don't think Brown is going to cross the street. IMO, some of this will need to be offset to get through the senate. No doubt about it
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I don't know, I think this is all a deception. I don't think they need republican votes. If cloture is truly the rare thing it is made out to be, and if they only need a majority... then the two republicans are just cover. "It was bipartisan--let's share the blame if it goes wrong."
Reid tried to get a bill passed (tax extenders) that he KNEW the republicans would never ever vote for in a million years because it was full of tax increases and job killing measures. And he invoked cloture because he was going to force the republicans to vote against "unemployment benefits" (they were voting against the other PARTS of the bill). He knew they would vote it down last week. That's why he forced the vote--he didn't actually NEED their votes in the first place. But what he DID need was an opportunity to make them look bad in an election year. Thus, he forced a cloture vote which he knew would not pass, and him and the media have gleefully been beating up on the republicans for the last week because that was the plan the entire time.
And just to make it stick, Reid said "if they don't vote on this cloture... well, I'm going to pull the bill. That's it. No more unemployment."
Now, if you actually BELIEVED that was the case, then the republicans vote against cloture was CATASTROPHIC. Because, "didn't they know Reid was going to pull the bill??? That was their last chance!!!""
But hey, now that it is getting close to July 4, waddya know? Remember that stand-alone bill that Stabenow introduced last week that was completely ignored in favor of the bill Reid knew republicans would never vote for? Hey all of the sudden it's found new life and Reid is trying to push it through! And most likely, trying to get only ONE republican to vote for it (which he doesn't even need). But that one vote, makes this a bipartisan bill. They want, at the very least, an appearance of bipartisanship. And if history is an indication, the media will consider a Snowe or Collins vote as evidence of bipartisanship.
Then they take the actual, real vote they were going to take all along, (cloture was simply a media distraction), Obama signs the bill in the Rose Garden on July 4, saving the day. Big victory for Obama, Democrats take credit, and in an election year where they were sure to lose, they had an opportunity to beat up on the republicans for a couple weeks, meaning the unemployed will vote for the democrats. How could they not? For weeks all they heard was that "republicans refuse to vote for unemployment." That's all they are meant to know. Hopefully they won't realize that a republican vote was NEVER necessary to pass the legislation.
THE END. Hope you enjoyed being an unwitting accomplice to the ruse.
Now, I don't blame Reid for doing this... he's in trouble in Nevada, the democrats are going to lose the house in November, and possibly the Senate. This was their hail mary, make the republicans look as bad as possible by creating the illusion that their votes were necessary to pass the bill.
Just politics as usual. You use every card you're dealt to inflict maximum damage on the other side, before stepping in to save the day. If the republicans gain majority, I am sure they will do the exact same thing.