Another example of the Republic habit of escalation. When the tables are turned they'll be squealing like pigs about Democrats playing politics as usual. Just as in the case of federal judgeships.
Hypocirtes.
The High Cost of Voting No
Published: October 11, 2003
Students of the partisan divide in Congress find it heating up to the level of kickboxing this year. In the annual spending bills now passing below the public's radar, House Republican leaders are coolly threatening to deny Democrats hundreds of millions of dollars in local projects in retaliation for their block-vote protest against the flawed majority bill on spending for health and education. Republicans note that cross-aisle vendettas are nothing new in the Capitol. But the G.O.P. would be elevating strong-arming to a whole new level by taking meat-and-potato projects from dissenting Democrats and serving this election-year bacon to Republicans.
This is a prohibitive price for the Democrats to pay for maintaining party unity in daring to protest that the Republican spending bill retreats from President Bush's promised commitments to school financing. The partisan reprisal would trash the standing 60-40 formula for sharing projects and, even more, punish taxpayers in Democratic districts for the votes of their representatives.
House leaders should have second thoughts as rival spending bills undergo final haggling in the joint conference with the Senate. Democrats are more than ready to use this as a campaign issue by contrasting shortchanged domestic needs with the administration's costly Iraq reconstruction budget. Beyond that, the public could suffer from another bad precedent, if the Democrats remember to retaliate whenever the G.O.P. loses majority power.
Hypocirtes.
The High Cost of Voting No
Published: October 11, 2003
Students of the partisan divide in Congress find it heating up to the level of kickboxing this year. In the annual spending bills now passing below the public's radar, House Republican leaders are coolly threatening to deny Democrats hundreds of millions of dollars in local projects in retaliation for their block-vote protest against the flawed majority bill on spending for health and education. Republicans note that cross-aisle vendettas are nothing new in the Capitol. But the G.O.P. would be elevating strong-arming to a whole new level by taking meat-and-potato projects from dissenting Democrats and serving this election-year bacon to Republicans.
This is a prohibitive price for the Democrats to pay for maintaining party unity in daring to protest that the Republican spending bill retreats from President Bush's promised commitments to school financing. The partisan reprisal would trash the standing 60-40 formula for sharing projects and, even more, punish taxpayers in Democratic districts for the votes of their representatives.
House leaders should have second thoughts as rival spending bills undergo final haggling in the joint conference with the Senate. Democrats are more than ready to use this as a campaign issue by contrasting shortchanged domestic needs with the administration's costly Iraq reconstruction budget. Beyond that, the public could suffer from another bad precedent, if the Democrats remember to retaliate whenever the G.O.P. loses majority power.
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