A lot of attention has been paid lately to the idea of a “bipartisan” economic recovery bill. Clearly the House GOPers are happy to blame Dems while voting against the stimulus, but what about the Senate? Well, Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) just distilled his side’s notion of cooperation during a press conference on the recovery legislation:
How about the Senate? Well, there have been two committee meetings, the Appropriations Committee and the Finance Committee, in which I sit. Not a single one of our [Republican] amendments was voted up. Every one was rejected.
So essentially no changes as a result of those two markups on the bill that will come to the Senate floor next week. And if [the Ledbetter and SCHIP bills] are any indication, we’ll get votes on amendments, they’ll all lose, and the bill will then pass, and we end up with a totally partisan package. I don’t think that’s what the president had in mind when he talked about putting legislation together in a bipartisan way.
Okay … so “bipartisanship” means not an exchange of ideas from both parties, or a chance to vote on proposals from both parties, but Democratic agreement on approving the GOP agenda? Good luck with that.
