 |
| White House: US Vice President Dick Cheney (l.), listens over the shoulder of President George W. Bush as the president speaks
to reporters in the Rose Garden after a cabinet meeting on Dec. 14. Republicans, despite minority status in Congress, are
giving the President much of what he wants in terms of war funding. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters |
Republicans score key wins on spending
With the GOP united, President Bush is poised to get the war funding he wants.
from the December 18, 2007 edition
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The bill wraps together the budgets for every cabinet department except the Pentagon and is expected to pass Congress this week to allow lawmakers to head home for Christmas.
From the early days of their takeover of the 110th Congress, the new majority has aimed to peel off Republicans facing tough elections in 2008 – or build on issues so politically appealing that they could not refuse to support them.
But that strategy appears to have failed. Republican leaders have urged their caucus to stand together in the face of what they say is majority overreach.
For example, on the eve of votes last week on a sweeping energy bill, Sen. Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska appealed to his GOP colleagues to back him in rejecting a $22 billion tax package on a popular energy bill, because Senate Democratic leaders broke their word to him.
"We had a deal that the Senate would not take up the House-passed taxes in that bill," he said, on the eve of the vote.
GOP unity on energy bill
Despite Bush's opposition to the tax package, Democrats expected they had the votes to move the bill. Over months of negotiation, the bill had been carefully calibrated to meet regional needs. In addition to extending tax breaks for renewable-energy sources, the bill provided tax credits for wood-burning stoves, cosponsored by Sens. John Sununu and Judd Gregg, both Republicans from New Hampshire.
But despite the regional sweeteners, the New Hampshire Republicans voted "no" on a key procedural vote on the tax package, which had to be dropped from the Senate version of the bill. GOP leadership aides credit Senator Stevens appeal – and overreach by the Democrats – for rallying GOP votes against the tax package. The energy bill, without the tax package, passed the Senate 86 to 8.
GOP leaders predict that they will have the votes to sustain the president’s objections to any bill moving in the last days
of this session.
“Democrats have overpromised and underdelivered,” says Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip. He predicts that the
last week in session will be “chaotic” and produce results that are “dramatically less than they intended to move through
Congress this year.”
• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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