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Last night the Senate failed to reach agreement on a small business bill, most of the contents of which was written either by Republicans or on a bipartisan basis. So it does seem that Republicans have basically left the playing field and are sitting out the rest of the year until the elections.
Nevertheless, on Monday the Senate will vote on a bill that combines the $10 billion dollar education jobs fund that got bounced from the war supplemental, and a $16 billion dollar measure to help states with their Medicaid programs. The vehicle for this is a gutted FAA authorization bill (there will apparently be a separate FAA bill coming from the House later). These items are fully paid for, through some offsets that have not been fully explained to me. But the numbers go like this:
Revenue Offsets
Foreign Tax Credit Loophole Closers, $9.0 BillionSpending Offsets
Medicaid Drug Pricing, $2.0 Billion
Spending Rescissions, $8.4 Billion
SNAP, $6.7 Billion
SNAP is the food stamp program. I know that the Obama Administration at one point suggested a drop in funding for this, but they justified it due to falling food prices. I have no idea about the details of these offsets, just these bullet points. Still working on that. But this is probably what it says it is, a straight cut to SNAP funding to pay for health care for the poor and teachers. Sounds like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Point being, you will see a cloture vote on edujobs and state Medicaid funding, offset by these items, on Monday at 5pm. Also on Monday, Reid will file cloture on the energy bill, which has been criticized by Republicans (and also a couple Democrats), for a vote on Wednesday. They also hope to get back to the small business bill and file cloture if they can reach agreement on the number of amendments. And, they want to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
In a fiery memo, Reid spokesman Jim Manley detailed precisely what happened on the small business bill, which doesn’t give me much hope for the education/Medicaid state funding bill:
This week, Senate Democrats tried to move forward in a bipartisan manner on small business jobs legislation, however at each turn Senate Republicans rebuffed our efforts. For example:
1. Senate Republicans objected to the small business lending facility, so Senate Democrats took it out of the underlying bill and negotiated with Florida Republican Senator George Lemieux on an acceptable alternative. That wasn’t good enough.
2. Senate Republicans objected to agriculture disaster relief being added to the bill, even though it would have benefitted several members of their own caucus, so Senate Democrats took it out. That still wasn’t good enough.
3. Senate Republicans wanted to offer amendments to the bill ,so we agreed to their three top amendments and asked if we could offer three of our own. No, still not good enough.
Are you starting to see a pattern?
Somehow, I imagine that Republicans will find something not to like in a fully paid for bill for their states.
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OK– For more than a year now, I have been finding medically-appropriate food donations and taking them to a disabled elder with permanent medical health issues plus the concern of cancer. The elder has no family, no income (they are decades beyond UI), and is living off donations for everything– housing, medical treatment and food. This person was turned down for SSID with a medical file 2″ tall which I find unbelievably cruel (I found others who only got SSID after being turned down then going to Federal court to sue for the receipt of their social safety net). If the elder could work, there’s no way they can compete with the excess of 23 year olds looking for work now that no one is forced to hire experienced Americans (although these skilled jobs have been “best shored” already to China, India and Vietnam) let alone pay any benefits (e.g. if the organization is a non-profit, it might pay a stipend but no benefits). Finally a social worker now in the network of folks recently monitoring the elder’s situation shamed the local officials bad enough that the elder started to receive food stamps. Now food stamps are to be turned off? Are these people socio-psychopathic or what?
And by the way, I have caught several non-profits who want your donations and say they will perform a service that our government should do but when it comes time to, they don’t. Besides the corporations throwing away food when they can’t sell it, there are non-profits throwing away food, too. Disgusting. Many non-profits are formed as a dodge to shelter the money of rich founders, not pay workers (folks are supposed to volunteer!), and avoid paying worker benefits. They amount to nothing more than a privatization scam taking up to 45% off the top which is consumed by administrative fees including six figure executive salaries. I think it’s apt that Jane labels the “The Veal Pen”– they are simply an annex of the “The Village.”