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Pretending to dole out Hot Hank Paulson’s $700,000,000,000 on the installment plan, Congress continued its swift march into irrelevance. By ceding control over the second and third bailout installments to the President unless Congress acts in a joint resolution subject to veto and thus requiring a two-thirds vote, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi added more laurels to the Crown of the Unitary Executive.
The full $700 billion is authorized, but the money will be parsed out in a series of installments that give Paulson a relatively free hand in accessing the first $350 billion. The White House must notify Congress when Treasury wants the second half, and lawmakers would then have 15 days in which to cut off funds. But this must be done in the form of a joint resolution, subject to a veto by the president and therefore requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses to be effective.
The founders counted on institutional pride to bulwark the checks and balances supplied in the Constitution. I’m not sure they counted on institutional irrelevance, but that’s where we have arrived today.
19 Comments
Teddy!
if it smells like fish…
But, did they self-medicate before performing the surgery?
I’m new to this part of the site. Does my comment count as a “booya”, or is there something else I should do? no snark. just don’t know.
Wow, truly, these people have no pride.
this might explain why congresses ratings are even lower than Bushes!
There’s a little “Recommend” button at the end of my diary you can click on to ensure it gets to the FDL front page, if you like. Thanks for the booyah!
Hey there you Oxdowner!
Is there anyone left who can argue that this has been the most horrific failure of a Democratic Congress ever?
I mean, GOP, you expect them to be fascist thugs.
Subpoena Power!
Yeah, I know. Gallows humor.
If it smells like fish, it must be crappy
As a great thinker said:
It is a setup and a stickup. Stop it.
T Partridge, 2008
????? If the legislative branch authorizes the expenditure, the Executive oversees the disbursement. It’s been that way for the last 500 years or more.
My point is that the Congress is pretending to hold the reins on the second (and third?) disbursements, but they’ve created circumstances where a two-thirds vote would be required to stop it.
By saying they can put the brakes on subsequent disbursements, they are saying they think we are stupid.
Two-thirds votes don’t happen.
They do think we’re stupid! They are openly contemptuous of us, from taking things off the table as soon as they are in a position to do so, to informing us we have only “activists” among us, that they are the “Leaders”. From Poor Harry continually being thwarted by the minority, a feat he found beyond his abilities when roles were reversed, to ignoring holds on critical legislation placed by members of our Party but not the opposition. Boehner and Blunt still dictate policy and continually get their way on everything.
I am convinced that the Democrats are the Washington Generals of Politics.
I see what you mean, thanks for the response.
You are welcome
Teddy…is their a plan to do something to intimidate the Congress to
not vote for this plan….Paulson was on 60 minutes tonight and he was
very suave in his discussion….too much so. He was full of bullsh*t
when he was discussing how there would be double oversight and then some.
Who is he kidding. Unless there is an independent person to sign and
double check the issuance of checks against the 700 billion, I would be
worried as none of them tell the truth.
Great job here…like what I see.
Maureen
Need a spell check here…above their should be there….sorry!
The ole brain is tired today!
Thanks Teddy
Continue to harass your Congresscritter and Senators tomorrow morning, regardless of their party or wingnuttiness. This bill can only be defeated by a strange-bedfellows coalition of conservative GOPs and progressive Democrats, both of whom don’t want a giveaway to Wall Street without accountability.
Sometimes we have to take our allies where we can find them, in strange places.
And who doesn’t believe that Bush, as he is heading out the door, will spend the ENTIRE wad to bankrupt government so there will be no education spending, no universal healthcare, no food stamps, no welfare, no medicare, no social security, etc? He will because he now has full kingly authority to Norquist the US government.