Congress wraps up, leaving work until after election

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

With final Senate votes expected early Saturday morning, members of Congress have concluded work and departed Washington, putting off major decisions on tax and budget issues until after the November election.

The session ended on terrain familiar from the past 18 months of gridlocked action — with both parties blaming each other for not getting more done and a procedural debate in the Senate delaying final action on a bill over which there was no big dispute.

The Senate was expected to vote early Saturday to approve a six-month spending measure to fund the government when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The measure, which the House approved last week, would spare Washington the specter of a government shutdown in the weeks leading up to the election.

Approval of the must-pass funding bill marked Congress’s only significant accomplishment during an eight-day work period that followed the August recess.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/congress-wraps-up-leaving-work-until-after-election/2012/09/21/d6fd45e4-0428-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html

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In 2008, Congress (both houses under Dem control) stayed in session all the way till October to bail out the banks. But four years later, Congress walked away a week before the end of September without passing any job creation bills (or bailouts for workers)!

In 2004 (R majority) the Senate took its final pre-election vote on Oct. 11, two days after the House (R majority under Speaker Dennis Hastert and Maj Ldr Tom DeLay) recessed.

In 2000 (D majority under leader Tom Daschle), the Senate stayed in session all the way until Nov. 1 and the House (R majority under Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Dick Armey) two days later.

1996 (R majority): Senate finished pre-election business on Oct. 3, the House a week later (under Speaker Newt Gingrich, Maj Ldr Armey).

In 1992, a recession year when both the House and Senate were under (D) control (Speaker of the House was Tom Foley, House Majority Leader was Richard Gephardt, Senate Majority Leader was George Mitchell), the House adjourned on Oct. 5, the Senate on Oct. 8.

And you wonder why Congressional approval ratings are down to near 10%????

[Tx4obama]

1. The Senate has not left yet. I'm watching live-stream right now, 2:30 am ET. Link below

Live-stream here: http://blog.livenewschat.tv/cspan-2/

They are having a Quorum Call right now.

[alp227]

2. Never in the past 5 pres election years has congress recessed in SEPTEMBER before election day.

Oh my, those senators must LOOOOOVE friday nights.

And here's the official CSPAN2 stream via the CSPAN website. http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/

[Tx4obama]

3. Are they going to do anything else tonight, or just keep playing music? n/t

[alp227]

4. The CSPAN2 chyron says "awaiting final wrap up"

so I'd say nothing else.

Why the hell is Harry Reid allowing this to happen? Isn't he caving to Mitch McConnell's goal of making Obama a "one-term president" (as McConnell said out loud)?

[Tx4obama]

6. They are doing more in the wrap up than they normally do in a whole week! LOL :) n/t

[Tx4obama]

5. I think (if I'm not wrong), President Obama has the power to make them all come back

Clause 3: Calling Congress into extraordinary session; adjourning Congress

The President may call extraordinary sessions of one or both Houses of Congress. If the two Houses cannot agree on a date for adjournment, the President may adjourn both Houses to such a time as befits the circumstances. The last time this power was exercised was in 1948, when President Harry S. Truman called a special session of Congress. That was the twenty-seventh time in American history when a president convened such a session.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_3:_Calling_Congress_into_extraordinary_session.3B_adjourning_Congress

[phascismisphun]

7. He does, He should , He won't

Raising money and telling lies is more important to the GOP then actually doing the work they were supposedly elected to do.
The only thing the GOP did and will continue to do is obstruct anything and everything.

Just the right amount of people in America hate the black guy so much they will vote in enough pubs or others that will side with the pubs to keep the Congress divided then they will turn around and blame the POTUS for nothing getting done.

Yes Americans are plenty hate filled and stupid enough to vote for Pubs this election.

There are not enough nor will there be enough liberal and progressive Senators elected this cycle to get 60 seats because not all Democratic Senators are the same or even support the party platform, many are DINO’s and are proud of the fact.

[NecklyTyler]

8. If we are going to take back the House, we have to campaign too

This is a two way street, both Democrats and Republicans are playing by the same rules. If we can take back the House of Representatives, we will have a leg up on the Repukes in the 113th Congress.