Ah. Finally some good news from the Congress:
Posted by DeLong at November 21, 2003 11:12 AM | TrackBackOpponents block energy bill, leaving passage in doubt - Nov. 21, 2003: Opponents of the $31 billion Republican energy bill blocked its passage in the Senate Friday morning, throwing the future of the President's energy policy -- a main plank of his domestic agenda -- into grave doubt.
The bill's backers narrowly failed to win the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster led by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), with six rebel Republicans providing the key votes.
The final vote was 57 to 40, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Republicans will keep trying. "I do want to let colleagues know this will not be the last vote," said Frist. "We are going to keep voting until we pass it and get it to the President's desk."
Backers and opponents of the bill both said a provision providing protection from lawsuits for firms that make and distribute MTBE, a gasoline additive that has been found to contaminate groundwater, turned opinion against the bill.
"This bill is a full-scale retreat when it comes to environmental protection for America," said Schumer. "To walk away from basic environmental protection in the name of promoting energy is a bad deal for America's future."...
Here's hoping the Prescription Drug bill goes down in flames as well. But I find the headline "Senate Discovers Spine" kind of assuming. You do realize 58 Senators were lined up to support this bill. That's a pretty healthy majority. It's just that the Senate is set up to make it very difficult to get things through. And sometimes that is a very good thing.
Posted by: Joe Blog on November 21, 2003 02:23 PMFrist vows to cram this through. www.cnn.com had the perfect picture. Domenici talking about how important it was to pass this. Yea - important for his pork barrel goodies. But public opinion is turning against this fraud as the truth is coming out.
Posted by: Harold McClure on November 21, 2003 03:01 PMThe Energy bill has actually beeen realistically scored at 95 Billion dollars Plus some change. Talk about blowing another hold in the budget, these guys are just simply shameless in their give-aways to their cronies. Putin and his mafioso types have nothing on the Bush's!
Posted by: VJ on November 22, 2003 01:39 AM