repugs being lazy AND obstructive!

GOP leaving spending bills to Democrats

WASHINGTON - Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills,

There's also no guarantee that Republicans will pass a multibillion-dollar measure to prevent a cut in fees to doctors treating Medicare patients.

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.

The decision to drop so much unfinished work in Democrats' laps demonstrates both division within Republicans ranks and the difficulty in resolving so many knotty questions in so short a time. GOP leaders promised their House and Senate members the December lame duck session would last no more than two weeks, or until Dec. 16 at the latest.

Now, with the agenda shrinking, a session that will be the last for 45 retiring or defeated House members and senators should be wrapped up by Dec. 8.

That could work against efforts to forestall a cut in physicians' Medicare payments. Under a formula dating back to 1997, Medicare payments to doctors for office visits will drop an average 5 percent on Jan. 1 — unless Congress steps in. Keeping them the same for another year would be expensive, about $10.8 billion, and chances are mixed at best for the doctors' lobby.

Driving the decision to quit and go home rather than finish the remaining budget work is a determined effort by a group of conservative Republicans to prevent putting a GOP stamp on spending bills covering 13 Cabinet Departments — and loaded with thousands of homestate projects derided as "pork" by critics.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill would rather complete this year's budget work and have the GOP's imprint rather than a Democratic one on how federal agencies will be spending their money through next September. However, conservatives such as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., fear doing that would leave as the GOP's legacy a foot-tall bill containing thousands of parochial projects. Last week they seized the upper hand by employing delaying tactics to drag the budget process to a halt in the Senate.

"The last thing Republicans need is an end-of-Congress spending spree as our last parting shot as we walk out the door," said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton.

Some Republicans also look forward to using unfinished budget work to gum up an early Democratic agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, cutting interest rates on college loans and repealing some tax breaks for oil companies.

"Other stuff may get pushed off the table," said GOP lobbyist Hazen Marshall, a former longtime Capitol Hill aide. "It kills (Democrats') message."

For its part, the White House sided with GOP traditionalists such as Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who has been pushing to finish the budget while Republicans still hold power.

"We think it's the best thing for fiscal discipline," White House Budget Director Rob Portman told reporters last week.

Instead, lawmakers are expected to pass a temporary bill to keep the domestic agencies such as the Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments on autopilot at this past year's spending levels until Democrats can come up with new bills.

It will be no small test of the incoming Democratic majority, which has yet to develop a plan to cope with the more than $460 billion in unfinished budget business. The Democrats' problem is made even more complicated because President Bush in early 2007 will send Congress a bill that could exceed $130 billion for continuing the war in Iraq, according to Capitol Hill aides.

Bush is likely to be torn between the necessity of working with Democrats to finance his priorities — including the war — and a desire to take a stand against spending increases. Bush has never vetoed a spending bill in his six years in office, but that may change now that it will be Democrats writing them.

Democrats pledge not to overreach in their dealings with the president.

"We're not going to send him veto bait," said Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., who will be taking over as the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "We're not that stupid."

And they wonder why people were fed up with them. Let's hope that the Dems are up to the challege and actually get stuff done, unlike the do-nothing repugs, who will do ANYTHING in order to NOT help the American public. The repugs freely admit that they are doing this simply so that the Dems cannot help the average American.

Well, hell, that makes ya want to vote for them, doesn't it?!