The Senate Difference

The U.S. House of Representatives, which features a high level of party discipline and where liberals are basically in the driver's seat, produced a pretty good bill to provide relief to people hard hit by the crisis in the housing markets. But over in the U.S. Senate where you need Republican support to pass a bill, and where Democrats with a questionable commitment to progressive values like Max Baucus hold immense sway, the bill has become party central for corporate lobbyists with all kinds of random giveaways to this industry and that larding the thing up.

Comments

Matt, that's called statesmanship, deliberation, putting the hot tea of policy into the saucer of the Senate to cool so as to become better or something. In any case: Long live the House when Dems are in control; Long live the Senate when the Rethugs are.

Posted by David | April 16, 2008 9:50 AM

Atrios had it exactly right. And the bill was mainly written by Chris Dodd. Ugh!!!! And those in DC wonder why people are bitter and pissed off!!

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | April 16, 2008 9:59 AM

No Joe Klein's conscience people are not bitter. How could you say such a thing!? They are optimistic and hardy individualists with strong traditions and smiley children. And the ones losing their union jobs? Well they are just optimistic at the chance of getting off the assembly line at age 50 and going to work at WalMart. It's a little change of scenery, you see. New opportunity. When life gives us lemons, we make lemonade in the United States--because we are patriotic 'mericans. Yea!

Posted by David | April 16, 2008 10:10 AM

Sorry, but the Senate/House thing is a stupid game. The House has a negative power of the purse, which Democrats never utilize. The Senate uses the Bob Dole veto as an excuse. The two Houses work hand in glove: It is all about the DSCC/DCCC.

Nothing else matters, certainly not the country. And, this works fine: CT (tri-partisan!) has the highest per capita wealth of any state. No bitterness there!

::JRBehrman

Posted by John Robert BEHRMAN | April 16, 2008 10:41 AM

I have an idea for an interesting post. Why not hypothesize about what kinds of lobby-influenced giveaways (or takeaways) would be included in a universal healthcare bill?

Personally, I think any of the proposed healthcare plans, by the time K Street finished with them, would be awesome - if you're an insurance company, and pretty crappy for everybody else.

Posted by mike | April 16, 2008 11:20 AM

The House Democratic caucus--liberals basically in the drivers seat?

Matt, you have got to be kidding. The current Democratic caucus is probably about as diverse as there's ever been, from pro-business and pro-war blue dogs (Jane Harman, Steny Hoyer), to newish reformer-types (Zack Space, Bill Foster, Bruce Braley), to rightish immigration-types (Heath Shuler), to old boss-types (Murtha, Obey), to the CBC, to the get-out-of-iraq caucus types (Lynn Woolsey, Kucinich).

The Speaker and Maj. Leader have done a remarkable job maintaining relatively high party discipline, but definitely not "because liberals are basically in the drivers seat."

Posted by Evan | April 17, 2008 1:07 AM