The Democrats lost the Senate in the last election, but they refuse to give up power, and want unparalled financing and power- in other words, they want to keep running things, even though they don’t.
A dispute over the composition of Senate committees in the new Congress has boiled over into a full-blown battle, with the Senate’s Republican leadership accusing Democrats of attempting a coup.
Democrats are refusing to agree to a GOP proposal on the composition and funding of committees unless they get higher than typical representation.
Normally, the majority party receives an average of two-thirds of the committee budget, while the minority receives the remainder. Because the Senate is in GOP hands, the Republicans had wanted the typical ratios for committees, but because the GOP advantage is only by a single vote, Democrats want a better deal.
The Democrats’ argument is based on the agreement in the last Congress — when the Senate was initially split 50-50 — that allowed the Republicans to keep even committee ratios after power shifted to the Democrats when Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., left the GOP. The only leverage available is the threat to filibuster any organization agreement the Republicans offer.
In other words, they want what is not theirs. Anyone who pays taxes can tell you this is a familiar pattern of behavior.
Assistant Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his party only wanted what it had given the GOP in the same situation in the last Congress — committee ratios that reflect the closely divided Senate’s composition.
“We are only asking for what we offered the Republicans the last time the Senate was 51 to 49,” Reid said on the Senate floor.
But because that agreement was part of an unusual situation — namely an evenly split Senate that was organized in that manner — a nonpartisan Senate expert described that claim as true only to a point.
“It’s politically true,” he said. “But you can’t say it’s exactly true. That past deal was negotiated when the Senate was even and reflected the fact it could change.
“Here the GOP is clearly the majority party and the Democrats are trying to get a better deal than any other minority party has ever received.”
My goodness, these are just tiresome people.