LA Times reported McConnell's criticism of reconciliation without noting his past support of process
Summary: The Los Angeles Times reported Sen. Mitch McConnell's criticism of Democrats' potential use of the reconciliation process to pass health-care reform
without noting that he repeatedly voted in favor of using reconciliation to pass the Bush tax cuts.In an April 24 Los Angeles Times article, staff writer Peter Nicholas quoted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) assertion that if Democrats use the budget reconciliation process to advance health-care reform legislation, it would "make it absolutely clear that they intend to carry out all of their plans on a purely partisan basis. Look ... we expect to be a part of the process." Nicholas also reported that "GOP leaders have cautioned Democrats not to resort to such shortcuts." However,
Nicholas did not mention that congressional Republicans -- including McConnell himself -- voted to allow the use of the budget reconciliation process to pass major Bush administration initiatives. Indeed, in an April 1 article, Nicholas' Times colleague, Noam N. Levey, noted: "Republicans oppose Democrats' using the procedure, know as the 'reconciliation process,' although the GOP used it to pass major tax legislation when they were in the majority."
As Media Matters for America has noted, Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, and the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, among others. In a March 28 article, The New York Times reported: "{T}here are a couple of problems for Republicans as they push back furiously against the idea, chief of which is the fact that they used the process themselves on several occasions, notably when enacting more than $1 trillion in tax cuts in 2001." The article continued:
That means critics can have a field day lampooning Republicans and asking them -- as Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, did repeatedly the other day -- why reconciliation was such a good idea when it came to giving tax cuts to millionaires but such a bad one when it comes to trying to provide health care to average Americans.
McConnell was one of 51 senators -- all 50 Republicans and Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) -- who voted in favor of a 2001 amendment to the fiscal year 2002 budget resolution that allowed for the consideration of President Bush's 2001 tax cuts -- the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 -- through the reconciliation process. McConnell subsequently voted for the tax cut bill itself.
Further, in 2003, McConnell voted for the Senate version of the fiscal 2004 budget resolution that called for additional tax cuts to be considered under reconciliation and for the final version of the 2004 budget resolution. He also voted against an amendment to the Senate version of the budget resolution, proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), that would have stripped reconciliation instructions from the resolution. In 2005, McConnell voted for the final version of the fiscal 2005 budget resolution, which also called for tax cuts through reconciliation. McConnell subsequently voted for the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 itself.
more...
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904240021?f=h_latest
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
