Reid’s petty politics

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to repeal a very unpopular section of Obamacare. That was the piece that required all businesses to submit an IRS Form 1099 disclosing any purchases they made from anyone if the total amount of purchases exceeded $600 per year.

We told you a bit about this burdensome law last year, as well as earlier attempts, led by Senator Mike Johanns (R. Neb.), to repeal it.  Between then and now, the political landscape has changed, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nv.) hasn’t skipped a beat.

After the November election, repeal of the 1099 provision kept gaining traction.  In late November Sen. Johanns reintroduced his repeal bill.  This time he had 61 Senators ready to vote for the repeal, including 21 democrats.  But, as repeal of any piece of Obamacare was unthinkable, Senator Reid simply changed the rules (as he could) so that the bill would need 67 votes to pass.

During the State of the Union Address, the President signaled that he was more than willing to “work” with the republicans to do whatever it took to make Obamacare better.  Senator Reid picked up on this signal, and decided to was time to vote on the 1099 repeal.  But, there was a problem.  The only bill in existence belonged to a republican, and, if anyone was going to lead this charge, in Reid’s mind, it had to be a democrat.

Enter Senator Debbie Stabenow (D. Mi.), who, coincidentally is up for re-election in 2012.  She took the Johanns bill, changed five insignificant words, and, voila, the democrats could claim ownership of repeal.  When it came time to attach the repeal bill to a pending FAA bill that was sure to pass, Reid refused to allow the Johanns bill to come to the floor.  Instead, he would only allow a vote on the Stabenow bill .

These actions don’t really speak volumes about Senator Reid…those volumes have already been penned.  But, what does it say about the character of Sen. Stabenow?

Had any of us done that when submitting a school term paper as our own, it would have been called plagiarism.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

7 Comments

  1. TomL on February 5, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    Are we surprised



  2. Ellyon on February 5, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    They wouldn't have it any other way.



  3. Lynn on February 6, 2011 at 3:37 am

    You know, I used to get enraged at this petty stupid s**t. Now, I'm just resigned, the Democrats have beaten me down. As long as this anti-business law goes, it's ok with me. Now, if the Republicans would just turn this around and when they vote for the Stabenow bill, they should shout to the NY Times, NBC and Matthews how BI-Partisan they are, "We are not the Party of NO" I could rest easy.



  4. Plainvillian on February 6, 2011 at 3:48 am

    Plagiarism?  Doesn't Mr. Biden preside over the Senate?



  5. Dimsdale on February 7, 2011 at 6:17 am

    The Dems always leave their stamp of illegitimacy on legislation, no matter how small.

     

    Too bad for them their names are all over the Øbamacare boondoggle.  No changing that!



  6. PatRiot on February 7, 2011 at 6:54 am

    No surprise here.  All done With no hint of doing what is right for the American citizen I am sure.

    Oh yeah – Biden used his plagiarism as a career enhancing move.  He was punished / assigned to the Ethics Committee and parlayed that into the VP position. 

    What shall we call this side show?:  "Screw up and move up" or "Lie, cheat and steal you way to the top."



  7. ctrefugee on February 7, 2011 at 8:50 am

    We could write a book about every thing they've done. Oh that right we do have a book on it. It's called the penal code. That's how we got all those laws. By them breaking them.



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