Coburn Single-Handedly Delaying Veterans’ Benefits
More fun with Senate procedure:
Veterans and their supporters called on U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on Friday to drop his hold and allow a vote to be held on a bill to offer assistance and improve benefits to wounded veterans and their caregivers.
Without identifying Coburn by name, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said a single senator is denying veterans improved benefits.
The White House and the Senate Democratic leadership definitely need to start doing more to turn up the heat on the rampant minoritarian obstruction. Step one, I think, would be to stop abiding by the rule of decorum that leads Akaka to not identify Coburn by name. The anonymous hold business is not a sacred element of parliamentary procedure, it’s an absurd procedural defect that there’s no reason to respect, especially now that it’s become a subject of routine abuse. At some point, senators are going to need to start putting their substantive policy objectives ahead of their narrow self-interest in preserving the senate’s idiosyncratic ways.
6 Responses to “Coburn Single-Handedly Delaying Veterans’ Benefits”
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November 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am
duh, because veterans health care is socialist health care!
November 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
It’s not like this is Telecom Immunity, surely it’s fine if this bill languishes forever.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Yeah, it’s real crass to hold up health care benefits for veterans. It’s right up there with this:
FROM: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/11/goldman-fed-citi-getting-preferential-allotments-of-h1n1-vaccine.html
“…Employees of the Goldman, the Fed, Citigroup, and other banks are getting H1N1 vaccine allotments out of proportion to what can be justified from a public health standpoint. In particular, Goldman has gotten more than Lenox HIll hospital, which needs it not just for the sick…”
J
November 9th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Seriously. There shouldn’t be anything anonymous about the legislative process. If people want to have some discussions behind closed doors, fine, but we ought to damn well know who’s behind the doors.
November 9th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I always thought it was funny how Harry respects obstructionist GOP holds but has ignored Dem holds.
Hmmm… I see someone beat me to the Telecom Immunity punch.
Harry really needs to start playing hardball, or it’s time to get a new Leader.
John
November 10th, 2009 at 1:09 am
If that’s how Tom Coburn wants to play, then the rest of the Senate – or at least Democrats – or at least everyone he’s annoyed with his jihad against any federal spending ever (I exaggerate for effect, but not by all that much) – should just start cutting Oklahoma out of federal appropriations. You want money for roads, Senator? Then stop being a fucking dick. You want money for education, Senator? Then stop being a fucking dick. You want money for the Oklahoma National Guard or any defense bases? You get the idea.
If Reid, or a sufficiently large enough group of senators can’t get their shit together to do something like the above plan, then it’s their own fucking fault that they’re getting nothing done, and we should start recognizing that they’re quite complicit in Coburn’s obstruction. And we should act accordingly. Harry Reid has made a wonderful career out of saying, “Gosh, if only we had more power, we could do ___.” (Though, in all fairness, plenty of Democrats have echoed his impotence; we’re talking about the same group of people with the partisan self-awareness and discipline to congratulate Joe Lieberman for telling Connecticut Democrats to piss up a rope in 2006.)