Democrats and Republicans in Congress have stolen each other’s political playbooks this year.
Democrats, wounded in the past by accusations that they were guilty of “obstructionism,” are now levying that very charge against the Republican minority in the Senate.
Republicans, meanwhile, are ridiculing Democrats for presiding over a “do-nothing” Congress, a charge that Democrats used in their campaigns against Republicans to win control in November’s elections.
The latest dust–up was over this week’s bill to authorize funding for the national intelligence services. Republicans blocked the bill because it would require President Bush to reveal information about interrogation techniques at prisons for terrorist suspects.
“Democrats are leading the fight to make America safer and support our troops,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “But the Republican minority has once again irresponsibly blocked the progress that the American people and a bipartisan majority in the Senate seek.”
Republicans used this very charge in the 2004 elections to significantly widen their majority and topple the Democratic leader, former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
“While they talk tough on national security, Republicans’ action tell another story,” Reid said this week. “Their obstructionism is endangering national security. Democrats will continue to fight to make America more secure.”
Raising a Democratic complaint from last year’s elections, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused Democrats of trying to silence the minority.
“If the minority is shut out of debate, it will block legislation until its members are respected and their voices given an opportunity to be heard,” McConnell said.
So far this year, Reid has moved 21 times to force an end to debate on legislation so that a final vote can be taken. The procedure — known as filing cloture — is usually an option of last resort and requires 60 votes to succeed.
“At this rate, we’ll have 160 cloture motions by the end of the 110th Congress,” McConnell said. “This would shatter the old record of 82 back in 1995 and 1996.”
The next Senate showdown is expected Wednesday on a proposal to modify the Medicare prescription drug program. The bill would allow the federal government to set drug prices.
Democrats say it will force lower drug prices for seniors, but Republicans warn it will limit the drugs available to them.
