Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pathetic: Democrats to waive PAYGO

At least that's what Erick Erickson of Redstate is alleging:
I almost missed this. It happens around 11am.

The Senate is going to vote on an amendment from Senator Tom Coburn. From an email friend:
The amendment would require the Senate to be honest about its ridiculous spending and post the full cost of all PAYGO violations online for taxpayers to see.

The Democrats have drafted a side-by-side amendment, to be voted on tomorrow as well. This vote is meant to give cover for members to vote against the Coburn amendment, and still be for “transparency.”

Their amendment would simply require the Secretary of the Senate to post links on its website to the CBO cost estimates and other budgetary documents for legislation passed by the Senate. This amendment does not require a tally of total spending passed by the Senate exempted from PAYGO, and provides taxpayers with no new information not already available online. The only reason to oppose the Coburn amendment is to hide the truth about Congress’ inability to stop its out of control spending and keep its word to live under PAYGO.
UPDATE: It gets better. The Democrats are going to put up a vote after the Coburn amendment to waive PAYGO — a law they passed only four weeks ago.
Of course, I have no way of confirming any of this. I'm simply relying on Mr. Erickson and on the email he received from a friend. Let's hope he releases some additional information.

Update:

From NRO:
Coburn's PAYGO Amendment Passes 100-0.

[snip]

UPDATE: Sen. Coburn is not optimistic about the amendment's ultimate fate. From an e-mailed statement:

“Since the Senate passed PAYGO legislation three weeks ago, the Senate has passed nearly $120 billion in new spending that violates PAYGO. Today, minutes after the Senate accepted my amendment to post its violations of PAYGO online, Senators signaled their intent to remove this amendment from the bill before it goes to the President. Taxpayers are tired of this cat and mouse game on spending and will hold Senators accountable if they want to be for transparency in words but not action,” Dr. Coburn said.
Looks like Mr. Erickson knows what he's talking about. They are indeed going to waive PAYGO.

Slimy Democrats....