No Money, No Leadership

It is Wednesday, October 17, 2007, and Congress has still not passed a single appropriations bill. Not one has been sent to the President for his signature.

In the meantime, the positive ratings of the President and Congress continue to troll the bottom of the pond.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blames the U.S. Senate for the lack of progress. Many democrats in the House are frustrated with Montana’s U.S. Senator, Max Baucus:

Looking ahead, Democrats in the lower chamber see more unpalatable compromises on issues like tax policy, where they are disappointed to see their goals in the hands of cautious centrist Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). House Democrats say on tax issues, they are constantly told that nothing can get off the ground unless nine or 10 Republican senators will agree to it.

“Everybody says, ‘What can we get in the Senate?’” explains Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). “So we have to go over to Max Baucus with hat in hand.”
(Source: Pelosi sours on the Senate, TheHill.com 10/17/07)

It is starting to appear to the voters that the Democrats were not ready to be in the majority. But, there’s good news: Another election is just over a year away.

Presidential Politics

It’s looking more and more like it may be Clinton and Giuliani in the showdown, but it’s still early.

Last night I received a call from Fred “Law and Order” Thompson’s campaign. First it was a live person telling me that Fred cares about Montana, and then I got to listen to a recorded speech from Fred telling me about his campaign. I was supposed to hold on the line for some additional information (AKA: request for money), but I hung up.

Also last night on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, their so-called political guy, Jeff Greenfield, pulled out a board game (kind of based on the Candy Land game) to show viewers the changing dates of the primaries. Your can view the video at the bottom of this story. Greenfield should have just said, “It’s a freakin’ mess” and saved some time.

SCHIP

Montana has plenty of money to keep the CHIP program running for the next nine to 12 months, according to this story.

Also, there’s no waiting list. 15,000 children are covered in Montana.

It does not look like Congress will be able to override the President’s veto of the SCHIP bill. Supposedly we’ll know this week. Everyone has gotten a little publicity out of this; also known as scoring some political points. Now it is time to compromise.