McConnell And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Team Up To Save Ex-Im Bank And Planned Parenthood

Mitch McConnell swears he totes opposed to saving the crony Ex-Im Bank. He's just making it possible for big government Republicans and Democrats to save it.

The Majority Leader is pleased.

I commend @SenateMajLdr for setting up a vote to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. This bill is critically important for U.S. businesses.

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) July 24, 2015

Ted Cruz, no as much.

On the Senate floor, Cruz says Mitch McConnell is no different than Harry Reid as Senate leader

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) July 24, 2015

And how does this save the baby parts traffickers at Planned Parenthood? Well, Rand Paul wanted to offer an amendment to the highway bill to defund federal spending on Planned Parenthood.

“The continued disregard and disrespect for human life at Planned Parenthood, a partially taxpayer-funded organization, is shocking and appalling,” Mr. Paul said.

“Recent video revelations, involving potentially criminal activity, make it more obvious than ever that this organization has absolutely zero respect for the sanctity of human life and is an affront to the most basic human dignity enshrined in our founding documents. Not one more taxpayer dollar should go to Planned Parenthood and I intend to make that goal a reality,” he said.

McConnell however has put the procedural fix in to save the donor largess and the baby parts traffickers:

The actual bill the Senate has taken up, HR 22, is not actually a highway bill, and so once the Senate votes to proceed to the bill (on Friday, most likely), McConnell will propose an amendment to add the highway legislative text. Originally, McConnell wrote this amendment as a "substitute amendment," which it really is. But at some point this week, he changed the amendment so that it would be a "perfecting amendment."

The paper amendment filed has the word "substitute" crossed out, and the word "perfecting" penciled in.

The relevant difference here: If it were technically a substitute amendment, many amendments could be made to the substitute bill. If the Boeing senators added Ex-Im renewal, conservatives could respond with an amendment actually reforming Ex-Im, such as capping its size, shortening the duration or curbing how much of its financing could go to one exporter.

But with a perfecting amendment, typically only one amendment is allowed unless there is unanimous consent for more. McConnell has determined that one amendment will be the Boeing senators' Ex-Im amendment.

Now I'm sure Team GOP will bemoan Cruz's comparison of McConnell and Reid but how exactly would this have been handled differently with a Democratic majority?

You know whose fault this is? Donald Trump!

posted by DrewM. at 10:52 AM

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