I know they're crazy, but why are Senate Republicans opposing the sidecar fix?

[Bleacher Creature]

HCR has been signed into law, and all the reconciliation bill will do is make it better. If that bill fails, it won't take down HCR and it won't make it noticably worse for people (assuming the strategy is to make it unpopular).

What am I missing?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. The sidecar bumps up subsidies to poor people. (nt)

[Enthusiast]

17. Oh well those undeserving poor again. nt

[liberal N proud]

2. Heel dragging all the way

[CTyankee]

3. I don't think the Republicans want the Dems to win ANYTHING!

Even if it won't do them any good. They don't want to see another check in the "win" box for the Democrats, period.

[global1]

4. More Dopey-Nopey From The Repugs......nt

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. They want to be on the RIGHT side, their side, all the time.

They're ALL about appearances, NOT about substance.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. an easier question to answer:

which parts will they agree NOT to fight over?

[fugop]

7. Because they suck. NT

[brewens]

11. Yeah, but do they swallow? n/t

[napi21]

8. They're simply carring out their NO strategy!

I couldn't help laughing at MCNuts last night when he said "The Dems will get no cooperation from any Pubs for the rest of the year becaause of this HC vote!" I kept screaming at the TV "What the hell cooperation has there been so far????"

[DCBob]

9. Operation chaos...

They only want to disrupt and make things as difficult as possible for the Dems and Obama. They will fail but it make take awhile.

[hughee99]

10. As they see it, the sidecar is full of little "bribes"

to this member or that member of the House to get their votes. Sometimes, those amendments were made with the intention to make HCR better, but other times, they were just to get this member or that member of the house to vote for it.

If you were a rep running for reelection and the senate's HCR bill was not popular among your constituents, you might have a problem. If you can come back to them and say that yes, you voted for the bill, but there's a provision in there to address their particular concerns. For example, Hoyer (MD) and Connelly (VA) were able to get a special exemption for the "Cadillac tax" for federal employees.

When they vote for the Bill but don't have anything to show for it, people get pissed and it costs them at election time. The ship has sailed for the repukes on HCR, but the arm-twisting that went on to get the House votes (especially if they don't get what they were promised by the senate) has the potential to be a great political benefit to repukes in the future.

[pnwmom]

13. It is the Senate bill that has the earmarks. The reconciliation bill's intended

to get rid of them.

[hughee99]

16. It's not just the earmarks, though

As I said, the Cadillac exception came from Hoyer and Connolly, for example.

The sidecar is full of amendments needed to get House Dems approval for the Senate bill. If someone changed their vote based on an amendment that they were promised, and then after their vote was cast, that promise wasn't kept, you have to know there's going to be problems. The repukes want these problems for 2 reasons. First, they're hoping to pick up some seats and this will help them there. Also, if the House and Senate Dems aren't getting along because they don't trust each other, it will make being obstructionists far easier.

[pnwmom]

12. Isn't it funny? They supposedly can't stand the earmarks, for example, but now

they're going to fight the bill that gets rid of them. Their lies are tying them into pretzels.

[HughMoran]

14. So Dems get as little done as possible

Because Republicans want to win more than anything. Republicans despise Americans.

[vaberella]

15. They'll say no to everything. n/t