Eve of Destruction

by digby

So the Republicans have thrown a roadblock in front of the auto bridge loan. There is no longer any doubt that they want the Big Three to fold by the end of the year.

Emergency aid for the nation’s imperiled auto industry was thrown into jeopardy Wednesday, opposed by Republicans who were revolting against a hard-fought deal between Democrats and the Bush White House to speed $14 billion to ailing carmakers.

The House was on track to vote on the bailout Wednesday night, and Democrats held out hope that it could be enacted by week’s end. But a growing number of GOP senators declared they would not go along.

And now the house is in on the act. Here’s Stoller:

The Republican House membership might try a vicious strategy to stop the auto bailout bill. Typically, bills go through the rules committee in the House, which controls floor time and which amendments are allowed to be proposed and voted on. However, Republicans use a tactic called a ‘Motion to Recommit’, which is a motion allowing the minority to add an amendment or kill the bill outright by sending it back to the committee out of which it was reported. During the Delay era, Republicans were ruthless about MTRs, and they were routine matters that went down by party line pretty much every single time. During the Pelosi era, Republicans propose MTRs and Blue Dogs often threaten to vote with the Republicans, so they are used to overwhelm Pelosi’s control of the chamber.

Tonight, Republicans in the House might use the MTR to add all sorts of nasty stuff to the bailout. Below is an email circulating in the House about what they might do. Right now, the only amendment the Rules Committee authorized for a vote is one that adds oversight to the TARP program, but as you’ll see, there’s ample opportunity for Republicans to get very nasty if they can rustle up the votes from wayward Democrats (probably Blue Dogs). read on

This is really beyond destructive. These people are willing to take down the entire economy so they can bust the unions and prop up a completely discredited ideology with the bodies of middle class Americans who are losing everything.

And I hate to say it, but the fact that so many of the autoworkers are black just makes it all the sweeter for some of those “right to work” legislators, I’m sure.

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