The Umpire Strikes Back

There’s an old joke about an umpire who was going to officiate at a championship game.  The visiting coach dropped by and gave the umpire $5000.00 to call the game for his team.  Then came the home team coach who gave the official $10,000 to call it his way.  The umpire thought the situation over a few minutes, then returned $5000.00 to the home team coach and called the thing down the middle.

You can always tell if an umpire is doing his job, he has fans from both teams hating him.  That’s what tells me the compromise plan to avoid a default by the federal government on its financial obligations may have more going for it than you think.

This plan was passed by the House of Representatives 269-161 on Mon., Aug. 1, and will, almost without a doubt, be passed by the U. S. Senate in a Tuesday, Aug. 2 vote, then go the President Obama for his signature.   Funny, for a bill that got all that attention from Democratic and Republican leaders in both the House and Senate who were able to line up enough of their troops to pass it, almost no one likes it.

Well, it’s not like everyone sort of important didn’t give a plan named for them a go.  Trouble is the House is controlled by the Republicans who are ably assisted by the Grand Old Tea Party and the Senate and the White House are controlled by the Democrats, so when plans came out of first the House and then the Senate, the controlling group from the other chamber just naturally shot them down.

First the Grand Old Tea Partiers came up with Cut, Cap and Balance, whose centerpiece would have been an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget.  House went wild, Senate said no.  Saved President Obama from having to veto it. 

Then came the Reid plan.  House voted it down before the Senate could even schedule a vote.  Speaker John Boehner came up with a plan that was seemingly too much even for the Grand Old Tea Party.  Ol’ John did get the House to pass it, but had to then watch the Senate say no.

Well, as Lawrence O’Donnell from MS/NBC’s The Last Word has been saying for some time that the whole thing could be wrapped up in a couple of hours.  All that was needed was a one-page bill that would change the numbers on the law that sets the debt limit for the U. S.  But that would have just kicked the can a little further down the road.

What we wound up getting was an effort that required actual cooperation from the Majority Leader and Minority leaders in the Senate, from the Republican Speaker of the House and the Democratic Minority leader in the House of Representatives and President Obama.  That, by itself, is pretty remarkable.

Heck, when Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell all lobby for and vote for the same bill, something is up.  Even Rep. Gabrielle Giffords came back to the House for the first time since being shot to vote for this bill. 

Okay, as the President said, we may not like everything in it, but you gotta like seeing everyone pull together for at least once.