By Niels Lesniewski
Sen. Jim DeMint would rather see Congress go over the fiscal cliff than have a group of “zombie legislators” make tax and spending policy in final post-election weeks of the 112th Congress.
In a report on the dangers of legislating in lame-duck sessions, the South Carolina Republican argues, “The American people were never presented with competing ‘lame duck’ agendas, so Washington has no business trying to pass one. Conservatives may not like the policy outcome in any case, but rejecting the ‘lame duck’ and achieving an honest, transparent process respectful of the American people and our republican institutions is significant in its own right.”
The report — entitled “No Lame Deal in the Lame Duck” — adds that even if a lame-duck deal negotiated at the leadership level were to be blocked with a mix of liberal and conservative votes, “the precedent against ‘lame ducks’ is worth fighting for nonetheless.”
The report likens lame-duck lawmakers — those who have lost a re-election campaign or are retiring but are still in office until the 113th Congress convenes in January — to zombies.
“They are free, for two months and at taxpayer expense, to vote for whatever they please ... without their constituents being able to do anything about it,” the report says.
DeMint’s report also draws on conventional wisdom to outline what an agreement drafted by the White House and Congressional leaders might look like. That includes some increases in taxes and what the report calls “accounting gimmicks” to generate budget savings. DeMint rejects the idea of including any tax increases in the agreement.
Senate Budget ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., expressed his opposition to achieving savings through budget-scoring tricks in his own letter sent Wednesday to House and Senate leaders. He notes that the discussions on avoiding the year-end combination of tax increases and spending cuts through sequestration set up by last year’s debt limit law may include effective increases in federal spending.
“Offsets for any of these changes must also be achieved through real savings, not gimmicks like counting baseline savings from future war spending that is not expected to occur,” Sessions wrote.
Sessions is referencing the practice of taking advantage of budget-scoring rules that allow counting savings for the wind down of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Numerous lawmakers have tossed around the idea of using that money to block a cut in payment rates for doctors treating Medicare patients.
DeMint’s objections to the lame-duck agenda does not end with the big deal on fiscal policy. He alludes to a list of potential lame-duck agenda items assembled by Democratic leadership staff as other items that he believes did not receive serious debate during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Those issues range from an extension of expanded unemployment benefits to the stalled farm bill to a bill regarding the regulation of Internet gambling. That last measure, which would establish limits on online gaming and set up requirements for state-level regulation of web poker games, is a home-state priority of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
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