Here’s a nice little exchange of written words between Dennis Hastert and
Nancy Pelosi in regards to the budget cut bills.

It started last night when Hastert sent the following
letter to
Pelosi to try and speed up the legislation on the budget cuts that were passed
in Senate yesterday with Cheney’s tie breaking vote:

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Democratic Leader

U.S. House of Representatives

H-204, The Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Ms. Pelosi,

I am writing to ask you for unanimous consent to approve the conference
report on H.R. 4241, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. As you know, the
House approved this measure on December 19, 2005 in a 212-206 vote.
Unfortunately, the Senate has now made minor changes, such as simple
reporting requirements, that send the legislation back before the House. Our
members have already returned home to spend the holidays with their
families. By passing these changes through unanimous consent, we can avoid
unnecessary disruption in the enactment of important program additions and
reforms contained in this legislation.

This legislation is too important to become stuck in a procedural game.
It contains provisions that will benefit all Americans. Among the
consequences of not passing this legislation: Hurricane Katrina victims
would not receive $2 billion in medical aid; dialysis providers who accept
Medicare patients will see their payment rates frozen; Medicare
beneficiaries will not be able to get access to new disease management and
nutrition therapy; doctors will see Medicare reimbursements cut by 4.4
percent; transitional medical assistance for families who have worked their
way off welfare would be eliminated; states will not get an additional $1
billion for child care assistance; the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC)
program would not be extended and dairy farmers would lose $50 million just
for December 2005; and, state high risk insurance pools under Medicaid will
go unfunded.

I don’t think any of us wants to see a situation where some of our
neediest Americans are denied care and help because of politics. It is
Christmas season, and not the time to engage in partisan squabbles. So I
would ask you respectfully, to put politics aside, agree to unanimous
consent of these changes and put the American people first.

Sincerely,

J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker of the House

Hastert apparently views these budget cuts as something that does not merit
the needed debate. After all Senate overwhelmingly passed them by 1 vote that
had to come from the vice-President.

Today Nancy Pelosi had a nice stern
rebuttal to
Hastert’s request for unanimous consent:

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker

United States House of Representatives

H-232, The Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert:

I am replying to the letter you sent last night requesting unanimous
consent to approve the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report, H.R. 4241.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot grant unanimous consent to bring up such
contentious legislation. Contrary to its misleading title claiming to reduce
the deficit, this bill will actually add billions of dollars to the deficit
when combined with the Tax Reconciliation Conference Report, which you will
call on the House to pass next year.

Every single House Democrat opposed this immoral bill because of the
harmful cuts in student loans, health care, child support enforcement, and
other assistance for seniors and low- and middle-income families.

In fact, many Members on your side of the aisle agreed that the draconian
cuts were not justified, which is why the Democratic Motion to Instruct
conferees to remove these onerous provisions passed by a large margin, 246
to175; 46 Republicans voted for it, nearly one-fifth of your Conference.

Furthermore, allowing the House to review the legislation again, with the
Senate’s changes, will give the American people and Members on both sides of
the aisle the opportunity to fully scrutinize the massive impact of this
bill. As you know, we did not have that opportunity prior to House
consideration because we were presented in the dead of night with a 774-page
conference report that had been written in private, exclusively by
Republican Members. Democrats were given only four hours to review the
complex provisions that would have sweeping impacts on millions of our
fellow citizens. This is no way to pass legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I implore you to end the repeated abuse of the rules by the
Republican majority to ram legislation through in such a secretive and
unfair manner.

The Budget Reconciliation Conference Report makes a number of changes to
the Medicaid cost sharing and benefits flexibility provisions that are even
more painful for families than those contained in the House-passed bill. The
conference report adopts even harsher increases in Medicaid co-payments and
premiums than the benefit cuts in the House-passed bill. In so doing,
parents will be forced to pay even more for their children to go to the
doctor.

Millions of Americans needing long-term care will find it much more
difficult to qualify for Medicaid because of the asset transfer provisions
in the conference report, which is why the AARP strongly opposes this unfair
provision.

Democrats stand ready to address the specific concerns cited in your
letter. With your support, I am prepared to consider moving by unanimous
consent each item mentioned in the second paragraph of your letter as
separate legislation. These include measures to help Hurricane Katrina
victims; dialysis providers who accept Medicare patients; Medicare
beneficiaries; doctors seeking Medicare reimbursements; transitional medical
assistance for families who have worked their way off welfare; child care
assistance for states; extending the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC)
program; and funding for state high risk insurance pools under Medicaid. I
agree with you that those provisions should be enacted; the best way to do
so is by allowing the House to consider them separately from the numerous
harmful provisions of the Reconciliation bill.

I would also note that the physician provisions and the extension of the
MILC program, which you now say are urgent, were not even included in the
House-passed version of the Budget Reconciliation bill. And I also remind
you that an extension of the TANF welfare program, which you noted requires
enactment, was adopted by unanimous consent early Monday morning.

The budget is a statement of our national priorities and our values as a
nation. Unfortunately, the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report fails the
moral test by slashing assistance to the middle class and our most
vulnerable citizens for the sole purpose of giving more tax breaks to the
wealthiest in our nation.

I urge you to accept my offer to move vital items by unanimous consent,
and save the contentious parts of this legislation for the thorough
consideration of the House, with a recorded vote scheduled when we return in
January.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi

Democratic Leader

While this letter only addresses the budget cuts it holds in it other very
valuable information into how the Republican’s are running Congress. The bill
was a 774 page conference report that Democrats only had four hours to review.
Unless they all hold world records for speed reading there is no way they could
digest that information. We elect leaders for thoroughness and to exercise their
best judgment, not for speed.

Nancy Pelosi quickly dismissed the potential attack from Republicans on this
bill and countered with a great alternative while still exercising the
congressional balance of power needed to debate this issue.

Also on the same subject of the budget cuts,
Crooks and Liars
has an interesting segment from MSNBC that shows Senator Ted Stevens having an
emotional outburst on the Senate floor because the ANWR drilling was stripped
from it. He ended by saying good-bye to the Senate and was later asked if he was
resigning. He said he wasn’t sure.

Please go Ted. Its scary that you are fourth in line for the Presidency and
your little hissy fits reminds me of children crying because they don’t get what
they want. You are truly a disgrace to Alaska.