Harry Reid's latest screw up on government funding

Daniel Horowitz:
No wonder Democrats casually disregard our budget crisis.  They have a penchant to drop zeros from government expenditures!  Last month, Democrat congressional candidate Dave Weprin thought that the national debt stood at $4.0 trillion.  Now Harry Reid has filed cloture on his version of the FY 2012 CR that has a missing zero from some of the disaster aid expenditures.  According to CQ Politics, Reid’s bill, which contains $3.65 billion in emergency disaster aid – with no offsetting spending – misallocated funding for the Disaster Relief Fund at “$774,000,00,” and “$226,000,00” for the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and coastal emergencies.  These guys have a serious problem with arithmetic.
Senate Republicans must use this error as an opportunity to defeat Reid’s bill, while the House must stand firm on their version of the CR, which contains $1.5 billion in offsets.  House leaders have already compromised on the overall discretionary budget authority in this bill; a $24 billion increase from the universally venerated Ryan budget.  The only saving grace of this bill from a conservative perspective is that it eliminates a $1.5 billion DOE loan program for manufacturers of $100,000 electric cars and the $100 million solar energy loan grant that was responsible for Solar-gate.
On Friday, Harry Reid tabled the House-passed CR, and filed cloture on his own version, setting up a cloture vote for Monday night.  Although Democrats only have 53 votes, several Republicans have already supported an even higher level of disaster spending without offsets.  This is where Harry Reid’s math error will play a vital role.  Under Senate rules, once a senator has forced a roll call, that senator proposing the amendment cannot change the text without unanimous consent.  Harry Reid will need that consent in order to fix his mistake, in the hopes that he can get this done by Monday night and pressure House Republicans to cave, so they can all enjoy their scheduled recess.  Senate Republicans must deny that consent.
To that end, Reid would be forced to file a new cloture vote, thereby overshooting their entire recess – for a green program.  The longer this ordeal drags out the more Reid will be pressured to adopt the House bill.
... 
Reid's screw up is an opportunity  to add pressure on killing the wasteful spending.  I suspect there are many Republicans willing to deny him the unanimous consent he needs to go forward this evening.

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