As senators cast their final votes of the week Thursday afternoon, cars idling outside waiting to whisk them to the airport, Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss ambled out to chat with a couple of reporters.
No, there was no movement toward a deal on long-term unemployment benefits. Majority Leader Harry Reid had nuked that process by blocking Republican amendments to the bill, making its defeat increasingly likely unless the parties can work out a deal over the weekend.
No, the Farm Bill, more than a year overdue and now in a House-Senate conference committee, is not done. Key Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over dairy policy.
“I stated my reasons for leaving here at the end of this year and the frustrations I saw last year,” said Chambliss, who is not seeking re-election. “And the way this year is starting out is exactly the same.”
The unemployment row was a rude welcome to 2014 for the broken upper chamber and a sign that political considerations – which never really recede – are set to take hold completely ahead of midterm elections.
It began with a surprise. Democrats expected to lose a procedural vote Monday on a three-month, $6.4 billion extension of the benefits and harangue Republicans for not caring about the unemployed.
But a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to move the bill, saying their support was contingent upon finding an agreeable way to offset the cost. Reid said he would prefer not to pay for the extension, as the benefits had been extended in the past without an offset, but he was open to ideas.
Republicans submitted several. Chambliss and fellow Georgian Johnny Isakson backed a proposal by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., that banned undocumented immigrants from claiming a tax credit for their children.
Another proposal from Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would have barred people from collecting both unemployment insurance and Social Security disability payments – since people on disability are supposed to be unable to work and unemployment is for job-seekers.
Reid shifted course, saying he would be willing to pay for unemployment for a year but not just three months.
“It doesn’t take an idiot to figure out what he’s doing,” Isakson said. “He’s in a trap. What he wanted was a political issue to hit Republicans with. When he got favorable result on (Monday’s procedural vote) he didn’t know what to do.”
On Thursday, Reid came up with a proposal to extend the benefits for a year but reduce their maximum duration and pay for it mostly with Medicare cuts in 2024.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a day after he issued a 40-minute excoriation of Reid's tactics on the floor, asked Reid if he would allow Republican amendments.
“The answer to your question is no,” Reid replied.
News reports on Friday indicated Reid was ready to change his mind and allow GOP amendments, but such negotiations are politically fraught.
Democrats – with good reason – are afraid Republicans will use their amendments to force difficult votes for their vulnerable senators on the Affordable Care Act, an issue Republicans are confident will help them retake the Senate in the fall.
Democrats, meanwhile, are staking their 2014 fortunes on income inequality.
“They’re not smelling the coffee on the other side of the aisle,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a news conference. “They block things like unemployment insurance and minimum wage (increases) at their peril.”
In the meantime, 1.3 million Americans and counting continued without federal long-term unemployment checks, which stopped coming after Dec. 28. In Georgia the maximum time on unemployment benefits is now 18 weeks.
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