Word: lameduck
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...special lameduck session of the 97th Congress seemed to be at once bogged down by cantankerous obstructionism and buffeted by legislative grandstanding. Efforts to pass overdue appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began last October (the ostensible reason for the special session) were a dismal failure. The attempt to pave the road to prosperity with a nickel-a-gallon gasoline tax was stalled by a renegade filibuster. Ronald Reagan and his congressional critics were still at swords' points over the MX missile, and no one dared even mention Social Security, a beast that some had foolishly dreamed...
...time constraints of a lameduck session, however, gave inordinate power to a handful of conservative Republicans who took it upon themselves to rescue Reagan from what they considered a fateful lapse into taxing and spending. Two Republican freshmen, Donald Nickles of Oklahoma and Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire, previously known only for their obscurity, teamed with veteran marplot Jesse Helms of North Carolina to filibuster the measure to death's door. Majority Leader Baker tried to save the program by refusing to consider the continuing resolution until the gas-tax debate ended. But he made a strategic error...
...Americans likely to be still unemployed at Christmas, a legislator who fails to vote for something or other that can be labeled a "jobs bill" is casting himself as Ebenezer Scrooge. Or so believe many Representatives and Senators who are scrambling to push supposed job-creating measures through the lameduck session of Congress that is scheduled to end this week, while simultaneously growling to themselves the equivalent of "bah, humbug!" A startling number confess to the deepest skepticism that any of the bills would actually create a significant number of jobs any time soon...
...lobbyists chose PIK as the most promising. Block can probably start the plan without congressional approval, but he is asking the legislators for authority to freeze "target" (support) prices at their 1983 levels for the next two years. He is unlikely to get that authority from the current lameduck session and is uncertain whether he should start PIK without...
...been better. Aid to Pakistan will be decided by Congress before Christmas. In order to fulfill its promise of $275 million in military aid next year, as part of a fiveyear, $3.2 billion aid program whose centerpiece is 40 advanced F-16 fighter-bombers, the Administration must persuade the lameduck Congress to execute a complicated set of technical maneuvers...