# Lame Duck Session ..... what's going to happen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 2, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269 "2010-11-02T23:21:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/1 "2010-11-02T23:21:03Z")
Assuming a Republican takeover along the lines of 55 seats, what’s going to happen in the final days of this session? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/2 "2010-11-02T23:30:43Z")
Dems’ll cave on Bush tax cuts, and the rich’ll be encouraged to continue sequestering an ever larger fraction of the nation’s wealth. Obama _might_ talk veto, but in the end he’ll put on his ‘compromise panties’ and cave as well. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/3 "2010-11-02T23:33:42Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Assuming a Republican takeover along the lines of 55 seats, what’s going to happen in the final days of this session? We’ll get to see the culmination of all of the investigations of Obama that have been promised? [Republican leaders have begun gathering evidence for sweeping investigations of Barack Obama’s environmental agenda, from climate science to the BP oil spill, if as expected, they take control of the House of Representatives in the 2 November mid-term elections, the Guardian has learned.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/31/republican-onslaught-obama-environment-agenda) [Investigation into Obama’s “affair”](http://newsbusters.org/blogs/john-stephenson/2008/10/13/will-media-investigate-obama-affair-rumors) [Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) says the top two priorities of a GOP Congress would be to repeal health care and to investigate programs of the Obama administration.](http://giveusliberty1776.blogspot.com/2010/10/gop-rep-barton-we-will-investigate.html) [Congressman Issa is going to create a team to investigate Obama after the November elections is an exciting sign that support for Impeachment is growing.](http://politicalvelcraft.org/2010/08/26/breaking-congressman-issa-to-create-obama-investigationvetting-team-after-november-elections/) [McConnell says top priority for GOP congress is to make Obama a one-term president](http://www.americablog.com/2010/10/mcconnell-says-top-priority-for-gop.html) ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/4 "2010-11-02T23:47:51Z")
**EP** : Take your rant somewhere else. The question was about the lame duck session… not the next session that would be controlled by the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/5 "2010-11-03T00:25:46Z")
It’s going to depend on who wins and who loses. If Reid loses, he may try to push through some ‘legacy’ legislation. If ihe wins, I suspect that he’ll worry more about consolidating his power prior to the new Republicans coming in. But really, the behavior of a lame duck Congress is very hard to predict. There’s a lot of jockeying for power for the next session. Committee seats change, caucuses change. Everyone’s looking for an edge. If the next Senate is close for Republicans, there will be back room deals attempted to get Democrats to flip to the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/6 "2010-11-03T01:34:20Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > **EP** : Take your rant somewhere else. > > The question was about the lame duck session… not the next session that would be controlled by the Republicans. Apologies for my post - Next time I will read for comprehension before posting. :o ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/7 "2010-11-03T01:35:36Z")
Kegger! ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/8 "2010-11-03T06:59:23Z")
Isn’t the military’s study of DADT repeal due in early December? And doesn’t the Senate still need to pass the larger bill its attached to? Hopefully Ried (since his seat’s secure for six more years) will be a bit more willing to compromise for Snowe and Collins’s (and one or two others, Voinovich maybe?) votes and get that through. That _ought_ to be an easy one. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/9 "2010-11-03T12:58:54Z")
Reid won? Damn. I was looking forward to the end of his obstruction of the Yucca Mountain Waste Repository. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/10 "2010-11-03T13:22:56Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Reid won? Damn. I was looking forward to the end of his obstruction of the Yucca Mountain Waste Repository. Really? You’d pay six years of Nutcase Angle for that? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/11 "2010-11-03T13:29:53Z")
For the end of Yucca obstruction _and_ Angle’s entertainment value? You bet! ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/12 "2010-11-03T15:30:56Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > For the end of Yucca obstruction _and_ Angle’s entertainment value? You bet! Yeah, that’s easy for you to say, eh? Hoser. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/13 "2010-11-03T15:33:15Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > Isn’t the military’s study of DADT repeal due in early December? And doesn’t the Senate still need to pass the larger bill its attached to? Hopefully Ried (since his seat’s secure for six more years) will be a bit more willing to compromise for Snowe and Collins’s (and one or two others, Voinovich maybe?) votes and get that through. That _ought_ to be an easy one. I think that Manchin and Kirk will be seated right away and move things to the right a bit. Is the budget the only legislation that has to be acted on? ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/14 "2010-11-03T15:34:29Z")
They’ll have to do something about funding the government. And, they’ll cave on the tax cut. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/15 "2010-11-04T01:00:05Z")
> [@Burton](#): > > They’ll have to do something about funding the government. And, they’ll cave on the tax cut. This. The next continuing resolution vote has to occur before December 3. However, if the next CR merely extends into the next Session, the Pubbies could be dumb enough not to extend it again (let alone actually pass the budget). If that were to occur, under the short-sighted premise to “shut down big government,” such action would have catastrophic consequences for the economy. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/16 "2010-11-05T12:45:45Z")
Doesn’t the CR allow the government to run even though there is no budget? I can’t imagine that the Dems could or would totally punt the budget to the next session. Then there is the vote to increase the debt limit. Two separate issues right? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/17 "2010-11-11T21:36:49Z")
FWIW, from the editors of _The Nation,_ here’s [“An Agenda for the Lame-Duck Congress.”](http://www.thenation.com/article/156387/agenda-lame-duck-congress) ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/18 "2010-11-11T21:39:21Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Dems’ll cave on Bush tax cuts, I certainly hope so. Especially the Death Tax. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/19 "2010-11-11T21:42:10Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I certainly hope so. Especially the Death Tax. A “death tax” would be a tax you pay just for dying – i.e., a kind of poll tax on every decedent’s estate without regard to value. The estate tax is nothing like that and it is dishonest to apply the name to it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269/20 "2010-11-11T21:43:04Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I certainly hope so. Especially the Death Tax. The Death Tax is a bogey man. It’s a perfectly reasonable tax. If I give you ten thousand dollars are you taxed on it? Why shouldn’t an inheritance be similarly taxed? More to the point, why do you want people who have more than 3.5 million to give to their children (the point where the inheritance tax kicks in) to be specifically shielded? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-duck-session-whats-going-to-happen/559269.md?page=2)