What happened to the Bunning Amendment

I watched as Senator Bunning spoke on the Senate floor on Tuesday. He repeatedly presented a way to pay for the Temporary Extension Act. He also had in the amendment a longer extension time. As it is, the Senate will be back in the same place in about a month - having to authorize, and borrow more money for the same extensions again.

Bunning's amendment was not voted on. It was shoved under the rug when Mrs. Boxer said, "I raise a point of order that the pending Bunning amendment violates section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act."

It was Bunning's motion to to waive the applicable section of the Budget Act that was voted on. Motion to waive the Budget Act with respect to amendment SA 3355
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2010_record&page=S955&position=all
rejected in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 43 - 53.; that put Bunning's amendment out of order and off the floor.



Temporary Extension Act: By 78 yeas to 19 nays (Vote No. 32), Senate agreed to H.R. 4691, to provide a temporary extension of certain programs, after taking action on the following amendment proposed thereto, clearing the measure for the President:

H.R. 4691
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.+4691:

Pages S926-34
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgiposition=all&page=S926&dbname=2010_record

During consideration of this measure today, Senate also took the following action:
By 43 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 31), three-fifths of those Senators duly chosen and sworn, not having voted in the affirmative, Senate rejected the motion to waive pursuant to section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, with respect to Bunning Amendment No. 3355, in the nature of a substitute. Subsequently, the point of order that the amendment was in violation of section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, was sustained, and the amendment was ruled out of order.

The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 43, nays 53

Pages S933
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgiposition=all&page=S933&dbname=2010_record

The record states:

SIGNATURE AUTHORIZATION

Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills and joint resolutions during today’s session.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from California.

Mrs. BOXER. How much time remains?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 55 seconds remaining.

Mrs. BOXER. I want to say, on behalf of many of us on this side of the aisle, how glad we are that Senator BUNNING has changed his mind and taken the option he was presented with on Thursday; that is, to offer an amendment and then for us to get this done. Too much pain is out there with the unemployed.
A lot of workers in my State and in States all across this Nation who are unemployed suffered a great deal of anxiety over this long weekend.
Mr. President, 2,000 Department of Transportation inspectors were furloughed. That led to stoppage of work on bridge and highway construction in 17 States, because Senator BUNNING didn’t take the deal he is taking now.
I am glad he is taking it.
I raise a point of order that the pending Bunning amendment violates section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I am sorry. I wasn’t on the floor. Could the Senator make her point of order.

Mrs. BOXER. I raise a point of order that the pending Bunning amendment violates section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I move to waive the applicable section of the Budget Act, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The clerk will call the roll.


The legislative clerk called the roll.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. BYRD) and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. LAUTENBERG) are necessarily absent.

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mrs. HUTCHISON) and the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. INHOFE).

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?


The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 43, nays 53, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 31 Leg.]

YEAS—43
Alexander
Barrasso
Bennett
Bond
Brown (MA)
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Isakson
Johanns
Kyl
LeMieux
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Risch
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Wicker


NAYS—53
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Begich
Bennet
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown (OH)
Burris
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Conrad
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Hagan
Harkin
Inouye
Johnson
Kaufman
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Shaheen
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING—4
Byrd
Hutchison
Inhofe
Lautenberg

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 43, the nays are 53. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.

The "Bloom Box"

No..it's not a gardening fixture.

It's a new power source technology that will blow you away. An inexpensive,clean and with no emissions power source. The Sunnyvale, Calif. based company has heavyweight customers such as eBay, Wal-Mart Stores, FedEx and others in California which already have been testing and using it to power their company headquarters. And the companies are reporting major savings over what they were paying the standard utility power companies. It was made by Shachar Bar-on. It's a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZAT3U_Jls&feature=player_embedded#

Now, what are the problems with it?

Well, one thing is the billions and billions of dollars in subsidies we, as U.S. taxpayers, have given, and set to give, to energy companies for Research and Development. What are G.E., BP and Siemens suppose to do without the U.S. taxpayers funding R&D money to them?

Naysayers state there's nothing that they can see that is that unique about it. The Bloom Energy fuel cell is designed to be stacked into small blocks. It's estimated that 4 or 5 blocks will power a U.S. home. Larger units, such as those with 100kW units, are housed in a unit about the size of a large side-by-side refrigerator. The "Bloom boxes" already in use by companies are costing between $700,000 and $800,000 each. Bloom Energy's CEO K.R Sridhar says it can be made inexpensive enough for everyone to afford.The $3,000 home version is estimated to be ten years away. If adopted by local power companies, this product could result in a huge decrease in homeowners energy bills

Inexpensive, clean and developed technology.
Already produced, being tested and in use.
No huge amounts of taxpayer money appropriated to R&D.
New factories or refitting current factories would be a boon for the jobs market.
Could it be fitted to an auto to totally run it on natural gas?
Oh my Goddess! What will Gore do with no carbon footprints?
What will the politicians do with no energy lobbyists for oil funding them?

Remember Bloom Energy and the "Bloom Box"; lest it be covered over and hidden by the Powers-That-Be.

'..in China, with China, for China'

in June of 2009, General Motors in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was America's fourth largest, but the largest for a U.S. manufacturer as G.M. was 172 billion dollars in debt. The U.S. government initially invested twenty billion dollars and, later, another 30 billion dollars. In return, taxpayers became the owners of 60% of a smaller G.M. Canada and the United Auto Workers union also own part of the restructured company.

To reduce costs, G.M. plans to close more factories and cut more jobs in the United States by the end of 2011. In addition to G.M. plans to sell or discontinue its Saturn, Saab and Pontiac lines; it plans to cut more than 1000 dealerships in the United States by the end of 2010. GM has sold its Hummer brand to a heavy equipment company in China.

Now, if the unemployment rate in the U.S. isn't depressing enough for you, then you might be interested in adding betrayal to that depression. But you will have to discern who betrayed us: companies like GM; or our own U.S. government and its representatives; or both? And, in fairness, we have to claim responsibility for allowing it happen and for being duped.

You won't find this information being reported by your daily cable channel news anchors and reporters. Only a few cable channels report on the real economy, and political plays and deals behind them. Most of them bought, and then sold to us, the 'they are too big to fail' party line.They were too busy with being used to redirect our attention and angst to the big bonuses and company jets issues.

Bush's T.A.R.P. and Obama's Stimulus have done nothing but to hasten U.S. economic decline. While some are hailing the recent report of a 2.7% rise in U.S. GDP, they are ignoring that it is being artificially propped up.

GDP growth was said to be due to higher consumer spending; however, a jump in exports was offset by an even larger rise in imports. There was also the Cash-for-Clunkers that is now over.

The GDP growth was claimed as there was a slowdown in the reduction of inventories; but, no new inventories nor U.S. manufactured goods are being added. There has been no follow through in sustaining a renewed market for the autos in the U.S. Plus, business investment declined as another large drop in investments in structures.

An increase in residential investments, as in home building and new mortgages, is said to have contributed to GDP growth. This is an artificial shoring up as the home-buyer tax credit is still in effect. There are a number of mortgages that are being renegotiated, or refinanced, as new loans.There is also a jump in housing vacancies as in the homes that were started were not completed, or, if completed, are vacant.

Finally, GDP growth was definitely pushed upwards by robust government spending. The Cash-for-Clunkers, T.A.R.P., the home-buyer tax credit, the Stimulus, and more is government spending. Yet, there is still a high rate of banks which have failed. There are 6 so far this month, And it's only December 5th. And bankruptcies are still rising.

Bailing out General Motors was part of the robust government spending. And remember that the Stimulus was also suppose to go for alternative energy research and developement. It was suppose to help create more jobs in businesses like GM for U.S. workers. That's what the President said in his speeches as to why we have to spend all this money to bail out all these big businesses. That's what people in Congress said when they voted for spending all the taxpayers money. That's what the Fed said as it doled out all the taxpayers money.

What we weren't being told by them was that in April 2009, General Motors Corp., in China, and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Group (SAIC) launched SAIC's Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicle, which is powered by GM's latest fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion technology. What they didn't tell us was that GM has already developed and produced a 700 bar high-pressure hydrogen fuel cell system adapted in the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell cars.

What they didn't tell us was that:

"The two automakers, which operate eight joint ventures in China, earlier signed a pair of agreements to promote advanced vehicle technology. Their Shanghai GM joint venture began selling the Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid last year as part of its Drive to Green strategy. China is slated to become one of the first markets for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle in 2011"

And General Motors Co on Thurs, Dec. 4 2009, said it has;

"...set up a $100 million joint venture in Hong Kong along with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp Group (SAIC) to focus on the Asian markets. The new venture would bring under its umbrella all the Indian operations of GM including the two vehicle manufacturing facilities, a power train unit and the nationwide distribution network.
GM would also produce and sell small cars and mini-commercial vehicles developed by Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co in India under the new joint venture."

What they also didn't tell us was that:

"The Shanghai and Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles will be featured in the most extensive fuel cell demonstration program ever conducted in China. This follows the government's call for the creation of a sustainable transportation system," said GM Group Vice President and GM Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly.
"GM supports China's move toward sustainability, and we are providing our latest fuel cell technology in line with our overall strategy of in China, with China, for China."

General Motors.
Founded in 1908; in the U.S.A; built up by U.S. workers; sustained by U.S.A. consumers;
now - "..in China, with China, for China".

Remember that the next time Congress or the President tell us they have to spend money for anything; while we taxpayers are going to be betrayed, left holding the bag and beaten with the short end of the stick.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/05/content_9123704.htm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=GM%3AUS&sid=ary05b2P2J6g

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/index.html