Summer tension

Fatigue with the so-called tax extender bill has set in. Or maybe it’s just plain old fatigue that is plaguing Capitol Hill.

In announcing his retirement, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said he was “bone-tired.” He’s not the only one.

{mosads}This has been one of the busiest Congresses in recent memory, but now Democratic leaders, despite their large majorities, are struggling to clear must-pass legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted in a speech on the floor Monday that he has been working on the extender bill for two months. The legislation would extend popular tax credits and unemployment benefits while averting a massive cut to Medicare physicians, among other items.

Republicans and some centrist Democrats have balked at the measure’s price tag, so the bill has been pared back repeatedly, much to the chagrin of House Democratic leaders.

Exasperated at the Groundhog Day nature of the debate, the Senate stripped out the Medicare “doc fix” language and passed it by unanimous consent late last week.

Pelosi was not pleased with that move, calling it a “great disappointment” and “inadequate.”

“The bill Senate Republicans allowed to pass is not only inadequate with respect to physician fees, but it ignores urgent sections of the House bill to provide jobs,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The House has repeatedly sent jobs-creating bills to the Senate since December — Build America Bonds, small-business hiring incentives and, importantly, summer jobs — and yet Republicans continue to block approval of jobs legislation.”

While explicitly blaming Republicans, Pelosi is also implicitly pointing the finger at Senate Democrats.

{mosads}There clearly is tension between the House and Senate, which is no bad thing. One chamber acting as a check on the other, or both acting as a check on the executive, is what the nation’s Founders had in mind.

House Democrats have noted they have passed more than 300 bills that are sitting in the Senate. Leaders in the upper chamber say that many in the House don’t understand how the Senate operates.

Democrats will likely strike some type of deal on the extender bill and then pass a Wall Street reform measure within the next month. After that, energy legislation will be up, but there is little appetite to move climate change provisions anytime soon because politically vulnerable Democrats don’t want to cast any more tough votes this close to the election.

Yet liberals know that the time is now to move contentious bills, because under a best-case scenario for them, Democrats next year will control the House and Senate with smaller majorities.

And they will be pining for the time when they had 59 seats in the Senate and 255 in the House.