By Bob Barney
Wouldn't it be nice if a Deomcrat in the Senate had the nerve of Jesse Helms? In 1982, while facing budget
shortfalls, high unemployment and interest rates through the roof,
American poor and working people had a friend in Washington that like
Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," stood out against his
President, his party and the media! He refused to bend to the pressure
(something that today's Democratic Senators have never learned) and
stood like an old oak tree: His name: Jesse Helms…. Here are excerpts
from:
Palace Coup: President Ronald Reagan and the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982
As the bill moved to the Senate, new problems arose. Aside from the
issues that had threatened the bill in the House, some Senators wanted
to add a public works jobs bill to the measure, despite presidential
opposition, while others wanted to replace the gas tax hike with
increased income taxes on the well-to-do. The Senate also faced the
threat of a filibuster from conservatives led by Senator Gordon J.
Humphrey (R-NH) with support from Senators Don Nickles (R-Ok.), Jesse
Helms (R-NC), and John East (R-NC). Humphrey, a first term Senator who
would vote against every budget during his two terms (1979-1990)
because they included deficits, said of the House action, "Last night
the lame-duck Congress laid its first rotten egg." He called the bill
"New Deal nonsense" and "Keynesian claptrap." He also accused Congress
of panicking and succumbing to the temptation to "do something even if
it's the wrong thing."
After the Senate Finance Committee and the
Committee on Environment and
Public Works approved their portions of the bill, debate began on the
Senate floor on December 10. Senator Humphrey launched his filibuster.
Under Senate rules, a filibuster can be ended by a "cloture" vote of 60
Senators. Cloture was achieved on December 13 by a vote of 75 to 13.
Technically, the vote limited debate on a parliamentary motion relating
to the bill. A filibuster on the bill itself, according to opponents,
was likely. On December 14, the Senate resumed debate on the bill on a
round-the-clock basis, in hope of adjourning on Friday, December 17.
However, the four conservatives opened a new filibuster. They had added
leverage because their actions were delaying approval of a must-pass
omnibus stopgap bill containing 6 of the 13 regular appropriations
bills funding eight Cabinet Departments, the others having been
approved earlier. Unless the omnibus bill was approved, the President
had threatened to shut down a large part of the government and furlough
about 350,000 employees when spending authority expired after midnight
on Friday.
According to The New York Times, Republican leaders in the
Senate were enraged and frustrated by the success of the four
conservatives in blocking a bill that the President, the House, and the
overwhelming number of Senators supported. When the 54 Republicans met
to "discuss strategy and berate the filibusterers in voices loud enough
to be heard in an adjacent corridor," one lawmaker could be heard
asking, "Are the egos in this place bigger than the institution of the
U.S. Senate?" The article quoted Senator William S. Cohen (R-Me.) as
saying: