The Modest Master of the Minority, Mitch McConnell An article in yesterday New York Times, How the Filibuster Became the Rule illuminates the role of the rule in frustrating the efforts of a majority in Congress to complete work on the FY 2008 budget, which appears to have ground to a halt. A filibuster is a legislative tool to speak or debate on the floor or threaten to do so until there are enough votes -- 60, under U.S. Senate rules -- to invoke "cloture," bringing the debate to an end and allowing a vote on the underlying bill.

We'll know soon. BNA's Daily Tax RealTime (no link, sorry): President Bush formally received Congress's second attempt to pass an extension of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (H.R. 3963) Nov. 30, requiring him to again decide whether to veto the bill over its inclusion of tobacco tax increases and program expansions. The bill would pay for $35 billion in new spending in the bill by raising the federal tobacco excise tax for cigarettes to $1 per pack, from 39 cents per pack, and by sharply increasing the tax rates on cigars and other forms of tobacco.

The domestic appropriations fight is feeling like the war spending debate all over again. The Democratic caucus is now behaving much like it did then. First comes disbelief that the President and his congressional allies are intransigent, then strategic confusion. If everything goes the same, the next step is full capitulation.

CQ (no subscription) is reporting that health care advocates are abandoning the SCHIP funding increase and asking for a one-year extension that maintains the level of service being offered now. Some states may not have enough money to provide insurance to everyone enrolled now if Congress doesn't do something soon.