Gas Bills Bloat Congress

What kind of an idiot would even begin to think taking tax breaks away from oil companies and giving them to "green energy" companies would lower gas prices? That's right, a democrat idiot. If you are looking for a sure fire way to raise the cost of a gallon of gas, take away any tax breaks to the oil companies. What they will pay in taxes will just be tacked on to the price we pay at the pump.

Increasing production is the answer to lower gas prices. And these clowns need to do something fast. Most of us can't afford what we are paying now, and any further hikes will be close to catastrophic for many.

It's sounds like instead of anybody doing anything, congress will just sit around blaming each other and hope for political points out of the deal.

I've had it with the whole bunch of them...

By Chris Stirewalt - FoxNews

GOP and Dems Trade Shots Over Gas Bills, But Which Plan Would Lower Costs? 

“What is more likely to lower gas prices: Raising taxes on oil companies or increasing oil production?”

-- Senate Republican aide talking to Power Play about competing energy legislation in Congress this week

With debt and budget negations stalled for the time being, members of Congress will instead turn to the business of assigning political blame over high gas prices.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected this week to push forward a Democratic plan that would transfer tax breaks for American oil companies to approved green-energy firms.

House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, will bring up a series of votes on a suite of Republican legislation aimed at breaking President Obama’s clampdown on offshore drilling permits.

Even as recession fears force commodity prices downward, gas prices are expected to continue to rise above $4-per-gallon. Uncertainty abroad, rising global demand, a shattered U.S. dollar and decreased domestic production all mean prices will continue to increase for hard-pressed American consumers.

When it comes to high gas prices, the House Republican plan would do little to bring down short-term prices. Even if Senate Democrats and President Obama were to go along with the drilling, baby, drilling, it would take months for the new crude to hit refineries and increase domestic supplies. Any short-term reduction would come from speculators jumping out on the bet of increased future production.

The Democratic proposal, however, would almost certainly raise gasoline prices as companies compensated for $4 billion in increased federal taxes. The plan proposed by President Obama and subsequently championed by Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is part of a multi-year effort to encourage green energy (in part by keeping energy prices high).

Last year, America’s largest oil company, Exxon, paid about $10 billion in federal taxes and made a profit of about $30 billion. If the tax bill had been $11 billion, it is unlikely that Exxon shareholders would have wanted the money to come out of profits. The money instead would have come from consumers.

While Democrats are betting that consumers would feel good about seeing politicians sticking it to big oil in the form of tax increases, American drivers (and voters) would likely understand the basic economics of taxation. Plus, gas prices are helping to stunt the already puny recovery. For middle-class consumers, high gas prices mean disposable income vanishes.

But the House would never let the Democratic plan through, either.

The real issue in Washington is about the budget deals that continue behind closed doors. The Gang of Six is shrouded in doubt as Gang member and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad is threatening to start pushing his own debt-reduction proposal.

Democrats are stalled on how to proceed on obtaining an increase in the federal government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit, and Republicans are mostly waiting to see how that plays out before getting too jiggy about a 2012 budget proposal.

Until the dam breaks, trying to score points on gas prices will have to suffice.

House Bucks Obama: Bill Jump-Starts Gulf Oil Production

The cost of going to work every day has doubled for my family. I'm sure you all have the same experience. If gas prices continue to rise, it almost won't be worth going to work. democrats don't understand that out here in the real world, these things have consequences. When the government refuse to allow our oil comapnies to do their job, we all pay for it. We pay for it at the pump and we pay for it in national security concerns. It just doesn't seem like a great idea to me to buy oil from countries that hate us. How exactly, is that good business?

"Drill baby Drill" does make a good bumper sticker. And American companies drilling oil in our own Country is good, sound, energy policy. Buying oil from hugo chavez is poor policy...

by Audrey Hudson - Human Events

Republicans are banking on a measure approved by the House on Thursday to lower gasoline prices by accelerating offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The situation we find ourselves in today is detrimental to everyone who goes to the pump to fill their cars,” said Rep. Rob Bishop (R.-Utah). “The cost of gas increases, and continues to increase because of the inaction of this administration.”

The de facto moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by President Obama after the Deepwater Horizon tragedy last year has forced the importation of an additional 130,000 barrels of oil a day to make up for the lost production, Republicans say.

Democrats argued that the bill would lead to future environmental tragedies and insisted that more oil is being safely produced under President Obama than in President Bush’s administration.

Republicans countered that Americans are expected to spend an additional $700 on gasoline this year.

“The administration’s strategy is to cut the standard of living … and beg Saudi Arabia to be nice to us,” Bishop said.

The legislation is the first of several measures Republicans will act on in the next week, and imposes strict time lines on the Obama administration to sell leases in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore from Virginia.

President Obama has since lifted the moratorium, but few permits are actually being approved, Republicans said.

“Unfortunately, the administration turned the tragedy into a catastrophe … one that destroys jobs,” Bishop said.

HR 1230, the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, passed the House by a vote of 266 to 149, with 233 Republicans and 33 Democrats supporting the measure.

The Office of Management and Budget said in a statement that it opposes the legislation because it would undermine environmental protections and workplace safety.

The key measures are sponsored by Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings (R.-Wash.), chairman of the House Energy Committee. The House on Tuesday will vote on HR 1229, which ends the moratorium and establishes new safety reviews.

“Continued tensions in the Middle East serve as a reminder that increased American energy production is as much of a national security issue as it is about jobs and lowering gasoline prices,” Hastings said.

“The United States has the most energy resources in the world and the American people are demanding that we utilize them to lower energy prices, create jobs, and make American less dependent on unstable foreign energy,” Hastings said.

Democrats said the measure reinforces the “myth” that America can drill itself out of foreign dependency.

“ 'Drill baby drill’ may look good on a bumper sticker, but it is not a sound energy policy,” said Jared Polis (D.-Colo.).

“This does not make filling up at the pump any more affordable to Americans at all,” Polis said.

Read the rest at the link above...

No government shutdown...

Well, I told you Boehner would give in. I think the $38.5 BILLION in cuts is less than the interest that accrued while they were arguing about it.

It wouldn't have hurt my feelings at all if the government had shut down, except congress and obama would have still been paid. That wouldn't have hurt my feelings, but it owuld have pissed me off.

I hope Boehner was good at what he did before he got into politics. He may be needing that job again sooner than he thinks. We elected these people, last November, to put a stop to the out of control spending and be tough about it. So far, not much has changed...

Shutdown looms and democrats lose what's left of their minds...

I have heard it all now.

The Republicans want old people to die...

The Republicans want to deny cancer screenings for women...

The Republicans want women to die...

This is complete bullshit. If the dumbass democrats had passed a budget last October, they wouldn't be fighting over continuing resolutions every few weeks. What they did instead was just decide to spend what ever they wanted to, without the restraints of a budget.

Now the Republicans are forced to reign in the out of control bleeding of money from washington. When things are as bad as they are currently in our government tough choices have to be made. Somebody has to have the balls to make those tough calls.

You know what, none of those calls involve starving old people or killing women. The democrats are a bunch of fucking drama queens. If they were willing to face the fact that our Country is flat broke, maybe they would understand what needs to be done. They aren't. They won't. They need therapy, shock therapy.

obama has put together a budget for 2012. Right out of the gate it has a TRILLION dollar deficit. Before the first tax dollar is spent, we are already an additional TRILLION dollars in the hole. Is that any way to run a Country? Look at this number $1,000,000,000,000.00. Can you even imagine that? Does your brain even register that many zeros? Mine doesn't, it's mind boggling. And the really messed up part of that is, we will have to borrow that TRILLION dollars from China. Do you know how long it is going to take to pay that money back, on top of all the other money we already owe them? Put it like this, your grandchildren will still be paying it back.

Over all, our deficit is in excess of $14,000,000,000,000.00. 14 TRILLION dollars. And the fucking democrats are acting like a bunch of drama queen, chicken little, crybabies over 61 BILLION dollars that the Republicans want to cut this year.

If you are stupid enough to believe that the upcoming shutdown is the fault of the Republicans, please seek a mental evaluation. Just look at the numbers involved and how we got to them. Also consider what I said above about the democrats refusing to put a budget in place. When you consider that it is against the law for them not to have a budget it is even uglier. And don't forget that when the budget was supposed to have been put in place, the democrats controlled the house, the senate and the presidency. Like I said before, a budget would have just gotten in the way of their spending. A liberal, anti-American agenda is expensive...

Obama Summons Lawmakers to White House Budget Talks

So, will Boehner cave today or later in the week? Because it isn't a question of if, just when. The worst about about it is that he is in the better position. The democrats need him to compromise, because they sure aren't planning on making any concessions. It's the same old story, compromise means the Republicans doing exactly what the democrats want...

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday summoned key lawmakers from both parties to the White House for budget talks in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown this weekend.

The White House said the president has invited House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and top negotiators on the appropriations committees to a session Tuesday.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney said time was running short and the president would urge the lawmakers to reach an agreement.

Carney said the White House was optimistic that a shutdown could be averted, but a top Republican did not share that optimism.

Boehner, R-Ohio, said there were still disagreements about how much to cut spending through Sept. 30, the end of the budget year. He accused the White House of bringing too many phony budget cuts to the table in hopes of restoring reductions made by Republicans in February.

"Despite attempts by Democrats to lock in a number among themselves, I've made clear that their $33 billion is not enough and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors," Boehner said in a statement. "That's unacceptable."

Democratic officials knowledgeable about the proposals said the administration's ideas including taking unused money from federal highway programs and leftover funds from a program providing health care to middle-class families. Both ideas count in congressional budget terms as savings that could be used to pay for spending elsewhere in the day-to-day budgets of domestic agencies, but their practical effect is nil.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss proposals that haven't been made public.

Read therest at the link above...

AARP Tax Exemption Report at Center of Contentious Capitol Hill Hearing

You know, way back in November 2009, I wrote a brief post on the aarp and their support of obamacare. Their main goal in this was to kill Medicare Advantage, a good selling product that was in direct competition with one they were selling. Their product, or the product they were/are pimping was more expensive and provided less coverage.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it against the law for a church to pimp a political candidate? If I'm not mistaken, they can lose their tax exempt status over such actions. It would seem that the backing of a political aganda or candidate should result in the loss of tax exempt status for any 501c4 organization. The Republicans should pursue this fully.

I have told the aarp my point of view on this and several other issues on more than one occasion. It's funny, I never hear back from them. I'm willing to bet though, that when I near retirement age they will want to talk to me. Fat chance...

By Doug McKelway - FoxNews

A Republican-authored report on alleged financial irregularities within AARP has met with deep resistance among Democratic lawmakers and AARP senior executives.

The report, entitled "Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," alleges that the AARP violated its tax exempt status by, in effect, selling health insurance policies and by actively lobbying for the massive health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year.

Both those activities, Republicans say, violate the spirit of 501c4 tax-exempt organizations, which are supposed to "promote the common good and social welfare of a community of people."

Confronted with the report during an oversight hearing Friday held by the House Ways and Means Committee, senior AARP managers recoiled at its accusations.

"We do not sell insurance," Barry Rand, chief executive officer of AARP told the committee. He described AARP's insurance related revenues as "royalties."

In such an arrangement, AARP receives a fee from private insurers in exchange for tweaking their policies, accepting an AARP "brand" and selling those polices to AARP members.

In 2009, AARP revenues from such royalties amounted to two and a half times the amount the association received from member dues.

Read the rest at the link above...

Obama Tells GOP: Nice Try on Health Care Records

The Republicans didn't really think it would be that easy did they? When you are dealing with obama and his gang of thugs, it' not like you are dealing with  common criminals. No way, these are hard core professional criminals. They have had many years of practice in the most corrupt political climate on the planet, Chicago.

I hate to say it, but the Republicans are going to have to play as dirty as obama does. But the downside is, they don't have near the practice.

One of these days, obama is going to get caught and his house of cards will come tumbling down. There is no telling what will be revealed when that happens. When your entire life is a lie, at some point you mess up. I can't wait for that day to come...

Associated Press

President Obama once promised that negotiations over his health care overhaul would be carried out openly, in front of TV cameras and microphones. Tell that to the White House now.

Republican congressional investigators got the brush-off this past week after pressing for details of meetings between White House officials and interest groups, including drug companies and hospitals that provided critical backing for Obama's health insurance expansion.

Complying with the records request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee "would constitute a vast and expensive undertaking" and could "implicate longstanding executive branch confidentiality interests," White House lawyer Robert Bauer wrote the committee. Translation: Nice try.

It's one more roadblock for Republicans who tapped into widespread anxiety about the scope and costs of the new health care law to regain control of the House in last fall's elections.

So far, they've been unable to repeal the landmark legislation they dismiss as "Obamacare." GOP efforts to deny administration agencies the money to carry out the law are running into unintended consequences, not to mention the sheer difficulty of tracking those dollars. Now it looks like oversight isn't going to be easy either.

"We are both concerned and disappointed by your response," the committee chairman, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., wrote back to Bauer. "The American public deserves the information we have requested. The secret meetings conducted by (White House officials) are a perfect example of why transparency in government is so important."

Upton urged the White House to carefully reconsider, but it's uncertain he'll ever get what he wants. Even if the standoff dramatically escalates to a congressional subpoena, history shows that presidents usually succeed in keeping records away from snooping eyes.

President George W. Bush's administration beat back efforts to reveal the dealings between Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and industry. President Bill Clinton's administration successfully resisted demands for records of its failed push to remake the health care system, which was overseen by then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The request for records from Obama's health care reform office is broad. The committee asked for a list of every meeting, briefing or telephone call regarding changes to the health care system, as well as notes or summaries of those encounters. It wants a list of every employee of the now-disbanded health reform office, including their salaries. Committee investigators are also seeking any written communications, whether by letter or e-mail, with outside groups.

White House visitor records released at the request of The Associated Press in late 2009 show that Obama's top aides met frequently with lobbyists and health care industry leaders during the marathon congressional debate over health care overhaul.

The list included George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans; Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist representing Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among other clients; Billy Tauzin, then head of PhRMA, the drug industry lobby; Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Association; and numerous others.

Nearly every health industry group has complaints about aspects of the final legislation. But they're also working to carry out its provisions, even as challenges to the law's constitutionality advance in federal court. Some sectors got significant concessions from the administration.

The pharmaceutical industry and hospitals agreed early on to tens of billions in savings to help finance new coverage for the uninsured. When an amendment to allow importation of low-cost prescription drugs came up in the Senate, the administration worked successfully to defeat it, although Obama had supported the idea as a presidential candidate. Hospitals won a reprieve of several years from cuts proposed by a new Medicare cost control board.

The White House sent the Energy and Commerce Committee some 100 pages of records that have already been made public, including visitor logs and press releases. That may be all they get for a long time.

Obama 'Prepared' to Tap Oil Reserve in Response to Gas Prices

More lies from obama. Every word that comes out of his mouth is either a lie or just dumb. He is trting to claim that his administration is issuing tons of permits for off shore drilling. He is a liar. They have denied permits, even going as far as fighting the release of permits in court.

obama and his administration have made it clear, even saying as much, that their desire is for us to be paying as much for gasoline as it costs in Europe. This would help them accomplish many of their socialist goals. It would bankrupt what is left of our economy. It would force people to drive shitty little electric death traps that aren't fully developed and cost more than most people's house. The economic collapse that would be caused by $8 dollar per gallon gas would force millions more people onto the government welfare system. On and on. obama has no intention of getting in a hurry to release the strategic reserves or issue drilling permits. Any claims to the opposite are bullshit political games to try to gain support.

This guy needs to be run out of town. He hates our Country and he hates us...

From FoxNews

President obama, addressing frantic appeals from lawmakers to do something in response to rising gas prices, said Friday he is "prepared" to tap into the country's ample oil reserve if necessary. The president, in a nod to Republicans, also said he favors boosting domestic drilling in a responsible way.

But the president said improvements in energy efficiency are the only way to break U.S. dependence on foreign oil in the long term, and dismissed as political posturing Republicans' claims that his environmental policies have choked off American drilling.

"It doesn't match up with reality," the president said, prompting more criticism from GOP lawmakers who claimed he was stretching the truth.

As turmoil in the Middle East shakes the oil markets, obama said the United States needs a "comprehensive energy strategy." He called a press conference Friday specifically to address that point -- and while it was consumed by questions about possible military intervention in Libya, the tsunami in Japan, and the budget debate on Capitol Hill, obama tried to assure Americans that he empathizes with their concerns about gas prices.

"For Americans already facing tough times, it's an added burden," he said. obama also stressed that the United States should be able to weather any disruption due to the unrest in Libya.

Answering the calls of Democrats, he said his administration is prepared to open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He would not specify the conditions that would trigger tapping the reserve but said it was teed up and could happen quickly if he should choose to call for it. The government is cautious about going to the petroleum reserve, typically holding off except in very extreme cases such as 2005's Hurricane Katrina near the Gulf of Mexico drilling areas. 

Read the rest at the link above...

Wisconsin Senate GOP Votes to Strip State Workers of Collective Bargaining Rights

Down in Texas we have a saying, there is more than one way to skin a cat. The Wisconsin Republicans finally figured that out. It's too bad for the people of the State that half of their elected senators chose to abandon the State in it's hour of need. They have shown their true colors, and it wouldn't surprise me if the did it "to their political peril".

From FoxNews

Bypassing Democrats hiding out in Illinois, Wisconsin Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Republicans voted 18-1 to pass the stripped-down budget bill in a hastily arranged meeting. None of the Senate Democrats were present.

The state Assembly votes on the bill Thursday.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" -- a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall..

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate.

Spectators in the gallery screamed "You are cowards."

Before the sudden votes, Democratic Sens. Bob Jauch said if Republicans "chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They're changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public."

Walker praised the legislative action.

"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused," he said in a statement.

"In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform the government," he said. "The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."

State Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller issued a statement saying, "Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

The Insanity of a $6.1 Billion Dollar Debate

As you may have heard, both the Republican $61 BILLION dollar plan and the democrat joke $6 billion dollar plan were voted down today. Neither of them could even get a majority vote. What this tells me is that neither party has any interest in cutting the deficit.

Like T.L. points out, while these dumbasses were debating the bills, the interest on the debt racked up more than the democrat proposal.

Our Nation has taken out a huge payday loan. I'm sure you are familiar with the tactics those guys use. It is designed to keep you in debt, long term, paying interest and never making any headway on your principal. That's where we are, except we aren't even paying the interest. I put up a link to a debt clock a few days ago. Please, take a minute and check it out. If it had hands on it you could use it as a fan. I know the dollar figures are more than a normal person can wrap their brain around, but it will give you an idea of what kind of trouble we are in. The thing that scares me the most is that the politicians don't seem to get the seriousness of the situation. They just keep spending! We don't have any money! We are borrowing money to pay back money we borrowed! What would happen if you tried that with your family budget?

Go read the rest of this post over at TL in Exile, the link is below...

By T.L.Davis - TL in Exile

The sitting congress and the president should right now, be run out of office, impeached, recalled, physically chased, if that's what it takes. Here's the reason: the congress is right now debating budget cuts. Those who have been in charge for 2 years have run up a deficit of 5 trillion dollars. They did that, the Democrats. They didn't even have the ability to pass a budget. Now, the Democrats argue for budget cuts of $6.1 billion.

The insanity of this debate is this: by the time the congress has argued for cutting the budget for one week, there is a debt accumulation that would wipe out the entire $6.1 billion dollars they are arguing about. At these levels of debt, it is not a one for one effect either. In other words, cutting $6.1 billion dollars does not mean that debt reduction is achieved by any significant amount. $6.1 billion dollars represents less than 1/20 th of 1% of our debt (I am not the best at math) I do know that 1/10 th of 1% of our debt is $14 billion.

Republicans cutting the budget...

There has been a lot of talk lately about the inability of the Republicans to cut the $100 billion from the budget that they promised.

I look at it like this, anything they cut is 100% more than democrats would have done.

Give them a break people. Let them have an opportunity to dive into this stuff. A lot of these people are brand new. You also have to imagine that they are getting hit by both sides non stop.

We do need to get our fiscal house in order, but we need to do it smart and effectively. It doesn't matter what they do, obama isn't going to agree with it. The big changes will come once we are able to kick obama's ass out into the street...

Wis. lawmakers flee state to block anti-union bill

democrats run away to avoid a vote they are going to lose. Wow, why am I not surprised. The people of Wisconsin elected these Republicans to do the difficult work that the democrats have refused to do. democrats are famous for giving away the farm to anyone who will vote for them. This is what they have done with the unions. It is unsustainable, the unwillingness of the unions to do the right thing and reduce their benefits or at least freeze them has put the State in a budget crisis. The non-union tax payers of the State shouldn't have to continue to support people who refuse to do their share...

By Scott Bauer, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. – Faced with a near-certain Republican victory that would end a half-century of collective bargaining for public workers, Wisconsin Democrats retaliated with the only weapon they had left: They fled.

Fourteen Democratic lawmakers disappeared from the Capitol on Thursday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating the measure aimed at easing the state's budget crunch.

By refusing to show up for a vote, the group brought the debate to a swift halt and hoped to pressure Republicans to the negotiating table.

"The plan is to try and slow this down because it's an extreme piece of legislation that's tearing this state apart," Sen. Jon Erpenbach said.

The move drew cheers from tens of thousands of protesters — teachers, prison guards and others targeted by the proposal — who filled the Statehouse during the past three days.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who took office just last month, has made the bill a top priority. He urged the group to return and called the boycott a "stunt."

"It's more about theatrics than anything else," Walker said, predicting that the group would come back in a day or two, after realizing "they're elected to do a job."

Walker said Democrats could still offer amendments to change the bill, but he vowed not to concede on his plan to end most collective bargaining rights.

With 19 seats, Republicans hold a majority in the 33-member Senate, but they are one vote short of the number necessary to conduct business. So the GOP needs at least one Democrat to be present before any voting can take place. Once the measure is brought to the floor, it needs 17 votes to pass.

Other lawmakers who fled sent messages over Twitter and issued written statements but did not disclose their location until hours later.

Erpenbach said the group had been in Rockford, Ill., but they dispersed by late afternoon.

In response to a question of where she was, Sen. Lena Taylor sent a tweet saying she was "doing the people's business. Power to the PEOPLE."

Sen. Tim Cullen of Janesville said he was back in Wisconsin by Thursday night, but he did not expect Democrats to return to take up the bill until Saturday.

As Republicans tried to begin Senate business around midday, observers in the gallery screamed "Freedom! Democracy! Unions!" Opponents cheered when a legislative leader announced there were not enough senators present to proceed.

The sergeant-at-arms immediately began looking for the missing lawmakers. If authorized, he can seek help from police.

Senate rules and the state constitution say absent members can be compelled to appear, but it does not say how.

"Today they checked out, and I'm not sure where they're at," Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said. "This is the ultimate shutdown, what we're seeing today."

The Senate planned to try again Friday to convene. It was unclear when the state Assembly would conduct any business.

Elsewhere, some Democrats applauded the developments in Wisconsin as a long-awaited sign that their party was fighting back against the Republican wave created by November's midterm election.

"I am glad to see some Democrats, for a change, with a backbone. I'm really proud to hear that they did that," said Democratic state Sen. Judy Eason-McIntyre of Oklahoma, another state where Republicans won the governorship in November and also control both legislative chambers.

Across the Wisconsin Statehouse, Democrats showed up in the Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families.

After a routine roll call, they exchanged high-fives with protesters, who cried "thank you" as the Democrats walked by. Protesters unleashed venomous boos and screams at Republicans.

Thursday's events were reminiscent of a 2003 dispute in Texas, where Democrats twice fled the state to prevent adoption of a redistricting bill designed to give Republicans more seats in Congress. The bill passed a few months later.

The drama in Wisconsin unfolded in a jam-packed Capitol. Madison police and the State Department of Administration estimated the crowd at 25,000 protesters, the largest number yet.

Demonstrators stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the building's hallways, sat cross-legged across the floor and made it difficult to move from room to room. The scene vacillated from being festive to angry or sometimes just plain weird: One protester rode across the marble floors of the Capitol on a Segway. Another pitched a tent for an overnight stay.

Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber, beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Some others even demonstrated outside lawmakers' homes.

Hundreds of teachers joined the protest by calling in sick, forcing a number of school districts to cancel classes. Madison schools, the state's second-largest district, with 24,000 students, closed for a second day.

Thousands more people, many of them students from the nearby University of Wisconsin, slept in the rotunda for a second night, with more planning to stay Thursday as well.

"We are all willing to come to the table. We've all been willing from day one," said Madison teacher Rita Miller. "But you can't take A, B, C, D and everything we've worked for in one fell swoop."

About 12 law enforcement agencies were helping guard the Capitol, which was scheduled to remain open around the clock for an indefinite period.

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said authorities were ordered to show "extreme measures of tolerance."

"What we're seeing here is perhaps the most dramatic exercise of the democratic process," Mahoney said. "We're not only protecting the rights of organized labor, but also the rights of people supporting the bill."

Nine people were given citations for minor acts of civil disobedience, he said.

The proposal marks a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which passed a comprehensive collective bargaining law in 1959 and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

In addition to eliminating collective-bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage — increases Walker calls "modest" compared with those in the private sector.

Republican leaders said they expected Wisconsin residents would be pleased with the savings the bill would achieve — $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.