This is exacerbated by Obama's campaign focus on bipartisanship and reforming Washington, which means he'll get extra credit from the public if he is seen as actually delivering bipartisanship. And the GOP obviously doesn't want that.
A key problem here is that the filibuster gives the minority party a means of obstructing bills that have a majority of votes and the public doesn't necessarily understand this, so the majority often still gets punished. In some ways, the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority may have made this worse, because even informed members of the public could ask "well, you guys have the votes you need, so why are you complaining?" We may have seen this effect a little bit when a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the HIRE act; I'm assuming that they felt the pressure of the bill's potential failure if they didn't vote for it. The crazy thing is that, after 5 Republicans joined with Democrats in voting for cloture, THIRTEEN Republicans voted for the bill's passage. This particularly ironic screengrab from Lamar Alexander's (R-TN) website pretty much sums it up:
The HIRE Act and the "Partisan Jobs Bill" are the same thing. The ironic thing is that this bill was (1) an effort to create jobs in the worst economy in 75 years and (2) was composed almost entirely of tax cuts and credits. In other words, there was virtually no rationale for this bill not passing with massive (think 90+ votes) majorities.In summary:
- Republicans know that helping Obama hurts them, so they're not doing it, even on bills that make a ridiculous amount of sense.
- Democrats are pussies for not passing their shit with the massive majorities they had.
- Republicans' "no-to-everything" strategy may not work anymore because they now can actually block everything, as opposed to just slowing everything down. Of course, actually voting for things also may not work because they may turn on themselves.
Wow, super. That's just great, Head. Thanks. The only part you left out was why you and SS considered this to be an inaccurate assessment on January 26, 2010 at 2:01PM. I'll wait. Whenever you're ready...
ReplyDeleteBoogers McRib said...
i.e. America's government/economy are the world's biggest joke and you, Tico, me and everyone else who does exactly what the fuck they're told, pay taxes then die, are the punch line. That's why I say call your congress people, call them one and all and tell them to keep fucking that chicken, because no matter how this thing unfolds, we'll still be fucked. Thanks for caring though, Head, you're heart's in the right place. But for the Den's smartest jackal, you sure are naive.
BTW, now would be a good time to call your members of Congress and tell them to support this deficit-reducing, life-saving health care bill.
ReplyDeleteHouse Democrats want the Senate to agree to amend the Senate bill before they'll pass it. So tell your Senator to support using reconciliation to pass a bill amending the Senate bill:
Barbara Mikulski (MD) is at 202-224-4654
Ben Cardin (MD) is at 202-224-4524
Mark Warner (VA) is at 1-877-676-2759 (hit 2 to talk to someone)
Jim Webb (VA) is at 202-224-4024 (hit 2 to talk to someone)
Tell your Representative to support passage of the Senate:
Elijah Cummings (MD-7), who represents most of HoCo & Baltimore, is at 202-225-4741.
Donna Edwards (MD-4), who represents Silver Spring and whatnot, is at 202-225-8699
If you live in DC, exercise the rights you should have and call these people anyway.
Keep
ReplyDeleteThat
ReplyDeleteChicken
ReplyDeleteBMR, as someone smarter than me once said, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."
ReplyDeleteProgress is a pain in the ass, and a lot of people get fucked along the way, but once fundamental gains are realized, they tend not to get reversed.
Ha, an excaped slave named Dred. He probably didn't smoke marijuana...
ReplyDeleteYou damn liberals still clinging to your sinking ship. The majority (of the people) do not want government hands on their healthcare.
ReplyDeleteIn a down economy, lets turn more things over to the government, they run things pretty efficiently, in a cost effective way, and smoothly right? Ever walked into the DMV?
No, I mean the Department of Medical Vaginas (only thing I could think of) to stand in line and see if you qualify to get your surgery, in a few months.
Also, remember when the Dems and Obama were opposed to using reconcilliation? Unfair,and unconstitutional. But you probably never hear about that, listening to the State run news media.
Done
FOXNews sounds much more retarded when it's digested and partially regurgitated by the OBD. KFTC.
ReplyDeleteODB, I would love to hear you defend these two statements:
ReplyDelete"Let's turn more things over to the government." Turning care over to the government (a la Britain) was never even considered. And now that the public option is gone, the Dems' plan doesn't even attempt to turn any part of insurance over to the government.
"Unfair,and unconstitutional." Since when is "majority rules" unfair? And feel free to point out how it's unconstitutional OR the filibuster IS constitutional. To bolster your argument, you may also want to cite the successful Supreme Court challenges to COBRA (guess what the R stands for?), the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Bush Tax Cuts, and Welfare Reform, all of which passed through reconciliation.
But seriously, write a post about this. I'd be interested to have a debate that goes deeper than regurgitated Palinisms.
OBD is gonna stab Head with a giant spear made of Miller High Life Cammo Cans. Republicans don't win logical arguments, they fight! Dirka dirka Jihad = tan dirka dirka Jebus
ReplyDeleteNah, we're gonna settle this like real men: By eating crab claws until one of us gives up and/or dies of intestinal tearing!
ReplyDelete