Posts Tagged ‘Congress’
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Here we go again. One more attempt at crafting a health care reform bill with the Republicans. The problem is that the GOP wants nothing to do with the main ideas the Democrats have put forth. Part of it is ideological–a reflexive rejection of anything but market-driven health care, (which has dismally failed either to provide for everyone or to control costs) and part is a reflexive desire to defeat Obama at all costs. The Republican idea of bipartisanship seems to be do it my way or not at all. We no longer have a legislative body in Washington capable of the compromises necessary to pass major legislation. This is a high-risk move on Obama’s part; if he fails to get anything, and the public blames him rather than the GOP (which has successfully outmaneuvered and out-communicated him so far), he can kiss his entire agenda goodbye, as well as the Congressional majority in November. If, on the other hand, he is able to show the Republicans for the obstructionists they are, or is able to persuade the members of his own party to develop backbones and pass something, he might yet have the last laugh.
Topics: bipartisanship, Congress, GOP, health care reform, health care summit, Obama, opinion, Republicans | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Here we go again. Obama is reaching out to Republicans one more time, convening a health care summit in hopes of crafting a bipartisan bill with a party that wants nothing to do with bipartisanship. If anything, Republicans, emboldened by Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts, see obstructionism as the way to success at the polls. They’re going along, of course, because they have to at least pretend to want to work across the aisle. Their modest proposals for health care reform, which, if enacted, might extend coverage to about 5 percent of the nation’s uninsured, and which do nothing to contain costs, are so at odds with the president’s more sweeping proposals there is little chance that this summit will be anything but political theater.
Obama still seems reluctant to call the GOP out. The party that loudly demanded up and down votes on the Senate floor for Bush’s nominees now holds all of Obama’s hostage for months on the flimsiest of grounds–the latest being Richard Shelby’s hold on 70 nominees if he didn’t get an earmark for his state. It now takes 60 votes to accomplish anything in the Senate, thanks to the GOP’s filibuster of everything and anything. In the bizarre math of the current political paralysis, 41 votes defeats 59. And the inability of Democrats to accomplish anything in this environment appears to imperil their majority in November. President Obama, Mr. Cool, still refuses to raise his voice. The only people who seem to be genuinely angry, for all the wrong reasons, are the Tea Party loonies. Meanwhile, the country suffers.
Topics: bipartisanship, Congress, GOP, gridlock, Obama, opinion, partisanship, Republicans | 19 Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Toyota’s reputation for quality has been severely damaged by the latest problems with their cars. After decades of gridlock and the resulting inability to accomplish anything, the reputation of Congress can hardly be damaged further. At this point, it looks as though the Democrats, who failed utterly to use the power handed to them a year ago, face a humiliating defeat at the polls next November, probably on a scale to match the humiliating defeat the Republicans deservedly were handed last year. Meanwhile, the country’s problems mount, with no end to this absurd merry-go-round in sight.
Topics: Congress, election, House, incumbents, mid-term, opinion, Senate | 12 Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
I thought President Obama got it exactly right in his State of the Union address last night, chiding both Democrats and Republicans for their inability to solve any of the daunting problems facing the country. The Democrats are tied in knots, unwilling to wield the power the voters gave them a year ago, and the Republicans are living up to their reputation as the party of “no,” opposing anything before them now that they are in the minority. It remains to be seen if this is the emergence of a new, more aggressive Obama, who sat on the sidelines and failed to speak for his agenda for far too long while Congress dithered and the public burned.
Topics: agenda, Congress, Democrats, gridlock, Obama, opinion, Republicans, Washington | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
In a word, the state of the union is ANGRY! The question for the president and for both parties to figure out is, at what? Because we have a two-party system, the only choice people have if they don’t like what’s happening is to vote for the other guy, even if the other guy is largely responsible for what’s happening, and the guy that’s in there now is in there because of the other guy’s mistakes. People are angry at deficits, largely run up by the irresponsibility of the Bush administration, and topped off by Obama. They’re angry that the bankers who got us in this mess are making millions while we lose our shirts, thanks mainly to deregulation promoted primarily by Republicans (but signed off on by Clinton). They’re angry about jobs, but there’d be a lot more of them if the stimulus package had been larger, which would have increased the deficit, which they’re angry about. They’re angry that Washington seems wholly beholden to special interests, so they’re going to vote for the party that loves special interests at least as much as the party in power now. They’re angry at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were started by the party they just voted out a year ago. They’re angry that Obama has accomplished so little of his agenda, so they’re going to vote for the party that has unanimously opposed every single aspect of it.
I’m angry, too, and I get to draw cartoons about what I’m angry about, which doesn’t solve any of the problems, but makes me feel good. I’m a Tea Party of one.
Topics: 2010, Congress, Obama, opinion, politics, State of the Union | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
As usual, other things are more pressing in the nation’s capital than saving the Earth. So, it appears that the climate bill will be kicked down the road one more time. Oh, well. More days of golf for me. Our kids will have to deal with it.
Topics: climate bill, climate change, Congress, global warming | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
So, the public option, the very thing that makes health care reform doable, is evidently dead in the Senate, killed by Republicans who oppose any change in the status quo, and by timid Democrats who still operate as though they’re in the minority. How did we get to the place where the word “government” is synonymous with all things bad? The argument certainly can be made that one should be wary of too much government power when considering legislation, but that sensible reminder has been replaced with an automatic knee-jerk objection to anything government. Calling the public option a government take-over of health care is absurd on its face, yet that charge has stampeded enough frightened Dems to abandon the core of any sensible reform.
It’s a mystery why so many elected officials who hate government work so hard to stay in it term after term, and why so many self-professed government haters want to get into it election after election. I suspect it’s a lot of fun having the power to deny everyone else the benefits they enjoy, but that can’t be the only reason. But I digress.
I decided to apply the term “government-run” to everything I could think of, just to see how scary it sounded. While it’s indeed terrifying that we have a government-run military, government-run road building, government-run trash collection, government-run police and fire departments, none of these have the essential fright-factor I’m looking for. I had to go back to the very source of government itself; hence, this cartoon.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Topics: Congress, constitution, founding fathers, government-run health care, health care reform, Obamacare, public option | 6 Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during Obama’s address to Congress was a perfect illustration of just how much the public conversation has deteriorated in recent years. I suppose that it was inevitable that the deliberate rudeness of the town hall meetings held this summer would not end there. Although Wilson immediately apologized, he didn’t recant his position, which is flat-out wrong. Every version of the health care reform bills moving through both houses specifically exempts illegal aliens. What’s funny about all this, if it weren’t so despicable, is that it’s the Republicans who have have shamelessly misrepresented the contents of the reform bills, and it’s the Republicans who have so gleefully promoted the disrespectful shout-downs we witnessed this summer. Perhaps the embarrassment over Wilson’s public moment will finally bring a little civility back to the debate. For a day or two, anyway.
Topics: civil conversation, Congress, discourse, health care, Joe Wilson, Obama, You Lie | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
We finally know the answer to the question, what’s the dog going to do with the car if he catches it? In the case of health care reform, bury it. Republicans who want to hand Obama a major defeat are jubilant that the blue dog Democrats are doing their work for them. I know these guys think they’re helping craft a better bill, but what they’ve done so far is disastrous. The only hope is that Obama can crack the whip hard enough to get their attention (boys, you’re not going to get a lot of help from me if you ever want a bill of your own passed, and I sure won’t be there for the photo op during your tough re-election campaign, and good luck getting any money from the party), or we’re going to miss this latest best chance at getting anything meaningful passed. If so, Obama’s agenda will be wounded, perhaps fatally, and millions of Americans will continue to suffer needlessly for lack of a rational health care system. The dirty dogs.
Topics: blue dog democrats, Congress, health care, health care reform, House, Obama, Senate | 28 Comments »
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Good luck to Defense Secretary Gates. He has announced an ambitious program of modernization for the military, which includes rethinking strategy for fighting asymmetrical warfare and finally killing off Cold War era weapons programs. He is not the first Defense Secretary to attempt the elimination of wasteful programs that no longer meet strategic needs. Congress, with defense industry jobs in home districts to protect, not to mention generous campaign contributions from defense industry lobbyists, often has different ideas.
Topics: Congress, Defense department, defense spending, F-22, Pentagon, Robert Gates | No Comments »
