From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office.
To Ezra Klein's point about how Congress could and should do more about unemployment, a graph from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office about the number of bills that have passed the House since Republicans won the majority and she handed over the Speaker's gavel.
The Senate has also stalled out. Last week, rookie Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) told the Chicago Tribune, "I thought that we would vote on a lot more bills."
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Boehners do nothing clown car circus of misfits and malcontents.
time to revisit the Boehner is bad at his job theory.
I'm not so sure Mrs. Pelosi could do much better under these new circumstances now that spending and taxing have been sharply curtailed due to the fact that the country has run out of money, places to borrow, and the middle class doesn't have the stomach or pocketbook for higher taxes or a larger national debt.
The cronies running congress (both houses and both parties), Boehner, Reid, Pelosi, McConnel, and Biden have been in the Washington bubble for decades and only know how to spend money they don't have, give benefits to their rich friends and corporations, and raise taxes or borrow from foreign governments to cover their deeds.
I believe this lack of action by the Senate and House only proves when it comes to creating jobs and helping the middle class in any way, including the housing problem, they are scratching their heads and haven't a clue what to do now that their normal resources of tax, borrow, and spend aren't available to them any longer.
It's time to replace the political has-beens with people that have experienced life as we know it and have new ideas on how to revive the economy, throwing out the old playbook. Yet another great argument for term limits.
Despite all the levity, below - and I do appreciate it - Mr. Speaker Boehner is bad at his job and I can't figure it out. He's been in Congress a long time and has served the same apprenticeship for a leadership position that all previous Speakers have. Why is he so incompetent at speaking to his own caucus and getting them to fall in line? Whatever you may think of Ms. Pelosi on a personal basis, she was extremely effective as Speaker at rallying support; at working across party lines to get bills passed and at getting the work done.
BUT (y'all knew there was a "but" comin' didn't you?) what I'm really concerned about and what the graph made plain to me is this: I don't really think the American public differentiates the 111th Congress from the 112th Congress. When I hear people talk about "do- nothing" Congress, they always reference Speaker Pelosi and blame Democrats, which just ain't so. I'm thinking that they're associating Congressional cycles with Presidential terms and thus, think that it's still the same Congress that was elected in 2008.
We gotta do somethin' about this!
Let's see what Mrs. Pelosi and her band of followers have accomplished (and I'm not saying her predecessors haven't done the same, still doesn't make it right. So please no blame Bush responses, he and his congress were just as bad). Deficit spending at unprecedented levels. Low job creation during a crisis and families are still being evicted from their homes, while home prices continue to fall.
The government is doling out money they don't have at a rate of about 4 billion dollars a day. Every dollar they spend that they don't have currently has attached to it INFINITE interest and will NEVER be repaid. Now that's extreme.
The rich and corporations that she wants to raise taxes on supply goods and services to us. It is an illusion to believe the middle class will not ultimately carry the burden of any tax increases through higher costs or reduced payroll expenses.
Now she says no touching Medicare or Social Security. Is she planning a trip to China for yet another US handout? Because the US government doesn't have the funds. Maybe she's planning personal contributions, she can certainly afford it.
Do we really prefer a lemming congress that blindly follows leaders with these kind of results or people that can actually make up their own minds and see reality?
There really is not much of a middle class to speak of any more.
But his policies have EVERYTHING to do with the morass we still find ourselves in as a nation. The federal budget was not reset to Zero when Obama was elected, there was NO FRESH START. If the store is on fire when management changes hands, THE STORE IS STILL ON FIRE!
DUH! Deficits weren't nearly as bad during the Bush Administration. Why? Because they were doing Enron-style accounting tricks of keeping major debts and expenditures off the books. Sure worked great for Enron didn't it? What expenditures were kept off the budget? TWO WARS! COLLOSAL TAX CUTS! MEDICARE EXPANSION! In a private business this would have been cause for criminal liabilities...you know, LIKE ENRON!
The low job creationhas less to with the purported Job Creators not having money, and far more to do with the jobs being created in third world countries with low standards of living and weak regulation. The owners of the means of production have been making out like the criminals they are.
It is payroll taxes that the govt and the nation runs on. High unemployment means a deficit because there is no payroll tax being collected. Cutting the taxes of the only people benefiting from off shore manufacture compounds the deficit. What do you EXPECT to happen?
The housing crisis was well underway before Obama was elected. You remember I'm sure...McCain admitting that he didn't know much about this economy stuff...then saying that the fundamentals of the economy was sound...then breaking off his campaign and running screaming all of the way to Washington because of the economic emergency.
As for the housing crisis, that was the result of the Wall Street boondoggle make possible only by the stripping of regulations which made subprime loans available to those who could not afford it, the bundling of those loans and selling them as high grade securities which were sold to EVERYBODY which were in turn betted against by the hedge fund managers who sold them. Let's see...junk bonds, bailouts. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Oh year I remember now. The Saving and Loans bailouts of the Bush the Elder's Administration...souped up on nitro steroids meth and crack. Wall Street got bailed out, but help was not nearly so forth coming for mainstreet...and robo-foreclosure mills continue to turn millions of people out of their homes, many of whom were still in good standing. That I do blame Obama for, among other things. But to blame Pelosi for that is weak.
Here's a newsflash slick. Higher taxes don't mean a goddamn thing to people who don't have jobs. As the formerly middle class remain unemployed their economic standing melts. It is perishable. By the time they become employed again, they are no longer middle class.
You are a fool to believe they don't already raise prices on us through stock market manipulation. The fact is that they are the only ones mercifully spared their share of the tax burden by the pet legislators when in fact they are the only ones who can really afford it. Look ar what speculation has done to the price of coffee. Even worse, look at oil. Spikes in price from speculation raises the price of food, goods and anthing involving transportation and travel.
The quality of anyone...person, business, or govt...is its ability to meet its obligation. The flood of Republican guvs have all shown their capacity for honest good faith dealing, i.e. they have none. The people who collect social security have earned it, already paid into it. The discussion seems to have devolved into just which generation we will be lying to and robbing. The seniors already collecting are not happy to see that it will be their children or grandchildren getting the shaft. Its so cute how Republicans and conservatives talk about how they don't want to burden their children with debt when they are working day and night to make sure those same children will have no future, no security, not even basic safety. That kind of hypocrisy can't be good for the soul.
As for the government not having any money...that is a lie. It is all in the bank and Wall Street accounts of the top 5%.
Its clear that you prefer a congress that seeks to inflict a corpratist-Christo-fascist 3rd world hell upon our nation, where the few prosper and everyone else suffers. Wake up and smell the reality. It stinks and it will only get worse.
DonQ: DNFTT, hon.
'Ight.
I knew the temptation to blame Bush would be just too strong for some.
Here's another news flash, slick: The President cannot pass anything without the support of both houses of Congress! Many times on this blog I have asked why the Dems. didn't pass what they were supposed to when they had the super majority in the Senate, House of Reps., and the White House? The response has always been " Because those darn Republicans block it with filibustering ". Doesn't everyone in Congress posses those same tools?
I in no way blame Mrs. Pelosi or any one person solely for what happened but the fact that she was there and chose to allow legislation either by supporting it or not blocking it, holds her and everyone else in office at the time accountable. This need to finger point and blame someone else when all were involved reminds me of my 7 year old granddaughter and her interactions with peers, I pray she grows out of it.
To say the US government has plenty of money when it is a fact that it is currently spending about 4 billion per day more than what it takes in is not based on reality. 2-3% of the entire budget is now being paid to interest on borrowed money. What percentage rate are you comfortable with?
I'm not really sure what is happening with Medicare and Social Security. Possibly over zealous congressmen and women promising more than the contributions can cover. Great thought, but once again not reality. One thing I do know is the cost of medical services has increased uncontrolled for decades. I endure a 3 minute doctor's exam once a year to get my prescription filled. I am a cash paying customer so realized the 30% increase from year to year immediately. I own a small business and I cannot increase my prices by 30%. What is going on? Why isn't congress directly addressing this problem that would help the expenses of Medicare and Medicaid the most? I would like to say they have achieved wonders on prescriptions (my costs have gone down about 80%). I would think they could implement something similar for medical services.
Every time there is a crisis Congress aids the top crust of the problem with bailouts (savings and loans, banks, and housing institutions) and keep their fingers crossed it will "trickle down" to the rest of us. This time it's not trickling down and they are fumbling the ball as to what to do. We need new people with new ideas to get us out of this one. The old way just isn't working anymore.
Well if it wasn't for the two wars, the tax cuts, and the Medicare expansion that were all kept off the budget during his Administration and the deregulation that permitted subprime lending and poisonous morgage backed securities then we would not have alot to talk about would we? That's the elephant in the the room stomping everyone to death that you don't want to talk about.
All of the money is tied up in the wallets, banks and Wall Street accounts of the wealthy who have been given the tax breaks. The deficit is that money not trickling down. And it won't. If supply side economics worked then Bush should have created plenty of jobs. The fact is that Clinton created over 20 jobs for every one that Bush created. Further that is EXACTLY how supply-side economics works.
Reagan created the first multi-trillion dollar deficits in history, slashed public assistance, crashed the stock market in '87 and set the stage for S and L bailouts. Bush was Reagan on steroids.
The Democrats never had a fillibuster proof super majority in the Senate and there is no fillibuster rule for the House. As for the rest, Obama is such a spineless wonder that he thinks that he needs to have the approval of the Republicans for EVERYTHING, and toward that end there is no progressive principle he is not will to compromise.
Medicare is ONLY now beginning to pay out more than it brings in. It has not contributed to the deficit, but it is such a shiny chunk of change that Conservative want to make it their cash cow. "Sorry mac, it was just sittin' there, looking so pretty. I was just asking for it. What was I supposed to do, there's a deficit going on." That is so cute by the way.
"No we don't want to pass this debt on to our kids and grand kids. But its alright if they don't have any security when they get old and have to eat cat food, or much of a planet left to speak of, or medical care. The world's about to end anyway." Cute. Absolutely darling.
Those costs you are complaining about are the triumph of the free market system. That is profit being made by private insurance companies. Surely you aren't against Capitalism are you? Only a filthy commie would want to deprive those fine upstanding companies of their profits!
The fact is that of all developed nations, we have the most expensive and and inefficient health care system. It was for just that reason that Obama tried to pass Universal Health Care. But in his classic style, to get the Republicans on board and private health insurers, he pre-emptively discarded the public option and single payer which would have fixed everything. Instead, he included individual mandate which merely provides a conveyer belt of enrollees for the insurance companies.
If you believe the deficit is that important, then ending our wars abroad and all of the Bush tax cut will make a vast chunk of it disappear. Clawing back manufacturing from overseas and reopening our factories here at home will drop unemployment like a stone and payroll tax will get us out from under China once and for all. Further, more people employed at factories will create more demand for goods and service inciting the employment of even more people and more demand. That is DEMAND side economics. More people employed will also contribute to social security and replenish social and public assistance programs.
The fact remains, both Reagan and Bush were wrong and their policies are destroying this nation. Repudiating their policies are the only chance of putting this nation back in the right direction. Personally I think we will go the way of the USSR first. But we WILL see.
You say:
"If you believe the deficit is that important, then ending our wars abroad and all of the Bush tax cut will make a vast chunk of it disappear. Clawing back manufacturing from overseas and reopening our factories here at home will drop unemployment like a stone and payroll tax will get us out from under China once and for all. Further, more people employed at factories will create more demand for goods and service inciting the employment of even more people and more demand. That is DEMAND side economics. More people employed will also contribute to social security and replenish social and public assistance programs."
Awesome ideas, and put that way real solutions are really quite obtainable. So why doesn't Mrs. Pelosi and the other Dems or Repubs do it? Most with any authority in government have had decades to work on these solutions.
Either by action or inaction they are ALL to blame
Because Pelosi is no longer speaker of the house and Obama is too much a lap dog of the right and the corporations who own politicians have absolutely no interest in paying their share of the taxes, or paying Americans living wages.
To suggest any of the above is political heresey to the point that they will burn you at the stake for saying it. However, that doesn't mean that its wrong. They will simply destroy the nation before admitting that Reagan and Bush were wrong.
President Clinton made deals with the devil that it would of been better had he not...NAFTA, welfare reform w/ 5 yr lifetime limit. Both nods to supply side orthodoxy and stealing the football away from the Republicans to score on their side. But he managed to rack up a 20 billion dollar surplus and create over 20 times the jobs his successor would. Evidently you don't have to be that radically to the left to get results. But the point is that Obama acts like he's suffering Stockholm syndrome and can't try to please his Republican critics enough. I blame him. I blame Blue Dog democrats. I blame Liberals for throwing away every advantage that falls into their hands. I blame the failure of imagination of their part that keeps them from grasping what is so painfully clear to an ex-deli worker. FOOLS!
Sorry. I see bad things coming and I'm frustrated as hell.
Chin up my friend. Seems when things are at their worst, before you know it they turn around and the country is back on the right track.
With new technology, the Internet and such, American citizens now know the people in government positions more intimately than ever before (and sometimes more than they ever wanted "Weiner joke"). Hopefully an informed voter equals a smart voter and we will get the best of the best in office to run our country....................Then I woke, damn
Kelly Ayotte is a NH Senator, not a House member. But I get the gist of the article and the quote. ;-)
Ack. Sorry. Fixing.
In the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park there is a thermal pool named Congress Pool. It received its name because it just sits there and does nothing.
Except generate hot air!
someone definitely had a sense of humor in naming it. :)
And along those lines, since you opened up that line of trivia, do you know why Chicago (home of Obama) is called The Windy City? It has nothing to do with the weather. It is a political monniker given to that city in the 1800s as a metaphor because of the all the hot air blown around by its braggart politicians---who are all notoriously Democrats. It was only much later, in the mid-1900s when skyscrapers were built (creating wind tunnel effects), that it actually grew into its name as it is accepted and used today. With two (nearly three) of Illinois' former governors currently serving time in state penitentiaries, I'd say the former definition still applies.
Now now, the Republicans have taken some hard votes on screwing the poor.
Substantiate that remark with fact documenting Republican legislation that targeted the poor. Fish or cut bait, don't just spew the leftist line. For the record, it is well documented that Republicans donate far, FAR more of their personal wages and salaries to charities and give much more of their personal time and effort to support community projects that outreach to the poor by way of faith-based organizations, than Democrats do. Well documented.
Show us...
yep...buying their way into heaven is a much better way then to just help.
You mean like for bills outlawing gay marriage? Has Conservative charity made hunger in America or the housing crisis magically go away? Do conservatives go out to homeless shelters and give medical care to the ill and the dying? Speaking of which, great job the compassionate Reagan Administration did when AIDS first appeared and it was thought to be God's judgement on fags. Just because you throw some money at the Westboro Baptist Church for the quick write-off doesn't mean you are making the world a better place. Maybe that works at the circle jerk being held at the country club, but that doesn't fly here. You all have no business even fitting the word Christ in your mouths.
"Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. As you do it for the least of them, you do it for me."
Know what Christ said about taxes? "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, render unto God what is God's." As it stands now this is a nation of the damned run by the damned for the damned. Republicans do very brisk business at the tables that Christ himself knocked over. So spare us. Save it for your jerk buddies at the country club.
Rick the only reason they "donate" is to get a tax break and my guess is that they would have little PROOF of the donations should they ever be audited. Any one can claim to donate money, really ask yourself how many people you know who fudge their so call donations to get the higher refund? And no I do not lie on my tax returns, I'm middle class I don;t make enough to go long form.
Apparently neithor of you has actually WORKED for a charitable organization that serves the needy. Guess what, they ask for your MONEY. That is how operating expenses and food are covered. So don't give me that hateful, bullsh*t line about "buying your way into heaven". And let me ask Mr. Quixokie, has the extravagant LIBERAL charity and The Great Society since 1960 made hunger in America or the housing crisis magically go away? No. No matter how much of other people's money we throw at that problem, it just won't go away, will it? Made it worse, in fact. Biggest entitlement state ever, is what we have now. Gawd you are an idiot. Country club? Excuse me pal, I work for a living. Friggin' dope smokers...
If, in fact, republicans do donate more to charity that would be the only trickle down that us 'po folk' get.
not all people try to buy their way in - but a good amount do. the tv evangelist make their points about giving and fortune will be returned - and that this is what god wants.
if people only donate through religious charities, the chances are, it is played on guilt and to ask for favor through 'god'.
i'd like to know how many of those who donate through religious charities feel about government social programs.
Well, let's see. What good the Johnson Administration could have done was bloody well eaten up in a war that dropped more munitions on a tiny South East Asian country than were dropped on all of Europe during World War 2. And it was under the economic gyrations of THAT fun that Reagan got elected and rolled back social spending and public education into the present form we've been seeing for the past 30 years. Ergo, less the Vietnam War and the Reagan Administration, we'd still be on top of the world now. Not lagging behind third world countries in education, never having had the crack epidemic and gang violence and the war on drugs because the social safety net had been cut because so many people found themselves on public assistance because the factories had been closed because manufacturing had been off-shored. Not to mention Reagan selling weapons to the Iranians as a thank you for holding on to those American hostages until the day of his inauguration, the CIA training and arming the mujahadeen in Afghanistan during the Soviet/Afghan War so that they could take the country over from the secular govt and become the Taliban and provide a welcome home to fellow CIA trained and armed alumni Osama bin Laden. Not forgetting the death squads trained by the CIA in el Salvador and the Contras funded by cocaine shipped to America on a plane by Oliver North himself. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm Gosh...would we have been a better nation without all that mess? What do you think you frikkin GENIUS! Not to mention the stock market crashing in '87, multi-trillion dollar deficits the Savings and Loans bail-out of the early Bush the Elder Administration...all of which was just a warm up to jack the nation REAL GOOD with the Bush/Cheney Administration. The historical record is pretty damn clear. Just how much good have you compassionate conservative Christians done our country? Your turn. Twenty of the past thirty years have see Republican control. What have we to show for it?
Rick you are wrong about the generous republicans unless this article is refering to all the poor Republicans:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/19/68456/americas-poor-are-its-most-generous.html
Any takers that Rick is a re reg?
what is a re reg?
Someone who has been banned re-registering under another name.
ahhhh, thanks, don...
I'm sure I don't know what a re-reg is, since this is my very first time visiting this lovely blog with ya'all. Never seen the Maddow show on TV. Don't really even know who she is. I'm just a regular guy, can't stand the hard lefty line you all seem to buy into. But someone posted this thing on _my— FB page and every once in a while I feel compelled to play nyah-nyah with those who have swallowed too much of the kool-aid for the sheer enjoyment of it, and since I was essentially invited to. Mostly, I just find discussing politics via internet too hateful and hurtful, and once again I was proven right. Get into a discussion with a stranger who's an Obama supporter, pretty soon they start calling names..because they cant make a reasoned, rational point without vitriole. If anyone spoke this rudely and insultingly to me to my face, I'm certain I'd just walk away, and so I will here. Nice day today. Enjoy it without hate, folks. Do what you can to fix your home, your neighborhood, your town with your money. Please don't mess with me and mine. Final word-- I assure you that smaller gov't is better than THIS monstrosity. Bye!
Answer the question. Since Reagan only 10 out of the past 30 years have been under Democratic Administrations, both of which have given more than passing nods to supply-side economics. What have Reaganomics given us? Tell us all about the wonderful things your people have done for the nation. I've answered your question, now you are just going to scuttle away and whine about how you are victim and so bullied. Poor you. Answer the goddamn question!
#4.6 - Fri Jul 8, 2011 2:57 PM PDT
Nope Rick...you wouldn't ever insult anyone here.
The above is your first comment yes? Then the following:
Yeah, bye.
Rick in Maine has yet to provide the source for this claim. If it is so well documented, he should have had no problem giving his references. Until I see the studies, polls, etc., I call bull pucky.
Rick in Maine, you are suspended for a day for violating rule # 1 of the Code of Honor.
It would be interesting to know how many of those bills made it through the Senate and signed by the President!
They've stuck to their principles...besides didn't John Boehner say their main goal was the removal of Barack Obama as president...along as their deep pocket supporters aren't affected, why should they care if they actually accomplish anything...compromise never! cut cut cut...if you do see my attempt at sarcasm in this, I'm sorry
Unless I missed something said by Boehner (entirely possible, it irks me when he speaks), that particular foot-in-mouth statement was made by Mitch McConnell.
To be fair, though, it could have been almost any of them.
actually, "rick in maine", it is well documented that it is the poor and middle class that give more to charities than any other group.
Karen... agreed, but I did not say the rich donate more. I said REPUBLICANS do.
Rick...I think that's your opinion.
Substantiate that remark with fact documenting Republicans donate more please.
Rick, please substantiate your claim about the philanthropic nature of the GOP with valid figures/data and please no name calling or casting aspersions; it isn't really required to make a point.
By percentage of income the poor donate more than the rich by a factor of two.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/19/68456/americas-poor-are-its-most-generous.html
A do-nothing Congress extraordinaire! Of course they want to shut down any financial gains of the Obama administration! They want to enforce their own narrow-minded views and thoughts onto Americans! A "constitutional conservative", also called "Social Conservative" wants to limit government at the expense of the lower class, indigent, unemployed, retired with limited income and children. They do not believe in court houses or school for children. To bear arms anywhere smacks of the "Wild West" or frontier times. They do not care for the poor, or helping those more dependent or grandparents on limited income. They want to force their God down onto the masses whether they want it or not. They do not care if you are of their religion or not! This thought process is the same as "Radical Islam" in every sense of the word! America is a socially civilized peoples with multiple ethnic and religious groups living side by side in a democracy. "Constitutional conservatives" do not want this to be the norm in America. "Constitutional conservatives" do not want compromise of any kind. In the Constitution, it states freedom of religion and yet these extremist would force their own beliefs onto others. They do not care for the tradition of moderation, compromise, and an accommodation of differences. Berkowitz has written, Reagan’s rhetoric deploring "unnecessary and excessive growth of government" implicitly conceded that there could be necessary and appropriate growth, and he in fact allowed taxes to rise and government spending to grow above inflation without sacrificing his principles. These guys want to limit taxes for the super-rich at the expense of the everyday American! Tea Partiers are actually for something. They want a world where each household is responsible for its own place on the socioeconomic ladder, even if it means some will fail. They are for local communities determining what values their schools will inculcate, and they want the virtue taught by Christianity and Judaism to play a central role. Tea Party rhetoric is also infused with generosity towards the needy, but through voluntary -- not coercive -- giving, allowing for individual caring and the building of bonds that bridge across social differences. This appears to be supported by action, largely through churches. The current Congress(the 112th Congress) has failed to enact any legislation since January resulting from "constitutional conservatives", also called "Social Conservatives" and the TEA party, who are more extreme!
Mr Gonzales, do you think the 466 bills failed to fix anything needed? Do you think the 166 did either?
Do you think this society is so broken we need to keep making laws to fix things that, clearly, Congress is incompetent to do so, whether it is 466 or 166, that doesn't work... we need another method.
Do you really hate the rich so much, by the way? They pay my salary, and i am going to join them soon enough....
I agree on most every point except "America is a socially civilized peoples", not true. The US is not a civilized nation, like the 3rd world, you enforce the death penalty and impose bigotry through laws like the "Defence of Marriage Act". When the USA has entire political parties devoted to teaching Christian Creationism in schools while denying Evolution. These aren't principles of a civilized nation.
Mr. Gonzalez. Wow, buddy, man have you swallowed the kool-aid! Did you grow up in communist Cuba or something? Whoa. Dude, you are way out there, man.
The Tea Party is racist and super hyperbolic in their rhetoric though. They are for segregation of the races. I find that more deplorable than social conservatives pushing religion down our throats.
Rand Paul wants to do away with Civil Rights.
If the Paul's had their way we would have segregated neighborhoods. I get what you are saying and I believe they do stand for something. They stand for racism.
Trotsky: what pure, unadulterated and unsubstantiated bullsh*t. What kool-aid you been drinking, bro? By the way, let's be clear on racism and the political parties here, chief-- northern REPUBLICANS (hello, Abe Lincoln (R-Illinois)) freed the slaves back in 1865, my friend. You don't even want to go down that road, buddy. You don't have a leg to stand on, and the historical record is clear. It has been my experience that those who cry "racism!" are usually the racists (hello Farrakhan, Jackson, Malcolm-X, Jeremiah Wright, etc).
Right, you aren't anti-black. You are just pro-white and feel better with all minorities behind prison walls. We get you.
Do not play with my words. Do not second guess my intentions. I stand by my statement and add that bigots have taken over the centrist GOP party. This has proven to be the collapse of the moderate Republicanism that dominates national and state parties have effected a no-compromise stance. Tom Delay first started this concept in Texas and his absolute power corrupted him! This will result in the further crippling of John Boehner the current House Speaker! It is the Tim Pawlenty-Michele Bachmann-Rick Perry - Mitch McConnell and their no-new-taxes, compromise-is-evil version that prevails nationwide today. This new TEA party is un-willing to raise taxes, especially progressive taxes, to pay for the good things that they believe government can do — for education(Throwing the children under the school bus), for economic development(Failing to legislate jobs in America as they said they would do), for quality of life for the middle class(Making sure the middle class supports the entire US economy by themselves) and to help the poor and the sick be a little less poor and sick. These actions have taken an ominous role in every aspect of today's politicians. At the national level, congressional Republican are taking a similar posture in negotiations over a mutli-trillion-dollar deficit reduction and debt-ceiling package. Moderate Republicans are in the cross-hairs of this new breed of politician.
Specifically it was when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Acts that the racist Democrats fled to the Republican Party, thus the Southern Strategy was born and social progressive Republicans like Eisenhower became a relic of the very DEAD past. And its gotten worse ever since.
So did we, Kelly.
The Republicans only goal is to limit President Obama to one term. NOTHING else counts!
exactly right. They have the power to make Obama to look bad so people say Obama isn't doing anything about our situation. I'm sure he's trying but getting shot down every chance Congress gets. I would love to read more about what congress has done to shoot Obama attempts down. So the public can see who is really causing the stalemate.
Touche, Mikki - from your keyboard to God's eyes!!! And hopefully the Repubs will prevail. The country certainly can not afford this Demogogue incompetent Bozo for another term. This trainwreck needs to stopped with just one term - given that we have already accomplished the historic goal of a black president.
What did you come here for, Ashley? To prove (yet again) that wingers don't get irony?
MM...I have asked that of too many to count now... *sigh
mikki you forgot to mention that the right is more than willing to sacrifice America and her citizens to achieve their mission of hate and greed.
the only train wreck is the hate for a 'black president'
i'm disgusted with this notion. i'm going to go buy an ice cream with my 4 legged son and enjoy some quiet before i have to work all night. i hate hate.
So what is the cost of 466 bills passed to 166? How much of our money did the politicians fail spend, which most likely has not even been earned yet, let alone collected in taxes, and added to the bankers' coffers--- they're the only ones, aside from politicians, who benefit from reckless spending
There is a big difference between having a different ideology from me and purposely trying to ruin the US. Read what DeMint says:
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/07/sen-demint-willing-to-cause-serious-disruptions-to-u-s-economy/
Nothing does begin with No
The party of No producing Nothing
yay.. the less they do, the safer we all are
wrong!!!!!!!
Actually thats no entirely true, while they should limit the useless crap. There are things that the Governent does that are quite important. For example
1) how does all that uninspected beef taste? Oh we wouldnt know because at some point they passed laws to make sure we don't die.
2) How about that salary that you said earlier will allow you yourself to become rich? At one point some people in the Government voted to make sure you got fair pay , plus protection if you got hurt , and if you were once hourly , overtime if you worked your ass off.
3) you like not getting into traffic accidents right? Weeeellll guess what , they voted on those laws too.
Just playing a little devils advocate , Do nothing is just as bad as do too much , how about we strike a middle ground and focus on important stuff , maybe then both sides will be able to meet and get some things acomplished , not just focus on either parties politcal agendas?
I am a bit insane I know....
Light Failure
how about we strike a middle ground and focus on important stuff , maybe then both sides will be able to meet and get some things acomplished , not just focus on either parties politcal agendas?
You just described how we go into this mess in the first place. Lucy, I mean the GOP, keeps moving the football and Charlie, sorry the President, keeps chasing them farther and farther to the right.
Last year the House was busy, but the Senate seemed to be the bottleneck. I was under the impression that only a fraction of the legislation the House passed made it to the Senate floor. This year, we have two do-nothing legislative chambers. Lovely.
You are correct, James. Over 300 bills never made it to the Senate floor last session because the Republicans "air filibustered" all of them.
But isn't that precisely what Republicans pledged to do: shrink government? You can't shrink government without shrinking *governance*. I'm not saying whether that's good or bad; I'm just saying no one should be surprised by that.
And for the record, Kelly Ayotte is a Senator, so throwing in her quote in an article related to House bills is a bit irrelevant at best, misleading at worse.
(You just made me sound like I was taking sides with Republicans. I feel dirty...)
Shrinking Goernment is one thing , choking the life out of it like an invasive species of plant in a pond is another....
The crazy thing is that they are so blatant about everything they are doing but they hide behind pro-life and the 2nd amendment and Prop 8. What is wrong with Americans today? They will vote Republican, and vote against all their best interests so they can keep a gun on them when they walk into a Starbucks and so someone they have never even met that isnt connected to them at all cant marry the person they want, or so again, someone they have never met with no connections to them is forced to have a baby they dont want!!? Its crazy! Just absolutely mind-boggling crazy!
As others have said, this should not be a surprise, both because Republicans believe that Congress' role in helping the economy is to get out of the way and let the "free market" work; and because they have a vested interest in keeping the economy bad until 2012 because they believe it will help them take over the White House again to continue to loot the country for the gain of the mega-rich and to impose their radical religious agenda.
The Republicans message to the American people... BE AFRAID! They offer nothing and have no real solutions. They are not the Grand Old Party (GOP) but the Party of Greed (POG) now. That's it in a nutshell. Shame on them, the Tea Baggers and the Koch Brothers.
I am reminded of a line from Josh Lyman on The West Wing,
The one that comes to my mind is: "I'm so sick of Congress, I could vomit."
Good one 80's :)
Nate Silver basically said there is no direct correlation between unemployment and re-elections. I tend to agree as it pertains to this next cycle and here is why.
Obama is like a doctor. His beeper goes off and he rushes into the operating room. There on the table is a patient crashing and ready to die. Think of the patient as the economy. He goes in and immediately starts CPR or some other highly expensive treatment. Think stimulus at this point. And when Obama asks for help from the nurses they say no and call him a liar right there in the operating room. Matter of fact, they want to see his medical license. They don't even believe he is legal to practice medicine in America. Insert GOP and Tea Party here.
The patient doesn't fully recover. The patient goes into a coma but lives. Think stagnant economy at that point. Come to find out, the nurses were sabotaging the operation. Come to find out, they use to work for the previous Doctor who made all the wrong diagnosis's. That's why the patient was crashing on the operating table.
No family member would blame Obama for trying to save their love one's life after the previous guy made all the wrong decisions. By the time Obama walked into the room they are lucky their loved one is still alive.
The problem we have is that this Bozo is basically a quack and not a doctor. He did have people fooled by talking medicine, but now we know. If you want economy to improve and jobs to return - Fire Bozo and his posse of Dummycritters.
From under what bridge did all these trolls crawl?
No idea. I'd like to send them back, wherever it is was they came from.
Maybe a prayer to Anoia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers, will help. *rattling a kitchen drawer and crying out in a loud voice* "How can it close on the damned thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?"
Probably a re reg waiting to surface after years of silence. Our pal Rick, I would bet money, is a re reg. Maybe Joe?
Wait, was not unemployment very much higher in 2010 than it is right now? So... should not the 111th Congress, the one that passed more than 1.25 bills every day, have passed some laws to do away with unemployment? Oh, that's right they did that in 2009 and unemployment is still higher than prior to its passage.
"Do-Nothing" Congress is my kind of Congress. They need to take about a 50% pay cut and about one bill a week.
People must wake up and realize Republicans along with a few Democrats are selling out the middle class,not to mention their country to the wealthy and corporations.I've said it before I'll say it again.The wealthy and corporations look down on the middle class as someone to fight their wars and breed future soldiers.They invest in and put their money in foreign lands,and when conflict breaks out its the young men and women in uniform that (most had to join the military to get an education)are called on to save those investment's.People like the Kock brothers get millions in tax breaks,the young men and women losing their lives and limbs got a 1.4%raise.
To listen to the trail baloons being released by the Democrats is doing nothing but causing great damage to Seniors and stress. Now we have Orrin Hatch saying that the poor need to take responsibility, the poor have always had to bear the burden while the rich prop their feet up on our backs.
The Democrats will cut their own throat if they cut Social Security or Medicare, we will vot you out of office,, we will tell our Unions to stop sending money, we will stop send money as well. Democrats have lost the base, and the President needs to step up to the plate and fight, not take a dive.
Rachel, I love your show, but you seem to be having some audio difficulties, as apparently the words "Ron Paul" cannot cross your lips. Try really, really hard to understand that Ron Paul is our last best hope of keeping the country free and a democratic republic. Try it, "Ron" then "Paul" ON THE AIR, Rachel. I know you can do it. Or, do you want to look silly when he's running #2 or even #1? Learn the words: Ron Paul. Constitutional democracy. Gold-backed money. Please, honey, we're counting on good people like you to help wake up America, but you'll do no good at all if you can't acknowledge the truest patriot of all.
Eh no.
some things that he stands for make sense - but his stance on the civil rights ruins it.
completely.
i hate to say never - but i never want to stand for abolishing civil rights.
he does not represent the direction i want.
"Please honey" to Rachel Maddow? "Fearless" is about the size of it, Rick ol' buddy.
This chart only shows 2 years. Perhaps 2010 was a particularly prolific year, and 2011 is an average year? To interpret this chart we need more data. Sorry I'm so particular. I still wouldn't vote for a Republican, even if it turned out they were passing an average number of bills. I disagree with what's in the GOP-supported bills.
LOL
this Ashley is a very funny person.
thanks for the Friday Laugh it has helped in getting threw the day.
Friday laugh at the troll day?
Yeah since someone brought up clowns anyway
Troll clowns
I like that Pat....there are trolls....and there are clowns...Troll Clowns give it a new meaning. :)
Hey Mr. Tanman,
Where are those JOBS???? Maybe if you all actually stayed in and I dunno WORKED, you might have more Americans working.......