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Conservative Columnist Defends His Party
http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...-deroy-murdock
This Congress, they are accustomed to doing nothing, and they’re comfortable with doing nothing, and they keep on doing nothing,” President Obama whined at a September 15 Democratic National Committee gathering in a private Washington residence.
Now that his “Blame Bush” hobby horse finally has retired to the glue factory, Obama resorts to pinning America’s woes on the “Do-Nothing Congress.” If only these parliamentarians would stop taking endless lunches, sipping tails at Capitol Hill happy hours, and napping at their desks, America might have some chance of returning to normal.
Obama speaks as if the entire Congress were in lock-step Republican opposition to his every initiative. Damn those pesky elephants!
Of course, Obama’s rhetoric cynically turns things upside down.
Congress consists of a do-something House of Representatives, run by Republicans, and a do-nothing Senate controlled by Obama’s very own Democrats. Obama evidently believes that if he can keep spouting clever lies and distortions, no one will call him on it. Well, it’s time to do so.
The 112th Congress has been characterized by a very active legislative pace in the Republican House, featuring the passage of many measures designed to revive America’s exhausted economy.
The Democratic Senate, meanwhile, is a much lazier place, where House Republicans’ measures go to die.
The figures bear this out, beyond debate.
Through September 15, the Republican House had been in session for 120 days. The Democratic Senate through the same date had been in session only 115 days.
In terms of recorded votes, the two bodies are as different as Times Square and the Everglades. Through September 15, the GOP House had voted 711 times. Meanwhile, across the same period, the Democratic Senate had only 137 recorded votes. So, the allegedly lethargic GOP legislators whose sloth dooms the nation actually are five times as energetic as their indolent counterparts in the Democratic Senate.
This distinction might discredit House Republicans if they wasted their time voting on National Apricot Yogurt Month and similar matters of national urgency. In fact, Republicans have approved serious legislation designed to get America moving.
“Our new majority has passed more than a dozen pro-growth measures designed to address the jobs crisis,” Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote Obama on September 6. “Aside from repeal of the 1099-reporting requirement in the health care law, however, none of the jobs measures passed by the House to date have been taken up by the Democrat-controlled Senate.”
These have included bills to reduce anti-business regulations, accelerate offshore oil production, and speed the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry Canadian oil to refineries in Texas. The pipeline alone would create 20,000 jobs.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid seems to be in no rush to consider Obama’s American Jobs Act, even though Obama wants it enacted “right now!”
“We’ve got to get rid of some issues first,” Reid said. For now, he is not sure “exactly what I’m going to do yet with the president’s jobs bill,” especially since some of Reid’s own Democrats, such as Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Jim Webb of Virginia, seem ho-hum about Obama’s $447 billion Stimulus Jr.
While House Republicans adopted a budget last April 15, the Democratic Senate has not approved a budget since April 29, 2009. This Democratic inaction seems to violate the U.S. Congressional Budget Act, which requires passage of an annual budget resolution. Indeed, the Senate rejected Obama’s budget in May by a vote of 0 to 97 — with every Democrat in the chamber voting nay.
Obama can disagree with every piece of paper passed by the GOP House. But when he slyly bashes Republicans by accusing “this Congress” of “doing nothing,” he simply is lying through his teeth. If Obama wants the entire Congress to get something done, he should tell Harry Reid to wake up and do his job.
Conservative Columnist Defends His Party
ok, what exactly has the Repgu House passed ?
and how many appointments have the Repugs blocked?
do nothing (remember, Repugs hate governing) and obstructionist fit very well.
Am I to understand that any conservative article is false in your opinion?
In my opinion, this one exists to defend the columnists party.
And you're a liar.
Or incredibly stupid.
Or both.
Just because the news doesn't cover it, congress manages to get several things done still. Maybe you should go to Thomas and click one of the left column links led "Yesterday in Congress" on a daily basis and see all the entries, and follow some of the links.
The main point of this article seems to be that the House is masturbating much faster and harder than the Senate.
In fairness the congress should be termed the Do Nothing That Matters congress.
@ counting procedural votes as a sign of getting things done.
Good article, Darrin.
oh eff it
Passing bills without talking and compromising for their passage is not legislating. It's effectively a waste of time.
Barry is spot on that Congress (and not just the House) is a do-nothing branch of the government right now.
Hey Repugs, back atcha:
"What about the jobs?"
not a single "serious" Repug proposal about job creation after they get in power, but they beat on Barry about in the 2010 election. nada.
budget-cutting is just the opposite, pro-cyclical, not counter-cyclical.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 09-26-2011 at 02:54 PM.
"Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud." -Deroy Murdock
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23199
WC- The commentator is black though. That is a much more legitimate concern by your standards, right?
Yep. There's bipartisan agreement that gridlock is preferrable to risking one side or the other getting to take credit should one of their ideas actually make it into law and the economy gets better. It's pathetic.
I second this. With today's political climate of "We are 100% right, they are 100% wrong" giving any credit to the other party is seen as potential hurdles in election campaigns. It's disgusting our leaders have gotten to this point. Looking good to your base has now replaced doing what is best for the country.
Parliamentary procedure is asinine. Almost as bad as that the cons ution in no way addressing the existence of political parties that dominate the landscape beyond setting up pay scales for ther leadership.In fairness the congress should be termed the Do Nothing That Matters congress.
Good article, Darrin.
We need a fundamental change in how our leaders are selected.
More disgusting is that there's still over a year until the election. These ers won't do for people that need help now. Everything rushed and at the last minute and with the seemingly inevitable scoff. Truly disgusting stuff.
Obama has been an awesome president.
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