Paul BoudreauThe Right Breaks My New Years Resolutions
January 24th 2011 04:59
:
Surprise, Surprise, Some People Weren't Listening
Good Evening,
It's late on Sunday night, the Super Bowl teams have been set, and here I am sitting on my couch thinking about New Years Resolutions. As a few of you might recall, on January 3rd I put up a post featuring some resolutions I had hoped would be adopted by our friends in Washington (as well as one for myself, namely to post at least once a week... which means that I have about 51 minutes to finish this post... It's A Race!) These resolutions included ones for the Democrats (fight hard and communicate better), leaders in general (act like leaders and not managers first) and the American people in general (best described in this song).
I also had a couple for the GOP establishment and their TEA Party cohorts. For the GOP I asked
"that they take their responsibilities to govern and work for the people seriously, do not bow to partisan pressure to simply obstruct the Democratic agenda over working towards meaningful solutions, and engage in a realistic conversation with their base about moving the country forward".
And the TEA Party people? I was hoping to see them
"learn to think long term, step back from their principles and compromise for the good of their country, and remember that they are representatives of the nation, not voices for parochial interest groups whose concerns may or may not be in the best interest of the populace as a whole".
Well it's been about three weeks since I expressed those hopes, among the others. A lot has happened, including the unfortunate shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, President Hu's pilgrimage, and both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady getting knocked out of the playoffs by Rex Ryan's Jets (disclosure: I am not a Jets fan. I just happen to live with a Colts fan and two Patriots fans, so it was fun to watch. My Redskins this year, however, were not fun to watch. But I digress).
I have to say, though, that I do not appreciate the fact that John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Eric Cantor Et Al. have decided to ignore my pleas for comity moving forward. You would think they didn't read my blog or something! (Another disclosure: I know they don't read my blog). In the week since coming back into session following the recess they instituted to allow for the honouring of the victims of the Tuscon Shootings they have already managed to completely disabuse me of any notion that they were in any way, shape, or form ready to come to the table in a constructive manner. First there was the long awaited, and completely irrelevant repeal of Health Care Reform in the House. I say irrelevant because, as the linked Slate piece by David Weigel points out, "health care repeal [will die] in the Senate", as evidenced by this quote from Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's office:
ÃÂNot only would repeal not pass, but according to a poll by AP over the weekend, three out of four people donÃÂt want it to,ÃÂ Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. ÃÂWhy? Because full repeal means raising taxes on small businesses, reopening the Medicare donut hole, and putting insurance companies back in charge of your health care.ÃÂ
Pretty definitive. But the House GOP leadership, with enthusiastic TEA Party and big business support, went ahead and did it anyways. And proceeded to waste valuable time and energy in terms of both the national debate (we are now going to continue talking about health care until 2012 anyways) and the legislative process, with the four House Committees involved in the law's administration now being directed to review, design and prepare to present new legislation to replace the Act, essentially restarting the process after two long years, just as the first pieces of the legislation are beginning to come into play. And all of this, not to sound repetitive or anything, but IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THE LAW WILL NOT BE REPEALED. The Senate will not vote on in, President Obama will not sign a repeal. It's DOA. However, with the big, partisan show for the TEA Party done and out of the way, you would think that the time has come for the Republicans to turn to the President and say "Alright, we've shown our muscle, we've done the partisan thing... now lets get down to the business of fixing the economy and creating jobs!" It was what they got elected on, correct? They care so much about jobs that they even called H.R. 2 the "Repeal of the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act". So you would think that their next priority would be moving right on to a jobs bill, or tax reform, or entitlement reform, or anything to do with the economy in general. Well, that would be wishful thinking. As Dana Milbank details in the WaPo:
The morning after the House voted to repeal the health-care law, Speaker John Boehner walked into a TV studio in the Capitol complex to announce his next act: "a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions across all federal programs."
It "reflects the will of the people," Boehner proclaimed. "It's one of our highest legislative priorities."
That's right folks, rather than attempting to move forward, the Republicans are going back to attempting to use funding cuts to re-litigate Roe V. Wade.
I am a little discouraged.
I am, however, not very surprised.
Tomorrow I'll be putting up a couple of posts, namely one I've been working on in my TEA Party Series, and one on filibuster reform which, it appears, is not going to take place.
I would also like to direct any readers out there who are, like myself, feeling a little over Palin-ed to this article by Dana Milbank. I haven't quite decided whether or not to take the Palin-Pledge here at A Political Mind for February (unlike Dana I don't have the advantage of a nationally syndicated newspaper column to drive traffic... Sarah Palin is a valuable commodity to attract viewers), but I admire the idea and think that if everyone just ignored her, maybe she'd stay in Alaska. She loves it there apparently.
Anyways folks, that's it for tonight.
and with two minutes to spare.
Cheers,
PSRB
It's late on Sunday night, the Super Bowl teams have been set, and here I am sitting on my couch thinking about New Years Resolutions. As a few of you might recall, on January 3rd I put up a post featuring some resolutions I had hoped would be adopted by our friends in Washington (as well as one for myself, namely to post at least once a week... which means that I have about 51 minutes to finish this post... It's A Race!) These resolutions included ones for the Democrats (fight hard and communicate better), leaders in general (act like leaders and not managers first) and the American people in general (best described in this song).
I also had a couple for the GOP establishment and their TEA Party cohorts. For the GOP I asked
"that they take their responsibilities to govern and work for the people seriously, do not bow to partisan pressure to simply obstruct the Democratic agenda over working towards meaningful solutions, and engage in a realistic conversation with their base about moving the country forward".
And the TEA Party people? I was hoping to see them
"learn to think long term, step back from their principles and compromise for the good of their country, and remember that they are representatives of the nation, not voices for parochial interest groups whose concerns may or may not be in the best interest of the populace as a whole".
Well it's been about three weeks since I expressed those hopes, among the others. A lot has happened, including the unfortunate shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, President Hu's pilgrimage, and both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady getting knocked out of the playoffs by Rex Ryan's Jets (disclosure: I am not a Jets fan. I just happen to live with a Colts fan and two Patriots fans, so it was fun to watch. My Redskins this year, however, were not fun to watch. But I digress).
I have to say, though, that I do not appreciate the fact that John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Eric Cantor Et Al. have decided to ignore my pleas for comity moving forward. You would think they didn't read my blog or something! (Another disclosure: I know they don't read my blog). In the week since coming back into session following the recess they instituted to allow for the honouring of the victims of the Tuscon Shootings they have already managed to completely disabuse me of any notion that they were in any way, shape, or form ready to come to the table in a constructive manner. First there was the long awaited, and completely irrelevant repeal of Health Care Reform in the House. I say irrelevant because, as the linked Slate piece by David Weigel points out, "health care repeal [will die] in the Senate", as evidenced by this quote from Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's office:
ÃÂNot only would repeal not pass, but according to a poll by AP over the weekend, three out of four people donÃÂt want it to,ÃÂ Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. ÃÂWhy? Because full repeal means raising taxes on small businesses, reopening the Medicare donut hole, and putting insurance companies back in charge of your health care.ÃÂ
Pretty definitive. But the House GOP leadership, with enthusiastic TEA Party and big business support, went ahead and did it anyways. And proceeded to waste valuable time and energy in terms of both the national debate (we are now going to continue talking about health care until 2012 anyways) and the legislative process, with the four House Committees involved in the law's administration now being directed to review, design and prepare to present new legislation to replace the Act, essentially restarting the process after two long years, just as the first pieces of the legislation are beginning to come into play. And all of this, not to sound repetitive or anything, but IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THE LAW WILL NOT BE REPEALED. The Senate will not vote on in, President Obama will not sign a repeal. It's DOA. However, with the big, partisan show for the TEA Party done and out of the way, you would think that the time has come for the Republicans to turn to the President and say "Alright, we've shown our muscle, we've done the partisan thing... now lets get down to the business of fixing the economy and creating jobs!" It was what they got elected on, correct? They care so much about jobs that they even called H.R. 2 the "Repeal of the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act". So you would think that their next priority would be moving right on to a jobs bill, or tax reform, or entitlement reform, or anything to do with the economy in general. Well, that would be wishful thinking. As Dana Milbank details in the WaPo:
The morning after the House voted to repeal the health-care law, Speaker John Boehner walked into a TV studio in the Capitol complex to announce his next act: "a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions across all federal programs."
It "reflects the will of the people," Boehner proclaimed. "It's one of our highest legislative priorities."
That's right folks, rather than attempting to move forward, the Republicans are going back to attempting to use funding cuts to re-litigate Roe V. Wade.
I am a little discouraged.
I am, however, not very surprised.
Tomorrow I'll be putting up a couple of posts, namely one I've been working on in my TEA Party Series, and one on filibuster reform which, it appears, is not going to take place.
I would also like to direct any readers out there who are, like myself, feeling a little over Palin-ed to this article by Dana Milbank. I haven't quite decided whether or not to take the Palin-Pledge here at A Political Mind for February (unlike Dana I don't have the advantage of a nationally syndicated newspaper column to drive traffic... Sarah Palin is a valuable commodity to attract viewers), but I admire the idea and think that if everyone just ignored her, maybe she'd stay in Alaska. She loves it there apparently.
Anyways folks, that's it for tonight.
and with two minutes to spare.
Cheers,
PSRB
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