Obama: Republicans Must Be Embarrassed For Having Done So Little
Source: TPM
DANIEL STRAUSS DECEMBER 5, 2013, 7:05 PM EST
Republican lawmakers have to be embarrassed with how little they've accomplished in Congress, President Barack Obama said in an interview with MSNBC Hardball's Chris Matthews.
In the interview which aired Thursday night, Obama said the only thing that's stopping Congress from passing a major immigration reform bill are House Republicans. He went on to say that Republicans are probably ashamed that they've accomplished so little over the past few years in Congress.
"And I actually think there are a bunch of Republicans who want to get stuff done. I-- they've gotta be embarrassed," Obama said. "Because the truth of the matter is is that they-- they've now been in charge of-- of the House of Representatives-- one branch or one chamber in one branch of government for a couple of years now. And they just don't have a lot to show for it."
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-republicans-must-be-embarrassed-with-having-done-so-little
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Liberalynn
(7,549 posts)They have none.
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)他们是什么东西? This is an insult in Chinese.
Kablooie
(18,572 posts)They want small government and not allowing government to do anything is about as small as you can get.
dballance
(5,756 posts)Before I get into my post let me assure you I despise Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, McConnell, Graham, Cruz, Paul, Aoyette, et al. I despise their politics that are so openly partisan.
Now, having said that, there is merit to their argument that congress should not necessarily just be a manufacturing line of bills to be passed into law. Using the number of bills passed by a congress is not the proper metric; in my opinion. We all know that bills, which get passed into law, often - very often - have unintended and, even, opposite consequences from what they were trying to effect. So just shooting laws out the end of the line is not really the proper thing for OUR legislators to do.
Thoughtful legislation should be what the congress passes - yes, that is an oxymoron these days. It is sad that any thoughtful and beneficial legislation is, therefore, being obstructed by the GOP House and, also, the President's completely constitutional right to make law through Executive Orders is being challenged. That does not, as some have said, undermine the "checks and balances" of our system. The Congress is free to pass bills that reverse Executive Orders and the Judiciary is free to find them unconstitutional upon review.
If congress did nothing but pass just a few bills that had a positive impact on jobs, infrastructure, health and education during its session that would be fine, again, in my opinion. I'm okay with the concept of them not legislating everything in business or our lives - like contraception. I have my own Libertarian and GOP streaks from time to time.
Now, however, you see where I would turn the debate. I would turn it on the responsibility of our legislators to pursue beneficial legislation - BOTH Dem and GOP. Defining "beneficial" is not so difficult as one might think. A bill that is beneficial to corporations at the expense of the citizens is not a beneficial bill for our Republic. Simple math and economics formulas and environmental impact studies could point this out. I would argue that I agree FEWER bills are okay with the caveat that the fewer bills should allow our legislators to undertake greater concerns in a substantive measure. Substance and quality over raw quantity has usually won out in the long-term in our "free-market" society.
Unfortunately, none of what I believe fits easily into a 30-second lead-in to a one or two-minute "news" story. Nor does it "tweet" well in 140 characters or less. These "short-attention-span" benchmarks are now the standard for delivering "news" to people who, constantly, have their finger on the change-channel/internet-forum buttons of today's life. Who, in the USA, are more concerned with where they can get their next latte rather than how they can be citizens and effect a good government.
democrank
(11,052 posts)I think they`re proud they did nothing.
Cha
(295,929 posts)it's entirely appropriate for the President to act like they should. lol
The repubs have [font size=21pt]ZERO[/font] to show for their jobs.
thanks DV
sheshe2
(83,357 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Blue Owl
(49,939 posts)tanyev
(42,363 posts)santamargarita
(3,170 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)Hand brakes on the train of progress, which they have determined must never leave the station.
They're winning.
Martin Eden
(12,805 posts)Where there is nothing but certitude or obeisance to corporate masters, there is no shame.