2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe mass media needs to be reminded of the number of major laws BLOCKED by the GOP, because
Last edited Wed Sep 9, 2015, 06:39 PM - Edit history (5)
if the mass media insists there is no time for governing because "the campaign season has begun" 14 months before Election Day, then they can not also insist we all have amnesia about what happens when elected government tries to govern and the GOP is allowed any power at all.....nothing gets done but failed attempts at abortion and corporate giveaway laws.
And now the whining from Republicans is the mean Democrats will filibuster the Iran peace deal resolution of disapproval?:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/bills-blocked-by-republican-filibusters
Bills Blocked by Republican Filibusters - Senator Bernie Sanders (partial list)
Bills Blocked by Republican Filibusters
Friday, November 22, 2013
Here is a list of bills that would have passed the Senate if it weren't for Republcians requiring a 60-vote threshold.
113th Congress:
Manchin-Toomey Background Checks
Vote: 54-46
Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013
Vote: 51-49
Would keep the interest rate of subsidized federal student loans at 3.4% for another year
Student Loan Affordability Act
Vote: 51-46
Would keep the interest rate of subsidized federal student loans at 3.4% for two years.
Sequestration replacement
Vote: 51-49
Would postpone the sequester until Jan 2, 2014
Required millionaires to pay at least a 30% tax rate
112th Congress
Bring Jobs Home Act
Vote: 56-42
Would grant businesses a tax credit for eliminating a business outside the US and relocating it in the US
Would deny businesses a tax deduction for outsourcing expenses related to outsourcing a business
Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act
Vote: 53-44
Gives small businesses a tax credit if their 2012 payrolls were higher than their 2011 payrolls
Paycheck Fairness Act
Vote: 52-47
Requires employers to prove differences in pay are not gender-related
Would allow employees to discuss salaries without retaliation, and allows government to collect data on women workers to better evaluate the wage gap
DISCLOSE Act
Vote: 51-44; reconsidered 53-45
Requires corporations, super PACs, labor unions, and other groups to disclose donors who give in excess of $10,000 for political contributions
Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012
Vote: 51-45
Requires millionaires to pay a 30% minimum tax rate
Expresses the Sense of the Senate that tax reform should repeal unfair loopholes and expenditures and make sure the wealthiest taxpayers pay a fair share of taxes
Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act
Vote: 51-47
Extends tax credits for energy efficient residences, electric vehicles, and other alternative forms of energy including wind facilities
Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011
Vote: 50-50
Allocates grants to states to help them rehire teachers and others working in educational support
.................
Google any search terms for this kind of list and the top item is the Bernie Sanders site giving this information which was surprising given how well known the record GOP filibuster insanity is to the public......or is it??.....mass amnesia about the history of GOP anti-common sense reforms is no friend to anyone but the GOP and, apparently, the mass media.
Which is why I opted to put this in GD/Primaries........because the mass media has to be made a common enemy of all the Democratic Party candidates, and consistently and in unison criticized. The disintegration and homogenization of a mass media controlled by a handful of only white men controlling only five mass media corporations has to be a campaign issue as well. In the media manufactured primary season run up to the real campaign season who will watch the Watchmen?
Who will be the first to be brave enough to say what they are thinking out loud, and, as importantly, be able to withstand the guaranteed hurricane of fury from the same media!?
Clinton or Sanders?
Or both, together?
And consider this. How many times does Bernie Sanders have to be asked to attack Hillary Clinton by the mass media on-air puppets and be told to fuck off before they do?
How many times does Hillary Clinton have to be asked about bGazhi and bMail by the same mass media on-air puppets and be told to fuck off before they do?
This is a common enemy that has to be fought with the same passion as folks seem to be fighting each other. This common enemy will be the first to report on Democratic Party in-fighting long before and way much more than the already clearly disintegrating GOP due to current massive in-fighting.
If one Party of Two goes down in flames in 2016 then so does the promise of a torrential downpour of Citizen's United money, a last chance life preserver for the already barely financially viable traditional mass media...2016 is about survival for them and the GOP.
40x the usual ad rates for CNN and their political propaganda production - even CNN is promoting their big money-making production more as a monster truck rally than a "debate" - for and on behalf of the GOP.....so CU is paying off already.
But not for you, and not for me, and not for a functioning democracy.