You really think President Obama is going to let a Rand Paul have his way? [View All]

[bigtree]

There's no effin' way that this Democratic President is going to let any of this extreme republican crowd get it's way with their batshit crazy extreme agenda. The nuts in the republican party are going to have more influence to make their nutty ideas the staple of their party's agenda. They'll put their wackiness ahead of the public's business and the republican party will be defined by the weirdos they've managed to elect.

It looks like we're going to hold the Senate and we've elected some good folks, but it's still going to be a gateway for parts of the conservative agenda; much of it passing with some of our Democrats holding the door open. That's not a new thing, but it makes the Senate a bit less certain as a wall against what the House produces - and the nuttiness that will come out of there if republicans are in control . . .

That makes puts the President in a familiar role for Democrats, as the last barrier against the republicans' extreme - and this cycle, nutty - right-wing agenda. The republicans are going to come out of the gate with absolutely no new ideas for solving the problems Americans face; nothing other than their promise to put a halt to the progress that's been made unraveling the mess their party left behind the last time they controlled the agenda.

There will not be ANY significant rollback of the President's health reform law. The republicans can drag their feet on appropriations for portions of the emerging reforms, but when many of its provisions kick in early next year, it will be like trying to take away medicare or social security. They're playing with life and death when they snip and grab at health benefits for their political gratification.

Moreover, the President is going to be standing in their way with his veto pen. After one or two, they modify their priorities and tire of pushing bills just to see them thrown back at them. It's still a bleak prognosis for any real progress on the issues that we all care about, but we still have a democratic President in place to bar these republican nuts from littering the landscape with their extremely nutty agenda.