I'm shocked that so many do not understand that President Obama is dealing with a co-equal branch.

[CK_John]

Also, even if the senate votes tonight the package will have go to conference to work out the difference and be voted on again.

This has been an excellent lesson in how government really works.

[biopowertoday]

1. well said. thank you.

[HOLOS]

11. DITTO!!

[Aviation Pro]

2. The citizenry have been indoctrinated over the last eight years....

...to believe that the President is the boss of Congress. This is what happens when civics is not taught in grade school.

[BootinUp]

3. What we are seeing

is what happens when a campaign is not based on specific campaign proposals. There is little incentive for the opposition to go along with policies that weren't highlighted in the campaign. This is not all Obamas fault as the crisis developed right at the end of his campaign, but it is one of the gripes I had with his primary campaign in general.

[babylonsister]

6. How can you have a gripe about a crisis that hadn't developed yet?

How was that to be incorporated into his primary campaign? A presidency by nature has to be fluid as do the solutions. I think the team assembled by Obama speaks volumes once he knew what he was up against.

[leftstreet]

4. But...but...Obama is the Unitary Executive

Bush was!

[rufus dog]

5. Why?

Senate and House Repubs were on TV yesterday saying Obama should have drafted the stimulus package and sent it up to the Hill.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. A co-equal branch... run by his party.

Major changes to legislation he proposes should not be necessary.

[ncteechur]

10. You don't have the votes in the senate. It takes 60 which we don't have.

The senate will almost always result in compromise.

[JeffreyWilliamson]

15. But that's the problem, it doesn't take 60 to pass a bill...

It only takes 60 to end debate. The Republicans have gotten very comfortable using the *threat* of keeping that debate open to get whatever they want. As a result, they are trotting out that threat with each and every bill that is presented.

This is no way to govern. Politics can be a dirty sport sometimes. These guys were very dirty to us over the last few years when they were in charge. We threatened to filibuster, they lowered the threshold to end debate. We sought meeting space, they cut the lights and put us in the basement. We wanted genuine debate, they painted us as traitors.

We're not that dirty, but we do deserve to call them out for their little stunts. And this filibuster stunt needs to be called out now. This stimulus bill was too important to hand them the editing pen over an empty threat. A real filibuster would have never happened--enough of them come up for re-election in 2010. It was an empty threat, and with it they have gotten everything they wanted.

[Thrill]

12. This isn't the Republican Party. The Democrats in the Senate have to deal with very conservative

Democrats. Who are much like Republicans.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. People have suffered too much and are pretty angry - forget the government function

Our country has never been in such bad shape as after these 30 years of Republican ideology being king.

Also, we Dems have to get rid of the DLC, right wing Dems. They contributed to the disaster we're living through.

[WinkyDink]

9. Well, there's always Signing Statements!

[JeffreyWilliamson]

13. It's not the co-equal thing that's the problem...

It's our party's ineffectual leadership on that co-equal branch that is. Everyone respects that Congress is it's own equal branch, we just have a hard time with our very large majority being railroaded by a very small minority courtesy of our spineless leadership. The Republicans think that the Presidency is the boss of the other branches--our side just expects more of the leaders of each branch, especially when they are from our own party.

Obama doesn't set the agenda in Congress, that's no longer his branch. But he did win a nice mandate on the economy, as did our party in the branch in question. Unfortunately our leadership in that branch thinks it's still in the minority, and caves and cowers thusly. Without proper leadership in that branch there will always be a vacuum--one that I'm sure the Republicans will always be ready and willing to fill.

I'm sure that won't be very helpful to President Obama. Nor does he deserve it.

[CharmCity]

14. Nicely put! Feel free to discuss the reason the Senate exists...

I'm too faint-hearted to bring it up...