Republicans back into a corner - way, way back

[bigtree]

Saturday, March 6, 2010

by Gene Lyons

Let's get one thing straight, as the nation's esteemed TV news networks appear determined to obscure simple facts for ratings-building melodrama. The U.S. Senate has already passed the Obama administration's health care reforms by a filibuster-proof majority. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi can persuade a majority of House Democrats to pass the Senate bill, that's the ballgame. There's nothing complicated about it.

All this scare talk about Democrats using the ``nuclear option'' or launching a ``kamikaze mission'' is the crudest kind of partisan propaganda. Using the Senate's reconciliation process to make fiscal changes to a bill already passed was standard operating procedure under President Bush. It's grimly amusing watching Senate Republicans, who spent years telling Democrats to get over the suspect 2000 presidential election, now pitching hissy fits over the prospect of a simple majority vote.

How many times did Vice President Dick Cheney emerge from his Fortress of Solitude to break 50-50 tie votes in the Senate? Eight times. As Paul Krugman points out, the Bush administration used reconciliation twice to pass tax cuts for tycoons, increasing the national debt by $1.8 trillion.

To anyone whose sense of history extends beyond last week, what's truly radical is the Republican Party's effort to annul the 2008 election results by using the Senate filibuster to prevent the Democratic majority from passing anything of substance. Last year, they forced a record 112 cloture votes. The total two months into 2010 is already 40, a rate that puts them on pace to triple the previous record.

In the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Depression, the GOP has chosen to paralyze government in the hope of blaming the Obama White House and Democratic Congress for getting nothing done . . .


more: http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2010/03/06/b_opinions/10036805.txt

[tridim]

1. K&R, Every DUer needs to read this.

[BeFree]

3. Yep

...especially those that, unintentionally, are helping the pubbies to come out of the corner.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "More tax cuts for tycoons." - Republicon Homelanders

"We never want to pass up an opportunity to get our message out to you American proles. You will benefit big time -- Smirk -- by supporting More Tax Cuts for Republicon Tycoons. Smirk."

- Republicon Homelanders

[dysfunctional press]

4. "in the hope of blaming the Obama White House and Democratic Congress for getting nothing done"

and their cohorts in the national media will see to it that it's done.

[Sub Atomic]

5. Recommended.

Supposedly, the Founding Fathers were all about rugged, Ayn Rand-style individualism. Americans abhorred alien concepts like ``community'' until the proto-Marxist Bull Moose Party introduced them.

Seriously, that's what Beck tells his millions of viewers. Evidently, his copy of the U.S. Constitution lacks a preamble. You know, the part that goes, ``We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty ... ``

``We the people''? ``General welfare''? What were they, a bunch of pinkos?


:lmao::lmao::lmao:

[MoonRiver]

6. Just get er done

K&R

[Champion Jack]

8. Just get er done with 51

[KansDem]

7. K&R!!!

The "nuclear option"/reconciliation "argument" is a travesty and should never have taken place! GOPers and the media should know better!

[TexasProgresive]

9. Their mantra was-UP or DOWN - UP or DOWN n/t

[bigtree]

10. yep

Republicans employed the same procedure to pass major Bush agenda items:

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts HR 1836, 3/26/01
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts HR 2, 3/23/03
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 HR 4297, 5/11/06
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05

A list of instances where reconciliation was implemented:

Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981
Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1983
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
Balanced Budget Act of 1995 (vetoed)
Personal Responsibility and Budget Reconciliation Act of 1996
Balanced Budget Act of 1997
Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act of 1999 (vetoed)
Marriage Tax Relief Act of 2000 (vetoed)
Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/24/budget-reconciliation/

I think the 'up or down' mantra came from the Supreme Court nominations; Roberts, etc.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

11. Call out the repubs now

Party of no way to all things Dem