# Can the obstructionism end, now, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 7, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250 "2012-11-07T18:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/61 "2012-11-09T20:40:58Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > In 2008 he had all the votes he needed to pass anything he wanted, ACA is proof of that. If that were true it wouldn’t have taken months and months to pass it. > [@](#): > > If tax rates needed to go up Reminder: most people’s taxes were cut. > [@](#): > > why didn’t they do it then? Because they couldn’t get it through Congress! Surprise! Even majorities weren’t enough, and it wasn’t because Democrats were opposed to his ideas. > [@](#): > > Well is the economy any better? Yes. You might recall that when he took office the economy was shrinking and hundreds of thousands of jobs were being lost every month, and now the economy is growing slowly and jobs are being added. And the U.S. is doing much better than Europe, where governments slashed the hell out of their budgets. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/62 "2012-11-09T21:04:51Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > It has to get out of the senate first. That’s been the presidents firewall to contend that it’s a do nothing congress. The house has passed many bills and none have ever come up for a vote in the senate. The sentate is the house of obstruction. This one is different- the Senate has already passed a middle class tax cut- and the House has sat on it for months. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/63 "2012-11-10T00:10:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I eagerly await specifics of president-elect Romney’s plan. You were trying to show that Boehner is open to raising taxes. I showed you that he isn’t (and good for him). That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/64 "2012-11-10T00:33:13Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > You were trying to show that Boehner is open to raising taxes. So was Boehner. 😉 Obama has won two elections while campaigning on the idea of raising these taxes, and the Republicans got no encouragement Tuesday night. Boehner knows that. The deal might include some other tax reforms and that could be a good thing, but those tax increases are going to be part of any kind of deal. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/65 "2012-11-10T00:43:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > So was Boehner. No, Boehner explicitly \*\*said \*\*he isn’t. But then maybe you’re psychic. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/66 "2012-11-10T00:49:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Obama has won two elections while campaigning on the idea of raising these taxes, and the Republicans got no encouragement Tuesday night. Boehner knows that. The deal might include some other tax reforms and that could be a good thing, but those tax increases are going to be part of any kind of deal. And I’d like to address this statement of yours: I wonder, if, for the sake of the argument, Republicans won two elections while campaigning on banning abortions, do you think that in that case Democrats should just vote together with Republicans to ban them? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/67 "2012-11-10T01:07:43Z")
I don’t like arguing by analogy, and that’s a poor analogy. If the situation were reversed and Republicans had won two elections while campaigning on the idea that some tax increases needed to expire, the Democrats would look pretty stupid if they said the results proved that the public wanted the tax increases to be extended. Particularly if they’d spent a couple of years arguing about fiscal responsibility and the Republicans had already agreed to extend some of the tax increases. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/68 "2012-11-10T01:15:42Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I don’t like arguing by analogy, and that’s a poor analogy. You don’t like the analogy because you think that the Republicans’ objection to tax increases is situational and not principled. Try to imagine you’re wrong. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/69 "2012-11-10T01:17:44Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > You don’t like the analogy because you think that the Republicans’ objection to tax increases is situational and not principled. Try to imagine you’re wrong. For once, possibly the only time ever, I agree with what you are saying Terr. If republican members of the house signed a pledge saying they would never increase taxes, and were re-elected on that promise, then they should continue to block any and every attempt to raise taxes. And I’m being sincere when I say that. If that’s what people voted for in their representatives, that’s how their representatives should vote, regardless of how the nation as a whole voted. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/70 "2012-11-10T01:19:20Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > You don’t like the analogy because you think that the Republicans’ objection to tax increases is situational and not principled. That’s what I think of their stance on the deficit, not taxes. But then maybe you’re psychic. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250/71 "2012-11-13T21:39:26Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > If you and I wanted to come to a compromise on a shade of red, you want scarlet I want maroon a compromise would be that we agree on rose. The problem is that Obama wants blue and the Republicans want Red, so Obama came out with a suggestion if purple to which the Republicans refused, so then he went to maroon and the Republicans are still saying no, demanding the shift to Rose. Of course if he did that they would say that he was being partisan for not agreeing to scarlet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-obstructionism-end-now-please/640250.md?page=3)