(I am posting before my coffee, so this might be silly.)
President Obama ought to call Congress back is session telling the GOP, “We cannot wait for the next election, we need the House and Senate to pass, and me to sign the Republicans’ plan to balance the budget, cut the government and restore the economy. If the majority of Republicans pass something, I will get the Democratic votes needed to make it law.”
I would suspect that when push comes to shove, the GOP has no idea what they want to do. Let’s see.
I know that Mr. Obama’s strategy is to try everything he can to engage the GOP and establish some sort of reasonable bipartisan dialogue, but seriously I don’t think this is going to ever work with the current opposition party and with the Democrats running scared.
I can only hope that once the GOP has retaken the House that we will finally get something resembling a working Congress. What we have right now is just amazingly dysfunctional, and I do not blame Mr Obama. That would be too simple. I do blame Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid for acting in such a cowardly fashion.
But that is a pipe dream.
As an aside, in your opinions, fellow Dopers, would Congress be more effective if the GOP were in charge? Do you think that if the Senate and House were GOP majority that the GOP leadership would start to actually, uh, lead the dang country?
Or do you think they will continue to act like they have and play the political game so that they have a chance of getting a GOP to replace the current POTUS?
No, they’d pass legislation, but it would be regressive. Then they’d go on Fox to demand that the Dem President sign it.
The problem right now, however, is that the president is trying to pass Republican-style bills and failing because they’re filibustering their own ideas.
The cap-and-trade policy that conservatives are now painting as liberal extremism was proposed by Republicans in the 90s and promoted by McCain / Palin in 2008. Nowadays, Palin is attacking any government involvement in energy and McCain’s jumped aboard the crazy train to get re-elected.
The healthcare legislation that Republicans said was “socialism” was also modeled largely on their own proposals in the 90s, and their passage of it in Massachusetts. Charles Grassley, who claimed in 2009 that the individual mandate was “unconstitutional,” was the person who first proposed it in the 90s.
Or take small business loans. Republicans wanted the government to help small businesses by diverting TARP money to community banks. The Democrats and Obama back it. Now, the Republicans are filibustering it.
If they get back in power, the Republicans would do a repeat of the Clinton hearings, only worse. There would be hearings about whether Obama is a Muslim, hearings about whether he is an American citizen, hearings about ACORN, hearings about every liberal (or allegedly liberal) organization Glenn Beck named, etc.
So, yeah, they’ll do stuff, but it will be pernicious and completely against the country’s interests. Well, 98% of the country anyway.
You are missing the point The GOP has no plan that would balance the budget. The budget cuts required to do so without tax hikes would be draconian. Touching SS would be suicide, plus it would have zero, zilch, nada effect on the deficit. It would show the GOP as a bunch of lieing asswipes.
If that wasn’t a rhetorical question…it has nothing to do with the demonstration (they’ve already convinced a considerable swath of the populace that they are the brave vanguard against encroaching tyranny), and everything to do with rewarding their corporate paymasters. Not only would privatizing SS further erode the public sector, you can be sure the process would dump trillions in the coffers of Wall St–to be played and gambled with by Goldman Sachs.
I don’t know whether this will actually happen, but it’s a distinct possibility precisely because of Obama’s determination for compromise.
The problem is, they may not have any plan that will balance the budget, but they have a plan that they say will balance the budget, and they’ve somehow convinced a bunch of folks to believe them.
Right. But the very focus on the deficit distracts from the real problem, which is jobs. America’s trade deficit is significant and should be reduced, but that would mean recognizing the destruction of unions and the manufacturing sector–something that conservatives are loath to discuss, because it points to the central problem of “free trade.”
Well, at least you’re not suggesting that he drop two nukes on Japan…
Be careful what you wish for. The Republicans come up with something, and Obam will not be able to get the Democrats to support it. And if by some chance he did, that would just prove that the Democrats in Congress can’t get anything done, and we might as well put the Republicans in charge.
I think that if the GOP becomes the majority party in either or both chambers, you’ll see the Democrats playing the same obstructionist games the GOP has played since 2006. Why not? People don’t actually care about process or filibusters or whatever, they care about results and if the Democrats can keep the GOP from producing any results then they can use the “See? They wanted back in power and for what?” line.
Senator Coburn (R-OK) said a week or so ago that if the GOP retakes Congress and can’t produce, it’ll kill the Republican Party. Expect lots of filibusters and party-line votes in the coming years.
You don’t really want to do that. Enough Americans have been bamboozled by the teabaggers that there’s a real chance the country might enthusiastically embrace a scary plan, as long as it scared them in ways they’re used to being scared.