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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Inauguration Day Madman
January 31, 2009
Speed Bumps and how the GOP Gets Back to Power
We now know how the Republican Party plans to get back to the seat of power. It
will require the failure of any Democratic proposal towards fixing our nation's
ills - the ills left to us by that very same GOP during the Bush years; and a
type of conspiracy which will have each and every Republican in the House of
Representatives choose to vote against those Democratic bills to create
party-line divisions which should be visible from outer space
Today, as some Democratic Representatives from across the nation voted against
the new Economic Recovery Package which new President Barack Obama is
supporting, not one Republican Congressman or woman crossed the aisle to offer
support.
So much for the spirit of bipartisanship.
Voting against this bill is a vote against helping America get back on its feet,
whether it was made only for partisan purposes or not. For example, in this bill
are provisions for helping Americans pay for health care. When workers are laid
off, they lose more than their jobs - they lose their health care coverage. It
doesn't matter whether that former employee is sick or healthy; or if they have
a child in a wheelchair; or a spouse receiving chemotherapy, they stand to lose
everything they have left if the need to see a doctor for a big-ticket injury or
illness becomes necessary
A "Nay" vote last week meant "nay" to even the slimmest of hopes that these
people could still receive their health care and not loose everything.
All the while we hear the GOP talk about tax cuts, we also hear them say how the
policies of FDR which most credit with helping us out of the Great Depression
were actually harmful. Their argument was that only World War II got us out of
our economic doldrums back then. Using that logic, the President Bush should
have presided over the greatest economy in our nation's history. After all, two
wars (Iraq AND Afghanistan) lasting nearly twice the amount of time of World War
II trumps one war, doesn't it?
But what the Republican leaders of the House and Senate; the talking heads on
Fox News Channel; and the Hate Mongers on Hate-Radio either don't get, or don't
want to admit, is that FDR's and the Democratic Congress which entered office
with him, created jobs, and they were real jobs that employed and empowered real
people.
You can't measure the kind of confidence that builds in people when they work,
and it's what it will build today.
The partisanship is obvious. Although not one Republican member of Congress
voted for the bill, the Republican Governor's association is heavily for it.
While some express "concern" as to the conditions of the bill and worry about
how their state will pay off loans to the Federal government, even the
staunchest of GOP executives say they will accept the money, and they're doing
so as they belittle the bill. While Governor Bobby Jindal (LA) said he wouldn't
have voted for the bill had he still been a US Congressman, hw still welcomes
the cash that comes with its passage. So will Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
who had this to say:
"Yes, we need some help and we appreciate the help, but I don't know about the
details and the strings attached to tell you if I'll take all of it or not."
-Barbour
Something tells me you'll take it, Governor Barbour.
The most obvious of the GOP executive hypocrites it Minnesota Governor Tim
Pawlenty, a front-runner to face President Obama in 2012:
"States have to balance their budgets," he said. "So if we're going to go down
this path, we are entitled to ask for our share of the money...I'm quite
concerned about the federal government spending money it doesn't have. We're on
an unsustainable path of deficit spending and borrowing."
-Pawlenty
What the GOP Governors won't tell you, however, is that as they call out
President Obama and the Congressional Democrats for pushing this bill through
they, themselves, are calling into the offices of Senate Republicans in order to
get them on board, or at least not filibuster their bill which would allow for
compromise and, finally, passage.
Even Governor Sarah Palin was going to meet with Senate Minority leader Mitch
McConnell (KY) to talk him into not opposing the bill.
The Recovery bill to the GOP Governors is a lifeline as it could be to all
Americans. To the DC Republicans it's no more than a political football and
they're waiting on a fumble. Unlike the $700 billion offered up to bail out the
financial industry, this money is earmarked for regular Americans.
So how could the House and Senate GOP ever support it?
-Noah Greenberg
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-Noah Greenberg