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Home Front: Politix
First 100 Days: At Least There's Sound and Fury
2007-04-13
The House Republicans have released a report on the First 100 Days of the Democratic Congress, concluding that Democrats have accomplished little legislatively. Partisan Democrats will argue that this is not a surprise, given that they have narrow majorities and a president in opposition. They'll argue that it's unfair to expect much in such circumstances.
But one might still expect them to vote on bills and send a few to the president, right? Well, not even that is happening.
It's much more important to posture and take taxpayer funded junkets. and suck up to the lobyists. And Bash the Republicans.
Look at the list of priorities--the 'Six for 06' that the Democrats campaigned on. They promised to implement all recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Leaving aside that they dropped completely the Congressional reform component, the measure still has not been sent to the president. Do they regard it as a priority or not?
Oh, look! 8 Federal Prosecutors were fired! We must have an Investigation! And the Tillman friendly fire accident, we HAVE to investigate and point fingers! The Spinach Farmers who poisoned hundreds must be compensated for theit loss!
Won't somebody think of the sugar beets™?
Raising the minimum wage has majority support in both the House and Senate--yet it still has not been sent to the president. The same is true of stem cell research. Legislation to change the interest rate on student loans, change the Medicare prescription-drug plan, and implement 'a comprehensive energy policy' have not even been voted on in the Senate.
The fate of the Free World is at stake but first we must repay the ones who got us elected first.
Further, though it was not included in the 'Six for 06,' Congressional Democrats spoke constantly about the need to clean up Washington. But while the House and Senate have both passed ethics reform bills, there's no sign that there will ever be a conference report to send to the president. Meanwhile, both House and Senate are disregarding provisions of the bills they have passed.
Those provisions don't apply to us, we're inpower now. Besides, that was just a ploy to get elected. You know how Evil those Republicans are!
Despite having accomplished very little, Democrats have been willing to stifle debate, change the rules, and generally go back on campaign promises. It's night and day from the first 100 days of the Republican Congress in 1995 (which also faced a narrow majority and an opposition President).
Anyone who thought the Democrats were anything but lying, self-serving weasels is a fool. But then again, the Republicans don't have a good record, either. The difference in the two weasels is the Republicans (for the most part) do want to confront the evil of Islam.
Note that I have not touched upon the substance of the bills the Democrats are pushing. There's plenty of room for criticism on the merits of their legislation. I'd encourage you to read the report prepared by the House Republicans, which looks in detail at the substance of the agenda.
To see for yourself the 17 bills that have been signed into law this year, click here. Nine of the seventeen are bills to rename post offices and courthouses, which appears to be a bipartisan process--one of them is the 'Rush Hudson Limbaugh Courthouse.'
We should give some credit to Captain Ed, who presaged this report the other day.
Whether Democrat, Republican, or Other we, as the governed, need to hold our Legislators feet to the fire over their failure to uphold their campaign promises.
Posted by:Deacon Blues

#1  Partisan Democrats will argue that this is not a surprise, given that they have narrow majorities

pardon me? Doesn't this conflict with the National Mandate™ they received? Are they apologizing for their ineffectual results by saying that it wasn't their fault, it was the voters? Strong stuff. Good times....good times
Posted by: Frank G   2007-04-13 20:51  

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