by Melissa Clouthier | August 3, 2010 12:48 am
You know what I love? I love a do-nothing government. Every time they fix something, another part of my life gets regulated and I either, one, feel like a criminal or, two, want to become one, just out of pure rebellion against all the crappy laws that the lawmakers exempt themselves from. And yes, that sentence should be re-written but so should all the two thousand page bills coming out of Congress and that’s not happening either.
Anyway, some glum Senators says this to the New Yorker’s George Packer[2]:
“This is just one of those days when you want to throw up your hands and say, ‘What in the world are we doing?’ ” Senator Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat, said.
“It’s unconscionable,” Carl Levin, the senior Democratic senator from Michigan, said. “The obstructionism has become mindless.”
The Senators were in the Capitol, sunk into armchairs before the marble fireplace in the press lounge, which is directly behind the Senate chamber. It was four-thirty on a Wednesday afternoon. McCaskill, in a matching maroon jacket and top, looked exasperated; Levin glowered over his spectacles.
“Also, it’s a dumb rule in itself,” McCaskill said. “It’s time we started looking at some of these rules.”
She was referring to Senate Rule XXVI, Paragraph 5, which requires unanimous consent for committees and subcommittees to hold hearings after two in the afternoon while the Senate is in session. Both Levin and McCaskill had scheduled hearings that day for two-thirty. Typically, it wouldn’t be difficult to get colleagues to waive the rule; a general and an admiral had flown halfway around the world to appear before Levin’s Armed Services Committee, and McCaskill’s Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight of the Homeland Security Committee was investigating the training of Afghan police. But this was March 24th, the day after President Barack Obama signed the health-care-reform bill, in a victory ceremony at the White House; it was also the day that the Senate was to vote on a reconciliation bill for health-care reform, approved by the House three nights earlier, which would retroactively remove the new law’s most embarrassing sweetheart deals and complete the yearlong process of passing universal health care. Republicans, who had fought the bill as a bloc, were in no mood to make things easy.
So, four hours earlier, when Levin went to the Senate floor and asked for consent to hold his hearing, Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and a member of Levin’s committee, had refused. “I have no personal objection to continuing,” Burr said. But, he added, “there is objection on our side of the aisle. Therefore, I would have to object.”
Aw, crocodile tears for the Democrats. Where were the long, sad exposés during the last two years of the Bush administration when the Democrats obstructed everything? Yeah. Didn’t happen.
Why on earth should the Republicans play along with Democrats? I mean the story relayed was the day after a piece of legislation was rammed down the throats of both Republicans and the American people and Dems moan about Republicans not playing nice? Newsflash clueless Dems: People STILL hate that piece of crap legislation and if the Republicans are smart, they’ll make your life procedural hell from here ’til forever.
It’s a Democracy. That means people represent their constituents. The Republicans have been firmly on the side of the people since President Obama took office. The Democrats are just pissed off that the people don’t get their innate genius. [Just ask ’em.] They’re ticked that the Republicans aren’t being their typical lily-livered selves–you know the types that roll with a buggy-eyed look from Harry Reid or one of his henchmen. They’re irritated that even with the tender ministrations of a devoted and enthralled press, they still can’t get the electoral love they seek.
So they blame Republican obstructionism. Cry me a river. The best thing that could happen for the American people is if these jokers were thwarted at every turn. And when Republicans get into office, I hope they work to reverse every piece of legislation these yahoos passed. And it will be vetoed. And programs will be defunded. And there will be glorious, magnificent government stagnation. There were will be outraged cries of frustration from the political class, because the world will march on and actually do better and succeed because Congress is worse than useless when it’s accomplishing something. And it will be beautiful.
May nothing happen. Soon.
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