Senate Republicans are just wasting time.
By Thom Hartmann A...
Last night, Republicans in the U.S. Senate stayed up all night to delay a vote on a federal appeals court judge. The vote to approve Judge Nina Pillard happened at 1am, and several other nominations will be considered before the upper chamber leaves for vacation next week. Republicans say that they will delay every vote as long as possible to punish Democrats for the so-called nuclear option, which prevented the filibuster from being used to block certain federal appointments. Because they can no longer completely block the President's nominees for federal courts and agencies, Republicans are determined to use up to 30-hours of debate for each nominee to slow down the process.
Just to put this in perspective, the Senate Republicans did not force all-night debates when considering immigration bills, food stamp cuts, or many other important pieces of legislation. But, they think blocking the President's choice for an appeals court is worth holding up the entire legislative process. This Congress is the least productive in history, because of obstructionist tactics like this – which are more about childish vendettas than about doing the People's business.
We elected this President, and it's his job to appoint qualified people to courts and federal agencies. It's the Senate's job to approve or deny those nominees based on their qualifications, and then get to work on all of the other pressing issues our nation faces. If Republicans in the Senate want to spend all night debating an issue, why don't they make it one that Americans actually care about. Otherwise, they're simply wasting our time and taxpayer dollars to play politics.
Comments
#2
The public must be made aware of this or the Repugnants, with their superior P.R. machine, will successfully play the victim.
#3
I doubt they are just delaying for the sake of punishing anyone. They are delaying because they don't want to pass any budget before the end of the year, and they want the Democrats to use the new nuclear option as little as possible before the next election. They want to retain the political football of the "debt ceiling" charade and use the nuclear option themselves after the next election. Their strategy is as transparent as their lies. Of course this strategy assumes that they have the next election in the bag. I highly doubt that.
#4
It is ashame that the Billions of dollars that the GOP have caused the American people can not be billed to the GOP. They flaunt their salaries while cutting SNAP and allowing the unemployent extention to expire. These acts are direct attacks on American citizens. This all from the party that claims to be so worried about Christmas. It is interesting that they seem to care so little about following the teachings of Jesus Christ. One thing is for sure they reap now what they have sown for their rewards are what they gain here on earth and earth alone.
#5
They're throwing fits 'cause they're going crazy from not doing anything for so long.
#6
Were I to spend as much time accomplishing nothing as are the Republicans, I would be fired pretty quickly. These obstructionists should be impeached - instead they are catered to - incredible.
#7
And yet they call earned benefits "ENTITLEMENT"!!!
#8
A bit off topic, a good friend just shared something he wrote that I had to share with you guys.
"In Sweden, the minimum wage is $19 per hour and workers enjoy a minimum of five weeks paid vacation every year. In the U.S. the minimum wage is a tick above $7 per hour and workers can expect no more than 12 days of annual vacation. So guess what? IKEA has set up a factory in Virginia. Volkswagen has set up in Tennessee, and the likes of Hyundai, KIA, BMW, Honda, and Toyota have all set up in the South to take advantage of the world’s latest cheap labor source. Moreover, the profits of these foreign companies goes toward stimulating their economies instead of ours. So, it’s amusing when Republicans blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on liberal policies because nothing could be further from the truth. Detroit is bankrupt thanks to the Republican business model that has turned the entire South into a third-world banana republic. A business model that the rest of the country is forced to compete with i.e. lower wages, low corporate tax rates, low property taxes, and low environmental and labor protection, which results in a migration of industry and jobs from the northern states, which means a shrinking of the tax revenue base in cities like Detroit. Since 2000, the population of Detroit has fallen 20% and property tax revenue has plummeted 26%. Take this as an illustration of how we are in a never-ending death spiral race to the bottom. Obama’s speech clearly depicted an America losing touch with its ideals. Not only is the middle-class fast becoming the working poor, but upward mobility is becoming almost impossible to attain. At a time when America should be investing in its own future, it is dealing with a sequestration that was never meant to have happened. It happened because the GOP congress would rather destroy the economy than see a black president succeed. Also, raising revenues runs against the GOP’s fundamental pro-corporate strategy of “starving the beast” i.e. starving the federal government of the revenues it needs so it can use deficits as an excuse to cut programs like Social Security and Medicare and replace them with for-profit alternatives."
#9
He then goes on to say...
"Three decades of trickledown economics; the monopolization, privatization and deregulation of industry; and the destruction of labor protection has resulted in 50 million Americans living in abject poverty, while 400 individuals own more than one-half of the nation’s wealth. As the four Walmart heirs enjoy a higher net worth than the bottom 40 percent, our nation’s sense of food insecurity is more on par with developing countries like Indonesia and Tanzania than with OECD nations like Australia and Canada. In fact, the percentage of Americans who say they could not afford the food needed to feed their families at some point in the last year is three times that of Germany, more than twice than Italy and Canada.
The destruction of labor has been so comprehensive that first-world nations now offshore their jobs to the U.S. In other words, we’ve become the new India. Foreign companies now see us as the world’s cheap labor force, and we have the non-unionized South to thank for that. Chuck Thompson, author of Better off Without Em, writes, “Like Mexico, the South has spent the past four decades systematically siphoning auto jobs from Michigan and the Midwest by keeping worker’s salaries low and inhibiting their right to organize by rendering their unions toothless.” Average wages for autoworkers in the South are up to 30 percent lower than in Michigan."
I asked him to join our little forum. I hope he accepts.
#10
I'm listening late a night and woman just called to talk about how "god" was created. I have a different idea:
6,000 years ago a guy was arguing with a woman. She would not shut up. He finally said, "It's not me, it's god" while pointing up. She shut up. He told all his friends about it and they did the same thing and it worked every time. The females shut up. 6,000 years later -- it's what we still have.
Judith *smile* Tucson, AZ
#11
Of cource there stalling! Did anyone realy think they would do any diffrent?
#12
Do Dems block the nominations and appointments of Rethuglican presidents?
Why are Rethuglicans allowed to inhibit the running of a fairly elected Democratic administration--for 5/6 years? Is this so they can rail against the errors that are made because important positions haven't been filled? And lie to the voters that Dems cannot do the job, while they KEEP them from doing their job?
#13
Right now Republicans wasting precious time and money in my federal government are pond scum. They need to be eliminated, by natural methods which in the case of pond scum is cold, ice and overgrowth. Anyway it is beyond me why they have not been challenged. The gutless democrats and republicans are disgusting for not having the courage to fight back. Decorum be damned. Harry Reid stood on decoruim for way too long before invoking power over filibuster on court judges appointments. Before that Obama put on an unconvincing act that he couldn't do anything about the blockage of decent health care like single payer when the moment to fix health care was in his lap. How many people and families have been hurt or died because of the gutlessness of Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Tea Party drones? I say, NO DECORUM and/or deferment to stupid mindless republicans and democrats who are playing with the life of the nation.
#14
Pure insanity in my opinion. John Boehner change the rules on the HOUSE FLOOR and he had the votes to keep the government open and the media said very little. It cost us 24 billion but Reid changing the rules in the senate gets full attention. Both chambers can change the rules. Just a plot to get more funding from the supreme court ruling from CITZENS UNITED from the likes of FREEDOM WORKS and ALEC buying up our freedoms and duping the base that votes for them.
#15
Nope !
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