More bad reviews:
Americans have learned to expect little from Congress, and by that standard the 109th version, controlled by Republicans, has met expectations. On the other hand, anyone who hoped that the GOP would make something of its historic governing opportunity is bound to be disappointed so far.
Five months in, Congress can point to the following achievements: a bankruptcy bill 10 years in the making, and a class-action reform watered down essentially to a jurisdictional change to federal from state courts. That’s about it. Among the 2004 campaign promises that aren’t close to being fulfilled are making the Bush tax cuts permanent, reforming Social Security and expanding the market for private health care. Instead of any of those big three, Congress next seems poised to pass a subsidy-laden energy bill and a highway bill with some 4,000 earmarks for individual Members. For this we elected Republicans?
The Democratic/media explanation for this performance is that Republicans are “overreaching” and trying to “govern from the right.” We should be so lucky. The fact is that they are governing from nowhere at all. Far from pushing their agenda, they seem cowed by their opposition into playing it safe and attempting too little.
Is anyone, other than MBNA and the credit card hucksters, happy with this Congress?
Kimmitt
The fact is that they are governing from nowhere at all. Far from pushing their agenda, they seem cowed by their opposition into playing it safe and attempting too little.
Well, yes, we did beat them on Social Security, but the Dems are not the reason why the Republican Congress chose to pass either the bankruptcy bill, the energy bill, or the highway bill. The “all pork, all the time” mentality is your own, thanks.
Libertine
Yeah but the dems helped facilitate that horrible Bankruptcy bill…aka corporate welfare.
I am just amazed that outside of SS privatiztion that the GOP has willing accomplices helping with their legislative agenda…in the dems. 2 wrongs make one huge mess!!!
ketel
I can’t actually see how this bankruptcy bill can be left to stand. Someone will sue, or over time, as the ridiculous facts of the bill trickle out to the masses, it will be overturned. With our current media’s obsession with infotainment and non-important news, the dumbing down of America continues, but hopefully there’s still enough feeling left in our wallets to know when we’re collectively getting robbed.
Oberon
Far from pushing their agenda, they seem cowed by their opposition into playing it safe and attempting too little.
It’s pathetic that this guy is trying to blaming the Democrats.
halffasthero
I agree – blaming the Democrats is weak. If they govened ike there were more than just Republicans n the House and Senate they might actually get something done.
norbizness
Trust me, the Democrats who voted for the bankruptcy bill got a ton of grief from most of the web sites that I frequent. I regret that I did not pile on.
KC
If Dems take one of the houses of Congress or come close in this next election, you watch, they’ll push to modify or overturn that bankruptcy screw job act.
G. Hamid
The GOP is pushing it’s agenda, and it’s the same as the Dems.Virtually no-one in government gives a damn about justice or the Bill of Rights. It’s all about money and power, and that leaves 90% of us out of luck.
Kimmitt
The GOP is pushing it’s agenda, and it’s the same as the Dems.
Again, this is facile. The GOP is pushing its agenda. It is, by and large, winning against the Dems, either by party-line votes or by successfully courting defectors.
ppgaz
Not sure about that, Kimmit.
It is “winning” in the sense that the GOP can maneuver a few things past the rapids. But what have they accomplished in this Congressional session? The confirmation of a few second-rate judges who will not destroy the American experiment. A bankruptcy “reform” act that helps exactly noone but the big lenders. Soon they will be cobbling together more gargantuan spending boondoggles that basically aggrandize the positions of congressional incumbents. The Bolton thing … tempest in a teapot, strictly inside-the-beltway stuff. Oh, and who can forget the great Schiavo Act? As near as I can tell, that fiasco will produce exactly nothing that profoundly affects real people much one way or the other.
The GOP has two and a half of the three branches of the federal government in its pocket, and they seem to have no oxygen. Why?
One word: Iraq. Whether we are talking politics, budgets, military policy, or foreign policy, Iraq has sucked all the air out the government of this country.
In a weird way, I get the feeling that the biggest thing they have done, which is to wage their asinine war, is going to turn out to be …. the biggest thing they do. And I don’t see this war as being the basis for a long term Republican hegemony in this country. What you have there right now is close to civil war, an albatross around the neck of our military, a huge hole in the ground into which to pour American money, and a steady drumbeat of negative stories and growing impatience on the part of the American people with the whole thing.
I think that the GOP of today will be remembered by history as pulling off one of the great snatches of defeat from the jaws of victory that US history has seen so far.
Oh, and did I mention … the country is headed for a financial train wreck beyond your wildest imagination? (Not my opinion, it’s the opinion of the Cato Institute and the Comptroller of the Currency).
Whoopee. This elephant ride is just more fun every day.
Kimmitt
The train wreck is the plan. The train wreck is the point. They’re gonna starve the beast, and that will be their legacy.
G. Hamid
Kimmitt,
My comment was facile as I was simply trying to express an opinion based on the blogger’s original post. I try not to make my comments too long. However, I will posit a short list of issues that Dem and GOP actions show agreement or disagreement.
Disagreements:
1. Iraq War
2. Abortion (to some degree)
3. Any important Bush nomination
4. School Vouchers
5. Funding the NEA
6. Statutory Preferences
7. Tort Reform (to some degree)
Agreements:
1. War on Terror (excluding Iraq)
2. War on Drugs
3. Increasing the number and vagueness of laws
4. Use of Eminent Domain to transfer private property to other private entities to increase tax revenues
5. Gay Marriage (weird, huh)
6. Use of RICO Statutes for virtually any crime
7. Property Confiscation without due process (see RICO)
8. Gutting 4th Amendment right to reasonable search and seizure
9. Increased government funding through taxation and fining of businesses and individuals
10.Social Security (jury is still out but it doesn’t look like anything will be done)
11.Increasing government spending at a suicidal rate
12.Forcing States to enact regulations if they want any of the increased spending
Of course, this list is solely my opinion based on my experiences and viewing of current affairs. Feel free to make your own list.
See why my first comment was so facile.
p.lukasiak
The “all pork, all the time” mentality is your own, thanks
oh come on. I’m about as much of a lefty Democrat as they come, but accusing the GOP of having some sort of hammerlock on pork is simply absurd.
I also think its kind of unfair to blame the GOP Congress for their lack of accomplishments. In general, the President sets the agenda — especially when both houses of Congress and the White House are held by the same party. Smaller government and fiscal responsibility start at the top, and this is especially true during the first year after an incumbent president is re-elected, when the President has polital capital to burn.
Congresscritters by their nature aren’t leaders — they are “opposers” or followers of the President’s agenda. If you don’t like what Congress has accomplished, look to the White House, because that is where the real leadership has to come from.
Kimmitt
oh come on. I’m about as much of a lefty Democrat as they come, but accusing the GOP of having some sort of hammerlock on pork is simply absurd.
True, but this Congress has taken it to new and bizarre heights. This is my bookmark to dig up some numbers when I have a few moments.
Joseph Marshall
The problem is really very simple, the Republican Party has put its assets in hock with the “Creationist Theory” people.
They have no interest, largely, in any serious conservative agenda outside of “right to life” and “gay marriage” and “prayer in public life”.
Under the circumstances, that means judges, judges, judges 24/7, plus fluff like the Schiavo law, which boiled down actually to judges, judges, judges also.
The leadership kowtows to them, and brings judges, judges, judges to the forefront, irregardless of the significance and need for anything else.
The “creationists” back even a questionable character like Tom DeLay to the hilt, and tangle everybody over in the House up in the “ethics changes” flap that results.
Bill Frist then throws his hat in with them and fritters away the Senate Republican discipline as a result–plus being outmanuvered at every turn by Harry Reid, because Frist didn’t have the cohones to take ANY risk of a straight up loss on the fillibuster vote, and so he lost the momentum on the issue.
Until you guys figure out that judges, judges, judges is a dead end for your real legislative agenda, the Democrats will run rings around you.
Because now, when the Supreme Court vacancy comes up, the attempt to torpedo the fillibuster it will create will have about as much oomph as a third serve in tennis. So now even judges, judges, judges won’t be going much of anywhere, either.
Libertine
I see some people defending the dems. I am not blaming the dems because the GOP is the big problem. They are the ones setting the agenda. But without democratic support (ie SS privatization) the GOP can’t get their agenda through Congress.
I tend to support the dems (only because of my extreme dislike for where the wingnuts have taken the GOP) but the Bankruptcy bill vote was not even close. The Credit Card company donations to congress must be good on both sides of the aisle.
Libertine
For what it is worth John…
Ever consider adding a new catagory?
“Bi-partisan stupidity”
Brian
I haven’t been happy with any Congress since about 1796.
Veeshir
Exactly the point I was going to make Brian, I could quibble about dates, but that’s pretty much the gist.
Rick
Let’s see if some Social Security reform/rescue (hopefully to include a considerable privatization option) can emerge before issuing a final grade before even the mid-term exams are conducted.
Other than that, what Brian and Veeshir say.
Cordially…
Rick
Oh, John–another blogger has some goods on damn “Christians” in Congress, and all the attendant crypto-theocratic dangers that may lurk in the People’s House.
See the horrifying collapses of the Wall of Separation here.
How about you making an issue of it? After all, this is the party that has had at least two reverends vying for the Presidential nomination. Buncha religious nuts, I’d think.
Cordially…
Kimmitt
The Credit Card company donations to congress must be good on both sides of the aisle.
Gah, don’t remind me. And the President gleefully signed it into law, don’t forget.