Roadblocks to Democracy: We Won't Miss the GOP-led Senate
Posted by on December 19, 2006 at 11:22 AM
Bob Geiger breaks down how the GOP-controlled Senate managed to do one thing effectively all year - kill Democratic-sponsored legislation at every turn:
Of all the nauseating tactics used by the Republican party in the 2006, midterm election campaign, one of the more galling was their continued insistence that Democrats had "no plan" for national security. To provide cover for that bogus claim, the Senate's GOP leadership made damn sure that, on September 13, 2006, they killed 528 pages of a national-security blueprint, proposed by Democrats, called the Real Security Act of 2006 -- and then went around for the next six weeks saying the Democrats had no plan.
That legislation, dumped on an almost-straight party line vote, was one of many Democratic-sponsored measures to die in the Republican-controlled Senate in 2006 and part of a whopping three-quarters of Democratic initiatives squashed over the two years of the 109th Congress.
An analysis of all Senate roll call votes in 2006, shows that, true to the form they established the previous year, the GOP killed most legislation proposed by Senate Democrats.
So, how partisan was this?
There are two things that jump out when one considers the votes of the last Senate… One is that it was indeed as partisan as it appeared to those of us observing it each and every day and the deck was at all times stacked against Democrats and any legislation they tried to move forward. This was brought into specific relief when I averaged the roll call votes on all 73 times in 2006 that Democratic legislation was killed and the average numeric vote in those instances was 46-53 -- amazingly close to the exact split of 44 Democrats and 55 Republicans in the 2004-2006 Senate.
And what did it really effect?
The other startling thing that becomes obvious when analyzing the votes, is the sheer number of bills related to national security or helping America's Veterans that were voted down by the Republicans -- with no substitute measures of their own -- simply because the ideas came from the other side of the aisle.
Click here to see a sampling of some of the legislation that was shot down by the GOP majority.
Comments (7) «
Maybe the Democrats can reverse some of the "laws" the Republicans passed in the dark of night before their reign came to an end, such as:
1) The law that makes it illegal to use credit cards with online gambling -- a purely moral law since no one anywhere had ever complained about this.
2) Extend the marriage penalty tax relief.
3) Reverse the law that says you do not need an impact statement for EPA purposes on anything, anywhere, anytime.
4) Reinstate the EPA and all its power.
5) Pass an environmental tax.
6) Initiate some investigations into the Iraq "war".
7) Conduct back room secret meetings after telling the Republicans they aren't doing that.
8) Make Iraq contractors forward statements of expenses to Congress.
The list, of course, could go on, and on, and on, and ........................... toward infinity.
1) The law that makes it illegal to use credit cards with online gambling -- a purely moral law since no one anywhere had ever complained about this.
oh yeah, they have really strived for 'Moral" laws! HAHA. There is not a one of them that is not as corrupt as they come!
I hope and pray the Republicans don't ever get in power again. They don't get anything done and they always lead the Country into trouble.
THE SOB HAS ALREADY STARTED THE ARMEGEDDON PLAN!!! a girl I work with found out today that her 19 year old niece is getting shipped to Iraq for Christmas. bush is not going to be happy until we are all drowning in our own blood. Colin Powell is saying that even with more troops we cannot take Baghdad. we don't have enough. nice timing powell. why didn't you show some guts when you went to the UN with that vial of white powder? colin powell should be ashamed of himself. I try so hard not to hate bush but I DO HATE HIM. what a disgrace. what a tragedy. I just got home from work. I am going to go sob violently for awhile.
The regressive republicans are failures.
Republicans told me for the last 40 years, If they could only get a majority in both houses and the presidency all at once, I would see a smaller Federal Government. They lied. But Democrat politicians are no different. Our Federal Government spends 3 trillion a year, and the deficit went up by 4 trillion this year alone. Thats $44,000,000.00 per day per Congressman 365 days a year. Think about that. Every single individual Congressman has 44 million dollars dripping off of them every year. And you think they are in control of that? Congress walks around this huge machine and pushes buttons and pulls levers, but they don't control the Government. It controls them. And last time I looked, Congress has the power. They can stop spending on anything at any time. They vote for things (like the war, without Democrat votes, there would be no war) and then Blame the President because he signs the bills they pass! The fact is, that the "BIG LIE" is the suggestion that there is one bit of difference between a Republican and a Democrat. They argue about insignificant issues in public, and claim they are "against the war" when they voted FOR it, but it is all to support the big lie that there is some difference. That somehow it matters who gets elected. Wise people realize that we should be worried about the things politicians AGREE about, not what they pretend to disagree about in public. When you bring me a basket with two devils in it, and then tell me to vote for one, either way I'm voting for the devil. Then you tell me I like Devils, and the proof is, that I voted for one.
I refuse to vote until one party eliminates one Federal job. Once that happens, I will continue to vote for the Party that can prove it has eliminated the most Federal Jobs / spending.
We won't miss it but why are Democrats agreeing with Bush on this one last surge in Iraq crap?
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