Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to The point, and there was one...

Power in Congress
azstrummer — (archived)

I'm about tired of hearing this falsehood put forth. The Democrats hold a slim majority in Congress with Joe Lieberman being the tiebreaker in the Senate. They by no means hold enough seats currently to override a veto by the President unless a decent amount of Republicans break ship and that simply has not occurred except for one bill.

Republicans have filibustered nearly every bill that came up. The Dems currently do not have the votes to stop that.

Under current congressional practices, they are basically impotent unless they start playing the nasty hardball tactics the Republicans used during their reign such as threatening the "nuclear option". That was a viable alternative to you back when it was brought up. Should the Dems have used that option to get their ideas passed? Should they deny Republicans the ability to meet and hold hearings and relegate them to offices in the basement turning off power and media links as the Republicans did to them?

Even in the new Congress, it appears the Democrats will not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Will you blame them then if they can't get things done if the Republicans engage in obstructing everything before them?

Although I'm not a big fan of Pelosi and Reid, I fully acknowledge the impossible mission they were faced with over the past two years and I'm actually quite satisfied that they were able to essentially prevent any more substantial harm from being done during that time. Inaction in this case beat the action of the years before them.

Art

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