IMHO--staving off important issues until after the elections

[Horse with no Name]

is antithetical to running a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Getting an extension on the Bush tax cuts until 2013, getting a reprieve on the debt ceiling until 2013...

If we are ONLY going to do the business of the people for the first 3 months after you take the oath of office..then perhaps the government should be shut down the rest of the time.

Take the oath in January, get the business passed, finish by April then GO HOME until the next election cycle.

Do your campaigning and court the lobbyists on your own fucking dimes...because if I had my way, they would only get paid for that THREE MONTHS of work they do--not 4 years of salary that they don't earn nor do they deserve. Oh...and ditch their bene's too.

[TheWraith]

1. What exactly are you on about?

Point one, the Bush tax cuts have not been extended to 2013.

Second, are you really eager to test the Republicans' willingness to stand up to the Tea Party every few months from here to the election? Hey, let's give them a chance to crash the economy every week! That will really be conducive to getting the people's business done.

Lastly:

"if I had my way, they would only get paid for that THREE MONTHS of work they do--not 4 years of salary that they don't earn nor do they deserve. Oh...and ditch their bene's too."

No member of Congress serves a four year term. There are only two year and six year terms. Please go to your social studies teacher and demand your money back.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Lifelong Protester]

3. As noted by the poster above, you do have some factual errors

but...I get your larger point. It does seem that our elected officials are held in thrall of the 're-election problem': of not wanting to do anything too close to election time in order not to kill their re-election bids. It does seem that too much of the focus is not on solving issues or thinking BIG THOUGHTS, but more on re-election.

[Horse with no Name]

4. Thank you. That WAS the point.

EVERYTHING is done around the election cycle.

Nobody wants to be brave enough to fight an actual battle that might get in the way of their reelection. It is harming the country.

[Lifelong Protester]

6. You're welcome, and I am seeing why some (don't remember who)

have been proposing changing the term limits for members of Congress, as NOTHING gets done or is getting done these days.
And, I'd have to say, what happens after this 'crisis' is solved? Will nothing to bring about anything of change happen until 2013?Cripes, can we wait around that long while the country's infrastructure crumbles? and many,many other things languish? (education, science research, and countless other things??)

[TBF]

5. Even worse - if he's willing to be a republican now

with an election coming up, think how bad it will be when he has nothing to lose.

[patrice]

7. I agree that the helter-skelter of election cycles is not conducive to authentic discussion of

important issues, especially given the corruption of the voting process & corporate media.

Dr. Paulo Freire, the great revolutionary education, says it is our responsibility for each of us to recognize the extent to which each of us has internalized the oppressor within ourselves and then to address our own issues person-to-person in a personally accountable manner within our own communities, in order to make our "leaders" follow us. As Dr. Howard Dean says it, "We are the ones we have been waiting for."