Is it me or is this all bass ackwards (repost; moderated)

[DividedWeAre]

Is this bass ackwards, or what?  Reed and Obama reveling in the glory of the past two weeks where they managed to get most of what they were looking for in legislation for the past year ?  All they had to do was agree to give the wealthiest 2% what they wanted in tax rates (37 instead of 39  % ?) … or was it the threat of staying late after class that scared Republicans straight?  If that was all it took and if our boys knew that, then why didn’t they do that long ago and perhaps they could have saved the position of the only true Democratic Party warrior.  The one who gave all, so to speak.
 
Pelosi (I know she had a majority) pushed it, made it happen, worked like a dog, took no guff, appeared gruff and dogged and determined and finally put something through that did something for somebody.  There was no bully pulpit, there was no great effort, there was no real response from the two men who supposedly were there for us.  In the end, they went for a watered-down version of a bill that has lots of room for improvement.  And by leaving those doors open, it also has lots of potential for un-improvement.
 
This exact same thing happened with Clinton, you say, and look how good that came out?! Well, Clinton did the same with the majority he had in Congress, he pushed a bill all the way through and ended up with a gun-control law that no one thought would ever pass (remember Brady?).  But in the end, he lost the majority, he ended up with a watered down law (over time) and all we ended up with was a Clinton who is somewhat praised by the press while vilified by the right for his personal problems.
 
Hell, “he could have been somebody” and so could have Obama.  IF BO and HR had followed Pelosi instead of abandoning her, they could have given us a really good healthcare law as well as the good news that has come in the past weeks.  And they could have gotten that long ago, long before the idea of progress was overcome by the likes of Palin, long before thousands, maybe millions of people suffered to the point of giving up.
 
No, I do not congratulate Obama and Reed.  I congratulate Pelosi, the only Democratic leader that had the guts to stand up to the hate and terror mongers on the other side.  Well done, Nancy. The other two only came to play, not to win. 

[jaxx]

1. I congratulate all 3 of them.

Like it or not, the bills passed.

[Clio the Leo]

2. We had to give up the omnibus, a lot of folks seems to have missed that part.

By the time we got to START and DADT, the tax cut deal was old news and the GOP was playing "hostage" with the Omnibus. When we realized we didn't have the votes to pass the omnibus and gave that up, THEN DADT, START and 9/11 passed.

Since we seem to have the attention span of fruit flies, the Omni means nothing to us know as it wont affect us until way way way far ... three months from now. But here is a preview of things to come...

Starve the Beast: The Republican Plan to De-Fund the Health Care Law

Republicans have made absolutely clear what they intend to do to block the new health care law -- starve it.

Incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, recently told Fox that "We can dent this, kick it, slow it down to make sure it never happens. And trust me," he emphasized, "I'm going to make sure this health care bill never ever, ever is implemented."

Brad Blakeman, who worked in the Bush White House agrees, saying, "They are going to be looking at the budget items that affect healthcare. They are going to be dissecting that 2000-page bill and picking apart those parts of the bill that can be defunded now."

Jim Kessler, the vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, offers this analogy for the Republican strategy: "You have a car -- that's the health care bill. And they're doing enough things to mess up the engine, to make it only drive at 45 miles and hour, not 65 miles an hour. But it's still a car, it's still driving and it's still going to get there."

It'll just take longer, he says, but stopping the funding won't stop the law, only complicate it, according to Kessler. "The law is not contingent on funding. Just how effectively it will be implemented is contingent on funding."

Republicans have already succeeded in blocking the first billion dollars in money to implement the health care law. It was part of the omnibus spending bill with six thousand earmarks that was killed in the Senate.

It was replaced by a temporary spending measure to keep the government running until March 4, 2011. The next budget bill is likely to bring the first big battle over funding the health care law.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/12/27/starve-beast-republican-plan-de-fund-health-care-law

As for there being "no bully puplit," I think you may have missed the entire fall campaign swing.

[Clio the Leo]

3. And you (all) also need to read this...

.... it appears a lot of folks missed it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=569105

[treestar]

4. the House does not run the country by itself

Why is there a fetish to find one person to hang onto?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[treestar]

8. Thank you and heck, even the Senate gets credit as no law

passes without them either, filibuster or none. The Rs abusing the filibuster is the problem with the Senate and Reid works with what he has there.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. Now, to be fair, if Reid and the Democrats return next year and refuse to reform

the filibuster rules, then it's their fault. (However, I know that it takes votes to reform the filibuster. But that's why Joe Biden is there!)

[treestar]

11. True but it's also the Rs fault, as they didn't do it when they could

Both sides know they could be in the minority, so whoever changes it - say they eliminated it - the next R Congress and the next R President gets some horrid legislation through - and everybody's blaming Reid for that - if only he hadn't deprived us of our tool the filibuster. Though I would not agree with that myself - just pointing out that the negative crowd will be doing that.

I think we should just take the risks of doing away with it - so that elected majorities like we had last time can pass what they were elected to pass.

[ClassWarrior]

6. So we shouldn't salute leaders, and expect others to aspire that?

NGU.

[treestar]

7. As long as we are not in the military, no.

We shouldn't hang onto one single person to do it all for us. The Constitution spreads the power among many and it ultimately is with us. And it works pretty well.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ClassWarrior]

16. Cute. I'll rephrase. Should we not honor people who perform exceptionally? Should we not...

...look to them as role models for others like them?

For some reason, your answer keeps getting hidden.

:shrug:

NGU.

[Teaser]

12. If you're going to critique a public figure

please at least spell his damn name correctly.

[ncteechur]

13. Winning is what you can get passed. Please go back and study your civics and US history books.

Or at the very least, watch the Schoolhouse Rock video of how a bill becomes a law.

Here it is...

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

[ClassWarrior]

15. And sometimes getting something passed means not getting it passed repeatedly at first.

:eyes:

Please don't patronize.

NGU.

[AtomicKitten]

14. Pres Obama, Pelosi, and Reid worked together brilliantly during the lame duck session.

Your OP is lame in its divisiveness.

You didn't even spell Harry Reid's name correctly.

[dionysus]

17. bless your little heart.

[mkultra]

18. pelosi has been putting up air balls for a long time

Fact remains that Obama made the deals that got them passed. She has lead feet.

[WiffenPoof]

19. Excellent Post! n/t