Posted on 03/04/2015 2:40:26 AM PST by broken_arrow1
Republicans, fresh from landslide victories in congressional, state, and local elections, were well-positioned to flex their newfound muscle by re-establishing constitutional checks and balances on an overzealous executive branch. Instead, Senate Majority Leader McConnell folded like a cheap suit, abandoning efforts to defund President Obama’s amnesty efforts. Tell me again why we need Republican majorities in Congress.
Why can’t Senator McConnell trigger the same “nuclear option” now? What about Obamacare? It remains alive and well despite Republican promises to “repeal and replace.”The latest excuse from Republican leadership is that they need the White House before they can accomplish anything. Really? What the Republicans need is backbone and leadership. Ronald Reagan ushered in hugely effective income tax cuts while working with a Democrat Congress.
Margaret Thatcher told us, “Consensus is the absence of leadership.” If the Republican leadership is waiting for consensus with the Democrats, that will never happen. Rather, they should be making their case, standing by their principles and promises, and fulfilling the mandate they were given last November. Republican voters don’t expect victory with each issue, but they do expect a principled stand and a fight, not a concession at the end of the first quarter. Let the president wield his veto pen. Congress has given him next to nothing to veto.
Giving in to Democrat opposition, as they have done with amnesty, debt ceilings, continuing spending resolutions, and other “line in the sand” issues leaves voters to scratch their heads, wondering what’s different having Congress under Republican control.
If Republican voters believe, to borrow from Mrs. Clinton, “What difference does it make?,” they will stay home again in 2016. The Republican Congress, as evidenced by the amnesty capitulation, is doing little to help.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Nope. They're believers.
They go to the same schools, study the same things, marry the same girls, have the same mistresses, live in the same townhouses in VA and DC, and all of them leave Congress multimillionaires.
The Republic is overthrown. What's happening now is just a show.
After Harding, Kennedy, and "Obama", I can't believe you would even consider a sitting US Senator in his first term for the Presidency.
Been wondering the same thing myself.
I blew up the emails of my senators & congressman (all RINO’s) regarding the ATF proposed ammo ban on 5.56.
Nothing but crickets for a response!
Screw the republicans....
They are compromised beyond salvation. The people in charge of the GOP would rather burn it down than let conservatives take over.
I’m done voting for betrayal.
I now spend the $$ I used to give to the GOP on wine, women and song, It is much more satisfying.
We flat out have ditched the rinos and have no intentions of ever voting republican again. It is HIGH TIME for a third party in this country and until people wake up and realize that the rinos are supporting anything the demodummies put forth, nothing will ever change. The Tea Party tried to get a good foot hold but look what happened to them. Talk about “third world countries”, we are definitely one of them.
Would things be any different if the Dems still controlled Congress?
The liberal equivalent of this defunding tactic is if the Dems threatened to defund the defense budget every time they disagreed with it (probably 100% of the time, given their unending criticisms of the "military industrial complex" and just about every new weapon system). Unless Congress has enough votes to override a veto, defunding is a losing tactic if pushed to the ultimate conclusion - a departmental shutdown. Thanks to the weeks of debate prior to the defunding effort, the issue of Obama's unilateral amnesty has been publicized. The public knows what's at stake. It's time to stop ragging on the Congressional leadership for merely doing what is necessary to keep the essential elements of government going. Not everyone's a Freeper. If a large-scale terror attack had occurred during an actual DHS shutdown, the GOP would have caught a lot of flak.
Anyone who thinks defunding is a way for Congress to get around the need for a veto-proof margin against a hostile president is profoundly mistaken. For Congressional majorities to prevail more of the time, steps must be taken to reduce the power of the presidency by passing a constitutional amendment (1) reducing the margin needed to override (i.e. 55% or 60% instead of 66%), or (2) requiring the election of several co-presidents, in the style of the Roman triumvirates, such that a veto only goes into effect if a majority of the co-presidents exercise their veto power.
The author is confused. Reagan was able to do a lot because he was the president. Neither Boehner nor McConnell is the president. The Democrat-dominated HoR wasn't able to do much against Reagan, despite having a solid majority. Obama's most productive period (with respect to fulfilling his ideological goals) was during his first 2 years in office. Since 2010, when the GOP retook the HoR, he's been stymied time and time again. He can decide not to enforce the immigration laws, the way Bush did. But he can't actually hand out green cards to illegal aliens. If Reagan had vetoed amnesty, it's not clear the votes existed to override his veto.
“Republicans” are too thin skinned these days. If you want to shut them up, just call them a “wasis” and they’ll run like hell. To hell with leading the country, they just want to be loved. Tough love is out.
The latest excuse from Republican leadership is that they need the White House before they can accomplish anything.
“Its simply not the right time to fight this”, “We only have half the Congress”, “We need the Senate before we can get these bills passed”, “We need the presidency before we can get anything done”, “We need the UN to tackle this problem”. We need the United Federation of Planets to get involved in this”
“They pander to special interests that in return, enrich their individual and party coffers. The little guy is simply a “pain in the ass” that comes with the territory.”
We have a winner
Why would they behave this way? Fear is what first comes to mind and there are lots of possibilities.
The usual suspects include: fear of failure, fear of being unpopular, fear of not being re-elected, fear of blackmail and having their most closeted truths exposed, hurting them and/or someone they care about. Fear of pain or death by assassination, either theirs or someone they care about.
Or, it could be that they are all on the same team and managed by the same people and organization. The differences between the parties and their people are of personality and personal goals rather than their overarching beliefs and philosophy.
After these decades of political Kabuki Theatre since Reagan left, can we now all agree that both parties want to build the biggest GuvCo possible, but differ only in how to run it?
If so, then fear is simply a tool to keep the locals and the newbies in line until they get their minds right.
Sure didn't take long to do that this last election.
McConnell and Boehner have shown repeatedly that they are what they are and it's foolish wishful thinking to assume otherwise.
I don't know if the USA is a lost cause a this point in our history, but if there was someplace else like what we used to be I'd move there as fast as I could. As it is, I'll go down with this sinking ship with everyone else.
There would probably be blood in the streets by now. (Or there would be different blood in the streets.) Taxpayers are still the proverbial frogs in a now slowly-heating pot. The Republican takeover of Congress has just slowed the speed of the boil.
You are leaving out the fact the defunding effort was not because they disagreed with the budget, but to reign in a President who has gone rogue, thumbing his nose at the Constitution, and usurping power he doesn’t have. Do you really think if a Republican president starting exceeding his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief the Democrats wouldn’t try to stop him by denying funding? I believe the Republicans would join them readily. If I remember right, the Democrats did try, or at least call for defunding the Iraq war.
The Republican leadership decided this was the best method to stop Obama, after they gave him everything he wanted in the “Cromnibus” bill. They were obviously lying to America, and simply buying time to surrender while creating the scenario that they couldn’t win.
The fact is, the Republicans started surrendering this battle as soon as it was announced. They could have very easily gotten the same information out to the low information voters if they had stood firm, and aggressively attacked the President, and his over reach. Granting amnesty to illegal aliens is unpopular, and cuts across party lines. The Republicans wanted this outcome, and they wanted people to be able to defend them with some degree of credibility that they couldn’t win. The truth is, they set up the unwinnable situation, they weren’t victims of it.
In answer to the question, I have no answer. It’s a habit, maybe?
Why vote at all. Both parties are corrupt to the bone and are trying to destroy America. Until we get another party made up of decent, honest and Red, White and Blue Americans the current path to disaster will continue.
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