No Ice Cream for Congress Until They Clean Up Their Mess
The Senate had an entire year to develop and move legislation addressing these issues through the regular committee process and passage on the Senate floor. The Democratic majority in the Senate under the leadership of Senator Harry Reid have willfully refused to do their job. They do not want to publicize what they are for until they get Republicans to agree to it too. This is out of fear to let the public know how little spending they would actually like to cut and how much they would actually like to increase taxes.
The Senate Democrats want cover from Senate Republicans to show the public that they are reasonable.
The Republican majority House of Representatives plays no such games. Most House Republicans understand they will need to compromise to get the legislation signed into law, but they pass legislation to show the public where they stand before sitting down to compromise with the Senate and President Obama.
The Senate needs to realize they have not completed the job they were elected to do. Each house of Congress has passed a version of the bill. They now need to do the job they knew had to be done all year and work out their differences not next week, next month, or next year, but now.
The differences mainly center on the offsets included in the House version of the bill to prevent the extension of benefits and tax cuts from increasing the already massive deficit. There are no shortage of items that could be cut from the budget. Citizens Against Government Waste has an extensive list of options available to legislators for budget cuts.
An entire year has been wasted posturing and whining. Now is the time to just do your job that you were elected to do.
No ice cream until you clean your room.
Term Limits and employment contracts based on meeting KPI’s is the answer.
2000 page bills that no-one reads, sacked, clean out your desk, security will escort you out.
Random acts of wanton idiocy/stupidity/negligence see above.
Repeat until every current member of congress is unemployed.
Two things I never really understood about the current dispute. The first was, if the current legislation is approved for two months and then they decide to extend it for a year, doesn’t that add up to 14 months? I’m no math wiz, but two plus
This was a mistake. Sorry. I hit the wrong key and printed it. See below for full comment.
Two things I never really understood about the current dispute. The first was, if the current legislation is approved for two months and then they decide to extend it for a year, doesn’t that add up to 14 months? I’m no math wiz, but two plus twelve still equal 14, right? So, in reality, it would not be a “one-year” extension, but a 14 month extension, because I can’t really see them coming back and fighting this fight in only 10 months from February. The second thing I don’t get is the Republicans in the House keep passing all of this legislation only to have all of it die in the Senate. Yet it’s the Republicans in the House that are getting the blame for being a “do nothing” Congress, not the Democratically-held Senate. This is even more odd since the Senate has NOT produced a real budget in almost 1,000 days. I guess when you have the media in the tank for you, the Democrats can blame just about anybody for doing nothing and get away with it, especially Obama. The Republicans really need to get some better press agents or spokespeople to get their message across, because all their work in the House is being wasted because of today’s media. Hopefully, with the Internet and Talk Radio, the word will get out that the Conservatives are actually doing something in Congress.
As I understand the situation, the House of Representatives passed a bill some time ago containing a years extention of tax relief and unemployment benefits. Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats, once again, deliberately engineered a train wreck, that would be the two month extension. Of course these courageous souls immediately left town to avoid their duties. No-one in the Lame Scream Media has asked; “WHY JUST TWO MONTHS?” The answer is simple! Crisis is their desired outcome!!! Don’t you realize Democrats believe Americans are stupid! The outcome of the 2008 election would support that position.
Since the GOP desires that the Constitution be adhered to they have no option but to do so.
I wonder why Mr. Morose has chosen to shield the Democrats? By not delineating who was responsible for what up front, he implies that both parties are equally at fault.
We will make sure the American public know the real culprits here, and they are Obama and the Senate Democrats. Amazing that they can blame the House Republicans for the payroll tax debacle, when it was the House Republicans who passed over 15 job-creating bills the past year, and all of these bills went nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate. And it was the House Republicans who were pushing for 12 months of payroll tax versus the irresponsible 2 months only that, amazingly, Obama, Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate Democrats are wanting for this country of ours.
Let’s see — 2 months versus 12 months. Which is better and which “eliminates uncertainty” as Mr. Hoyer himself asked today? I think a 1st grader knows 12 months is more than 2 months.
And isn’t it amazing that the PRO-TAX AND SPEND Democrats and Obama are now fighting hard to extend the payroll tax cut championed by both Republicans and President George W. Bush? America misses the honesty, compassion for all classes and humility of GW Bush. Come 2012, the constantly lying Senate Democrats and Obama will be booted out of Washington once and for all.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that pretty well sums up my feelings on the matter. It read “Reelect no one”. Let’s get a whole new crop in there and see how they do. 2010 was a good start, let’s see what we can do in 2012.
Doesn’t everyone know that the mechanism to pay for this 2-month payroll tax cut is a new tax on new mortgages?
For a $200,000 mortgage this would be about $15/month, for the life of the mortgage. Meaning that my $40 tax cut cost me $5400
Why is the conservative blogosphere not screaming this from the rooftops?
Are you trying to tell me I might not get to keep an extra thousand dollars of my own money.
I guess it’s time to throw a childish tantrum form my hush money.
@rubicon,
This sounds like the typical Democrat plan: Show a reduction for a short time and increase a tax forever.
The home buyer fee increase is in the House and Senate bill. It is charged to mortgage lenders by Fannie, Freddie and FHA..passed on to the home buyer by one-tenth of one percent. The House bill had some additional provisions concerning dangerous emissions (i.e. more deregulation of harmful substances in the air and earth), and drug testing the unemployed before they could get any money. I personally think we should drug test Congress.