The Washington Post  gives front-page space today to Democratic accusations that Republicans are blocking popular legislation as a strategy to produce a “do-nothing” Congress. The reality is a bit more nuanced.
The first example cited is the mortgage lender bailout bill:
On a test vote, 83 senators supported provisions intended to halt the steepest slide in home prices in a generation. Still, the measure stalled, undone by a dispute over whether to add tax breaks for renewable energy production, an idea supported by 88 senators.
So a popular (if dubious) bill was derailed by… an even more popular proposal on renewable energy? The WaPo knows better, as the paper previously reported that the real “dispute” here is that Senate Democrats demand a tax increase to offset the tax credit, as opposed to finding savings in their bloated budget as an offset.
The paper then glosses over the Senate’s failure to pass “a long-awaited electronic surveillance measure” in a segntence fragment. That failure is due to efforts by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), to help Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) save face with the nutroots supporters of his presidential campaign. Whatever one thinks of the bill, the failure to pass it before the July recess cannot be laid on the GOP’s doorstep.
Nor, for that matter, can the GOP be tagged with partisan obstructionism in what the WaPo cites as the worst example of gridlock:
The low point in Senate relations may have come during debate on a climate-change bill sponsored by Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) forced the entire 492-page bill to be read aloud, an exercise that took nearly nine hours. McConnell said the move was payback for Reid’s failure to act on President Bush’s judicial nominees. Frustrated, Reid moved to end debate and bring the bill to the floor. The vote failed, killing the bill.
Aside from skipping merrily past Reid’s obstructionism on judicial nominees, the paper fails to mention that the vote failed by a margin of 48-36. Put another way, there was not a majority in favor of debating the bill. It is difficult to argue that the GOP is blocking popular legislation when the example of the “low point” does not seem to be all that popular.
Conversely, when Republicans point out that the Democrats are themselves blocking debate on important issues, the WaPo uncritically relays the Democratic whinge that Republicans want to “turn every bill, no matter the subject, into a debate over GOP issues, such as the estate tax or offshore drilling.” The immediately obvious reply is that the GOP would not continue to bring these issues up if the Democrats ever allowed them to be debated. Moreover, proposals like lifting the ban on offshore drilling are overwhelmingly popular, even attracting substantial numbers of Democrats. But Democrats blocking popular legislation on important economic issues does not fit The Narrativeâ„¢ and is thus ignored by the WaPo.
What drives me over the edge is that this is SOP for the drive bys. “If you don’t agree with the agenda, you are a brainless dick”.
It escapes me how logic has dropped completely off of the “top ten” list of desirable traits.
It escapes me how logic has dropped completely off of the “top ten†list of desirable traits.
So has journalistic integrity.
Why is it that whenever I see the name ‘Jeffery Birnbaum’ I think the words ‘smirking putz’?
– Karl, its even worse than that when it comes to the oil reserves bill. All the Reps are asking for is a simple up or down vote, no debate even, but the Dems are trying to stall, preying something will reverse the oil price markets. The Dembulbs know it is quickly becoming a potential disaster for them and their candidate, but they’ll hold on grimly as long as they can, simply because they do not want to face their angry nutbag base. Totally partisan driven, while the entire country suffers.
– The Reps, for their part, aren’t about to let the Dems off the hot seat, so they’re blocking the housing bail-out bill, ect.
– With each passing day the pressure on the Dems grows, as public polls for drilling continue to climb, hitting 79% pro a few days ago. In addition, yesterday, while Dodd was on the floor ranting about the growing unrest with the folks back home, several other Dem Senators were scuttling around trying to build support for an “oil summit”, along the lines of the “gang of twelve”, focused on breaking the logjam through bipartisan action. Apparently even the obstinent Dems are starting to feel the heat, and it will only get worse during the recess.
– One way or the other the Democratic Congress can’t hold out much longer. The public is banging on the walls, and by the time the recess is over, tempers are going to reach the boiling point. Moreover, this issue could very well have serious effects on the aspirations of their erstwhile Pres. nominee, since the whole mess is timing out to come to a head just prior to the Denver Convention, with the Hillery forces and Feminists waiting in the tall grass, and at the same time giving the McCain camp an early Christmas present to use against Obama.
– Another issue connected with the bailout, are questions about how much fire there is behind the smoke in terms of Democratic graft in the prime loan industry, with lobbying and financial ties to Obama are starting to show up here and there. Yet another reason for the Reps to drag their heels, even as the Leftwing media refuses to publish the story. One of the major characters in that little vignette is none other than the good Senator Dodd himself. Curious. No wonder hes out there pushing and ranting.
– Other than comedic fawning over their young, inexperienced standard bearer, theres not a lot to be happy about in Demo-ville these days.
I believe it was Hugh Hewitt was interviewing Congressman Tom Campbell the other day and he was saying that the Dems are using House rules in a way never seen, even when Republicans were the majority. What they are doing is invoking a rule (I cannot recall what it is called) that bars any amendments to a bill in committee.
And these 3D Dems (Don’t Drill Dems) have now put out the mendacious talking point that American oil companies already have enough leases. “Why aren’t they drilling there?”
Does ANYONE believe with oil at $140 barrel that oil companies are deliberately NOT drilling? No, what you have is that oil exploration is a gamble, and oil companies lease on a ‘best quess’ basis. And what Dems are saying is that oil companies should drill where there is NO oil before we allow them to drill what this IS oil.
Face it. Obama and Dems do NOT want the price of oil to come down. They are NOT looking out for the interests of an independent, self-sufficient middle class.
Socialists, each and every one.
Does ANYONE believe with oil at $140 barrel that oil companies are deliberately NOT drilling?
BECAUSE OF TEH GREEDINESS!
Well do you believe people will blame someone other than bush for this? Sorry no dice. bush will get the blame, the Democrats have no reason to drill now. Any increase in price will be blamed on bush no matter how you guys bitch. The “left wing media” (hhahhahaha) will do all it can to “blame” bush, I mean I thought that was your guys narrative? With the media on “our” side, bush in office, gas prices could hit 200000 dollars a barrel and the Dems would benefit.
Keep your chins up though. You know deep down we can’t drill our way out of this problem. Alternative energy is the way to go. These are just growing pains of the new market. If you do not like gas prices trade in your SUV and buy a Fit.
Of course they are deliberately not drilling.
Why should they? The rest of the proposals being floated amount to (1) If you find any you have to give it to us first, and (2) if you make any money we’re going to take it away. And that’s on top of the continual undercurrent, which occasionally breaks into the open, calling anybody and everybody who ever produced any oil an unhinged villain for (among other things) killing off the poor polar bears.
NO! Around here, the oil companies are using smaller, local cat’spaws to exploit a goodish deposit of natural gas… and are cutting back their efforts, not hugely but becoming more tentative. They’re watching the cockroaches scramble with some amusement, in other words. Put up or shut up, assholes! If they’re gonna nationalize, let ’em nationalize. If they’re gonna keep singing the Watermelon Song, that can be fun too. But until and unless the stupid b*ds start acting like they’re serious about something, nothing will be done… and the price will keep going up.
Regards,
Ric
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such facetious pride in stupidity, PH, even in a parodist. Where ‘growing pains’ are the potential shrinkage of a global economy, setting back the poor first and the moderately well off next. That’s just a tad oxy-moronic, no?
Sdferr,
In this case, I think PH is being at least half-honest. The WaPo piece is an example of the establishment media rolling out the standard line that the GOP is responsible for any gridlock that occurs, regardless of what Democrats obstruct themsleves.
The “you can’t drill your way out” bit, otoh, is standard boiler-plate — the notion that a less-than-100% solution cannot be a part of the solution having been debunked many times over.
The Ratskeller must be closed for the summer session.
– You know, I’m beginning to think that evil mind fucker Goldberg just may in fact be behind these quixotic asinine comments of this so-called Progressive Hero.
– Nobody could seriously be that fucked up and still be breathing without a iron lung.
– Mayhaps Jeff is paying us all back for all these years of mocking him as the owner of a certain indolent, scruffy, beligerant, delinquent, boozing, blunt smoking, pill popping, tail-chasing, brass balled, non-dancing ‘dillo.
Good enough, BBH. You may even be right.
It fails to matter.
PH is trotting out the standard boilerplate talking points. If we can’t answer them as presented without descending to non-contrib insults, we’re no better than Teh Presss continually reminding us that the Swift Boaters have been “debunked”. Mud-fights are great fun and definitely have a place in political discourse, but they don’t actually go anywhere, now do they?
Regards,
Ric
To pin down my jab at PH a little, this – “…Alternative energy is the way to go. These are just growing pains of the new market…” – is actually the only statement I was aiming at.
However, while he may be right about the ‘Bush and the media’ meme you give him half credit for Karl, that paragraph too contains many manifest stupidities, the acceptance of which can only come to the eternal shame of their proponents. They require an implausible leap from Bush to McCain for instance or from Bush to current republican Sens. and Reps. along with a positive will to ignore the various roles of democrats in crafting the law that’s got us here now. Not all, though perhaps many, stupid people will believe that ugly ball of simplistic ad hominem, on the other hand many other stupid people will believe the conspiratorial foolishness of B. O’Reilly, who in turn, apparently inherited his from his father. There are almost as many ways to be ignorant as there are people, and I have my own no less than any others may, though in the end I’d sooner be rid of them than not.
It looks like the first step I’ve suggested will be done.
The next thing to do will be to get Congress to roll back taxes on the oil companies.
As one example; Exxon Mobil pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people! Further, the tax rate for the bottom 50% is only 3% of adjusted gross income ($27.4 billion / $922 billion), and the tax rate for Exxon was 41% in 2006 ($67.4 billion in taxable income, $27.9 billion in taxes).
In a different perspective, ExxonMobile keeps less then $12 billion worth of oil on hand as invnetory and they pay more than double that value in taxes.
There was a link there. First step.