A Brief, Recent History of the US Congress!

In November of 2000 the voters elected a Republican president to join Republican majorities in the US Senate and House.  The federal budget surplus, inherited from the Clinton administration, was returned to deficit and anything progressive was to stop for years to come.

In November of 2006 the voters elected a Democratic majority to the US House of Representatives.  Progressive legislation went to the Senate to die; still unable to clear the legislature.

The miracle of 2008, when voters elected a Democrat to the Presidency, a greater Democratic majority to the US House and a Democratic majority (not the requisite 60 vote super majority an altogether too easy to do filibuster process necessitated) to the Senate; progressive legislation still tends to die in the Senate.

The new President attempted to work in a bi-partisan fashion in Washington, DC.  Democrat/Liberal/Progressive (DLP) elements of the voting population were unimpressed; they had apparently thought that it was our turn to play the spoiled brat in charge.

Unable to convince the new President that he should press his advantage, in a manner similar to how the Republicans had in the first few years of the 21^st century, the DLP voters stayed home in droves during the elections of November 2010.  Thus did the majority in the US House return to the Republicans!  This was, however, not the same old right wing, in your face Republican Party majority in the House!  It was a newer, more radically right wing-nut, Tea Party controlled, Republican majority; progressive ideas were relegated to bills with no hope of passage.

We, once again, find the DLP prone folks in an uproar over the audacity of a President still proposing legislation of a bi-partisan nature.  The DLP folks are certain that government, social insurance programs should exist in an impregnable bubble and that the President’s ideas threatened to create a pin-prick leak in that bubble.  Thus disregarding the fact that the largest, longest lived generation in US history is starting to retire: 74 million baby boomers (my, my, my g-generation).  Consider that the surplus collected for Social Security, starting in 1983, has been spent; by Republicans (who would use, "bankruptcy," as an excuse to try to kill a program they never liked) and by Democrats (who had not considered that there might be difficulty getting those borrowed funds repaid).  

The DLP must increase the Democratic majority in the US Senate and return the US House to a Democratic majority in the 2014 elections!

If we, who are the DLP, repeat the elections of 2010, take our ball and go home to pout, the legacy we guarantee the Obama administration is literally NADA!!!

Think!  Register, any and everybody.  Vote!!!

The Chain CPI Debate Misses the Boat…

The President's budget proposal was rejected by the Republican's (R's) House and Senate leaders before it was officially introduced; as was intended.   The President offered cuts to the Democrat/Liberal/Progressive's (DLP) sacred cow only to be told it was somehow insufficient, even before all the details were known.  The President clearly set the R's (the party of NO!) leaders up to demonstrate that they can not take yes for an answer.  It appears that the NO! want the President to do what they would do, if it wouldn't upset the crazy right wing of the party that owns the primaries, and eliminate the social insurance programs (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid).

The Progressive Caucus in the US House has created an excellent budget proposal: the Back to Work (BTW) Plan.  It is the best proposal for a budget so far this year and it might be able to pass in the US Senate, but is dead on arrival (DOA) in the US House.  This BTW budget has too much for the DLP and will, therefore, not make it to the president’s desk via this congress!

A continuing budget resolution is quite possibly the only thing that can pass the legislature in these, almost, unbelievably partisan times in Washington, DC.

The folks in the center and left who are, "having a cow, man," need to take a deep breath and make sure they are upset for the correct reasons.  Then get themselves (and everyone else that they can) registered to vote.  Get out and VOTE in every local, state and federal election, because for good, bad or indifference the only way forward is through Democratic majorities in congress. 

The dominant force in the party of NO! appears destined for the 50s; the 1850s.  If, like a sane person, you’re not interested in going with them then they need to be made irrelevant.  Only voting their elected officials out of office can accomplish that goal.

In 2010 we Democrats dropped the ball and the US House acquired a Republican majority.  This Republican Party is driven by cantankerous, old, white people that have nothing useful, by choice, to add to the Obama legacy.  This extremely far right branch of the Republican party would prefer that there had never been a black person in the White House; to say naught about two terms!  When folks have nothing useful to add but still want to feel decisive, there is the power of NO!

If the NO! keeps the US House and/or regains a majority in the Senate the Obama legacy will literally be: NADA!!! 

Is this really what you want?

Think.  Register.  Vote!!!

Debating the 2nd Amendment without the 2nd Amendment!!!

If one visits the NRA website, reads magazines about guns and gun issues or listens to folks claiming to defend 2^nd Amendment rights there is one thing you will not hear or see…  The 2^nd Amendment itself!!!

This is the 2^nd Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Why wouldn’t they tell or show this?  My perspective is here:

http://www.blueboomerhd.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-control-guns.html

Think about it.