General Discussion

babylonsister

(171,059 posts) Sat May 25, 2013, 07:09 PM May 2013

Talking to a Living Room Table

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/24/1301/39976

Talking to a Living Room Table

by BooMan
Fri May 24th, 2013 at 01:00:01 PM EST

snip//

If I could summarize these three things and reduce them down to one basic conclusion it is that most members of Congress neither know anything about policy nor care about policy at all. I don't mean the big things like being pro or anti-choice or generally pro-worker or pro-employer. I'm talking about the nitty-gritty stuff that makes the government function. The legislators don't even do that kind of work anymore.

In my opinion, the Republican Party, including people who are more mainstream than the tea party folks, is so steeped in anti-government ideology, and so beset by erroneous and even magical beliefs, that it creates a breakdown in dialogue. To give an example of what I'm talking about, think back to the first real outbreak of the tea party. During the last summer recess of 2009, while Max Baucus was dragging his feet on ObamaCare, lawmakers were confronted with waves of angry protesters at their townhall meetings. Barney Frank had a memorable experience at his Dartmouth, Massachusetts townhall, when a woman brandishing a picture of Obama made out to look like Hitler, asked Frank why he was supporting the president's Nazi policy on health care.

Rep. Frank first responded by asking her "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Then he concluded with, "Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table; I have no interest in doing it."

snip//

Did you read about the brouhaha in the Senate this week between Susan Collins and John McCain (on one side) and Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul (on the other)?

They were arguing over whether or not to appoint conferees to enter negotiations with the House on a Budget Resolution. A Budget Resolution is a blueprint for writing appropriations bills. It doesn't go to the president for a signature and it isn't a law. All it does is say that Commerce gets x amount of money and Interior gets y, and Transportation gets z, etc. Then the relevant committees figure how they're going to spend the money. But Sen. Mike Lee was arguing that he would not allow the appointment of conferees without assurances that the committee would not do something to extend the debt limit. John McCain tried to explain to him that the debt limit could only be extended by passing a law that the president signs, and that it couldn't be extended by a mere resolution.

John McCain discovered what it is like to argue with a living room table.