Why Aren't You As Angry As I Am About Congress?

[ffr]

I didn’t realize how angry I was about what the House and Senate are doing…or, more accurately, not doing…until I heard someone who should know better say that Congress would be “returning to work” this week after being out of town for its Memorial Day recess.

<snip>

In spite of the Republican leadership insisting at the start of the year that passing all of the appropriations by October 1 was one of its highest priorities, it’s now clear that’s not going to happen and that a continuing resolution will again be needed to avoid another federal government shutdown.

Indeed, given how few days are left before the start of the fiscal year (the House is only scheduled to be in session for 33 days between now and October 1; the Senate is only scheduled to be in session for 46), and the strong likelihood that there will be little-to-no legislative business conducted on some of these days, it’s very possible that Congress won’t act an any of the fiscal 2017 appropriations and that a CR covering all federal departments and agencies will be needed.

Congressional inaction on appropriations will only increase as the leadership in both houses realizes there’s no time to get anything done and that they shouldn’t even bother.

<snip>

In other words, even the make-work projects Congress is using to divert attention from the fact that it’s not doing what it’s legally required to do on the budget won’t get done.

How can you not be angry? - Stan Collender - Forbes 06/05/16

Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, make rules and hold hearings.
Republican inaction on budget.
Republican inaction on SCOTUS.

Republican inaction...YOU FILL IN THE BLANK.

Humiliate republicans anywhere and everywhere for giving us this scourge on America. GOTV for democrats in 2016! Sweep the GOP out of office on every level. We need democrats elected to make our government work again. This is our battle cry!

[Javaman]

1. because the corporations control congress and we have no say as a result.

we live in the era of corporate colonization and we are the serfs.

[yeoman6987]

2. Also most voters like their Congress person but hate all the rest

[Javaman]

3. I live in texas.

it's a republican paradise here.

[ffr]

4. Then this is your call to action. Turn Texas purple.

GOTV and work to get democrats elected. It starts by simply going over to the local democratic headquarters and asking if they need help. The answer will always be YES.

Let the sweeping begin!

[Javaman]

6. we're trying but the very illegal jerrymandering that the right does in this state makes it...

a massive challenge.

I'm hoping that cruz is a one term pony. What we need is solid Dem to challenge him.

I think cruz would fold like a house of cards if that happened.

[ffr]

7. Most definitely. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Don't you mean

Republican Dystopia?


I'm from Indiana, so I feel your pain

[TexasProgresive]

26. I detest my lying sack of shit congress critter

But my ignorant neighbors love him.

[Cryptoad]

14. GOP controls congress, Corps control GOP.

[Dustlawyer]

16. They fight over control of the power so their side gets more of their corporate welfare.

I am not hopeful or impressed with anyone I have to vote for as they are all paid to screw me! The only difference is that the Democrats throw us a social bone here and there while they give away our tax dollars to big companies who don't pay any.

The Republicans just cut the social programs to squeeze out more money for TPTB.

[Jack Rabbit]

33. Corruption is bi-partisan

I'd be inclined to vote out about three-quarters of all congresscritters regardless of party. An easier and more certain way to solve the problem is radical campaign finance reform.

[dawg]

5. We are in dire need of several constitutional amendments.

Our current system of checks and balances only functions if neither side is willing obstruct for partisan reasons. Clearly, that genie has been out of the bottle for years.

Making things worse, the voting public is not astute enough to properly assign blame for the gridlock. Some voters blame the President for everything, regardless of who controls Congress. Others are too lazy to decide, basically laying equal blame to both sides.

We need to streamline the budget process; make the party in control of the House more accountable to voters; and make it much more difficult for the Senate to obstruct things - especially Presidential appointments.

[JayhawkSD]

8. But 92% of Congress critturs who run again are reelected.

I keep hearing about how unpopular Congress is, but 92% of the legislators who run for reelection win reelection. Congress is not as unpopular as claimed if we keep reelecting it in its entirety.

Yeoman6987 has a major point. We like our guy and want to reelect him/her, but we want everyone else to throw their representatives out. Hypocrisy on a grand scale. When the dishonesty benefits us we want to keep it in place, but when it benefits someone else it is bad and we need to throw it out.

We have met the enemy and it is us.

[freebrew]

34. Same here, but...

when I go to the polls, there's no one in the Dem slot.

My congresscritter is one of the most inept, shady teabagger in congress and the Dems won't run anyone against her.

The same goes for state candidates. All pug, no one to challenge.

And basically, a 50/50 state. We have a Dem guv. Gerrymandering and the loss of Dean made it all possible.

[JayhawkSD]

37. "the Dems won't run anyone against her."

And whose fault is that?

My district is the opposite. Susan Davis gets 63% of the vote and two Republicans split 30%. That would be all very well, since Davis is fairly reliably populist on social issues, but she has never seen a military spending or "lets go to war" bill that she could vote no on.

When challenged on one of those votes her response is, "Well, that was a very difficult vote for me." Listen, lady, I don't care if it was hard or easy, it was the wrong damned vote.

[lpbk2713]

9. Each of the last few Congresses has had the same thing in common.

Most Unproductive Congress Ever


Led mostly by the Obstructionist goppers. If they were all paid on the basis of
their productivity you would be seeing a lot of new faces in the hallowed halls. .

[ffr]

10. An effective ad campaign could help accomplish that

If only one of the PACs or the DNC had some imagination. Heck, I could throw a video together that was more effective than most of the vanilla stuff they've been peddling!

[theaocp]

11. GOTV doesn't do much if the need for money

is still paramount.

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/finance-lobbying/the-influence-of-elites-interest-groups-and-average-voters-on-american-politics

www.wolf-pac.com

[ffr]

12. When a neighbor shows up at my door in support of a candidate

I'm more open to that candidate, so it works on me and I don't watch TV or listen to much radio anymore. Too much talking and no action.

The fact remains. If democrats vote, we win. GOTV!

[theaocp]

15. Do that and push for the constitutional amendment

that wolf-pac.com is advocating. All the dems in the world will spend their time working for their donors without this change. All that effort to vote in more of the same, propping up the systematic corruption we have now. I don't like working my ass off for crumbs. We deserve better.

[ffr]

18. Chicken and the egg. Can't push for an amendment

when the GOP controls the process you're trying to amend.

I don't for one second buy into the false equivalency that democrats work for their donors. Democrats actually do work for the people too and get the liberal agenda through with bills. ACA? Not even close to the dysfunction the GOP has wrought.

NOT
EVEN
CLOSE

GOTV for democrats. That's my message.

[theaocp]

22. Okay, but the study shows the lack of influence regular voters

have on actual policies being passed that they want. Your gut instinct is irrelevant.

Changing the influence of money in our political system doesn't need congress at all. Go research wolf-pac.com and get back to me. I think you'll be inspired.

[ffr]

24. I would be inspired, but it brings me back to the chicken and the egg

"The objective of Wolf PAC is not theory, it is results. We will pass the 28th amendment to bring Free and Fair Elections to America, and we will reclaim our democracy."

Okay, so we sign a petition and get the necessary 200,000 signatures. Then we take it to congress and the republicans laugh at it and tell us to go pound sand.

We're right back where we started.

Whereas, the snowball really starts if we can pledge to get democrats registered to vote and see them to the polls to vote for democrats. Then we get more democrats elected, get the 67 senatorial votes necessary to actually pass a constitutional amendment and we all win.

That takes guts backed by thinking things through. And it isn't irrelevant. It's history made.

[theaocp]

29. You're not seeing the full picture. My wife is a key player

in wolf-pac michigan. The working with our overwhelming republican legislature to get the resolution moving forward has been very eye-opening. This isn't a petition, it's a resolution made possible through actual political maneuvering. This is a closed group, but it gives some information about how we're making this happen.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wolfpacmi/

[sofa king]

17. (Psst: The Continuing Resolution is President Obama's budget.)

The Democrats controlled the Senate by one to three votes in 2012 and used that temporary advantage to pass what was pretty much President Obama's 2012 budget proposal.

It was the only time in his Presidency that a budget was actually passed by Congress. Prior to 2012, Congress was amending George Bush's 2006 budget--the one which crashed the economy.

Ever since, Congress has only been able to pass continuing resolutions, which use the 2012 budget framework as its base and merely amend its contents.

Since then, unemployment has fallen below five percent, the stock market has been off to the races, gasoline prices fell below $2.50 a gallon and NASA got its budget back.

So I am all about Republican inaction on the budget. The only part of their jobs they are good at is not doing their jobs. Let 'em stick to that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_resolution

[jalan48]

19. Bernie's right about our country needing a political revolution.

What's been going on can't be stopped any other way, there's too much money available to buy our representatives in today's democracy.

[ffr]

21. Revolution? I'll take a revolution.

I'll take a democratic landslide.

I'll take one less republican on state level.

I'll take PBO being able to fill judicial vacancies.

I'll take a congress that can pass a budget or hold hearings or that can even agree with bills they sponsor.

I'll take less vacations for my elected officials.

I'll take it in baby steps or leaps.

Whatever it takes to accomplish some change. ANYTHING! Right now we're stuck with these GOP turds.

[jalan48]

23. Corporations are people my friend. Our problems are bigger than political parties.

[ffr]

25. You answer with a slogan.

Might as well sit on your thumb.

Come on! We need action. We need protests. We need people writing letters to their representatives and OP-EDs in the local newspapers.

The revolution starts with us, multiplied by each us and feeding on republican inaction.

[jalan48]

30. To the barricades! Awareness of the current political/money set-up is the first step.

Many people seem to be unaware or just don't care about the influence of corporate money in politics, think Debbie Schultz and the payday loan sharks-and she's the head of the Party!

[yardwork]

20. Bingo.

[Agnosticsherbet]

27. It is easier to blame the President. Many Democrats do not vote

In midterm elections. I know several in my neighborh who can not name their Congressman.

People must show up and vote on every election. If they do not vote, it isn't corporations or Republicans who are at fault. It is individual voters.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

28. It's been a mess since 2010 and the formation of the Republican Tea Party

The Republicans not only let the extreme right-wingers and other fringe elements into their party but they embraced them and their "wrecking ball" philosophy of governance (which they were already sort of predisposed to anyway)- to the point that even the so-called "reasonable Republicans" can't be allowed to be seen as cooperating with Democrats on ANYTHING or risk being attacked and primaried out of their cushy seats by the radicals. Right now, they can rig elections and stack I believe that we will hold on to the WH with Hillary but we will probably have to continue to deal with Republicans being reactionary obstructionists, especially in the House, where they have a stranglehold due to gerrymandering. I firmly hope that we can at least win back the Senate so that Republicans can't insist that we have to hold off on confirming a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia until the American people "speak" on their choice for POTUS in 2020- if the 2016 Presidential Election isn't decided "correctly" (which, sadly, I would not put past them).

[KamaAina]

31. CALL CONGRESS RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!1!11!!1!!!11!!

[TygrBright]

32. Why are you making assumptions about how angry I am and what I "should" do with it? n/t

[forest444]

35. It's amazing what people become accustomed to.

Either that, or all the fluoride in the water.

[kimbutgar]

36. The republiscum has to raise money from their corporate donors

And can't work their tax payer funded jobs because they don't represent the people anymore. If you vote republiscum you are a rube bring ripped off. But keep watching fox
and getting lied to. When they take your social security and Medicare away you can't blame the Democratic Party.