What If This IS As Good As It Gets? Part 2
Summary:
Legislative Obstructionism
When a Democratic POTUS took office in 2008, the GOP came up with a plan for the new president, by deciding they needed to fight POTUS on everything. We recommend watching the PBS documentary linked above.
01/18/2013 from EPI (Economic Policy Institute): Part of this “everything” was the efforts of the new administration to end the Great Recession and restore the economy back to full health. From the start, the GOP sought to block measures that a wide swath of economists agreed would provide help to boost the economy and bring down unemployment. This obstructionism has been a constant theme throughout the past four years, and it continues today.
Since 2010, the GOP controlled House has managed to block almost every single bill involving government stimulus for infrastructure, mass transit and employment. i.e. POTUS proposed further infrastructure investments as part of the American Jobs Act in 2011, but that plan was repeatedly blocked by Republicans in both the House and the Senate.
More from EPI: better known as the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011.The BCA cuts have already done damage, and will all-but-surely slow growth in the rest of 2013 as well. ...just one more way that the GOP Congress has managed to delay full recovery from the Great Recession. The evidence continues to pile up that that these spending cuts, forced on a still-depressed economy, can easily throw the nation back into an outright recession and prolong the nation’s economic misery.
Specifically, through Jan 2013, they have objectively weakened the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), repeatedly filibustered routine extensions of emergency unemployment benefits, blocked aid to state governments, filibustered infrastructure investment, used extreme legislative vehicles like refusing to follow precedent on the typically pro forma votes to raise the debt ceiling to extract more economically damaging government spending cuts, blocked passage of a majority of the American Jobs Act (AJA).
Is this an overly harsh read on the motivations of GOP members of Congress? Not at all. Motivations aside the facts are simply that congressional Republicans have consistently hamstrung efforts that a large consensus of economists agree would have provided crucial help in lowering American unemployment.
The best measure of congressional polarization is the DW-Nominate system which works by measuring coalitions. It looks to see who votes together and how often. And it works. Its results line up with both common sense and alternative ways of measuring ideology.
Endemic of the paralysis by polarization in the chart above, in Oct 2012, former POTUS Clinton accused the GOP of attempting to intentionally keep the jobless rate high for their parties benefit.
For those acolytes of FOX, on a fair and balanced note: Thomas Mann of the left-leaning Brookings Institution and Norm Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute published a Washington Post op-ed saying that the GOP deserves the blame for the dysfunction.
"We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party."
In an Elephantine (tongue in cheek) time of need, with real unemployment at 16% and underemployment at 26% and borrowing costs at historic lows (opportune), rather than getting Americans back to work with decent jobs and rebuilding necessary infrastructure for the future, the GOP have chosen to focus on government debt and spending deficit austerity?
Are we not all in this together? It would appear that in order to make the current Presidential administration look bad, the GOP are collectively wringing their hands. Opting to do so in a divisive manner through debt and deficit reductions by cutting budgets, social services and blocking stimulus spending. Ask not WTF are the GOP thinking? Ask WTF happened to Kennedy's American idealism?
Although the pachyderm obstructionism has been a detriment to the recovery of our Republic, it has worked for the GOP's benefit. In the recent 2014 mid term election, the Republicans have now gained control of the Senate.
And here is the mid term election victory cry on 10/05/2014 from the GOP website: Hillary's Policies Were On The Ballot. Obama's Policies that were on the ballot received "stinging defeats" from voters.
Were any actual policy questions, or Hillary Clinton or POTUS Obama on any ballots? No.
More Elephantine rhetoric followed: Tuesday's Election Results Will "Be Seen As A Repudiation" Of Obama's Presidency. After A Historic Rebuke In Yesterday's Midterms, The Obama-Clinton Policies Will Be On The Ballot Again In 2016. It isn't just Obama who should be concerned - Hillary Clinton is running for "Obama's third term."
After which the GOP website launched into a lengthy tabloid style attack against Hillary Clinton. This is the focus? This is how a majority side acts post victory? This is as good as it gets? Really?
To be sure, this is not my parents America or Republican party (voted for Goldwater 64; Nixon 68/72; Ford 76; Reagan 80;84; Bush 88); and it most certainly is not mine either. The Congressional record since 2010 stands as a testament to our belief that BOTH parties (AKA the fools on the hill) are duplicitous and should be banished and disowned, as we touched upon their collaborative bipartisan gridlock by design and paralysis by polarization in the Fallout of Bad Choices series.
Much like Nero, as the fools on the hill whistle, twiddle, fiddle and rotate on their collective thumbs...
...Rome burns along with ours and our children's future. The Republican's now have a majority House and Senate, bully for them. Now, what about our American Republic? What about the rest of us? What do we have to look forward to? As Melvin Udall said to a group of waiting room psychiatric patients (representative of the U.S. electorate), "What if this is as good as it gets?"
For the doubting Thomas regarding Republican obstructionism: For a resume of Congressional Activity, click here. For a list of 17 bills through Dec 2012 that would have passed had it not been for the Republican filibuster, click here. For a relatively complete chronology of Republican obstructionism through Jan 2013, click here.
- Government "Animal Spirit" spending is lacking.
- With unemployment at highs and borrowing costs at lows, our legislative branch continues to focus on austerity measures.
- Bipartisan gridlock by design or paralysis by polarization, has led to an inadequate national infrastructure and the spending necessary to restore it.
- The above effects government (city, county, state and federal) infrastructure spending and the multitude of companies that would profit from such projects.
- The greatest effects are being felt by an unemployed and underemployed public and throughout the economic food chain.
In part one we examined the Congressional record since 2009 and issued our PUBLIC SERVANTS a report card reflecting the legislative branch's performance, a D+.
Today, we dig deeper into the gridlock by design and paralysis by polarization in our legislative branch that is one of the root causes of our current economic malaise.
When a Democratic POTUS took office in 2008, the GOP came up with a plan for the new president, by deciding they needed to fight POTUS on everything. We recommend watching the PBS documentary linked above.
01/18/2013 from EPI (Economic Policy Institute): Part of this “everything” was the efforts of the new administration to end the Great Recession and restore the economy back to full health. From the start, the GOP sought to block measures that a wide swath of economists agreed would provide help to boost the economy and bring down unemployment. This obstructionism has been a constant theme throughout the past four years, and it continues today.
Since 2010, the GOP controlled House has managed to block almost every single bill involving government stimulus for infrastructure, mass transit and employment. i.e. POTUS proposed further infrastructure investments as part of the American Jobs Act in 2011, but that plan was repeatedly blocked by Republicans in both the House and the Senate.
More from EPI: better known as the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011.The BCA cuts have already done damage, and will all-but-surely slow growth in the rest of 2013 as well. ...just one more way that the GOP Congress has managed to delay full recovery from the Great Recession. The evidence continues to pile up that that these spending cuts, forced on a still-depressed economy, can easily throw the nation back into an outright recession and prolong the nation’s economic misery.
Specifically, through Jan 2013, they have objectively weakened the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), repeatedly filibustered routine extensions of emergency unemployment benefits, blocked aid to state governments, filibustered infrastructure investment, used extreme legislative vehicles like refusing to follow precedent on the typically pro forma votes to raise the debt ceiling to extract more economically damaging government spending cuts, blocked passage of a majority of the American Jobs Act (AJA).
Is this an overly harsh read on the motivations of GOP members of Congress? Not at all. Motivations aside the facts are simply that congressional Republicans have consistently hamstrung efforts that a large consensus of economists agree would have provided crucial help in lowering American unemployment.
The best measure of congressional polarization is the DW-Nominate system which works by measuring coalitions. It looks to see who votes together and how often. And it works. Its results line up with both common sense and alternative ways of measuring ideology.
Endemic of the paralysis by polarization in the chart above, in Oct 2012, former POTUS Clinton accused the GOP of attempting to intentionally keep the jobless rate high for their parties benefit.
For those acolytes of FOX, on a fair and balanced note: Thomas Mann of the left-leaning Brookings Institution and Norm Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute published a Washington Post op-ed saying that the GOP deserves the blame for the dysfunction.
"We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party."
Are we not all in this together? It would appear that in order to make the current Presidential administration look bad, the GOP are collectively wringing their hands. Opting to do so in a divisive manner through debt and deficit reductions by cutting budgets, social services and blocking stimulus spending. Ask not WTF are the GOP thinking? Ask WTF happened to Kennedy's American idealism?
Although the pachyderm obstructionism has been a detriment to the recovery of our Republic, it has worked for the GOP's benefit. In the recent 2014 mid term election, the Republicans have now gained control of the Senate.
And here is the mid term election victory cry on 10/05/2014 from the GOP website: Hillary's Policies Were On The Ballot. Obama's Policies that were on the ballot received "stinging defeats" from voters.
Were any actual policy questions, or Hillary Clinton or POTUS Obama on any ballots? No.
More Elephantine rhetoric followed: Tuesday's Election Results Will "Be Seen As A Repudiation" Of Obama's Presidency. After A Historic Rebuke In Yesterday's Midterms, The Obama-Clinton Policies Will Be On The Ballot Again In 2016. It isn't just Obama who should be concerned - Hillary Clinton is running for "Obama's third term."
After which the GOP website launched into a lengthy tabloid style attack against Hillary Clinton. This is the focus? This is how a majority side acts post victory? This is as good as it gets? Really?
To be sure, this is not my parents America or Republican party (voted for Goldwater 64; Nixon 68/72; Ford 76; Reagan 80;84; Bush 88); and it most certainly is not mine either. The Congressional record since 2010 stands as a testament to our belief that BOTH parties (AKA the fools on the hill) are duplicitous and should be banished and disowned, as we touched upon their collaborative bipartisan gridlock by design and paralysis by polarization in the Fallout of Bad Choices series.
Much like Nero, as the fools on the hill whistle, twiddle, fiddle and rotate on their collective thumbs...
...Rome burns along with ours and our children's future. The Republican's now have a majority House and Senate, bully for them. Now, what about our American Republic? What about the rest of us? What do we have to look forward to? As Melvin Udall said to a group of waiting room psychiatric patients (representative of the U.S. electorate), "What if this is as good as it gets?"
For the doubting Thomas regarding Republican obstructionism: For a resume of Congressional Activity, click here. For a list of 17 bills through Dec 2012 that would have passed had it not been for the Republican filibuster, click here. For a relatively complete chronology of Republican obstructionism through Jan 2013, click here.
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