"The House is paying the price for the Senate's failure"

[Canuckistanian]

Just heard on a call-in show from FLA.

Is this true? Comments?

[devereaux]

I believe it

The House has passed a lot of legislation that has languished and/or died in the senate because with their 41 votes the Republicans have filibustered virtually everything. EVERYTHING.

[CitizenLeft]

4. yes.

exactly.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Seems to me the House crafted some pretty decent legislation that the Senate

kept watering down or not passing.

[Dappleganger]

3. That makes the most sense...

and whenever that happened they kept losing our faith.

[harun]

2. Perfect headline.

Senate sat on ton's of good legislation passed by the House. Now the Senate will sit on a bunch of sh*t legislation passed by the House.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The lack of progress does seem to have been the Senate's fault

That's where things were blocked, healthcare reform watered down and so on. I suppose you might say the House should have pushed for a bigger stimulus, since that's fiscal and their primary responsibility. But overall I'd say you could tie any lack of Democratic enthusiasm mostly to the Senate.

[PBass]

6. Something like 90 votes passed in the House but were squashed in the Senate.

Somebody help with a more accurate statistic...

[babylonsister]

7. I think it's true; the House had a big majority that passed a

lot of things. All the Senate seemed to do was fight and stall, and I credit a lot of that to the rethugs as well as a few DINOs.

[Howler]

8. In a nutshell....

Yep.

[strategery blunder]

9. I'd say it's probably a fair statement.

The House was one of the most productive sessions in history. Something like 400 good bills that would have addressed the nation's woes (as mandated by the voters in 2008) got sent to the Senate to die. Blue Dogs joined Republicans in either killing or watering down into nothingness those bills, the two most egregious examples being stimulus and healthcare reform.

Unfortunately, the media is so corporatized and reliant on soundbites here that it blasted out the "Big Bad Gubmint! Tea Party!" propaganda 24/7. The true obstructionists (Senate Republican/Blue Dog Coalition) had their role in the gridlock obfuscated by the media, so those voters who aren't political junkies would have a hard time identifying it. Those voters then take out their frustrations on the House.

[EFerrari]

10. Yep. But bad messaging also has a price. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

20. Which messaging?

Media messaging or Congress messaging?

[EFerrari]

26. Well, most people hate Congress and they have no idea what Nancy did

for the last two years. It's a combo. Media constantly bangs up the House and the House doesn't really fight back.

Part of it must be the way our elections are funded, I suppose.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Too bad the rubes that voted (R) this cycle couldn't figure it out.

Only in politics do voters reward a Party that has worked tirelessly in stopping progress in fixing things that they themselves created.

[scarletwoman]

12. Very much spot on.

The Senate -- the Millionaires Boy's Club -- just never could bear passing anything that might possibly inconvenience their fatcat donors.

sw

[Prism]

13. 100% accurate

The House and Speaker Pelosi did everything a Democrat could ask of them and more.

The Senate killed real reform in its crib.

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. That pretty much sums it up, IMO.

[grantcart]

18. you can say that again.

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. That pretty much sums it up, IMO.

[grantcart]

19. Christ you don't have to take it so literally man.

[Canuckistanian]

24. LOL n/t

[Ruby the Liberal]

27. Ha! Dupe was a DU fluke.

:D

[laughingliberal]

16. Yep. If the Senate had passed the legislation the House passed, the country would be on far better..

footing now and we would have kept both chambers.

[JVS]

17. That's true

[deacon]

21. it's true, yes. Harry Reid was the weakest link. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

22. I have pre-agreed to that view since whenever.

It's one of the many hallowed and fubar features of our system. Senate blocks good legislation, good people in the House pay with their seats. Minority veto, and the majority get a double screwing.

[groundloop]

23. Agree 100%

Lots of armchair quarterbacking, but the Greedy Obstructionist Party senators did a hell of a job blocking a large percentage of legislation as well as President Obama's nominees, while Democratic leadership in the senate did (IMHO) a pretty poor job of calling them out and fighting to get stuff through. I fail to see why it was made so comfortable for the Greedy Obstructionist Party to fillibuster, they should have been forced to read from the phone book for hours on end so the public could at least get a glimpse of what they were up to. And another pet peeve, Joe Lie-berman should have lost all of his chairmanships for what he did to healthcare. As it is all the news that made it out was that congress was gridlocked, etc. etc. I feel we'd be looking at far brighter election results tonight had senate leadership been more willing to fight.

[Fire1]

25. True! n/t

[depakid]

28. Yep- that and the administration's failures

Politically speaking- the Obama administration and its DNC have been a disaster of historic proportions.

[bluedigger]

29. Pretty much spot on.

But on the bright side, the Senate will continue to obstruct the new House, just as they did the old.

[somone]

30. Very true

[Kablooie]

31. The Senate takes 51 votes to pass R legislation but 60 votes to pass D legislation.

It's strongly biased in Republican favor no matter if they are the majority or minority.