You priority for the lame duck session?

[Radical Activist]

The next time Congress meets it will be the same members we have right now. We'll have some defeated incumbents with nothing else to lose. Others will know that there's plenty of time between now and the next election for voters to forget unpopular votes.

Passing a climate change bill and repeal of DADT have already been discussed.

What's your priority for the lame duck session of Congress? And how do we pressure Congressional leaders to get tough in December?

[yourout]

1. Getting Feingold on the SCOTUS.

[scheming daemons]

2. Um.... somebody has to die/retire first. It's not up to Obama.

And even if they did... it wouldn't be taken up until the next congress. SCOTUS appointments take months.

[yourout]

4. As a big FU to the pukes Ginsburg retires and the same day Feingold announced...

as replacement.

Just a pipe dream but it would have been fun to watch.

[JVS]

3. Use reconciliation to raise debt ceiling to incredible level and spend shitloads of money.

I'm talking about enough appropriations to fund the country for the next 6 years.

[Radical Activist]

14. lol

I like it.

[msongs]

5. kill bush "tax cuts" once n for all and repeal DADT nt

[hayu_lol]

8. We will probably all be lucky to escape the next few weeks...

with our lives.

[hayu_lol]

9. We will probably all be lucky to escape the next few weeks...

with our lives.

[barbtries]

6. you named mine

climate change and DADT - i think so

oh, and a jobs bill. infrastructure that will put people to work.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. End pResident Stupid's tax cuts for all but the upper 2%

Keep the Cap Gains rates if you must, but levy a tax on trades to shut down HFT that turn a legitimate market into a high-stakes computer-driven casino.

Oh, and END the damn wars. END. Not 50k troops on combat duty without combat pay. Bring them home.

Am I asking for too much?

[MadHound]

10. Nothing is going to happen during the lame duck session

The 'Pugs are going to stall, the Dems will cave and Obama will try to be "bipartisan", again. That's why we needed to repeal DADT before the elections.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Defund Obama's "necessary" war.

[The Northerner]

13. +100

[readmoreoften]

20. +1000000

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. (s)

Bring them home TOMORROW.

[eleny]

12. Keep swimming three times a week and lose 10 pounds

Oh, you mean in Congress.

Nothing but maneuvering and showmanship by the Dems if we're lucky. But no legislation actually passing.

[Radical Activist]

15. No thoughts on how to pressure Congress to do otherwise?

[eleny]

17. I don't have any ideas tonight

It should be a formula. But Citizens United changed the landscape in a way I can't figure out how to combat. I think they'll go after any media we consider to be on our side. Buy up radio stations and shut down our voices.

You must have heard that candidate Raese actually declared that he wanted to return to the late 19th century before child labor laws. Back in January I joked here at DU about the corporations wishing for those days and now Raese said it.

So, no, I'm not able to bounce right back today with ideas worth uttering.

[Parker CA]

16. DADT and extending tax cuts for middle class.

[Greyhound]

18. 25% across-the-board cut in the defense budget, and pour it into large infrastructure projects.

A parting gift from the winners (Congress) to the losers (the public).

[lunasun]

19. climate change / social program funding / union issues/ dadt

'cuz ya know whats coming next

[Rex]

21. Save up as much money as I can and prepare for the worst.

My mass consumer spending was close to zero, now it will be at zero for at least two years as the GOPukers bring everything to a critical halt. Hope the economy has people out there that can spend on it, it will be a long time before I do again.

[flamingdem]

23. Lift travel restrictions to Cuba before Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes head of House Foreign Affairs

because after that you can forget it.

She blocked the bill out of the Agricultural committee but they will try again in the lame duck.

House Agriculture Committee Votes to End Cuba Travel and Commodities Trade Restrictions

============

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anya-landau-french/what-do-the-mid-terms-ele_b_778382.html


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Comments 1

Let's start with the obvious. With the Republican takeover of Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes the new Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the authorizing committee with jurisdiction over most of Cuba-related legislation. This means not only that no engagement-oriented Cuba bills will move through that committee, and that very possibly, Ros-Lehtinen might well choose to move legislation through her committee that would tighten the embargo.

This doesn't mean Cuba reforms can't move in the House. Let's remember that Arizona Republican Congressman Jeff Flake was able to move various incremental reforms on appropriation bills under a Republican-controlled Congress, over the objections of the late Henry Hyde, a staunch embargo supporter who was Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the early 2000's. He prevailed several times in earlier Congresses, but President Bush's repeated veto threats ensured the provisions disappeared in conference negotiations. Flake noted earlier this fall that he thinks many of the freshman conservatives who won their seats on a pro-freedom, anti-government platform will be hard pressed to vote against a measure that a) restores a basic freedom (travel) to Americans, and b) eliminates needless government spending.

In the Senate, a staunchly pro-embargo Cuban American Republican, Marco Rubio of Florida, will join forces with his staunchly pro-embargo Cuban American Democratic colleague, Bob Menendez. The level of pro-embargo, anti-engagement speechifying, floor-side colleague arm-twisting and bipartisan sign-on letter-writing and hand-wringing will certainly amp up. And on the opposite side, it's still unclear who, if anyone, will fill the shoes of pro-reform and engagement Democrats Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd, both of whom retire at the end of this session (not to mention Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln, who just lost her reelection bid). Dorgan in particular is known to pursue amendments on the Senate floor when no one else will, and he's put considerable effort, alongside longtime allied Republican Mike Enzi, into their signature Freedom to Travel to Cuba bill, which boasts 40 Senate cosponsors and iffy prospects in the lame duck congressional work period ahead.



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