Randy Rhodes:You can't expect the President to pass things the Senate doesn't want to past

[bigdarryl]

Thank you Randy she is right she said the Senate is a separate branch of Government with crazy rules where one Senator can block an amendment on anything she seems to be the only liberal on radio along with Miller not BASHING the President at all cost I listen to Schultz, Cenk who all day was on a tirade about the meeting the President had with the rethugs and his press conference these guys are really starting to get on my nerve these so-called Progressives who are former rethugs

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1. Shame, I used to like Randy Rhodes

I haven't listened to her in a long time. But just judging by this statement of hers I would guess she has been waving the pom poms for the last couple of years?

The senate is controlled by the president's party. Tell George Bush that the senate is a major road block, see what he says.

[bigdarryl]

2. true but people forget its also the Corporate Democrats are the problem also

Randy also says we never had 60 votes in the Senate because Lieberman isn't a democrat and you have Senators who repeatedly vote with the rethugs.

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3. Yes, but Bush never could have even dream of the majorities that we had

we pissed those majorities away. Bush did so much more with so much less.

And Randy, from what I read here, is just making excuses where excuses aren't warrented. Someone should take accountability for something for once. Take these tax cuts for example (and boy we can look at alot more examples). These tax cuts wouldn't have been an issue if Obama passed them using reconiliation (which had to be done earlier this year). They chose not to do that or were too dumb to see what was coming. They are the ones to blame for that, not blue dogs, not republicans, they are.

[Arkana]

5. Those "majorities" consisted of MAYBE 47-48 reliable Democratic votes.

The others were Blue Dog cowards or pet-issue Senators who oppose the Democratic position on one particular plank.

So next time you start railing about "THA SUPAMAJORITY", think about the Democrats who composed it. Numbers mean jack if everyone in the room believes different things.

[zulchzulu]

7. Precisely

There are about 11 Blue Dogs who might have a (D) next to their name, but they usually vote with people with the (R) next to theirs.

[MrsCorleone]

10. Reconciliation can only be used once per year.

Attaching tax cuts to Healthcare reform would have ensured the failure of both.

Passing legislation is not as simplistic as you seem to think.

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13. Why would adding tax cuts be the death of HCR?

A bunch of tax cuts were already added to that bill.

And it would have made it more damaging for the republicans and blue dogs to vote against it. You could have run in November with non stop ads about how these people voted against tax cuts for the middle class.

And you are honestly trying to tell me that we don't have 50 democratic senators that support tax cuts on the middle class but not on the rich?

[FBaggins]

16. Reconciliation isn't just a "free pass" to push through any legislation.

There are rules that must be followed. One of which requires that the legislation be, at worst, revenue neutral. A great big tax cut can't meet that requirement.

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18. Were the Bush tax cuts revenue neutral? You know, the ones he passed using reconciliation?

[FBaggins]

20. By those rules? Yes. That's why they're expiring.

They had to play a bunch of accounting games that scored the cuts "creatively".

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22. And this administration has no power to play these same accounting games?

Lately DU seems to think Bush was some kind of brillient jedi master with magical powers no democrat could ever harvest.

[FBaggins]

23. No... they played those games to fit HCR in.

You can only squeeze so much blood from a turnip.

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25. What games did they play?

[FBaggins]

26. Oh... a ton of them.

IIRC, there were hundreds of billions of dollars in medicare savings from cutting waste/abuse... yet they're still (months after passage) designing programs to actually reduce those abuses. IOW... it's just a line-item that has not reality at this point. Like telling your wife that you'll find $30/month for that new cell phone data plan by cutting your number of minutes and switching to a cheaper internet provided... without any firm plan to do so (or even knowing that it's possible).

You're also aware, I'm sure, that many of the fees/taxes that pay for the program begin years before the actual benefits arive? That's the same thing as Bush phasing out the "death tax" only to have it return in full force several years later... so that on paper it wouldn't cost so much... when they knew full well that they didn't intend to let it return.

[treestar]

8. The party is not that cohesive

They boast they don't walk in lock step.

The Blue Dogs did not always agree.

Each Senator is able to vote as he pleases - they don't have to vote the same just because they are with the same party.

The 2008 election did not mean the Democrats were a monolith that would vote together.

[no limit]

14. Bush didn't always have party support either. Somehow he got things like medicare part D passed

He also got the patriot act, 2 tax cuts, and a bunch of other disastrous legislation passed. we can't even get DADT passed which the majority of americans along with the majority of the military support. It's truly pathetic.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. And Bush had 9/11.

Did you already forget the nation basically rubber stamping whatever he said in the years after that? It wasn't until 2005 that people even started waking up from that haze. He didn't effectively drop below 50% approval ratings until that point (which specifically was May 2005). http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx

There has been no analog to that in this presidency, or many other presidencies in history. That one event immediately makes pretty much any comparison null and void, especially considering that Bush was already approaching the point of getting nothing done by the time 9/11 rolled around. Context is everything, and you've completely disregarded it.

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17. Did you forget how he stuffed defense spending bills with things that werent remotely related?

And he wouldn't cave, he would force the democrats to which they did without much resistance. if they did put up resistance he would label them as anti troop for holding up defense funding?

This was happening long after 2005.

Now fast forward to a democratic administration which can do the exact same thing with DADT and other issues. Yet they won't. They are the ones again caving. Why?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

21. Once again, context means nothing to you.

Democrats have been viewed as weak on defense since Vietnam. It's a huge perception problem that's never gone away. And inversely, Republicans have literally wrapped themselves up in the flag and are seen as pro-troops in spite of all evidence like funding for VA hospitals and cutting other troop benefits. It's insane, but it's 100% true.

So when you're starting from that hole, Republicans have a lot more latitude to get away with this bullshit because the public is predisposed to believe that Republicans are pro-military, whereas Democrats are seen as peaceniks and anything that could possibly reaffirm that prejudice scares them - and it should.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ramulux]

4. Are you joking?

Obama has put no pressure on anyone in the senate, he has ALLOWED these piece of shit senators to do whatever they want and hasn't called out anyone publicly. Obama is the most powerful person in this country with access to the largest pulpit there is and he hasn't used it at all except to attack liberals. If Obama wanted to he could have held a press conference every day during the health care debates where he called out members of his own party who were holding up the process for obvious political reasons, he could have focused the ENTIRE countries attention on a handful of senators who were obviously making decisions to benefit only themselves. I am not saying it would have immediately forced them to buckle, but at least it would have shown where Obama stands on the issue.

No one is getting mad about Obama's failure to pass all this progressive legislation we are mad that he refused to even make the case and call out people who were obviously not working in the countries best interests.

[MrsCorleone]

11. My god. With all due respect, have you been living under a rock?

Where do you get all of your false assumptions? And, they are just that: assumptions.

I suspect that you, my friend, have been marinating waaaaay too long in the MSM-Huffpo-PR Firm brew.

[Ramulux]

27. What is false about what I said?

Did I just miss it when he took Joe Lieberman to task for holding up health care over his personal bullshit, or when Obama held a press conference and explained to the American people that the republicans are not governing in good will but rather for political survival?

I really hope I am wrong and Obama actually did those things, but I am pretty sure he didn't.

[angee_is_mad]

6. funny how reform rethugs have the loudest criticism

except for John Cole of course. But it never cease to amaze me how these former rethugs, who never ran for anything, are the most vocal.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. Randi is right, but at the same time, she has this weird and disturbing infatuation with Scott Brown

and has defended him every since he entered the scene, claiming that he'd be more moderate. Well... he single handedly blocked unemployment benefits that would have helped millions of Americans.

I wonder if Randi is still in love with Scott Brown after the stunt he pulled today?

[MrsCorleone]

12. Don't forget Rachel!

IMO, Stephanie, Randi, and Rachel: the Axis of Awesome. The girls rock! The boys? Not so much.

Been listening to RW radio the past few days (opposition research) and am currently icing down my bleeding, wounded ears. I'll catch up with Randi via podcast. Love when she gets into nitty gritty policy issues and rules. Fascinating stuff.

[Yeahyeah]

19. She's just a groupie.