"That Can-Do Lame Duck Congress? ABC News Poll Finds Americans Loved It!"

[jenmito]

The lame duck Congress is a hit with Americans. An ABC News/Yahoo! News poll finds 77 percent of Americans approved of the “flurry of legislation” pushed through Congress last month, saying it was good for President Obama and Congress to work together.

The poll–out this morning–finds approval across party lines, with 91 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans approving of the rush of legislation on tax cuts, unemployment benefits, gays in the military, the START treaty and aid to 9/11 responders:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/that-can-do-lame-duck-congress-abc-news-poll-finds-americans-loved-it/

[ProSense]

1. Rec'd

I think.


:rofl:

[jenmito]

2. Thanks

I think.

:D

[annabanana]

3. kapow... Imagine what the approval rate would be if they

had gotten decent (or even half-decent) legislation pushed through at that rate for the past two years!

[ncteechur]

4. Maybe you could let Senate republicans know that.

[annabanana]

5. I do..

regularly.

[Lord Magus]

8. Which they would have if filibuster reform had been done two years ago.

The House was consistently passing good bills that never even made it to the floor in the Senate.

[Arkana]

10. Yeah, if only it weren't for the fact that there were 41 Senate Republicans

who abused the filibuster like a crack pipe.

[karynnj]

11. Agreed - but remember each of those items represented

a lot of work done quietly - often for more than a year - in committees and in getting public approval.

The amount of legislation was impressive and the deadline of the Congress ending and the new Congress being less hospitable to anything was a factor, but at least two things - New START and DADT were the result of careful, patient, methodical work to gain consensus. These actually bode well for the new Congress, which is likely to be horrendous.

New START was the culmination of work since nearly the beginning of Obama's administration. The administration negotiated the treaty and kept Congress informed via hearings and other means while they did so. The work that Kerry did on the SFRC (and the smaller number of hearings in the Armed Services and Intelligence committees) represented hundreds of hours of work by Senators and their staffs. The SFRC could have voted it out mid last summer - but it would have received few Republican votes. Many asked for more time - and in September it was voted out 14 - 4. Even in the lame duck session, a Republican complaint was it was being rushed through. The patience shown by Kerry, likely with administration support, made a strong case that that did not happen.

On DADT, the study that was commissioned - that few here thought sensible, as it was a civil rights - was important as many Republican votes were from people who kind of boxed themselves in - saying that they would vote for it depending on the study. Until that study came out, it was likely that we might not have had the votes.

One question is whether the Republicans paid any political price for holding everything hostage - or saw that they were likely to pay a political price had it continued. If not, it bodes poorly for real compromise.

[bagimin]

6. k&r

[wisteria]

7. Good the read this! n/t

[dkf]

9. 91% of Democrats?

I wonder what a poll here would show.