If you are Obama on wednesday
fife
Posts: 3,327
by most accounts, the democrats are going to lose the house and possibly the senate on tuesday. this is going to make things much harder for President Obama to do many things that he may want to have done. President Obama will have to make compromises on many things. So my questions to everyone year will be what would you do in the next 2 years based on what you think can be passed as compared to what you want done?
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the government is going to be shut down because the first thing the gop in the house will do is begin impeachment hearings and subpoenas, which the dems could have done, they could have sought to prosecute bush and co, but they took the high road. they will try to re-peal everything that has been done so far, so nothing will get done. nothing of substance anyway, because it is going to be so watered down.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
where would you cut spending from? healthcare, education, research, military etc etc?
You figure the first six months, the anti-spending tea party guys will flex their muscles and not vote for any dem bills, and any tea party bills won't get dem votes.
Then after that honeymoon period wears off and everyone starts hearing from their districts that they need jobs/money/etc, and special interest groups start calling in favors, they will start working together... but by then, the 2012 candidates will start to emerge, and everything will be back to us vs them partisan crap..
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Is there a solution?
end the war in Afghanistan, veto bills brought to him by a republican congress that are not good compromises, but support efforts made by moderates, republicans and democrats a like. also, be transparent. he promised us transparency and all we got was a copy of the last 8 years.
Be strong and stick to his guns, democrats will be much more likely to support him in a couple years if he stands strong and sticks by what he has accomplished.
I would also try to pass legislation that makes it illegal to deny someone a license based on sexual preference. That would include, hunting, driver's, and MARRIAGE. The national dialog on the gay marriage debate needs to start being controlled by the good guys.
End the estate tax.
Lower capital gains to next to nothing to increase investment, while introducing a vat/sales tax on everything except necessities that lowers income taxes for everyone.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
In Canada,we have a thing called a non-confidence motion. a non-confidence motion is a motion in the House of Commons, which, if passed, means that the government has lost the confidence of the House. The government must then either resign or ask the governor general to dissolve Parliament and call an election. many people in Canada hate this cause it means that you can have many elections in many years but looking at American politics right now am so happy to that have this.
I just can't believe that a country like the Unites states does seem to have a problem with having their government not do anything for the people of the country.
you really believe they will begin impeachment hearings on Obama?
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
I don't think Obama wants to end the war (he did say that he would put more troops when he was running for president. I know this may seem dumb but is there anymore Moderate Rep or democrats left? concerning gay marriage, i don't see that one passing. but your other ideas seem reasonable, thanks.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
you really believe they will begin impeachment hearings on Obama?[/quote]
i absolutely believe they will find something to impeach him for. they have been looking for something since day one of his presidency.[/quote]
do you care about elaborating? You seem to have strong sense of this and i just want to hear more about why you think so.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -gop-house
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
very interesting article. thanks Mike!
I guess there is no convincing you.
If I judged any group as harshly as you judge and lump together republicans I woud be called a bigot and probably suspeneded from the boards.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Yes
can you elaborate on that.
You call for less spending but maybe if we all pitched in more the deficit wouldn't be so large.
I just feel there's a sense of entitlement in this country. I saw it building before the bad economy and wasn't surprised when things started to go down hill. We want want want, but we don't want to pay for it. “we're in America, the best county so I should have this this and this.” Paying taxes isn't evil. It goes back into making this country strong.
I just thought this sense of entitlement would start to disappear due to the bad economy, it hasn't and I'm disappointed.
….and war is expensive. But we had to do something when were attacked huh?
$350,000 to renovate the House Beauty Salon.
$250,000 to study TV lighting in the Senate meeting rooms.
$130,000 for a Congressional video-conferencing project.
Total: $6,730,000 mall example of pork spending
$3.1 million to convert a ferry boat into a crab restaurant in Baltimore.
$6.4 million for a Bavarian ski resort in Kellogg, Idaho.
$13 million to repair a privately owned dam in South Carolina.
$4.3 million for a privately owned museum in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
$11 million for a private pleasure boat harbor in Cleveland.
$6 million to repair tracks owned by the Soo Railroad Line.
$320,000 to purchase President McKinley's mother-in-law's house. Funds to rehabilitate the South Carolina mansion of Charles Pickney, a Framer of the Constitution, even though the house was built after he died.
$2.7 million for a catfish farm in Arkansas.
$3 million for private parking garages in Chicago.
$500,000 to build a replica of the Great Pyramid of Egypt in Indiana.
$850,000 for a bicycle path in Macomb County, Michigan.
$10 million for an access ramp in a privately owned stadium in Milwaukee.
$1.8 million for an engineering study to convert Biscayne Boulevard in Miami into an "Exotic Garden."
$13 million for an industrial theme park in Pennsylvania.
$500,000 for a museum to honor former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.
$33 million to pump sand onto the private beaches of Miami hotels. $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.
$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.
$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed instrument.
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.
$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency.
$100,000 to research soybean-based ink.
$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.
$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two
Republicans Plan Congressional Investigations
Aug 27, 2010 Frank Crimi
http://www.suite101.com/content/republi ... ns-a279483
Republicans are poised to launch a wide series of investigations if they retake the House in November, a prospect that has Democrats very concerned
While many Democratic lawmakers and political strategists are beginning to brace themselves for what could turn out to be an historically severe political beat down in November 2010, their Republican counterparts are having a hard time hiding the state of euphoria in which they now find themselves, their only fear that they may wake up and realize that the astounding turnaround in their political fortunes is not a dream.
Republicans at Low Ebb
In November 2008 the Republican Party was at the lowest ebb it had been since the Watergate days of Richard Nixon. Their Presidential standard bearer, John McCain, had been mercilessly shellacked in the general election by Barrack Obama, whose coattails created Democratic super majorities in both Houses. Democrats, like James Carville, crowed that the election was so seismic in nature that it “guaranteed a Democratic majority for the next forty years.” For those Republicans who had not already headed for the tall grass, that prediction looked like a very safe bet.
For those with an eye to history, however, they knew that predictions of generational political shifts are best left to future historians. They remember after the destruction of Barry Goldwater at the hands of Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 Presidential election, similar cries were then evoked about a twenty year Republican exodus into the political wilderness. Yet four short years later, Lyndon Johnson had been pushed into self-imposed exile to his Texas ranch, while Richard Nixon, whose own political obituary had been written in 1962 after his loss to Pat Brown in the California Gubernatorial election, won the Presidency in 1968.
Democratic Failures
Those cautions notwithstanding, it was difficult for anyone to see how a Democratic Party, facing a demoralized and inept Republican opponent, fails to at the very least, solidify its hold on power. Predicting forty years of power may have been a bit of an overstretch, but nobody foresaw that they would blow it all in what looks to be a mere two years. Yet, by dramatically misreading the mandate they thought they had won, embarking on a leftward agenda of federal expansion not seen since the heydays of FDR’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, they did precisely that.
Their policies have ratcheted up the national debt to over $12 trillion, oversaw several budgets with trillion dollar deficits, and passed sweeping healthcare and regulatory legislation that were opposed by most of the voting public. On top of that it was a done through a legislative process replete with backroom deals and midnight votes and closed door hearings, which was more akin to the workings of a banana republic than a constitutional republic.
Finally, apparently having never read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Democrats displayed an open contempt to the growing political activist movement being organized by ordinary citizens across the country to articulate their opposition to the overreach being propagated in Washington. The response by their top congressional leadership likened them, specifically the Tea Party Movement, to a collection of racists, Brown Shirts and Nazis.
Republican Investigations
It is not unusual for a party which has found itself returned to power to go initiate some type of payback for the slights heaped upon them by the then majority party; if Republicans take control in November, they will be no different.
While there may not be many current House Democrats left after the election to investigate, there is the current occupant of the White House who has two full years more years, and, unfortunately for them, the Obama White House offers a target rich environment for Republican investigations.
Investigations into Joe Sestak, TARP, Mineral Management Services, Acorn, Countrywide, AIG, and the New Black Panther Party remain at the top of the GOP investigative list but investigations have a way of expanding and unearthing new controversies. While the importance of each one of these varies in its significance, the sheer number has the potential to cripple the legislative agenda of the White House for the next two years.
However, it may be wise for Republicans to temper their investigatory pursuits and keep in mind the need to focus on their own upcoming mandate. If they do retake power in November, it will be in large part due to the focus of public ire aimed squarely at stopping the continued growth of the leviathan federal government and bringing back a semblance of fiscal sanity to Washington.
Republicans lost their majority in the House in 2006 by abandoning their own campaign promises of fiscal responsibility and indulging in the same type of lavish spending that has Democrats in a current world of hurt. If the GOP gets overly sidetracked in its pursuit of investigatory probes and ignores the main reason they were elected, then their own time in power could end very quickly. Perhaps, as early as two years.
GOP plans wave of White House probes
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41506.html
If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.
Everything from the microscopic — the New Black Panther party — to the massive –- think bailouts — is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO.
Republican staffers say there won’t be any self-destructive witch hunts, but they clearly are relishing the prospect of extracting information from an administration that touts transparency.
And a handful of aggressive would-be committee chairmen — led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — are quietly gearing up for a possible season of subpoenas not seen since the Clinton wars of the late 1990s.
Issa would like Obama’s cooperation, says Kurt Bardella, spokesman for the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But it’s not essential.
“How acrimonious things get really depend on how willing the administration is in accepting our findings [and] responding to our questions,” adds Bardella, who refers to his boss as “questioner-in-chief.’
That’s feeding anxieties within the West Wing — even if administration officials won’t admit it publicly.
“I actually think it will be even worse than what happened to Bill Clinton because of the animosity they already feel for President Obama,” says Lanny Davis, a deputy White House counsel who lived through Clinton’s trials.
With that in mind, here’s a list of six possible committee investigations if Republicans take back the House in November, culled from GOP aides, Democratic insiders and outside experts:
Sestak, Romanoff and Jobgate. Most of the Clinton-era investigations — from Whitewater to Vince Foster to the Lewinsky scandal — targeted the president personally.
Most potential GOP probes of Obama, by contrast, seem to be aimed at the administration’s periphery or policies — with the ironic exception of the one that revolves around none other than Bill Clinton.
Issa has made no secret of his interest in getting to the bottom of muddled, mishandled White House attempts to force Democratic Senate candidates Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff from races in Pennsylvania and Colorado.
White Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina sent Romanoff an e-mail with several potential non-Senate job possibilities; Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel enlisted Clinton to dangle the possibility of several unpaid executive branch appointments to Sestak in exchange for allowing Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter to run unopposed. Sestak said no — and trounced Specter.
White House counsel Bob Bauer — the veteran election lawyer who would be Obama’s first legal line of defense against the GOP — has said no laws were broken. So have some GOP lawyers, but Issa isn’t convinced and has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate.
Privately, Issa’s staff is afraid of taking it too far. The backlash against Republican investigations in the Newt Gingrich era is fresh in his mind.
He’s told associates he doesn’t want to be labeled another Dan Burton, referring to the overzealous Indiana Republican oversight chairman who once shot at a pumpkin in his backyard to reenact Vince Foster’s death.
“If Republicans go on an investigative witch hunt when and if they gain power in November, then their power will be very short lived,” said Mark McKinnon, a former George W. Bush adviser sympathetic to Obama. “The American public wants Congress to work together, not to investigate each other.”
Bailouts, Bailouts, Bailouts. No investigation poses a more significant political danger to Obama than a no-holds-barred GOP probe into TARP, the AIG bailout, the Freddie-Fannie sinkhole and the administration’s de facto takeover of GM and Chrysler.
Reason One: Perhaps the only issue uniting all voters is a shared hatred of all bailouts — so few Democrats, even die-hard liberals, would be willing to stand in front of a bus to defend Obama against attacks.
Reason Two: One GOP aide described the bailouts as a “huge pool” from which to make document and e-mail requests — and issue subpoenas. The prospect of a massive and popular fishing expedition at the West Wing’s expense would delight the Republican base and create a political headache for the president’s team.
Issa seriously rattled Democrats earlier this summer by revealing the lengths he is willing to go to obtain information, asking Google executives if they would be willing to turn over Gmail messages pertaining to administration business.
“If he comes at them, the White House will then have to make up its mind: Will they let their lawyers take over, or will they let the political people run the show?” says Lanny Davis, who counsels Obama to turn over as much as possible as quickly as possible to avoid allegations of stonewalling.
“If Rahm Emanuel is still chief of staff, they will have a huge advantage. He’s been through this before, and he’ll push back against the lawyers,” added Davis.
Countrywide Mortgage and “Angelo’s List.” Sen. Chris Dodd’s embarrassing placement on the company’s VIP mortgage list played a major role in the Connecticut Democrat’s involuntary retirement earlier this year.
Issa — using only the bully pulpit — has already forced Countrywide’s parent, Bank of America, to turn over reams of documents. If he becomes chairman, Issa will use the committee’s power to obtain more information on sweetheart deals, even if it involves GOP politicians, according to a person close to him.
“I think the White House is underestimating him,” says a top congressional Democratic aide. “What makes him so dangerous is that he’s willing to turn on Republicans, too.”
The New Black Panther Party. Smith, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, has already pressed Holder to look into charges that members of the New Black Panther Party intimidated voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008.
The San Antonio-area conservative — whose first campaign was managed by Karl Rove — is already on record criticizing Holder for dropping the Justice Department case against three Panthers, including one who brandished a police-style baton.
“Congress, in furtherance of its oversight obligations [needs] to receive answers” on the Panther case, he wrote in late 2009.
“Congressman Smith thinks it’s far too early to discuss any possible investigations before the voters have spoken,” said a Smith spokesman, before adding:
“But, yes, we would definitely want answers about the Black Panther case.”
ACORN. A whole host of Republicans — led by Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) on the party’s right wing — have demanded an investigation into the defunct community organizing group’s ties to the Obama campaign.
Still, neither Issa nor Smith are said to be enthusiastic about jumping back into the controversy — considering the fact that ACORN is out of business and most Democrats already have signed on to a bill barring federal funding of the group.
Related: Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who stands a chance of leap-frogging Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the ranking GOPer on the House Financial Services Committee — is pushing for a large-scale investigation of the Community Reinvestment Act.
Minerals Management Service. The juiciest Bush-era revelations about the agency’s shortcomings have already been aired, including the fact that some MMS employees allegedly had sexual relations with workers they were supposed to oversee.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has admitted MMS officials were asleep at the switch in monitoring BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform before it blew up. But Issa is bent on finding out which Obama administration officials were responsible for missing the warning signs and why clean-up and response efforts didn’t take place more quickly.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
yeah do you have a reference for each figure??
the ones i highlighted are so ridiculous that they can not possibly be true. if they are i would like to see soueces on these as well...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
wonder if it cost the ancients $2m to construct their canoes back in the day??? :think:
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
this doesn't surprise me at all
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Yeah, Republicans are total jerks. Good thing Democrats have never tried to smear anyone. Ever.