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When Our Senses Reverse by Joel Hendon ( 754 )
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When Our Senses Reverse

by Joel Hendon(754) Blue Star


I have never known a time in the past eighty years when our government was so in shambles. It would take months to try and write articles concerning the extremes of things that are now going on. I receive numerous headlines, articles and news items each morning, and after about one to two hours of scanning through them, I am almost always depressed and I don't know where to start writing or researching on a particular item.

Let's look at the balance of power here. As of the date of taking office of the new administration the House of Representatives had 256 Democrats, 177 Republicans and 2 empty seats. A majority of 79 Democrats.  The Senate currently has 58 Democrats and 40 Republicans. There are two "Independents" who caucus with the Democrats. Plus there is a tie-breaker Vice President Democrat. And one president, Democrat.

No one is unable to concede who holds the majority of power. President Obama promised to cross the aisle and promised bipartisan cooperation. But what has been seen is that, from day one until this day, the Democratic leadership in both houses meet regularly behind closed doors with the White House officials and bar any participation of the minority party. We also see the leaders of the majority put forth their bills and specify the length of time available for reading and discussion of those bills, many which should have 6 to 8 weeks for open discussion and input from the American people before a final floor vote. But those leaders don't want the minority party to know what is in those bills nor do they want the voters to know.

We all remember the tactics taken by Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats at the end of July.  A bill to allow offshore drilling was being discussed and rather than continue the discussion and bring the bill to a vote. Pelosi refused to schedule a vote and even some of the Democrats objected to the early adjournment, a motion to adjourn was passed at 11:23 A.M.  The Republicans wanted to stay and discuss it, but Pelosi had the microphones and lights turned off. Regardless, the Republicans did remain and carried on their discussions. But C-Span had stopped broadcasting the Senate procedures. A huge segment of the voting public was yelling for congress to pass a bill to renew offshore drilling so Pelosi did not want them to hear the arguments. So she headed to California on a month long vacation. This kind of action might be expected by a small child, but for the Speaker of the House, such is unthinkable.

This action reminds me of another act that is in the paper today. The  Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform committee, Edolphus Towns has had the locks changed to the committee room and only gave keys to the Democrat members of the committee. This is another immature act by one who is supposed to be a responsible member of the Senate. And, in fact, many of his fellow Democrats in the Senate are quite upset over such a childish maneuver. And the worst part of it, is the reason for the animosity.

Senator Darrell Issa from California, the ranking Republican member of the committee was pursuing an investigation into the giant lender Countrywide who went belly-up, concerning their highly controversial mortgage for public officials and other people of renown. This is the sort of thing that the committee is all about. But the chairman, Towns, vehemently objected Here is a quote which I consider to have reason to carry implications:

Towns for weeks has resisted the California Republican's attempts to subpoena reams of information related to the program, arguing that the dragnet could expose sensitive, personal information of innocent people and that the Justice Department is best equipped to look into the matter. Issa has countered that the scandal strikes at the heart of how government officials failed to prevent the mortgage lending meltdown - and he has suggested Towns is compromised by two Countrywide loans he reportedly received through the VIP program. (Towns walks on thin caucus ice-www.rollcall.com, October 22, 2009)

And, yesterday, the Senate voted down a bill to revamp pay to doctors under the Medicare plan. It would have added another 250 billion dollars to our annual deficit and it's only claim to fame would have been more compensation to the physicians. I am not against that but to add that to our deficit when our economy is, according to Vice President Joe Biden, now in a depression.

 
But there were other factors involved in this vote. It was a vote for cloture, and my lack of knowledge of congressional procedures cause me to lose something here. One article I read sounded as if, had it past, that any of the health care bills could have been put to a vote without threat of a filibuster and passed with a simple majority vote. They would also have been able to put any minimum time limits on the bills. If that is a misrepresentation, I apologize but this is what it appeared to be saying.

It was indeed, important to the success of the entire health bill in some way. It is reported that once the votes were cast, Harry Reid went to the podium and quite angrily blamed the American Medical Association for the failure. I have not been able to figure that one out yet either since it was actually a bill supposedly in their favor. Here is a blurb from RedState.com:

"Harry Reid just ran to the Senate floor and cried that he cannot get enough votes to pass the doctors' bribe to support Obamacare. He blamed the AMA for misleading him."

But the vote was of interest in that 13 Democrats voted against it and all 40 Republicans.

Those Democrats voting against it are:  Bayh--Indiana, Byrd--W. Virginia, Conrad--N. Dakota, Dorgan--Indiana, Feingold--Wisconsin, Kohl--Wisconsin, Lieberman--Connecticut, McCaskill--Missouri, Nelson--Florida, Tester-Montana,
Warner--Virginia, Webb-Virginia, Wyden--Oregon


Article submitted Thursday, October 22, 2009 & read 242 times.

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