If your brain is frazzled as much as mine after listening to election results and the cheerleaders from both sides spinning their predictable garble, consider this:
As of Oct. 17, there were 420 House bills stalled in the Senate.
Need I remind you that was achieved by a large Democratic majority in the House and 59 that caucused as Democrats in the Senate.
Now, with at least 239 Republicans and 185 Democrats in the House, anyone who thinks John Boehner and his crew will do better than Nancy Pelosi in getting House bills passed in the Senate is living in a world of fantasy. The only difference is the Democratic bills were more liberal than what the Republican House most likely will propose.
I don’t care what the party numbers are in the Senate, it is the chamber where the populace-driven legislation reflected in 435 congressional districts is sent to be bent, folded and mutilated.
In his press conference Wednesday, President Obama acted more like an outside elitist playing Chicago law professor than leader of his political party not to mention President of the United States.
Obama said all the right things such as a willingness to work with the Democrats on legislation both sides can find common ground.
He showed some desire to compromise by saying the required 1040 filings by businesses in the health care reform law seemed burdensome and should be fixed, that throwing a business expansion depreciation morsel into the Bush tax cut argument may help reach a solution and conceding the cap and trade energy proposal is dead although there are other ways to skin that cat that just maybe the Republicans may accept. (Political Note: Cap and trade originally was a Republican idea.)
At the end of the presser, he offered a sound bite that as president, he took a “shellacking” in the midterm election results of Tuesday night. Unfortunately, that will get more play and buzz than what it’s worth by opponents who make a living parsing every word the president utters. It no more amused me than George Bush saying “we took a thumpin’” after the 2006 midterms. In both cases, the same dish of reality.
With all the posturing by Republicans and call for repealing the health reform act, the chances of two more years of legislative gridlock does not escape my political bones.
The focus the next two years will be on jobs and boosting the economy. At least the priorities will be headed in the right direction. Sorry, but health care repeal, immigration reform and gays in the military will rate down the priority ladder.
The biggest message I got from the returns was the influential role played by those saying they identify with the Tea Party movement.
What influence the new Republicans owing allegiance to the extremer conservatives will have on legislation through the Tea Party caucuses will be fun to watch. Voters did weed out some of the flakiest of that ilk in Christine McDonnell and Sharron Angle.
During the campaign, I restrained myself from bitch slapping some of the absurd, ignorant candidates who believe unemployment insurance is unconstitutional, laws should be based on the Ten Commandments and the country should be returned to some undisclosed period in time.
For those strict constructionists, I wondered if in cutting government programs not referred in the constitution whether that would include the U.S. Air Force. I mean I can be as goofy as them when pressed.
This election was an expression people have of their politicians and fear of their own shrinking pocket books, returned a majority of Republicans to one chamber in Congress and hope something will happen that helps them more than ejaculating over a political loss or victory.
Oh, there was a mandate in this election. It’s the economy, stupid. Fix it or perish. I hope they don’t destroy it worse than it now is. Again, the devil is in the details.
Mark my word. A conservative Republican House is no better or worse than a liberal House. The trick is getting the Senate to pass anything and avoiding a presidential veto on the most contentious items.
———————–
EPILOGUE
For the record, I am a moderate Democrat but more importantly a political observer. For the most part I could care less what political party controls Congress and the presidency when I write these political dispatches. I stand by the headline for this column not because of political favor but a dose of political reality, in this case what the Republican House is up against.
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
Comments are welcome. Link to my blogsite or go to my email address at [email protected] . Remmers’ varied career spans 26 years in the newspaper business.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.