Government Shutdown Averted, but Obama Caves in to Republicans
Friday, December 12, 2014
Thursday, December 11, 2014 truly will be a day to be remembered in this country. The Congress, namely the House voted in a matter of business to keep the government open. A resolution to keep it open had to be passed by Congress by midnight. At first, you might think that it is looking good that the resolution may pass, thus avoiding a government shutdown. But when you just look at the cover of the bill, it is just that. If you look into the bill in detail, you will find that the Republicans of the House have thrown in some previsions that actually hurt the country. Details of the bill will follow here, but make notice, if the bill now passes through the Senate today, the President will sign the bill.
It was a down to the wire vote last night in the house, and the 1.1 Trillion dollar plan was approved by a vote of 219 to 206. The voting, that was stalled because of open opposition by Senator Elizabeth Warren and House minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi who outlined what this bill will do to the American citizens if passed.
The following is an excerpt of a speech given to the House by Nancy Pelosi, stating her concerns about the bill that was about to pass.
"Here we are in the House, being blackmailed to vote for an appropriations bill. This is a moral hazard. We are being asked to vote for a moral hazard. Why is this an appropriations bill? Because it was the price to pay to get an appropriations bill." She continued to say, "What is it doing on an appropriations bill except to be, to have this bill being taken hostage. This is a ransom? This is blackmail. You don't get a bill, unless Wall Street gets its taxpayer coverage."
The banks would now be able to place risky bets, and put taxpayers on the hook for another bailout if those bets went wrong.
Earlier in the day, President Obama endorsed the bill, that infuriated Nancy Pelosi, and also Elizabeth Warren, who also stood in front of the House to make her strong argument that the bill will hurt the country. Senator Elizabeth Warren and House Democrats led a dramatic fight to stop a big giveaway to the big banks, namely CitiGroup, Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Six hours before a potential government shutdown, a GOP attempt to ramp through a spending bill that guts the Dodd Frank financial reform bill briefly stalled. House Democrats were meeting behind closed doors in an attempt to see this issue through.
Originally yesterday morning, Speaker Boehner said that he had the votes, but it was obvious as the day progressed that he would need Democratic support in the House to get the bill passed, that would move forward to the Senate today. He dismissed concerns about Wall Street giveaways.
But then, the Democrats reunited to nearly get the bill to the House floor. Representative David Price stated that the bill will "blow a major hole in the Dodd Frank bill, putting taxpayers on the hook for some of the riskiest behaviors of Wall Street institutions". He was indicating the big banks. Representative Marcy Kaptur from Ohio, another Democrat, stated the following in her speech in front of the House. "Haven't those mega-banks hurt America enough, and what is this doing in this bill?"
Here is what Elizabeth Warren said...
"This fight isn't about Conservatives or Liberals. It's not about Democrats or Republicans. It's about money. If big companies can deploy their armies of lobbyists and lawyers to get Congress to vote for special deals that benefit themselves, then we"ll simply confirm the view of the American people, that the system is rigged. Nobody sent us here to stand up here for Citigroup. I urge my Republican colleges in the House to withhold their support from this package, until this risky giveaway is removed from the legislation. It is time for all of us to stand up and fight"
What is interesting here is that the White House states that it would support the bill, putting Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi at odds with the President. You may ask whose side I am on, since I stiffly support the President with the writing of this very liberal blog. But since I would like to mainly consider my views here stating what I think what is right and what is wrong, I must enforce this fact with a statement saying that for once, I am AGAINST the thinking of the President of the United States. Yes, you are reading a statement from someone who truly supports the President in just about everything he's attempted in his Presidency, but this action to approve an appropriations bill attached to a government spending bill is not one of them that I support. Did the President and the Republicans in the House, including Democratic Senators think that people would not notice? Did they think that they would slide this bill past Elizabeth Warren, someone who knows about these issues more than ANY other Senator in the House? Do you think that she would just go along with the President because he is a Democrat, ignoring key Democratic principles to protect the middle class, something that the President has championed during his whole tenure of his term in office? Why is President Obama caving in to these types of principles, the exact ones that led to the financial collapse of the country just before President Obama took office? President Obama has slapped his Democratic leaders in the face with supporting such a bill as does the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, one that even includes harming the pensions of people. Maybe the President is concerned that Congress would even pass a worse package if it fails, since the Republicans are slated to take complete control of Congress in just a few short days. The President is giving the Republicans a Christmas present because if passed in the House, which it did, the bill is also very much favored in the Senate, which votes on the bill today.
From what I see, the government needs funding to continue to operate and this is what pushed the President over the top, trying to make a few Republican friends in Congress during the rest of his lame duck session as President.
In conclusion, you had Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren holding the line against the House GOP leadership, but President Obama and Harry Reid who like this bill because they believe that it is the best thing that they can have before the new GOP majority convenes in the new Congress. What the Republicans seem to be doing is to all they can to protest against President Obama's Executive Actions for immigration. But on the other side, people are saying that we gave Wall Street enough breaks the last time around, so why do this again!?!?!?!!!
Also, something that people may not know, is that spending by campaign finance and regulations would also change, that would insure that big party donors can give even more to the DNC and RNC. This is just as troubling. This it telling the American people that you must pay to play, and this is wrong. If you don't have money, you are not going to be elected, regardless of what your principles are. The political process has now even become more corrupt than it was and the corruption is now very open for the world to witness.
So what does this mean about the power of the progressive caucus in the House and the Senate? First it showed that they were emboldened. The fact is that this bill was John Boehner's vote. Why couldn't he get enough of his own Republicans to take his side. He wants it to go on record as a bipartisan bill, supported by Democrats as well as Republicans.
What this also shows since the bill was passed in the House is that you have two groups of people, who used to be on totally opposite sites, the progressive Democrats and the right wing tea party people who are actually agreeing on something. When was this ever going to happen in our lifetime? Here we are, just two weeks before Christmas and the Democrats have already caved into the Republicans, including President Obama and Harry Reid.
What has happened in the House and what most likely will happen today in the Senate is something that is very hard to swallow, and the President will forever be criticized for such support on a bill that hurts the American people, just so he can keep the government running. The President of the United States was beat as he supported the Republican principles on this bill.
Now you can only bet that it is a matter of time that the country will face similar circumstances as it experienced in 2007 with the financial meltdown of our economy, thanks to the lobbyists of mega-banks such as Citigroup, Morgan Chase and Bank of America, and now it looks like the citizens of the country will be help responsible to protect these banks if they fail yet one more time.
President Obama, Harry Reid and every Senator that voted or supported this bill should be ashamed of their actions, as they represent what is supposed to be leaders in a free world, not a country that is besieged by powerful money hungry people who think of themselves instead of the people that they are supposed to represent. Their voices here will be forever on record.
Who knows...!! A miracle may happen and the U.S. Senate will not pass the bill handed to them by the House, but in all likelihood, it will pass. The fallout from this bill will continue to happen, and the American people will be reckoned with the facts that will now affect their daily lives. Stay tuned here on this blog to continue to get the fallout and the details of what has happened and what will now happen because of the passage of this bill.
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