Democrats Looking Good Going in the General Election in 2016

With all that has been going wrong with Congress today, there may still be some light coming from the tunnel. It is true that John Boehner has announced he is retiring, and it is true that Kevin McCarthy bowed out of the race a few days ago. It is also true that the House is now trying to recruit Paul Ryan to take the job, but he doesn't want it. If he did decide to take it, that would totally eliminate any and all aspirations Paul Ryan may have to become President in the future. Also, this would mean that he would be at his job allot more, and not being with his family. Being the family man that he is, I'm sure he will put his family before the Speakership, but you never know what the Republicans can come up with to convince him to take the job. Does anyone who has a chance to get 218 votes from the U.S. Congress have any such chance to acquire the Speakership? Whoever wants it, needs to get some votes from the extreme right tea party of approximately 40 Senators, and so far, that doesn't seem to be happening. So the Republican led House of Representatives now is in total disarray, with some very important bills coming up needing a vote, and unless the House can get their act together, the U.S. Government will be shut down once again. Maybe they can convince the present speaker Boehner to stay until they can find someone that they can agree upon. Actually, he or she doesn't even have to be a U.S. Congressman at the moment. Anyone can be speaker of the House, and that person will become only 2nd in line behind the President of the United States.
  So let's get back on topic, since we know that the Republican party is crumbling at the moment. Shift over to the Democrats, and you will see some very interesting stuff. The 1st Presidential debate is just a few days away, and the world is waiting to see how Hilary Clinton and her main challenger Bernie Sanders can debate. Both are excellent debaters. So that's coming, but what's real at the moment that is coming up with Congress besides the Republican nightmare that we need to know about?
  Presently, the 114th U.S. Senate consists of 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and 2 Independent Senators, totally 100 members. What looks good for the Democrats with this said even though the Republicans control the House is that the Democrats are looking very good in the next election in 2016. They are look very good for taking the Senate back from the Republicans. The Republicans are going to have to defend allot more seats if they want to keep the majority. There are 24 Senate seats that the Republicans must defend verses only 10 Senate Seats that will be voted on in 2016. So it looks as if the Democrats have a structural advantage due to this math. For the mere fact that it will be a presidential election year, there will be a large turnout of Democrats which most always benefits the Democrats for the election of the President. Also behind the lines, the Democrats have been doing great as they have been working with the candidates that they want to run, and for the most part, all of the candidates are going to run at least in the following states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois, Missouri, Nevada, and Arizona. That is a pretty large number of states in which the Democrats are getting their number one candidate to run. If that's not enough, you cannot count out North Dakota, Missouri, and West Virginia as they have persuaded 3 incumbent Senators to stay on. All the Democrats have to do is get 11 more Senators to win election in the U.S. Senate to regain control of the House. It goes without question that Nancy Pelosi will again become the Senate majority leader.
  With Hilary Clinton most likely to become our next President, with the U.S. Senate taken over by the Democrats once again, you can only speculate on what is going to happen the the U.S House of Representatives. I truly believe that it will be impossible for the Democrats the regain the House, but control of the U.S. Senate would most assuredly mean that they Democrats from the U.S. Senate would control what gets sent up the the Presidents desk. The Republicans will finally on have one thing to accomplish in the U.S. Senate if they want to get anything done, and that would be to compromise with the Democrats on the issues at hand.
With all that is going on, the Congress is about to take a weeks vacation. Paul Ryan is surely going to discuss the dilemma that the Republicans have put him in concerning wanting him to take the Speakership. Hopefully, the Republican Senators will get their act together and get someone to accept the job in the House of Representatives.
  One thing is a sure bet. The person who takes the job will have as equally hard time to get their House to pass any bills, because in order to get a bill up for a vote, the Repubicans are going to have to work with Democrats, and that's really will be the new Speakers downfall. The tea party has destroyed the Republican party, and it is just a shame that this scenario is playing out now just before the general elections. Actually for the Democrats wanting to gain office, it is a good thing, but what's not good is how their actions will hurt the country.

Read more...

Senator Elizabeth Warren with a New Leading Role in the U.S. Senate

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren dressed in red

As Congressional Senators within both houses of Congress approved their leaders for the next Congress, Mitch McConnell for Senate and John Boehner again as Speaker of the House, the Democratic Caucus admits that they also need new leadership, to confront such right wing ideas that now will be pouring out of the House and Senate.
  There is now a new leadership role in place in the Senate, namely with a  Senator from Massachusetts -  Elizabeth Warren. She will act as an informal liaison to the party's liberal base, a job that was just newly created.
  So it now appears that the Republicans in the Senate, starting with Mitch McConnell, will not only have to put up with the minority leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid who has also been confirmed, but also will have to put up with the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who plans to drive home liberal ideas in the Senate. This will also help prepare her for a possible 2016 Presidential run if she were to decide to change her mind. She has already stated that she does not plan to run for President of the United States, but many are hoping that she may change her mind as she definitely will become front and center with every Senate vote until the 2016 Presidential election.

Read more...

Republicans Take Over U.S. Senate - What's Next?

Who would have ever believed that the Republicans would have taken over the Senate? It is an interesting question, but if you were of following politics during the first 6 years of the Obama presidency, you would have guessed that the Republicans were destined to take over the Senate in 2014. It happened to George W Bush, and it happened to Bill Clinton. During the Bill Clinton years, the Republican Congress also actually voted to impeach President Clinton, but they didn't get it done. What are the chances that President Obama will be impleached? Actually, it is my believe that there is a very good chance that President Obama will face impeachment. Will he likely get impeached? I actually think that he will face it and actually get impeached if he goes through with the amnesty for illegal aliens. He promised that he would do such a thing if the Congress did not get the job done on their own. He is giving Congress every chance to get an immigration policy through. President Obama claimed prior that since the Congress could not get anything done, including to handle the immigration bill that was signed by a bipartasan group of Senators in the U.S. Senate over a year ago. John Boehner and his House decided to sit on the bill and not act. Will they act on it now? With their record for getting things done, most likely they will not act on it nowThey never wanted to in the first place, and now it is time for the bluff from the Republicans to President Obama. The President claims that if they continue to stall regarding immigration legislation, that he alone will act and push legislation through that would legalize millions of immigrants. If the President carries this out, then surely after the threats from John Boehner just one day after the election of Republican Senators to their party to gain control of it during the new session to start in January, Obama will face impeachment. Regardless if the Republican House and John Boehner gets away with obstruction of laws, as they failed to even vote on many bills to approach them even if they were signed by a bipartisan group of Senators from the Senate, President Obama will now enact on his own, and then he will be impeached.
After they rid themselves of the President, who do they have to answer too. Would it be Vice President Biden. I think this is how this works, so I really do not see the benefit to the Republican party to impeach the President. If the Republican party thinks they did something good for their party if they were to rid themselves of President Obama, then they have no idea what is in for them if Biden becomes Commander and Chief.
There are reprocussions from most of the Asian, Black, and Hispanic communities if the Republican party goes through with impeachment. One thing is for sure. Regardless of who is sitting in the Oval office, ObamaCare is here to stay. As John Boehner claims, the House will introduce legislation to repeal Obamacare again this year, but for what purpose. No Democratic President setting in the Oval Office would ever sign a bill that would scrap Obama's legislation.
During the election time, I received tons of email asking me to donate to the Democratic cause, even though I virtually knew as did most other Democrats that the Republicans would win out in the off-year elections. There always is a low Democratic turnout, and no matter how much money is thrown in the ring to gather voters to vote, this year it was going to be impossible to overcome and the elections proved it handily. Why should I give any amount of money to a loosing cause, just because I'm a registered Democrat?
The Republicans now think that they have the upper hand as far as Congress and legislative law making, and for the most part they do. But if any bill is to become law, it must go by President Obama's desk for him to sign. He has only veto'd only 2 bills so far during his Presidency, but the President will now show the Republicans how the veto pen is used. Can they override their Veto? I'm sure by now that he's dusted it off and even shined it up a little. In some cases they can overturn a Presidential veto, but it most likely would take a ruling from the Supreme Court to override the Presidential veto. I will find out more information of overriding a Presidential veto and report it here in the near future.

So does the outcome effect me regardless of who is in or out of the Whitehouse? Of course it does, but the elections in 2016 are almost called even before the candidates declare themselves. Regardless of how may Republican Senators there are in the House and Senate, there WILL be another Democratic President in the WhiteHouse in 2016. Then what will Congress do. Most likely, they will continue to obstruct justice and despise the new President, who most likely will be Hilary Clinton, and if she does not run, it may be Joe Biden. During the same year, I predict that the Senate is taken back by the Democrats, but not necessarily the House. So there will be the same Congressional divide as we had since 2012. But this time I think the people will come out and vote as they do during every major Presidential election.

Until the Republicans stop thinking about only lowering taxes for the rich, until the Republicans realize that preventing people from voting, until the Republicans realize that middle class workers deserve a pay raise, until they realize that ObamaCare is here to stay and that they need to stop fooling with it, until their tea party who seems to be totally against the will of the mainstream Republican party decides to join in with normal Republicans, until Ted Cruz is finally out of office and other far right Representitives are dealt with, it will not be until all of these things are met before there will ever be a Republican President in the Whitehouse.

Why is this right wing party so blind? Are they not able to predict the future? Do they not see that if they do not change that what happened in 2008 and 2012 will happen again in 2016? One of the qualifications to be amongst the ranks of the Republican party is that you must be ignorant first. Intentianal ignorance is almost a crime against their own party.

Read more...

The Dysfunctional House of Representatives - polluting the U.S. Congress

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Congress spent a whole day in discussion and then a vote on suing the President of the United States regarding his so called 'misuse of Executive Power'.

Does this make sense? If you look at the facts, it does not make one bit of sense. The Congress has just about a 0% chance of successfully suing the President, but they decided that this was more important to pass than to actually work on the VA issues up before them and also about immigration and the border issue with thousands of children crossing into Texas. They wait until the last minute to do ANYTHING, and then when they act, it's too little and too late.

Ok, so NOW they have now voted and formally plan to sue the President?

Really?!?/!

So the next order of business came late in the day on Thursday, when the House of Representatives were supposed to introduce a bill to enhance security on the U.S. southern border. In a bill presented to the House by the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, before the bill actually reached the floor of the House on Thursday, he decided to scrap the bill because the House Speaker knew that he could not get his own Republican caucus in the House to vote in favor of his own bill.

What an embarrassment for the Speaker of the House. Actually, Boehner has become one glaring embarrassment to the Republican party, as a Speaker of the House of Representatives that cannot get his caucus to vote on literally ANYTHING worth while, or bills that would pass in his House of Representatives, but he elects to only push bills through for a vote that has Republican party interest, not Democratic interest, or the interest of the voters, especially the middle class.

Talk about a misuse of power, John Boehner is the one who should be sued by the U.S. taxpayers for misrepresentation of his office.  Then the Speaker turns around and formally initiates a lawsuit of President Obama, who is only reacting for the House of Representatives non-action, doing the will of the people and now has been formally told through this lawsuit that he is misusing his executive powers.

A Republican Senator of the U.S. Senate - Ted Cruz, convinced his tea party followers that they should not vote for John Boehner's bill. Michelle Bauchman agreed with Cruz in an effort to go against the Speaker of the House and now all of a sudden Boehner did not have enough Senators in his own Congressional body of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote in favor of his bill. This is direct proof that he has no control of his own party as Speaker of the House.

So in response, the House of Representatives elected to postpone their month long vacation in August, and stay through Friday to re-create a border bill in reckless fashion with much haste, and the new $694 million bill was born. It had NO Democratic support in the House. The vote was strictly on party lines. Does it have a chance to pass in the Senate? Of course not. It in itself is more radical than the bill that John Boehner originally introduced into the House of Representatives that they did not get the chance to vote on. Why? Because the tea party that controls the Republican party, led by junior Senator Ted Cruz gets to dictate now what he thinks is better. He's the same guy directly responsible for shutting down the U.S. government last year, with his over-reaching power to other Conservatives in the House of Representatives, which incidentally is not the body of Congress that he actually works in. His position resides in the U.S. Senate. So why then, does he pose so much power over the House of Representatives as a junior Senator in the U.S. Senate. Yes, it is mind-boggling, but the fact is, that the House of Representatives has no true leader.

So why waste time creating a bill that will not pass the Senate? Why take a day away from your very unearned vacation to work on a bill that will not pass the Senate, and as the President Stated in an earlier national address, even if the Senate would pass the bill, he (President Obama) would veto it?

Does this sound like government is working? It sounds kind of dysfunctional to me.

The answer to the questions are simple. Now that they are going on a vacation for a month, and most all are planning to go home to try and convince their own followers of their party that they are doing something in Washington, and that the reasons why things are not happening in Washington are because of President Obama, or the U.S. Senate failures. Does that make any sense? It does if you understand that the U.S House of Representatives only motive until President Obama leaves office is to refuse to do any work or pass any bills in Congress until Obama leaves office. So it must be the President's fault for being President for a second term! Right? The Republicans apparently are second guessing the American People, saying that they were wrong for electing Obama for a second term. Even if that were true, who did they have to oppose him, Mitt Romney! Right!!!!

But what the Republicans are doing here will backfire. Yes, they passed a border security bill, but will ANYONE benefit by it? Of course not, especially the people who came across the southern border and many will continue to stay. Eventually if any of these people become U.S. Citizens, will they vote for the party who wanted to deport them? Of course not? Republicans must open their eyes and observe that this is not only a 'white race' country anymore, and really never was, and that unless they support issues affecting the minority and middle class, they will never again elect a Republican president.  Instead of directly addressing the issues when they had time before their summer break, the only thing they concentrated on was suing the President. So what will happen now? What will continue to happen is that an average of 400-500 immigrants will cross the southern border each day during the Congress's absence, and then the Congress expects the President of the United States to just wait for them to perform more inaction when they come back because they will turn right around and go on another undeserved vacation. There could be an upwards of 15,000 more people crossing the border by the time they come back instead of really addressing the issue when they had the time to do so, instead of trying to sue the President.

Because of their in-actions, the President most surely will come up with another Executive Order. This time, the undocumented aliens, the mothers and children will gain the rights to permanently stay in the U.S., especially if the child has a relative in the United States who is a U.S. Citizen or a legal alien. That is the most popular guess, and I also believe this to be right. It may not be accurate, but you can surely bet that the Republicans will act strongly against whatever action the President takes, especially if he acts favorably on the children at the border, and does not consider the House bill. Of course, he doesn't have to consider it formally at this time, because it must get through the U.S. Senate first, and that is not going to happen. Even if it did get passed in the U.S. Senate, the President would VETO it.

It is like the Republicans who know what is about to happen with this Executive order to come, is now coaxing the President to perform an executive action. What? First, they say that the President is over-riding his power in Executive actions, but now want him to perform an Executive action.  Actually, the Speaker of the House, the one who initiated the suit to sue the President of the United States now even made a formal public announcement that he encouraged the President to perform the action. What would this action lead to? Of course, most on both sides of the isle would say would lead to impeachment hearings. But again, the Republicans will fail, as the Senate would never impeach President Obama. It happened to our last Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and it surely will happen again if it were up to the Republicans. Of course, President Clinton stayed and was not evicted from the White House, and neither will President Obama, regardless of what he does on immigration on the border when the Congress is out of Session.

Now is that Hippocratic or what? John Boehner is nothing short of an child, who is performing at the level of the worst Speaker of the House of Representatives ever known to Congress of either party for that matter. He has become the puppet of the tea party, and cannot stand on his own. He can only do things that the far right, the tea party caucus want. The regular Republican establishment has no say so on their own any more, at least not at the moment. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen with the Republican party, and the tea party for that matter if and when the House goes Democratic this fall, or if another Democrat is elected as President to succeed President Obama in 2016. One or the other will become extinct.

Now for the second order of business for what was supposed to be their first day of vacation in August. There was another bill that would speed up child deportations. Presently, only Mexican and Canadian nationalists can be immediately deported. Thanks to President George W. Bush, he passed a law that stated that Latin countries did not fit in this group of 'immediate export' aliens. So now the Republicans are passing a bill the the House of Representatives that even go against what George W. Bush signed when he was in office. The House then votes 216-192 to scale back Pres. Obama's 'Dreamers' program.  Does this have a chance to reach President Obama's desk..  Not a chance! EVER. Even if it did, the President would VETO it!

So if laws cannot get passed in Congress, it is a forgone conclusion that the Congress is very Dysfunctional, yet the country must go on, and in some cases, without them and with the help of Executive Orders by the President of the United States.

So what else did they vote on at the last minute. A bill for the VA? My goodness! They are working so hard on their first day of vacation. Actually, what they have done when they were supposed to be doing when they were not scheduled on vacation, absolutely nothing is what their own constituents will tell them when they actually go home for vacation. But when they get home, I expect those Republican Senators to receive a wake up call, one that they received after President Bush was re-elected, and that was to go out and help the middle-class in their issues, to welcome immigrants to this country, and ESPECIALLY do not condemn innocent women and children at our southern border trying to flee persecution from their own country.

What the Republicans have successfully done is energize the Democratic base, and I can now foresee a record turnout of Democratic voters in November, and a good chance that the House of Representatives will go Democratic. At that time, if the Democrats keep the U.S. Senate, President Obama most likely will have free rein on passing bills that he could not get passed with the 'do nothing' Republican House. He will no longer be considered a 'lame-duck' President.

Then who knows. If Hilary Clinton becomes President in 2016, and if the House and Senate stay controlled by the Democrats, many more things will get done, one of them being to tame the Republican caucus and get rid of the tea party, as the tea party has been absolutely poison to the Republican cause, under the internship of Ted Cruz, who at the moment has more influence as a new Senator than John Boehner ever had with all of his experience and years in office in Washington. If and only if the Congress is led by Democrats will you see the middle class re-gain the stature it deserves as citizen's of the United States.

Now check this out...  Here is an immigrant, Ted Cruz from Canada, who has voted against bills that would directly affect him if he were trying to enter this country now, instead of in his past. Most recently, he had to renounce his Canadian citizenship, as for whatever reason he had discovered that he may have dual-citizenship, and of course unless you are a citizen of another country, then you cannot run for office as President of the United States, and most everyone knows he plans to run for President, where he will further damage the cause of the Republican party and others to oppose him to become the Republican nominee for President in 2016.

Yes, dysfunction is the name of the game for the ALL Republicans in Congress who happen to be destroying their own cause as Republicans.

Read more...

Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest Speaker of the House

The Republican party, namely John Boehner has announced a lawsuit to sue President Obama. Some believe this may be the first step to impeachment. The lawsuit is about delaying the employer mandate, something that President Obama did via Executive Order over 2 years ago.

A few years ago, Speaker Boehner announced that he urged the President to delay it, but now he is suing the President over what he supported just a few years ago. At that time, the Speaker said in an announcement,

"I am glad that the President recognizes that his health care law is not good for the economy, but just delaying the employer mandate frankly is not good enough. Today we sent a letter to the President asking him to justify delaying the employer mandate while leaving in place the mandate on individuals and families."

So please correct me if I'm wrong, the Speaker's first reaction was to praise the delay, and to push for more of a delay, but now Speaker Boehner wants to sue over it because the President issued an Executive Order to delay the employer mandate. Is this just plain dumb or what.

First, it was dumb to ever try to appeal the Affordable care act.

Second, it was dumber to try to appeal it over 50 times.

Third, the dumbest thing he can do to try and sue the President over an executive action, as now the taxpayers loose again, because taxpayer dollars will be spent during this taxpayer funded lawsuit. 

Are the Republicans supposed to be fiscal conservatives or not? I guess they only want to be conservative in their own right when they want to. The Republicans are just showing how much of being a hypocrite that they actually can be.

The bottom line, the Republicans, namely the Congressmen in the House are suing the President because they will try everything in their power to make him fail. Yes, President Obama's numbers are not great, but he is holding his own, no matter what the Republicans throw at him. He is definitely a survivor.

There is no question that the Republicans are stepping out of bounds again. Does John Boehner want to act as the Speaker of the House? He seems to be proud to be the leader of the 'Do Nothing Congress'. It appears that all he wants to do is act as the microphone of the Tea Party.

To take this a step further, it is hard to believe that John Boehner can be so dumb. He has to know what the Constitution says.

The Constitution doesn't say that the President can be impeached because the President makes a decision that Congress may think that is out of the bounds of the Constitution. The Constitution clearly states that a President can only be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, like those created by the Republican President Richard Nixon. If this is truly the case, then John Boehner must tell the American people which high crime or misdemeanor that President Obama is guilty of. 

As far as President Obama, he most definitely has been energized by this ridiculous lawsuit. The Democratic supporters are energized too. The President has been making speech after speech literally mocking the Republicans for posing a lawsuit on him because his is doing his job, unlike the Republicans who cannot do their jobs, except to block just about every bill to come their way in an attempt to ridicule President Obama. The Republicans take no regard in hurting Americans in the process. As long as the 1% doesn't get hurt, then it doesn't matter about anyone else.

President Obama knows that he has a political winner here. It seems like as if the Republicans handed him this win on a 'silver platter'. What is the reason why Republicans just cannot see how they are emboldening the Democrats?  Expect to see a record turnout in the midterm election as far as Democrats this year. The Republicans are in total denial here regarding the mid-term elections. They will not even consider the thought that the Democrats will show up in record numbers for the mid-term election. This is my prediction.

The bottom line is YES, the President CAN make his own laws. They are called Executive Orders. A president can use his power with discretion, especially if a President must act because of the 'Do Nothing Congress'.

What should happen here is that the people of the United States should sue Congress for 'failure to act'. There are way to many bills that the Senate voted on in favor of, and Speaker Boehner refuses to let any of these bills reach the House floor for a vote. President Obama should sue Boehner.

Case in point, one such bill, the Immigration Bill that passed in the Senate, that the majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents support nationally, will never reach the floor of the House during President Obama's term as President. This is a serious obstruction of justice committed by John Boehner, and he should be sued for it. If the immigration bill would have passed, then what is happening now on the southern border of Texas with immigrant women and children, would have been avoided. Instead, the President now has to ask the Congress to pass an emergency measure to approve needed money to support the cause on the southern border. The Republicans are blaming President Obama for failing to get something done along the border, and if he would have had something done, this border issue would not exist. They, the Republicans forget that their own beloved Republican President George W. Bush passed the present law regarding immigrants at the border.

Even with resistance with the Republican led House, Congressmen are chipping away at the dollar amount the President asked for, which is 3.7 million dollars. The longer the Congress fails to approve of these funds for the women and children at the border, the more the Republicans are pushing themselves against the wall. Of course, with just 12 more working days left for Congress before the August break, I do not have much hope that Congress will pass much of anything.

All of this non-action could have been avoided if who I consider the dumbest Speaker of the House EVER, would finally have his party in Congress 'do something' and pass some bills.

Read more...

Sue The President, Really?

Recently, most following politics have heard that John Boehner claims that he plans to sue the President for the overuse of executive orders. Actually, the announcement has stirred Democratic supporters, as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has reported that it has raised over 2.5 million dollars in just 6 days after John Boehner's announcement to sue President Obama. The new donor role is also growing for President Obama. Over 30,000 first time donors have now come on board with the President. Why do you think that so many people are now supporting the President? My guess is that they are sick and tired of the games that Republicans play and the manufactured scandals of the GOP. Instead of trying to find jobs for the millions of people without work, the GOP is dropping lawsuits against the President, who wants to find jobs for the unemployed, and provide unemployment insurance benefits for the jobless.
  Actually the President is trying to do his job, but because of a 'Do nothing Congress', absolutely nothing seems to be getting done. With two more years to go in his Presidency, The GOP has already labeled him a 'Lame Duck' president. The Democrats are saying that enough is enough regarding the lawsuit, but as ridiculous as it sounds, the Republicans are moving forward with the suit anyway. The Republicans say that the President is reining in too much power, much more than the Constitution granted him. They are calling President Obama 'a king' as he is reinstating the concept of the "Imperial Presidency". The lawsuit has only emboldened President Obama. The President has been traveling the country, and daring the Republicans to 'bring it on'. As he said in one of his speeches. The President is loving this lawsuit, and he makes the following comments in one of his speeches.

  "I might have said in the heat of the moment during one of these debates, I want to raise the minimum wage so sue me when I do, but I didn't think that they were going to take it literally. If House Republicans are really concerned about me, taking too many executive actions, the best solution to that is passing bills. Pass a bill, it's not crazy. It's not socialism. You know it's not the imperial presidency. No laws are broken. SO SUE ME. As long as they are doing nothin', I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something."  

  This lawsuit is nothing more that a political gift, handed to him by the Republicans, by them sticking with the lawsuit. If the GOP thinks this is something, wait and see what will happen if the Senate is taken over by the GOP. Then they will say that he is overusing his right to institute a 'VETO'. If a Republican controlled Congress decides to tear apart ObamaCare, you just know that President Obama WILL USE his veto powers. All this is energizing the left, as the people feel that the solution to the gridlock in Washington is for the Congress to legislate, not to sue, and this underscores that this is a 'Do Nothing Congress'.  So how ridiculous is it that the Republicans are going against Barack Obama for the misuse of Executive Orders? Actually President Obama has used far less than George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and many other Presidents. All that the lawsuit shows is the desperation that the Republicans have to go after Barack Obama.
What is actually happening here is that the Republicans are very off base and making a political mistake by this lawsuit. Now let's look at some facts. During the same time-frame in his Presidency, President George W. Bush executed 211 Executive Orders, while President Obama only issued 180 and now former Bush officials are accusing President Obama for overreaching?! The fact even goes further to say that Obama has created far less executive orders to date than ANY previous President since Grover Cleveland, over a hundred years ago.
  President Barack Obama actually has been seeking to rein in some of the Presidents political power by giving Congress every chance to act on the issues that they need to act on, but they fail to act at all. When asked why the Congress is the least productive Congress in history, the Leader of the House John Boehner claims that this is what their job is and that they are doing their job. So is this what we hired the members of Congress to do, to do NOTHING? And this same Congress has the gull to believe that they are going to be re-elected. They may just get re-elected and win over the Senate in 2014, but their actions and this attitude will not reign in a Republican President in 2016.  Just be ready. When Hilary Clinton announces that she is running again for president, my new blogs located at http://www.clintoninthewhitehouse.com and http://www.hilaryinthewhitehouse.com will become active.
In my opinion, a lawsuit should be issued against the Congress for congressional malpractice, namely against specific  Republicans who vote with bias and who refuse to pass bills, and are not doing their jobs, who refuse to act on the will of the people that they say they are serving. They refuse to address the critical issues, like raising the minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits, or fixing roads and bridges and even immigration. All of these issues if presented on the floor of the House would pass, but people like John Boehner will not even let the bills reach the floor. Why? Because he knows they would pass, and the President would look good. This is nothing more than a classic case of Republican Obstructionism. The last thing the Republicans want to do is to make the President look good. They would rather do what they believe in and smear the President every chance they get, instead of doing what the people overwhelmingly want.  Infrastructure projects have never seen partisan before. Congress from both side of the isles previously supported it. Millions of people need jobs, and millions have no means to support themselves because the Congress fails to extend unemployment insurance benefits to the people who are looking for jobs and are out of work do to no fault of their own. But still, Congress has time to go through a lawsuit against the President, one who supports the American people, someone who has been fighting for them in every step, regardless of where his popularity lies. Instead, they elect to not renew unemployment insurance and it is now OK for people not to be able to pay their bills.  The President is for the people, and the Congress is for themselves. They really don't care about anyone except themselves, and the '1 percent'.
  So where again will this lawsuit go? I believe nowhere and is considered just a gimmick by many, because most courts do not even want to entertain this kind of a lawsuit. The lawsuit is just another stall tactic, as is the continued Benghazi trial, but they do not have time to address the issue of guns and taking care of a problem that is responsible for so many children deaths at an elementary school not too long ago. The Republican GOP will not get to the work that they actually need to do. Do you notice that not much is being said about Obamacare these days by the GOP?! They changed their tune and now it's about the Export-Import banks.  Why, because they actually have a chance to kill something by just doing nothing, and then they feel that they will be successful.
Presently, this lawsuit is nothing. It is just a press release, but the further that they push this as many Republicans are now cringing at the thought that the lawsuit may become a reality, it will then further excite the Democratic base to support the President and more people will be pulled away from the Conservative base. This lawsuit is a trick, to get their base to support them, in spite of the fact that they, the Republican House, have nothing to offer, not with jobs, health insurance, immigration and anything else that the Democrats support.

Read more...

Time for a Debt Ceiling Increase

It's a new year and already time to fight again regarding the debt ceiling. The U.S. will go into default by the end of February at the latest, unless the nation avoids a suspension by Feb. 7, 2014. After Feb. 7, special accounting maneuvers will have to be implemented in order to pay the country's bills. On a personal note, I believe for some reason that the U.S. Congress will raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid the issue, mainly because the Republican party has now run out of wiggle room to constantly resist what this country needs in order to preform their agenda. Cutting expenses seems to come up with every bill that is brought up in Congress. The constant restraints to pass bills in Congress affects everyone. To promote their agenda, the conservative base in Congress has again voted against extending unemployment insurance, which now affects at least 1.5 million people, and will affect another 2.5 million by years end if nothing is accomplished.
There seems to be so much work to do in Congress, yet because of political reasons, nothing seems to get done. The 'do nothing' Congress is a failure and continues to fail under the lack of leadership in the House by Republican Speaker John Boehner. This group of U.S. Senators led by him in the house continue to defy the needs of the people, and as stated in a CNN article, "any last-minute drama over the debt ceiling could cut the U.S. economy's potential for growth and undermine confidence." Treasury Secretary Jack Lew also states "any last-minute drama over the debt ceiling could cut the U.S. economy's potential for growth and undermine confidence."
You might ask why Republicans continue to buck the system and not do much of anything. Maybe the sole reason is that they will not act if President Obama supports the issue. One thing that I can say that is good about the Speaker of the House John Boehner at the time, he told reporters on Thursday "we shouldn't even get close" to defaulting. "I would hope that the House and the Senate would act quickly on a bill to increase the debt limit."
Will the Republicans and Tea Party members support the Speaker of the House? If they do not, then maybe it is time for him to step down, but of course that will not happen. Inside the party, their is a civil war going on within the party at the moment. It is for this reason, unless things change, a Republican president would be unlikely to be elected in 2016 because the the lack of organization between the Republicans and the Tea Party, the lack of a solid agenda, and the lack of a good solid candidate. Chris Christie, the man that could have been the party's only hope to match against Hilary Clinton if she decided to run for president, is now embroiled in government corruption in New Jersey. The New Jersey governor most likely would not fair well against other members of the Republican party in the primaries, even though as of a week ago, he could have been considered a candidate. With the scandal going on in full force, and the chance of being convicted of a crime, it would be worthless now to waste money in an attempt to gain the trust from his own party.
In the next article, I will report on what has become 'bridgegate', involving the office of the Governor and others around him.

Read more...

John Boehner - A terminal disease in the House of Representatives

John Boehner, the leader in the House of Representatives, continues to block bills from being voted on, especially if there are enough votes to pass the legislation and he or his conservative friends don't want it to pass.

The first example is the Employee Non-Discrimination Bill, Senate Bill 615, that passed in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 32 along with 10 Republican senators. But the fact is that it will never become law as long as John Boehner will not allow it to be voted on in the House. He says that is his decision, not that I agree with it, but it is up to one man, Mr. Boehner to allow a vote in the House, and he just refuses to go along with the status quo. If it were to come up for a vote in the house, it most certainly would pass. It is a very popular thing, as 73% of Americans favor a law protecting gay people against work place discrimination. Along with this, 89% of Democrats support it, along with 75% of Independents and even at 60% amongst John Boehner's Republicans, but guess what? He and Republicans in Congress will not let the bill come up to a vote.
The second example is on immigration reform. John Boehner claims that he will not allow a vote on this bill, that is certain to pass in the House if brought to a vote. Immigration reform is super popular. It passed in the U.S. Senate with 14 Republican senators voting for it with a vote of 68 in favor of immigration reform to 32 not in favor of it. It voted in favor in the Senate with a 2 to 1 margin, a huge majority voting for it. Overall, 87% of Americans support Immigration reform. It is a most non-controversial bill, but still John Boehner and his friends will not allow a vote to happen, because they know it will certainly pass. 86% of Democrats support it, 88% of Independents support it, and even a wide majority of Republicans at 86% support immigration reform, but guess what? It's not going to happen because John Boehner will not allow a vote in the House. Even a majority in Republican swing districts support it, at 76%. John Boehner is completely against public opinion on this issue, even against the public opinion of Republicans.
The third example, John Boehner and his Republican friends are also completely against public opinion of raising the minimum wage. Overall, 76% of the people claim that they support raising the minimum wage. The Democrats and Independents massively support it at 91% and 76% respectively. Even the Republicans support the idea of raising the minimum wage at 58%. But Republicans in Congress will not let the vote happen, lead by the good for nothing John Boehner.
The forth example, background checks for guns, 81% of all Americans support the checks. Democrats support support background checks at 83%, Independents at 80% and even the Republicans support it at 81%. Even NRA members at 74% support background checks along with Non-NRA members at 87%. But the Republicans in Congress say 'NO' They will never let such legislation to come to a vote, which only supports their own personal agenda, and not the will of the people or any group of people anywhere.
How can such a fumble in our voting system happen?
How about the Buffet rule, which states that billionaires should not pay lower tax rates than their secretaries? Democrats, Republicans and Independents support the Buffet rule, but the Republicans in the House do not support it, and will not allow any such bill come to a vote, knowing that billionaires would have to pay more taxes if the bill passed.
How long will the American people, the voters of this country continue to allow this to happen in Congress? Will 2016 be a year that the Democrats regain the majority in the House? If people do not forget what the do-nothing Congress has done, or what they haven done while in office, then maybe the Senators that will not go along with the will of the people will get overthrown and permanently out of office. Only time will tell, but the Republicans you can be sure will continue their antics of not support what the majority of people want in this country. Now, 2016 is just a little over 2 years away. I highly doubt that the Republicans are smart enough to turn around and do something right before then, so most likely there will be a strong vote for a line of Democrats during the Presidential election year.

Read more...

Last Chance to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

On December 27, the House and Senate members are expected to convene and continue talks over how to prevent automatic tax increases for everyone and also deep spending cuts that will be triggered in the new year without an agreement. It is now apparent that the Republican House, now in full disarray will not be able to come up with any progress without another plan from the Democratically led Senate. Still with their inability to come up with a solution on their own, the Republican led Congressional members did go home and enjoy their Christmas holiday, not taking into consideration how serious it was not getting the fiscal cliff issue resolved before Christmas. After all, if a deal is not met, the Congress won't be hurting, as those very rich Senators will not even think twice of allowing such a disaster from happening to the American people, because it just won't affect them. I am totally convinced now that the Congress just doesn't care. Every American will feel a paycheck decrease, take-home pay that will be cut automatically by 2% starting January 1, 2013, the effect of raised taxes. The U.S. Credit rating now stands a chance of being lowered again. The main dispute continues to be over taxes, specifically the demand by Obama and Democrats to extend most of the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush while allowing higher rates of the 1990's to return on top income brackets.
Something that I don't believe has ever been seen before, the House Speaker John Boehner in an attempt to compromise with the Democrats, realized that he did not have the support from his own colleagues in the process, and suffered what is said to be political indignity. Many hard right wingers are now calling for Boehner's resignation, saying that he is too far to the left of where he needs to be for his own party. Still, he was overwhelmingly supported by his fellow Senators to continue in his present job as Speaker of the House. When Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the past Democratically controlled House, she always had her fellow Senators in check, and knew exactly how the vote would turn out, and would never even attempt to have a vote if she didn't know what the outcome would be with a great amount of certainty. But John Boehner does not have the backing now of his fellow Republican Senators, and he is not able to predict even what his own party will do in the House. The bill that he supported never made it to the Senate because he knew that he could not drum up enough support from his own House Republicans to pass the bill along to the Senate, even though he sincerely thought he would be able to provide a House supported bill to Congress for their vote.
Now instead of leading the way, the Republican Senators in the House will depend on the Democratically controlled Senate to come up with a bill that they can support. But there is a catch. The Democrats will not present such a bill unless the Republicans also support it this time around.  A cat and mouse game continues to play out in Congress.
The Republican party, especially the Senators in the House are sincerely not capable of creating laws on their own without causing grief to others. Why do the American people continue to support such people? It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, that time is running out for the dysfunctional Republicans, and they all chance the possibility in loosing their jobs in 2014 when they must run again to keep their jobs.

Read more...

Speaker of the House Boehner not Confident that his Party will keep the House in 2012

The possibility of the Republicans may loose majority in the House of Representatives is of major concern for the House Speaker John Boehner. He claims that "there's a one-in-three chance" that the Republicans can loose control of the House of Representatives in 2012.
Obviously, he is concerned that he may loose is job as House Speaker if this happens, but he is also concerned that Nancy Pelosi may regain her seat as House Speaker, along with a Congress that would be free to implement just about anything President Obama wants to initiate as far as a law or bill during his second term if he gets re-elected.
All the Democrats would have to do is to pick up 25 seats to retake the majority in the House. There are several Congressional Districts that are now vulnerable for Mitt Romney and the Republican Senators, so now it appears that John Boehner is now sounding an alarm stating that it is entirely possible that the House can be lost in 2012.
At this point in time, the Democrats have elected not to comment on what the Speaker of the House has commented on, as they are being very careful not to sound overconfident.

Read more...

Tax Cuts Fail - Now What?

Opinion of the Editor 'James' 'Obama in the White House' blog

Just when you didn't think things couldn't get worse with the United States Congress, things got worse. The latest fling thrown out by the Republicans in the House is to turn away a tax cut extension, that if not approved by January 1, would raise everyone's taxes, approximately affecting 160,000,000 people. Middle class Americans stand a chance to save at least $1,000 per year if passed, but if not, they would inherit at least another minimum of $40 per pay check of taxes.
Right up front, the Republican Senators of the House did elect to pass the bill, and it was fully expected to pass in the House, but when it came down to the vote, thanks to the leadership of John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, the bill failed.
The reason... Because Boehner says that passing just a temporary bill for an extention of 2 months is not the answer, and the President needs to sign a bill for at least a full year. He may be right, but why has it taken the Republicans this long to come up with the fact that a 2 month extension is not acceptable. So instead, the Republican lead House was fully prepared to allow the bill to fail just so that they could possibly gain more concessions from the Democrats.
It looks as if John Boehner has stepped too far across the line. What he was promoting was to hurt approximately 160,000,000 people in the United States.
If the bill doesn't pass, what does it mean to Americans.
Besides the $40 minimum added tax on your paycheck each week, people will elect to do without something to make up the difference. It is not a matter of choice here, but a matter of necessity. The Republicans believe that just $40 bi-weekly is not too much to sacrifice.
But what this would me would be that at Christmas, the Republican party would be responsible for being a Scrooge at Christmas, led by the biggest Scrooge himself, John Boehner. Now, his days are numbered, as the people from Ohio pretty much had enough of him, along with the rest of the country.
People would have problems paying the bills. They would curtail their travel plans. They will push back in purchases. Screwing this one up should really cost the Republicans something that they want the most, and that's the White House. People do not trust the Republican led Congress anymore. Their rating is the lowest ever recorded in U.S. history. Many of the Congressmen will loose their jobs. and not only will President Obama win a 2nd term as President, the House most likely will turn over to the Democrats. So then where the Republican ticket be. Most likely totally out of business and maybe extinct. It is possible that the Republican ticket may not exist during the elections of 2016.
To make it even worse for the Republicans, they are not united on their own front. There is one new front runner after another in the race for the Republican nomination, but with just 2 weeks left to go before the Iowa caucuses, there still is no clear front-runner, especially with the downgrading campaign Newt Gingrich is having. Now Ron Paul is in the lead just two weeks away from the Caucasus. If he wins Iowa, he may just win the second one, and then what will happen. Mainly, the party will be in trouble, because Ron Paul most likely will never be able to beat President Obama. Mitt Romney is the one person so far that may have a shot to stand up against the President. Again, this is my opinion. But what I am witnessing with the Republican race is something that is just unbelievable. To me, there truly is not a good solid person to represent the Republican nomination, and because of this, President Barack Obama should get re-elected, and should do so easily.

Read more...

Boehner Only Concerned About Republican Re-elections in the House

In a comment 2 days ago, the speaker of the House Boehner says that he is not picking sides in the GOP primaries. Instead, he claims that he is working on getting his own house in order and is concentrating on getting his own house re-elected. Is that a joke or what? John Boehner is saying this because if he doesn't keep a Republican controlled House, he will also loose his own job as majority leader. He, like other Republicans under him are only interested in saving their own skins. They are not concerned about jobs; they are not concerned about the middle class; they are not concerned about bridges; they are not concerned about anything that President Obama is concerned about. So what are these hypocrites concerned about. Like Boehner says, they are only concerned about their own positions, now in which many believe that since their popularity has so diminished because of their lack of actions, they will not get re-elected. In matter of fact, with the non-popular Republican contestants in a mix, the Republican base cannot make up their minds on who they want as their next President. With this in mind, President Obama is well on his way to get re-elected, regardless on how popular he seems to be. In any case, whether you may be republican or not, the lack of a job would sway you to work with a President who wants you to have a job, not a Congress, specifically the Republicans in both the House and Senate who do not care about you, only themselves.
Someday this country will wake up and smell the roses. Hopefully it won't be too late. Re-electing President Barack Obama would be a step in the right direction. Choosing any of the Republican candidates as the next President would be a gross injustice to the middle class and poor of this country. Only the rich would benefit. Still, only time will tell before the truth of the land be told, come next November 2012.

Read more...

House Speaker Boehner believes that not Taxing the Rich is the Answer in Solving the Federal Debt

Speaker of the House John Boehner is trying to play the nice guy, and is playing his cards on the middle class working people of the country. How? He claims that the House will not vote for any debt ceiling proposition that includes tax hikes.
Right now, the Federal Government is paying 40c interest on every dollar that it borrows. That is bad enough, but how does Speaker Boehner expect the United states to get out of the difficult situation than they are in if there are no new taxes to cover for them.
Who is he trying to protect here? It isn't the lower class or middle class of working people, but the upper class. These are the people who earn the most, benefit from all of the tax cuts that already come their way and now Speaker Boehner wants them to not pay higher taxes.
To me, the Republicans seem to be playing a childish game here, with Boehner leading the way of the 'conservative principle' of not involving government for anything and God forbid, it any of his rich friends ever have to pay higher taxes. Maybe he feels that if he supports higher taxes, that he would not get re-elected. Of course he is 100% right. But someone has to take a stand here, and I believe that President Obama is taking his stand for the right reason. Right reason or not, he obviously is willing to put his job on the line, but can you say the same for House Speaker John Boehner. Of course not. He will only do and only say what it would take for him to keep his job. To me, he is far from being an honest politician.
Every time I think about people like John Boehner, I realize again and again why I voted for President Obama in the first place. He always thinks about the people of the United States. He never thinks about himself, unlike John Boehner and the entire Republican party.
This is not the day and age to support 'conservatism'. Look what being conservative did for the country when George W. Bush was president for 8 years. The country started spiraling down like it has never before, except for the 'great depression' days. President Obama had to take drastic action, and the people of the United States needed direction from the U.S. Government. They are getting it, and people like John Boehner seek to destroy it.
I think every member of the U.S. Senate (specifically Republican members), need to serve as President for just one day. Let's see how anyone stands up the Barack Obama. If a Republican regains the White House in 2012, it will only take less than a year before the country will realize that they made another mistake. The first one was allowing George W. Bush for serving 2 terms in office, then to let the next republican president continue along the ways of the one and only great George W. Bush. The United States needs to wake up and disown the Republican Party. It exists for it's own gain, not for the gain of the majority of U.S. citizens of the United States.

Read more...

John Boehner claims CHANGE Is In Order For Congress - Democrats and Republicans Ready for Battle

Yesterday, the gavel in the House of Representatives changed hands, moving from Democratic control from Nancy Pelosi, to Republican John Boehner of Ohio. He is now the 61st speaker of the House of Representatives. Still in control of the Senate, the Democrats hold a 53-47 majority lead. The new speaker claims that "Hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress. No longer can we fall short," Boehner says. "No longer can we kick the can down the road. The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin carrying out their instructions."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Following is the

Opinion of the Editor of "Obama in the White House Blog"  James

Strange. He may be correct in saying those things, but doesn't every new speaker of the House say the same thing. So where is the change? Just two years ago, President Obama was voted in office, and he was voted in because the country needed a change, and he provided it. It also was a change from the usual, a stale Republican policy to leave well enough alone and do nothing, which is exactly what George W. Bush had done during his entire 8 years in office here on American soil, except for a few policies that did go right under him.  So what have the Republicans done in office to help the cause, say up until now when George W. Bush was President. Not much. All you had was a group of crybabies and complainers between the Democrats and the Republicans of the House and the Senate, and not much got done. So who's the blame here. I would say both parties. But now things are different. Mr John Boehner is talking 'change'. Well maybe he ought to talk about something new, and maybe that's about getting something done. But let the gavel speak. Let's just see how much this 61st. speaker in the House of Representatives can get done without the Democrats support. The feuding will continue, but that's the democratic process, at the expense of the taxpayers that President Obama wants desperately to help. That's why he agreed whole-heartedly to go along with the Bush tax cuts, and for that I commend both Obama and Bush. As for Bush, that may be the lone major single thing he had done right in office for the citizens of the United States, but you just have to mention that he instilled false hopes and claims that it is because of him the country is safe. He is too blind to see that the 911 disaster, along with the tragedy in New Orleans, along with the two wars that he started fall squarely on his lap. In comparison, just 6 months or so went by in President Bush's first term when the tragedy of 911 unfolded. Did he protect the country from terrorism then? It happened on his watch..   Likewise, did anything happen during the first 2 years of President Obama's Presidency. For one thing, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, something President Bush never attained his entire 8 years in office. Yes, a few terrorist threats during Obama's watch, but they were consumed by the law and handled as they should.
Change, change, change.... That is all you hear. Everyone from both sides needs to change, but when one side or another comes up with change that would help the country, the other side claims that it is not right.

Conservatism against Liberalism. How can this country possibly survive?

Read more...

Midterm Elections are all but Over - Republicans Overtake the House

What can be termed as a landslide victory, the Republicans have gained at least 60 seats in the House, but most likely by this time tonight, will not take control of the Senate. Tea Party candidates Rand Paul and Marco Rubio win their bid for election.
In a nutshell, the Republicans have done very well, and the Democrats have suffered a major loss in the Senate. The results are not surprising to either side. This basically means that the Congress will be considered 'Lame Duck' at least until the new Congress takes session in 2011. Nancy Pelosi will now step down as Speaker and John Boehner who was the Minority Speaker, now becomes the majority speaker. He will also appoint some new key positions that should help Republicans promote Republican policies.  Now it is the Republicans turn to see how difficult it can be to try and promote policy when the Senate most likely will not agree, not to mention they may have to convince a Democratic President from time to time. Expect to see President Obama use his 'veto' powers.
There are several interesting races up for grabs this evening. Tomorrow, President Obama will make public statements regarding the elections of 2010, and also should state what loosing the House means to him. Immediately after the elections, the political focus will change immediately to President Obama. President Obama has stated that he will continue to promote ideas on what elected him in the first place, but most likely will be more willing to work with Republicans to at least agree on different legislation.

Read more...

What does a Congress controlled by the Republicans mean?

Opinion of the Editor James of "Obama in the White House Blog"


The effect of a takeover of the House by the Republicans will have a profound effect on President Obama's agenda. If people think that the political machine is broken now, just wait until the Republicans regain the majority in the House. Most everything in President Obama's agenda from now until at least 2012 may fail.

President Obama's party now would be part of the minority party. The House would be taken over by the new Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner. For the last few years, he has been powerless as a minority leader to influence and shape legislation. Now, he gets to control everything, as he even now decides which bills will reach the floor for a debate. The Democrats would have no more real legislative power, and they would not be able to advance the President's agenda. Most likely any vote on policy that the President can veto if it is drawn up by the Republicans will be veto'd. All the Democrats can do is sit back and watch.

It was pretty tuff for a Democratic President to get the people on both sides of the fence in agreement on most anything. Now it will be the Republicans turn trying to sway Democrats to vote for their proposed policies, but as demonstrated by the Republicans, the Democrats most likely will vote primarily along party lines, meaning that most of the time they will not vote conservatively, but liberally, therefore both sides most of the time will now be in agreement. Furthermore, any major policy delivered by the Republicans in the House can get shot down because the minority party along with the President will not buy into the legislation.
The Republicans will now have to try and pull support from the Democrats on some of their bills. The Republicans as a minority during the first two years of Obama's term were succesful in voting the opposite way of the majority party, and now the Democrats stand to do the same.

In a nutshell, this means that the President may likely be a "lame duck" President for the first time after only 2 years in office. This will mean that legislation most likely will not get passed unless the two parties agree, and that is hardly ever.

President Obama was right in taking control and doing what he was capable in doing before power changed hands. At least he had two full years of provoking legislation that could be passed. Now is the time to observe a 'do nothing' Congress in action and no legislation that requires majority of both houses to pass.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Republicans will have the same amount of time, two years, to dig their own holes and bury themselves before the main general election in 2012. By then, most of Obama's policies will be in full force, and the people should be benefiting from them. After the people watch the Republicans destroy their own party once again, the re-election of President Obama may be likely, and maybe Congress will be regained by the Democrats.

With all this said, the elections are still 24 hours away, and the Democrats are not out of power yet. There is a chance, though it may be slight, that the Democrats keep control of the House, and in doing so, will put to rest all of the threats by the Republican base, along with the immediate death of the "tea party".

Read more...

Stimulus Money - Taking to long to create jobs

Critics of President Obama seem to be coming out of the woodwork. This time, its from his own party, as Democratic House majority Leader Steny Hoyer outwardly claims that the stimulus money, $787 billion dollars being allocated is taking too long to create jobs. The conservative party also seems to be highly critical these days, as Republican John Boehner claims that the bill was flawed. Many people agree with this thinking, as it was full of pork barrel spending, and the results of this spending is already surfacing. Millions of dollars are being spent on projects that are not creating jobs. The main issue here was that the stimulus bill was supposed to create jobs, but instead, the jobless rate has risen to at least 9.5%. Even President Obama acknowledges that the unemployment rate is allot higher than expected. The only problem is unless the stimulus money starts creating jobs, then the jobless rate will continue to grow.
The bottom line, President Obama will be judged as a successful President if jobs are created, because that most likely will be the one way that the economy will turn around. He no doubtedly will be blamed if jobs are not created, but likewise will be credited when jobs are created. Regardless of the outcome, he must be credited for taking the initiative.

Read more...