A Big Weekend

Shouldn't a bill that is "the most important in a generation" be easier to get through Congress?

Take Medicare:

The bill went through more than five hundred amendments before being passed by majority vote in both the House (307-116) and Senate (70-24).

Note that this monstrous program was not passed 216-215 in the House, and 51-49 in the Senate. The Medicare bill in 1965 was clearly popular among a majority, no, a super-majority of Congressmen and Senators at the time.

Right now, Nancy Pelosi is scratching and clawing with all of her might to get to the magic number of 216 to pass this bill in the House. Even then, she's using methods that are not exactly what we learned in Civics class.

Shouldn't that tell us something about the quality of this bill?

If you haven't, please call Congressman Latham and let him know how you feel about this health care vote.

Revisionist Health Care History

This is wrong.

Pelosi voiced confidence that Democrats will prevail over what she said was Republican obstructionism and win passage of landmark legislation that Obama will sign into law.

"What has happened in the last year, in the past year, in the United States Senate is a total obstruction by the Republican senators," Pelosi said.

Do not let Nancy Pelosi rewrite history. She claims Republican obstructionism. It is a lie. Listen to her again.

"What has happened in the last year, in the past year, in the United States Senate is a total obstruction by the Republican senators," Pelosi said.

I'm terribly sorry, Speaker Pelosi, but you are not telling the truth. Here's what you should have said:

"What has happened in the last year, in the past year, in the United States Senate has nothing to do with the Republican Party. You might ask, 'How is this possible? Democrats are always railing about obstructionist Republicans!'

Well...it is possible, because my party has been able to do whatever it wants in the Senate because the GOP did not even have 41 senators to stop cloture votes. My blaming of Republicans for "obstructing" the last year is bull. Politically, we Democrats could do whatever we wanted, because the GOP literally could not stop us from doing...whatever we wanted."

Nancy, (since members of Congress are on a first name basis, thank you President Obama) the next time you speak to the press, give them the above quote. It will make you seem more intelligent, more honest, and it will give the American people an even better indicator of how most of the past year with absolute Democratic control went.

Not very well.

Lessons in Quality Governance

From Jake Tapper, ABC:

The plan to pass the bill includes having the House of Representatives pass the Democratic Senate health care reform legislation as well as a second bill containing various “fixes.”

Here's an update on Health Care Reform in Congress, brought to you by the Democratic Party.

Step 1: Have ridiculous control over the federal government (The White House, Senate, House)
Step 2: Create a bad bill in the House
Step 3: Argue for a while
Step 4: Create a bad bill in the Senate
Step 5: Argue for a while
Step 6: Anger the American public by pretending they're not intelligent enough to understand.
Step 7: Tread water for a couple months

Finally, Step 8: Pass a bad bill (that you KNOW is bad), knowing full well that you'll have to pass another bill that fixes the first. Is it any wonder that people think Washington is broken?

I should head over to Home Depot, buy a refrigerator that doesn't cool, tell my wife that I finally bought a fridge, brag to my friends about my awesome new appliance, wait a little bit, and then go back to Home Depot a few weeks later to buy the necessary part to fix my fridge. I hook it up, and it finally cools, but it has no door.

Whether you're buying a broken appliance or creating broken legislation...it's a bad plan for moving forward.

Do I need to mention that during the last year, the Democrats could do whatever they wanted in Congress without fearing Republican opposition?