On 3/16/2010 3:27 PM, Wes wrote:
wrote:

You're a pretty naive guy and not well informed about how the government
works either. You demonstrate this by your thinking you are seeing
something new and different in how the health care bill is taking shape.
I have news for you. This is how legislation works in this country. Why
do you think they refer to it as "sausage making"? You really think the
things going on are so much different from the things that the
republicans did when they were in the majority?

I am not naive about how deals get cut. I remember not too long ago the nuclear option
and the gang of 14 on supreme court nominations. I did not support the nuclear option
since we all know you may be on top in politics but soon you will be on bottom.

Remember the line item veto where Congress tried to give the President a freer hand at
trimming the budget? President Clinton would have been the first President to get to use
it and he wasn't a Republican.

The Republicans got critisided for holding the Medicare vote open for 3 hours.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021302342.html
Five hours for Sherrod Brown


They used
reconcilliation on numerous occasions to get things passed against the
will of the Democrats. They did the same kind of deals and payoffs and
arm twisting to get their legislation passed. LBJ is legendary for the
lengths he went through to make congressmen vote for his legislation.
This process is no worse than it has been in the past. In fact, it's the
same as it was in the past. The difference is that you didn't know how
it really works and because the republicans are saying it's oh so
terrible now you think it really is. Well, it's not. This is just what
it takes to get a bill passed when the opposition against it is digging
in their heels. You need to stop believing everything you hear coming
out of the mouths of republicans. It's all either a gross exaggeration
or else an outright lie. They happen to be working for the insurance
industry. Try to keep that in mind when you hear republicans whining
about how awful the Democrats are. They would do exactly the same thing
in their place.

I'm going to disagree with you. The dems are taking congress to places it hasn't been
before ensuring the race down hill will continue.

Wes



The only reason you are saying that is because that is what the
republican opposition is saying. What's going on is both sides are
fighting with everything they have at their disposal. There is no middle
ground on this issue. One side wins and the other loses. It's an all out
battle. Unfortunately, it's one the republicans can't win. The Democrats
have the advantage of being in the majority, which gives them the power
to use all kinds of parliamentary tricks to get what they want. It's the
same no matter who is in power. The republicans have filibustered over
110 times this congress. That's a doubling of the most ever used in
congress and it's being used on things never filibustered before. So
this works both ways. The fact is the Democrats have the majorities in
both houses and the white house. That is supposed to mean something,
specifically that the people gave the Democrats the right and power to
implement their programs and it's the minority republicans who are
thwarting the will of the people. It's the republicans who are trying to
run things despite being the party in the minority. In my book they are
just sore losers. They had the power for eight years and did what they
wanted. Now the shoe is on the other foot and they won't play fair. So
if they get burned by the Democrats, so be it. They have the right to
pass the legislation they were elected to pass.

Hawke