Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Congressional Floor is a Battlefield

The politicians are at it again.

Since Obama's Jobs bill failed to get the votes it needed in the Senate to go to the floor on Tuesday, the democrats are utilizing their backup plan - break the bill up into smaller legislations and pass it along. Given that many of the singular components mirror legislations Republicans have historically voted in favor of, the Democrats are essentially pressuring the Republicans to either pass the smaller pieces of the Jobs Act or clearly explain themselves to their districts why they didn't support them. It's just really messy and everybody's pointing fingers.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) accused President Obama of "running around the country campaigning on a bill that he knows won't pass".

President Obama himself called out the House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for impeding efforts to get the Jobs Act to the floor for a vote. "I'd like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain exactly in this job bill what he does not believe in", the president said.

Gary Jacobson, a poly-sci professor at UCSD, pointed out that the Republicans really "have no incentive to decrease unemployment before the next election", which is the reason so many of them voted against the Jobs Act. Honestly, I think this theory holds a lot of truth. If the unemployment rate remained high, just think of all the chances the GOP will get to criticize the Democrats, especially President Obama, in the upcoming primaries and election.

Honestly, I just think this overinflated partisanship is really affecting the pace at which work is actually being done and changes are actually being made by our government.

5 comments:

PatrickG said...

I agree with you Michelle. Everyone is way too focused on how to maintain political favor within their own base. I don't really need to say much about the Republicans' side because I think evidence is clear enough. I will point out that although this stronger more vocal Obama is the candidate the majority of this country voted for, he is only doing this to look strong again before he is up for re-election in 2012. Sure a big part of it is to also get the country going again, because I have always believed that he loves this country (and despite what we say about it, how can you not love America) but I don't think he is standing firm now for only that reason. It is a shame that all this is going down the way it is. No matter how many bills are proposed, nothing is going to get done until the root of all these problems are solved: how to get people in the government to not be only concerned with lining their own pockets and keeping their power by saying anything that people (like the TEA Party) want to hear. They should say what we need to hear no matter how bad or depressing they think it is. The world isn't pretty and the people in power should stop pretending it is and get something done.

Alyssa_Block said...

I agree with you guys that the Republicans basically believe that they have no incentives to create jobs or improve the economy, because they want to be able to vilify Obama as a horrible president for not doing more to stimulate the economy. This article discusses this scenario and questions the partisan nature of current politics. (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-11/politics/congress.problems_1_jobs-bill-cantor-spokesman-brad-dayspring-republicans-in-both-chambers?_s=PM:POLITICS bottom of page 2 - top of page 3 specifically)
However, if Republicans want to keep their promise of helping the American people, this do-nothing attitude cannot continue.

Raquel Tenorio said...

I agree with all of you. I feel like republicans are simply doing nothing so that they can blame Obama for all the problems in the country, even though he is not to blame for all of them. They are using him as a scape goat for their own elections for all he has been doing, which is ironic since they do not seem to be doing anything to fix the problems they claim Obama has created. Simply complaining about the issues that need to be fixed helps no one and I think republicans need to take notice of that before they talk next time. I think both parties have to be able to work side by side if we want to see any real change in the country.

Sara Boushakra said...

I agree with Alyssa's statement that the Republicans are attempting to "vilify Obama as a horrible president" by questioning his ideas and success due to the past economic stimulus in 2009; as well as refraining to pass the bill. Although Obama's plan to refract the bill into components reveals his ability to persevere the bill, it is eventually delaying the process. I believe that the Republican are worried more about their present "ego" and "representation" to disagree with Obama on any state, rather than the future of this country. In order to economically get America back on its feet, Obama must stimulate the economy throughout the preservation of jobs and governmental aids, however I think the lack of cooperation on the Republicans part is just plain old selfish. The concept of political competition and separation of parties is understandable, however, in the end we are all unified in one country and all wish and strive for the best for it. The Republicans have pushed and pushed and now the battle over the proposal has been delayed until 2014. If the government cannot solve internal problems, how will external success ever become a possibility?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/us/politics/new-senate-battle-over-obamas-jobs-bill-now-piecemeal.html

Rebecca Wysong said...

I think this is one of the largest problems in our government because it is threatening and not allowing anything to get through. This bill will help our country get back on its feet but the Republicans are holding it back. This will not help the country.