Remember this? (2:50 mark)
Joe Biden – “Washington, right now, is broken,”
Back in February when he uttered those words the Democrats has majorities in the House and the Senate. But still they complained they couldn’t get anything done. They then passed Socialized Health Care. Took over companies they had no business taking over. Passed a treaty with Russia that makes us infinitely less safer. Pushed through a stimulus for “shovel ready” projects that did absolutely nothing for the economy. But still they whined they couldn’t get anything done.
Byron York:
Democrats and their partisans in the press complained about Washington being broken only at those times when their agenda was imperiled. Vice President Biden’s statement, for example, came after the election of Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown took away the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Just a few weeks later, when Barack Obama signed the national health care bill into law, Biden was all smiles.
Now, after the lame-duck session, Democratic leaders are happy again. But it’s only temporary. As the new year approaches, get ready for a new round of Democratic Washington-is-broken grumbling.
~~~It’s also why you’re hearing new rumbling about what many Democrats consider the ultimate fix for the Washington-is-broken problem: eliminating the filibuster. A perennial complaint, unhappiness with the filibuster is likely to reach new heights among Democrats in the next few months. Already, the entire returning Democratic caucus has signed a letter by Sens. Carl Levin and Mark Warner calling for rules changes that will make it easier to kill filibusters. Some are also hoping to make it possible to change the Senate’s rules with a simple majority vote, rather than the two-thirds vote required now. That way, Democrats could do anything they want, even without that 60-vote majority.
It won’t happen; there aren’t the votes. It could even be that Democrats are pushing the anti-filibuster argument so loudly because they know it won’t happen. That way, they can position themselves as favoring “filibuster reform” with the comfort of knowing they’ll still have the filibuster the next time they’re in the minority, which might be soon.
Meanwhile, new voices are taking up the Washington-is-broken crusade. At the recent New York rollout of the Democratic-leaning group No Labels, speaker after speaker pushed the idea that “hyperpartisanship” in Washington has prevented elected leaders from “getting things done.” They’re looking for some still-unspecified new approach to break the partisan deadlock.
But Byron makes the point that it SHOULD be difficult to pass legislation that will fundamentally change millions of American lives. The last two years Democrats had enough members to pass whatever the hell they wanted and look where it got us. Rising interest rates, increasing unemployment, and rising consumer prices. They printed money and passed bills that spent more.
We got screwed.
…in a divided government, there must be some agreement between the parties before legislation can move forward. And if there isn’t agreement, then maybe the legislation shouldn’t move forward. When that happens, Washington isn’t broken. It’s working.
Amen.
Of course Obama will be too busy this year to compromise on anything since he will be in campaign mode….if he ever left that mode: (h/t JammieWearingFool)
President Obama will spend more time outside of Washington, D.C., next year engaging with he public, according to a top White House adviser and close friend of the president.
One year before Obama faces reelection, he is expected to make a greater effort to connect with potential voters after facing charges being too aloof during his first two years in the Oval Office. The president’s “biggest regret” was that because of economic turmoil, “He had to spend almost every waking hour in Washington working on solving that crisis,” senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And what he missed sorely was engagement with the American people.
Sooooo….he spent every waking hour in Washington because of the economy and his solution to the problem now is to NOT pay any attention to it and instead go schmooze with voters 2 years before the next Presidential election. But wasn’t it just three days ago that he pledged a “singular focus” on the economy?
He’s getting out of town because he knows the days of being able to force any agenda item down the throats of Americans are long gone. Instead of actually becoming a somewhat mediocre President and working towards REAL bipartisanship he will flee, shake hands, and whine that Washington is again, broken.
A leader this man is not.
See author page
…and as per usual, the usual suspects broke it repeatedly and bear zero responsibility.
😉
Typical horse hockey coming from the Dimwits. They have been saying that since time immortal, when they lose power. They said that in the 1994 Republican upset and when W was elected and held on to the Republican most of his eight years. Seems to me, the only thing that is true, the whole Government is broke and needs a drastic overhaul.
Truly, look hard . . . what do you see? An executive branch that is OUT of control. Congress and the SCOTUS are setting the fence now. But unless the Office of the Prez is not subjected to the same level of We the People scurtiny as is being devoted to the Congressional the regulations, codes and standards will just continue to be enacted and enforced as LAW!!!
Get it folks . . . it isn’t the law process that is the near term problem!!!
It is the Executive Branch and those agencies and services that are under the POTUS that must be controlled.
Congress must prevent the CZARS from creating all the codes, standards and regs to enact the stupidity that happened during the first two years of Obummmmmmmmmmmler!!!
I’m waiting for the new Supreme Court to declare the Constitution unconstitutional over the next two years.
Washington is broken????!!!!
Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us that we are trillions and trillions of dollars in debt…
biden is such a fool. he shouldn’t be allowed out.
The Dems have been in control for 2 years. no wonder its broken.
Up until this last election CA had a rule that the budget had to get a 2/3rds majority to pass into law.
Now it only needs 50% + one.
So, watch CA to see how Dems (always the majority in CA) raise taxes rather than cut spending.
And now they want to do this at the national level.
It is as bad as them wanting to do away with the Electoral College.
Do that and we are ruled by the Left on either coast rather than the people of the USA entirely.
Requiring 60 votes instead of 50 + one in the Senate is a protection.
It means either BIPARTISANSHIP or at least a law passed by one party with a huge mandate to rule.
I got a question for the FA Authors, those who post articles, and all of those who are just casual commentors:
Does anyone out there really, totally, comprehensively understand how the Office of the President really works?
I am not talking about the figure head we call POTUS . . . I am talking about the Executive Branch of the Government.
WTF is the purpose of the Executive Branch of our Government?
How does it work, what does it do and how does it carryout the business of the US of A?
Why do I ask this question? What is my objective and what is the objective of each and every citizen of the US of A . . . What do we need to know that WE do not know?
Humbly, I submit that the “Broken” perspective concerning DC is just another PC term used to subvert . . . I think that this is very clear to everyone that Subversion is the problem . . . subversion to the degree that our Executive Office is no longer a three legged dog that can not jump . . . it is a carcass . . . nothing left that works . . . only subverts everything to keep a parasitic organism alive.
Not sure what your question is, Tallgrass. The 15 Congressionally created federal exectuive departments are an arm of the Executive branch, and tasked with the daily running and enforcement of federal laws. Additionally, Congress creates legislation, it becomes enacted upon POTUS signature, but carrying out the legislative directives usually lies in the hands of the federal agencies, who construct the specific regulations. Hence, the POTUS is like the CEO of the country, with the federal executive agencies being the various workforce that carries out setting regulations. Enforcement of those regulations lies in the hands of the AG’s DOJ office, also under control of the POTUS.
There are also independent agencies, such as USPO, NASA, CIA etc. Add to that government owned corporations, like the GSEs, FDIC, etc. These are also created by Congress who should have the oversight authority… which they usually delegate away to yet another agency.
I’d say it’s “broken” to the extent it is so large, that the left hand rarely knows what the right hand is doing, and the waste of taxpayers cash is enormous with inefficient management and seriously bad accounting. In other words, it mostly functions as an endless cycle of passing the buck to some civil servant.
The sad truth is that Washington is broke. It is bloated with incompetent political appointee’s, it’s only mission is self gratification, and the security of the nation is not in even in the equation. Our elected members of congress have only one goal and that is getting re-elected. Corruption is the name of the game and runs strife in our Capital. It will take more then the reading of the Constitution at the beginning of the session to fix this mess “We the People” allowed to happen. It is going to take more elections like the last one to get rid of worthless politicians that seem to rule the government.
Yes, Washington is broken. However, it seems all levels of government are “broken”. Federal, State, County, and Local are bloated, overpaid, horribly inept.
What happened to states rights? Oh yeah, we fought a bloody war over that issue.
He JUST promised to ”focus on the economy?”
The White House privately anticipates health care talks to slip into February — past President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address — and then plans to make a “very hard pivot” to a new jobs bill…..Dec. 23rd 2009 >>>>2009!
Maybe Obama means ”dither” when he says ”pivot.”
Every economic expert says, said, all along, that the JOBS would begin coming back pretty soon.
Take a look:
http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/stimulus-vs-unemployment-feb2010-dots.gif?w=460&h=290
Even Obama’s own Larry Geithner!
http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/stimulus-vs-unemployment-may-dots.gif
This Week’s Big Government Bozo Is On The Way Out…Thankfully!
😛
Nan, just to be clear, while CA did change the rule for passing budgets in a way that favors the permanent Democrat majority, the rules for tax increases still require that they be put before voters and (I believe) a 2/3 majority is still needed. In fact, one of the propositions just passed now forces this discipline on “fees”, to keep politicians from relabelling taxes as fees in order to avoid the need for 2/3 voter approval. Incoming Gov. Brown is shocked, shocked to find that we’ve got a budget deficit – it will be amusing, though possibly painful, to watch how he and the Democrats in the state legislature manage to plug the hole without going after the bloated public payroll or the gold-plated and unsustainable pension formulas, all the while expanding the regulatory structure that’s made us dead last in business climate among the 50 states. Cheers from the Left Coast!
A Warrior Goes To Washington
The GOP benefited, but the November election results that shifted the balance of power was more a case of “in spite of,” than “because of” the old guard. What I learned from the 1994 earthquake election (that gave Republicans a majority in both houses for the first time in 40 years) was there was damned little difference going on in its aftermath. My view is that our last best chance to save a great nation depends entirely on the likes of Allen West being successful, and propagating. It’ll be tough, because the old bulls still hold the committe chairs, and nary a one of them has the right stuff. It’s important then that the Allan Wests have our loud voices behind them.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/27/s-floridas-west-ready-to-charge-capitol-hill/
S. Florida’s West ready to charge Capitol Hill Elected as warrior for ‘tea party’
OLD TROOPER 2 , thank’s for the link what THE WASHINGTON wrote is very telling of
HOW HE will certainly bring back some discipline in there,and he wont be bought by any one either I say best to you SR ALLEN WEST
A broken Washington to a liberal means they can’t get what they want when they want it and the way they want it.
@Old Trooper 2:
The old guard, voters as well, better be on their toes, should politics as usual return we could be in danger of losing Allen West and other stellar legislators we just voted for in the next election.
He’s dynamic and my hopes would be his honesty, know-how and charisma, will be much appreciated in his Florida district and he wouldn’t suffer from a wave like we just saw this year. Still going to be calling.
I’ve already tried to contact Mark Kirk’s office to give them an earful, it wasn’t set up at the time, no calls or e-mail could reach him, frustrating! Couldn’t even get through to his House or campaign sites and ph numbers, tried them all. I took it as an omen. 👿