I would just like to take a moment to note the irony that members of Congress, who are at the best times reluctant to do something wise but unpopular for fear of losing their jobs, are now avoiding like its radioactive any legislation that would legitimately stand to create actual jobs or help unemployed people, because they don't want to lose THEIR jobs and have to try to make it out there beyond the Beltway where their own craven self-interest has created a bleak and hostile landscape of diminishing opportunities.
There are only so many openings at the lobbying firm of McGuire, Dickstein, & Thanks for Your Help Deregulating Those Pesky Consumer Protections.
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
The Latest
Via Taegan Goddard:
We need the second coming of FDR to usher in another New Deal. Instead, we've got FML and the Raw Deal.
Close, but no cigar.
Since an agreement was reached last night, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wouldn't say whether she would vote for the proposal or not. However, multiple sources now say she will vote "yes" when the bill comes up for a vote later tonight.At which point, if it passes the Senate, President Obama can be expected to sign it into law tomorrow.
The latest guidance suggests the House vote will be between 6:30 pm and 8 pm ET.
If the bill passes the House, the Senate will vote on the measure tomorrow.
We need the second coming of FDR to usher in another New Deal. Instead, we've got FML and the Raw Deal.
Close, but no cigar.
An Observation
I'm alternating watching the House debate on the Bipartisan Debt Plan, and the Senate debate on same, and it is very, very depressing.
(With the usual exceptions: I'm looking at you, Senator Bernie Sanders!)
It's not just that the deal stinks (although it does); it's that this entire fiasco, born of a manufactured crisis during which a very real jobs crisis is going ignored, underlines how fundamentally dishonest, devoid of facts, and indifferent to the needs of average Americans the conversation in DC has become.
That's not news, of course. That's the reason I started this blog seven years ago.
This is just one of those moments in which the grim intractability of that mendacious detachment is put into such stark relief that it takes my breath away all over again.
(With the usual exceptions: I'm looking at you, Senator Bernie Sanders!)
It's not just that the deal stinks (although it does); it's that this entire fiasco, born of a manufactured crisis during which a very real jobs crisis is going ignored, underlines how fundamentally dishonest, devoid of facts, and indifferent to the needs of average Americans the conversation in DC has become.
That's not news, of course. That's the reason I started this blog seven years ago.
This is just one of those moments in which the grim intractability of that mendacious detachment is put into such stark relief that it takes my breath away all over again.
Number of the Day
40%: President Obama's current approval rating, and his lowest to date, in the new Gallup poll.
Here's another number, which might have something to do with that approval rating: 0.1%. That's the rate of US consumer spending in the second quarter.
Congress is faring even worse. Democratic leaders have a 30% approval rating, and Republican leaders, who had a 36% approval rating a few months ago, now get a meager 25% approval.
There are a lot of unhappy people in this country, most of whom feel powerless to effect change, and rightly so, as their votes are exponentially diluted by corporate cash, thanks to the Supreme Court.
Here's another number, which might have something to do with that approval rating: 0.1%. That's the rate of US consumer spending in the second quarter.
Congress is faring even worse. Democratic leaders have a 30% approval rating, and Republican leaders, who had a 36% approval rating a few months ago, now get a meager 25% approval.
There are a lot of unhappy people in this country, most of whom feel powerless to effect change, and rightly so, as their votes are exponentially diluted by corporate cash, thanks to the Supreme Court.
H.R. 420
Democratic Representative Barney Frank and Republican Representative Ron Paul are living the bipartisan dream—by introducing legislation to "remove marijuana from the list of federal controlled substances and cede to the states enforcement of laws governing pot. The legislation would [also] allow individuals to grow and sell marijuana in states that make it legal."
That's one of the smartest pieces of legislation about which I've read in ages.
That's one of the smartest pieces of legislation about which I've read in ages.
The bill has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House.Of course not.
ERA Reintroduced Today
Neat-o:
Sure would be cool to hear our allegedly feminist president give a speech about how important the passage of the ERA would be for USian women.
Not that coasting on Ledbetter isn't an awesome demonstration of feminist principles and all, but maybe it's time to kick it up a notch, ahem.
This afternoon Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) re-introduced the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA currently has 160 co-sponsors in the House, including Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI), Chair of the Congressional Women's Caucus.The ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1923. It's basically the Chicago Cubs of constitutional amendments.
Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal spoke at a press conference today announcing the bill's re-introduction, stating, "Women and men deserve and need full equal rights. Without constitutional equality, too many women, and thereby too many families, are cheated. Americans overwhelmingly support constitutional equality. It is time—in fact, it's long overdue—for us to move forward."
...In response to the US Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Wal-Mart in the sex discrimination case, Representative Carolyn Maloney underscored the importance of passing the ERA: "The Wal-Mart case reviewed by the Supreme Court this week is a classic example of how far attitudes must still come. The facts of the case support the view that over a million women were systematically denied equal pay by the nation's largest employer."
The passage of the ERA is even more important today following Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comment this year that the U.S. Constitution does not protect women from sex discrimination. In an interview with the California Lawyer, Scalia stated that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal justice under the law for all persons, does not prohibit sex discrimination under the laws of the United States or its states.
Sure would be cool to hear our allegedly feminist president give a speech about how important the passage of the ERA would be for USian women.
Not that coasting on Ledbetter isn't an awesome demonstration of feminist principles and all, but maybe it's time to kick it up a notch, ahem.
Number of the Day
8%: The percentage of likely US voters who think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
1. That number is not reflective of a functional representative democracy.
2. I'm amazed it's even that high.
1. That number is not reflective of a functional representative democracy.
2. I'm amazed it's even that high.