Lame Duck Congress

The Heroes And The Goats Of The “Lame Duck” Session Of Congress

Ronald Leave a comment

The recent “lame duck” session of Congress saw some real heroes and some real goats.

The heroes would include Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut; Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana; and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Schumer and Gillibrand used their talents and persuasive abilities to accomplish the passage of the September 11 First Responders Medical legislation. Gillibrand, particularly, became noticed as a truly courageous figure, after much doubt about her after being appointed by Governor David Paterson over more well known and prominent candidates to succeed Hillary Clinton.

Joe Lieberman proved how useful he can be, pursuing the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military with a fierceness and principle rarely seen in any Senator.

Bernie Sanders proved how wonderful a human being he is, fighting for the common people, and against the corporations and the wealthy, and his eight and a half hour filibuster was inspiring.

Richard Lugar gave evidence again that he is one of the best Senators of modern times, pushing for the START Treaty, supporting gays in the military, and being one of three Republicans to support the DREAM Act. Unfortunately, he will probably suffer a primary challenger as a result in 2012, but he is in so many ways, a Senator’s Senator, much like Ted Kennedy was in the recent past!

And Lisa Murkowksi found a new independence as a result of her tough re-election contest as an independent, and courageously supported gays in the military, the DREAM Act, and the START Treaty.

At the same time that the above Senators showed conviction and decency, the following demonstrated how disgraceful some political figures can be, and can be termed as “goats”: Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, and Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

All of the above demonstrated bitterness, anger, pettiness, narrow mindedness, and extreme partisanship at a time when a group of Senators of their party actually displayed bipartisanship on the START Treaty, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ending in the military, and the September 11 First Responders Medical legislation.

So congratulations are in order for the first group of Senators above, and a chorus of boos for the second set above!

The Lame Duck Session Of Congress: Crucial Issues That Need To Be Addressed!

Ronald 1 Comment

The lame duck session of Congress began yesterday, with the Democrats having their last opportunity to control both houses of Congress and get something done, before the Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January!

There is much that needs to be addressed, including:

1. The question of the Bush tax cuts, which if extended to the top two percent of the country, will put America in the hole for $700 billion over the next ten years, worsening the national debt tremendously!
2. Funding of the national government for the present budget year which began in October.
3. Restoration of Medicare payments to doctors at a rate that will keep them willing to accept Medicare patients.
4. Dealing with the issue of unemployment compensation extension to long term unemployed people who will have no income if it is not extended.
5. Passage of the DREAM Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants who have grown up in this country to have the possibility of attending college or entering the military and avoid deportation to countries they have no memory of, since they left those nations when infants.
6. Abolition of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military, an issue which has been dragged around for two years now, but must be repealed by Congress if discrimination is to end for gays.

The problem is that much of this agenda is unlikely to pass other than the first two items, as the GOP has the ability to stall and filibuster everything else, a very frustrating potential scenario! 🙁

Hopefully, there will be progress on the last four topics, but with a turnover to the GOP in the House in January, it is clear that if these issues listed above are not resolved now, they may never be in the next two years! 🙁