Reality Check

President Obama prepares to

face 112th Congress

I thought I had heard it all.  Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell haranguing members of Congress for wanting to fight Obama's conciliation on tax cuts for the wealthy.  When I heard that Bernie Sanders, independent Senator from Vermont and my hero, and Jim Demint were fighting on the same side on this issue, and in fact received emails encouraging me to write Demint supporting his position, I thought my head would explode.

Time to step back.  It was not that long ago that we had a republic congress, a congress that would not even approve an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour, not even when gas prices went to $3.00 and over.  The party of no was in power, and why were we surprised when they lost power that they only yelled louder.

The problem back in 2009 was that the most powerful Democratic Congress in my lifetime refused to use that power to its advantage.  Instead, each individual considered its own little piece of power, and assisted the republic party in blocking important legislation, in order to demand ridiculous concessions.  The health care bill was the epitome of self-defeating behavior.  Bart Stupak insisting on anti-abortion legislation, while allowing people to continue to die without coverage.  Ben Nelson's "cornhusker kickback" which was more egregious for not including Medicaid funds for all states than for the insistence on funds for Nebraska in return for his support of the bill.  Blanche Lincoln, blue dog to the end, which came for her on November 2, when she lost to a real republican, insisted on gutting the public option from the bill.

These narcissists did not just vote against the bill, they voted to prevent the bill from being brought up to the floor for debate.

Makes a person proud to be a Democrat, yes?

And at the helm was a new young president who truly believed that if you treated Congress like adults they would act like adults.

So who is to blame for this current mess of a deal?  The republic party appears to be the only group that is showing consistency.  They may be in the pockets of the corporations, but they can be relied on.

Which is what the voters seemed to have wanted all along. 

That's the Spirit

Joseph Shamie, CEO of Delta Children's Products, was quoted on Friday's NBC Nightly News:  "In order for Delta to start hiring, we need to know where our taxes are going, where health care is going."

As he owns a relatively small family business, I would have liked to ask him in which direction he was hoping to see taxes and health care going.  Sadly, this was left out.  Until I did a little research at Reference USA I assumed this was some big businessman rooting for tax cuts and the death of the health care legislation.  Now I am thinking that either he is misguided and assume he doesn't know that tax cuts would apply to him as a small business owner, and that health care legislation would benefit him, or he is in fact rooting for Democratic tax cut legislation to pass as well as preservation of the health care legislation.

Again, what is doing in the Democrats appears to be misinformation, inadequate information and  poor reporting.

I have no doubt that big corporate interests are refusing to hire because, a) it increases profit, and b) it holds the U.S. Government hostage by so doing.

The more I hear Boehner and McConnell and the members of their chorus in Congress, the more rote and unconvincing sound the words.  Tax cuts for the wealthy make no sense.  While most in Congress would gain considerably from an extension of these cuts, I believe they are more controlled by threats from Big Business than by the dollars they themselves will enjoy from the extension.

Business controls us in ways we can't even imagine, although it would be to our best interest to try to understand the behind-the-scenes manuevers.  For wealth, Ken Lay knowingly ran Enron into the ground, the Wall Street bankers gambled on the US economy, and big food conglomerates are willing to risk the safety of the American people.  And every day our Congressmen and women are meeting and greeting the leaders of industry and their lobbyists, and being told in no uncertain terms that it will bode ill for them and our country if they do not tow the line on tax cuts, as well as relief for the middle class.


We need to recognize that the welfare of this country is being decided in board rooms and by lobbyists, and that for the past four years they have determined the "Just Say No" strategy of our Congressional republic leaders.  Because we need to know not just who is mouthing the words, but who the puppet masters are.