Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. I trust that you all had a safe and happy holiday. Mt Hamster Partner, the Queen, and I spent Christmas in Colorado with family and had a great time. I'll have you know that for that entire week, I didn't watch any news programs and, once the withdrawls calmed down, I found myself blissfully ignorant.
The cold reality of January has sunk in, and I return to my post as Hamster Prez to help make sense of the senseless. To shine a bright light on the asylum that is Washington, DC. To take my shovel to the heaping pile of crap that we have put ourselves in and dig the tunnel out. As POW's (Prisoners of Washington) it is our duty to try to escape or at least to modify the terms of our imprisonment.
Birds are falling out of the sky by the thousands. Fish are washing up on the shore in the hundreds. And John Boehner is Speaker of the House. Maybe the Mayans were on to something after all. Nah, 12/12 is too far away for the apocalypse to be starting now. It's that trouble comes in three's.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the 2-party system as it relates to our current political climate. I opined that the two parties were now the Governing Party and the Ruling Party. I was ill-prepared for just how far the Ruling Party would go, and how great the retreat of the Governing Party.
First the bad news: Senate Democrats are wusses. They are more timid than my neurotic cat Nyla who runs from her own shadow and apparently believes that every sound ever heard was meant to harm her. The only real redeeming quality that she has is that she loves to watch football on TV. Democrats have sacrificed policy for politics too often. While it is true that some really cool and major stuff got passed while the Hamster hibernated, they are throwing away even as we speak.
Changing the rules of the Senate is an absolutely essential task. We cannot continue to have a government that is hamstrung by itself. Rule changes are subject only to majority vote, and with 56 democrats any rules they wanted to change is pretty much a done deal. So, what are they proposing? Something that will end the gridlock? Rules that would prevent further delaying tactics? Procedures for eliminating Senate holds on legislation and appointments? No, no, and no.
Singularly most important among the changes was the idea to return the Senate to its Constitutionally mandated majority rule. It will still take a super majority to pass any legislation which is the cause of the gridlock. Not changing that negates the changes they are proposing. They are willing to modify the process of getting bills to the floor, which does no good if they can't pass. They aren't eliminating the hold, like Jim Bunning did to delay unemployment benefits and like countless other have done to prevent judicial and administration appointees. They are only eliminating the anonymous holds. They have the chance to fix it, and they aren't going to. Why?
Because they've already conceded 2012.
The political calculation is simple: We're going to be in the minority and we'll want to be able to do the same thing when the Ruling Party takes control. Except that Ruling Party will change the rules when they take over and eliminate any threat the Dems might pose. Majority Rule worked for over 200 years but isn't good enough now? C'mon. Grow a set and do the right thing.
And the worse news? Weeping Juan is now Speaker of the House. Before I get into the very scary things that he's doing, let me digress for a moment to a couple of the big ticket items on his agenda. The repeal of health care will pass the House, but never the Senate and Obama would veto it if it did. Many pundits are calling this a "symbolic" vote, one that allows them to appear interested in their Tea Party colleagues. They are also planning to repeal the financial reforms as payback to their Wall Street benefactors. That won't pass the Senate or the White House, either.
Far more nefarious is their plan. Yes, these are symbolic votes but they also set the stage for the just-as-effective plot to defund the programs, thereby making them moot. They could and will defund the Consumer Protection Agency. The guy that is about to become the chairman of the committee that will oversee the banks, financial institutions, and hedge funds received more than 90% of his campaign money from those very same people. The new chairman-likey of the committee that oversees the oil, gas, and coal industries is the same guy who apologized to BP for having to pay $20B dollars to guarantee payments were made to its victims. In a Congressional hearing. On national TV.
Speaking of Rule changes: Boehner and company are embarking on a power-grab like no other in the history of this country. They are proposing to eliminate the CBO budget or any of its analysis and instead have determined that Paul Ryan (R-WI) will have complete authority in determining what affect or effect a budget item has on the debt and deficit. Republicans will have complete autonomy over all matters financial. And the House democrats are salivating.
Their much saner political calculation is just as simple: stand back and let them fail. The American people are beginning to understand that the financial crisis was created solely by Wall Street and that the Republican Party is wholly and completely owned by the very people who got us all here in the first place. And their blatant pandering will ultimately cost them.
If it doesn't destroy us first.
Write to Senators Boxer, Weinstein, and Reid. Hell, write to all of them. Urge them to change the Senate rules to restore Majority Rule, end holds, and close the loopholes that prevent the legislature from legislating.
I am.
Hamster Prez
