Watching the State of the Union speech I was struck by the visual of the GOP sitting there looking as though the ship is not sinking. All around them is chaos, people running for the life boats, the klaxons are going off, crew members are herding passengers to the upper decks, women and children are being separated from the men of the family not knowing if they will ever see each other again and the reality has sunk in of the momentous hurdles that must be overcome to survive a disaster like this.
Now contrast that with a couple hundred old, rich, out of touch white guys just sitting there sipping 100 year old scotch, smoking the best hand rolled Cubans while waiting for the ship to sink. See, they have a private contractors that will be there to rescue them. As the ship goes down they will be plucked from the deck while those less fortunate are left to fight for themselves.
The President finally brought to light the fact the inaction is action, failure to act does not relieve those charged with leading this country of their responsibilities.
What's even more amazing is that we had 8 years of Republicans executing their ideas and those were the worst 8 years we have seen since WWII. So, what's their answer, obstruct any and everything that President Obama tries to do. No help, no votes, no ideas - just obstruct and wait for the mid-terms elections.
Many Americans have run out of time, some have exhausted their unemployment and there are few safety nets left, no new jobs are being created (despite the Stimulus Bill job rhetoric being touted by the White House) and we have 2/3 of our government actively working to fix the problems and 1/3 actively trying to derail those efforts.
Mr. Obama, we don't have time for bi-partisanship, if the GOP wants 60 votes on everything then it's time to go around them and use whatever parliamentary procedures you have to use to get things done. We can't let a handful of "do nothings" drag this country down.
Example after example, if we are going to pull this country out of the tailspin we are in, the President has to go around the GOP;
WASHINGTON — Without a single Republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending. http://www.nytimes.com/...
The budget passed the House on a party-line vote of 223-196. The Senate vote was 55-43. Although Democrats trimmed Obama's initial plans and ignored his ideas for offsetting the costs of new programs, the thrust remained largely intact. The Obama budget would borrow an estimated $9.3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, doubling the public debt as a share of the nation's output from 41 percent to 82 percent. The budget calls for nearly $4 trillion in deficits over the next five years.
http://articles.sfgate.com/...
The jobs bill passed 217-212. All the votes for the bill came from Democrats. Every Republican voted against it, along with 38 Democrats.
http://www.lvrj.com/...
The Senate approved the so-called "paygo" legislation by a party-line vote of 60 to 40. The House of Representatives has twice passed a slightly different version.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted on Thursday to raise the nation's debt limit to $14.3 trillion, a $1.9 trillion increase that would allow the government to keep borrowing to cover operations beyond the November election and into early next year...
The measure, which is always politically unpopular but essential to avoid default, needed 60 votes to pass and got not a vote more, for a 60-to-39 tally. The House is expected to pass the measure next week.
Republicans were united in opposition as a protest of Obama administration spending programs. But Democrats, in debate, noted that most of the debt reflected the accumulation of annual deficits in the years that Republicans controlled the White House and Congress until 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The GOP looks out of touch, uncaring, and arrogant. They don't seem to understand that many Americans are out of time and are looking for those life boats...while Republican leaders sit-by and smoke hand rolled Cubans.