[Cross-posted from
The Left Coaster]
Representative Lousie Slaughter has released a "Congressional Report on the Unprecedented Erosion of the Democratic Process in the 108th Congress" called Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative Democracy.
10 years after the Gingrich Revolution, in which the Republicans vowed to be better than the ruling Democrats, the report offers the following criticisms:
- They used closed and highly restrictive rules to prevent Members from offering amendments that would have provoked real debate and forced Members to go on the record on real issues.
- Rules Committee Republicans intentionally used emergency meeting procedures and late-night meetings in the 108th Congress to discourage Members and the press from participating in the legislative process.
- House Republicans repeatedly embarrassed the House by granting blanket waivers to conference reports and rushing them through the House before Members could read them.
"In short, the current Republican leadership has become the arrogant and corrupt majority they despised and condemned in their minority days. In the 108th Congress, Republicans abandoned any of the moral high ground they still claimed to have from their campaign to reform the way Congress did business in the early 1990s.[6] As our former colleague Joe Scarborough wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal:
"Ten years ago, Republican congressional candidates like me were running as Washington outsiders promising to balance the budget and pay off the federal debt. We campaigned against the Imperial Congress and promised Americans that if we got elected, we would be different. We lied." [7]
Republicans lie? I'm shocked, just shocked, I tell you. At least one finally admitted Republicans lied--about their core principles and what they campaigned on. What integrity the Republicans have given the Republic since their takeover.
Thanks to Jeffrey Dubner of TAPPED for the heads-up.