"No Moore Capito" version of this diary originally posted at WV Kossacks
For regular dKos readers this post may seem like preaching to the choir. I'm hoping you hear my out to help grow the choir even bigger!
My bitter-sweet election night experience was the re-election of a Republican in my district (Rep. Shelley Moore, WV-02). The power of incumbency and a docile press let her get away with claims of independence from the Bush administration.
Yet, for all her "moderate" stance, there have been three votes in her political career that overshadow all the rest--votes for Republican House Speakers.
The purpose of this post is to tell one simple story of the negative consequences of Republican rule: $2-10 billion in Republican incompetence.
It's a really bad idea to put a party that doesn't believe in government in charge of the government.
The Republican party doesn't even bother working full weeks. The Charleston Gazette agrees with Sen. Jay Rockefeller who "has complained for years of the shrinking number of workdays in the Senate. There is just too little time spent on the job to do the important work of understanding everything lawmakers need to know to make sound decisions." It's about time we put a political party in charge who is actually interested in governing.
Republican inaction suits the interests of Big Business--not the interests of the rest of us. A Billion Here, A Billion There... How one big goof in a little-known federal agency gave taxpayers a big black eye.
Last summer, congressional investigators discovered that the agency had bungled its job so badly that energy companies legally avoided paying an estimated $2 billion in royalties on oil and natural gas extracted from federal waters. The final tab to taxpayers could reach $10 billion. Lawmakers, to put it mildly, are incensed."
How did this problem happen in the first place? Maybe, just maybe, a few extra days of Congressional oversite would help avoid these problems?
Why weren't hearings held and remedies put in place immediately after it the problem was found last summer?? What have the Republicans been waiting for?
Now, when the new Congress convenes in January under Democratic control, there will be scrutiny aplenty of the beleaguered Interior Department unit. In the Senate, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon will chair a subcommittee and vows a "very vigorous" investigation of the oil and gas leasing program run by the minerals agency. Taxpayers, Wyden said in an interview, are victims of a giant "rip-off" by oil and gas companies. In the House, says a senior aide to Rep. Nick Rahall, the West Virginia Democrat expected to chair the House [Natural] Resources Committee, "there will be an intensive and exhaustive review of royalty underpayments."
As we move into the next election season, we've got a year to convince voters it really does matter which party runs Congress. We need to constantly remind wavering-Dems, independents and persuadable Republicans that a vote for a Republican congressperson is a vote for congressional malfeasance.