Back last year the Congress passed a pretty tough, sort of timeline funding bill for the Iraq and sent it to the President. He immediately vetoed the funding for the war and then blamed the Democrats for not supporting the troops.
Instead of calling him and his Republican cronies on the outright lie -- the Dems funded the war, just asked for accountability -- they hemmed and hawed and whined a bit and then passed a bill that funded the war without any oversight.
I was furious. For one, I worked my ass off raising tens of thousands of dollars and organizing volunteers in 2006 to get Democrats elected so we could end this wasteful, idiotic and useless war. For another, the Democrats were proving to me that they didn't have any clue how to engage in political infighting much less basic public relations.
"Pass it again and send it right back to him, you dumb sons of britches!" I yelled at the TV. "And if he vetoes that one, do it again!"
Eventually he's gonna have to sign the damn thing or he will have no money to spend. It's not like when Newt Gingrich shut down the government because the Dems would have been sending the President his money repeatedly and the President would get more and more exorcised and say stupid shit each time it happened.
We run one branch of the government, and the President can't do anything without Democratic consent at this point. We could skirt the blame off to the Republicans until January 2006 when everything changed, except that nothing changed and now our leaders are complicit in all this crap. Bush gets his money, Bush gets his SCHIP, Bush gets his budget. Bush gets whatever he wants and then blames the Democrats anyway.
And now it's happening again. This idiotic "stimulus" package which is nothing more than a sop to middle class parents and corporations (and don't think I don't personally benefit from both) is not going to help the economy. The only thing it's gonna do is help the corporations, but a couple dollars into some parent's pockets (my $300 per kid is going to the Visa Bill), and buy some votes based on an illusion.
Once again the Democrats are caving, only earlier. Why the hell should we compromise on the stimulus bill? Every single economist that isn't on the Scaiffe payroll says that stimulus must be short-lived and targeted to the ones who will spend the money that day. If we did this the right way -- putting money in the hands of the poor, the unemployed, who are in need of money to buy food to eat and gas to get to work right now and will spend whatever we send them -- we'd not only be right and on the side of the media and the smart folks, but we'd be helping the fucking poor!
That's part of what we're supposed to be about. Helping the fucking poor. Remember?
Only Pelosi and Reid, who I had high hopes for, rolled over and had their belly rubbed to give upper middle class parents and corporations money that is just a gift. It's not going to be spent the day it arrives to inject cash in the system. It's going to pay off holiday spending and to offset the top-line revenue sluggishness.
The right thing to do here is the exact same right thing to do when it came to Iraq.
Pass the bill that is fundamentally, governmentally and morally right. Make the Republicans in Congress vote against it or filibuster all night to stop it. Make them the heavies for not helping that poor Grandma who has to eat Fluffy's cat food instead of pasta and Hamburger Helper. Put them on the record and caring more about corporate tax breaks than about poor, starving Grandma.
Then send it up to the President. "Here. The economists say this will help the economy the fastest and the religious leaders say it will help those most in need. Go ahead and veto it you son of a bitch."
And when he vetoes it hold a public override vote and ostracize those who vote to have Grandma eat cat food again tonight.
Then the next day hold a vote on the exact same fucking bill and make them fucking vote against it again!
Lather, rinse, repeat until your hair is clean or the bill passes.
We want the right things for the country, both in terms of policy and in terms of morality. When we compromise those things we are guaranteeing that the government is not only ineffective but soulless. That's what the Republicans want, a crappy government that accomplishes nothing so they can keep running for office against "Washington DC" an after they win send our tax dollars to their friends and lobbyists.
By allowing Bush and his cronies to pull stunts like this ... no ... strike that.
By allowing Pelosi and Reid and their Blue Dog handlers to pull stunts like this stimulus "compromise" that hurts both the American government an its people we are all complicit. They are weak and worthless an cannot be seen in any way as leaders.
It's true on FISA, it's true on net neutrality, it's true on Iraq, it's true on SCHIP, it's true on global warming, it's true on taxes, it's true on stimulus, it's true on just about everything.
They're weak and worthless and have to go. We need new, tough blood in Congress to stand up to this bullshit.
My only real hope is that our next President is a Democrat an the Congress extends its Democratic majorities, allowing real progressive programs to pass and be signed into law.
But I'm not holding my breath. These "leaders" need something to be afraid of, someone to compromise with, or they won't know how to govern ineffectively.