For the sake of this country, President Obama must come together and work together with House Republicans no matter what the reason behind the government. Of course, Obama won't budge on Obamacare and I'm worried about my campaign contributions.
Ahhhh, once again, the one and only Congressman Darrell Issa has another one of his fine, statesman-like statements courtesy of his outstanding website.
Below the fold is Issa's statement on the continued lack of progress in resolving the government shutdown which he started in the first place.
http://issa.house.gov/...
Shutdown Continues, House Passes Solutions, President Still Refuses to Negotiate
October 9, 2013
Beginning on October 1, 2013, the federal government entered a partial shutdown due to a lapse in funding. Prior to this, the House of Representatives offered and passed multiple funding measures to keep the government open. The Senate and President Barack Obama, however, disagreed with some of the bill’s components. Instead of working with House leaders, they chose to let the government shut down over their insistence on a continuation of last year’s funding levels to support the expansion of Obamacare.
I know many Americans are concerned about the government shutdown and it can be disconcerting when our nation’s political leaders cannot get along.
This is not the first time that our country has had a divided government or experienced a shutdown due to disagreements between the President and congressional leaders of opposing parties. However, in prior instances, both the President and respective leaders have found ways to engage in regular discussions to resolve issues.
President Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich were fierce opponents publically, as were President Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neill, but they always found ways to work together to advance our nation’s interests and their respective policy agendas.
What’s different today is that President Obama has repeatedly and preemptively announced his refusal to negotiate with congressional leaders about operations of the federal government or the level of spending under his Administration.
Congress has a constitutional responsibility and authority to oversee federal spending and the Executive Branch’s execution of the law, including addressing our nation’s unsustainable debt levels and the problems associated with ObamaCare and its implementation.
The President himself has acknowledged some of the failures of ObamaCare by granting waivers to big business, big labor and other special interests, but insists on leaving individual Americans and families exposed to its serious flaws. He has granted these waivers unilaterally even though they are neither authorized by law nor consistent with his enumerated powers in the Constitution.
And now, because of President Obama’s continued refusal to work with Congress, the government remains partially closed.
As the government reaches its second week of shutdown, the House has remained dedicated to reopening our government and has passed several bills to do so, such as:
• Providing benefits to families of fallen heroes – When troops are killed in combat, the Pentagon provides their families with financial assistance, typically within three days, to cover travel expenses to escort their deceased servicemember home from Dover Air Force Base, alleviate funeral costs and provide immediate living expenses. Blaming the shutdown, the Secretary of Defense recently decided not to issue these payments despite Congress passing a law to ensure our troops are paid regardless of a government shutdown. Today, responding to intense public outcry, the White House reversed course and announced it would act immediately to restore benefits.
• Reopening our national parks and monuments – Americans have been rightly outraged to see our own National Park service deny WWII veterans access to the D.C. memorial honoring their service. The Administration has gone out of its way to widen the impact of the shutdown, even spending money to close access to outdoor facilities that have no doors and normally remain open 24/7. The House passed a targeted bill that would end the shutdown for our parks and monuments.
• Making funds available to provide disaster relief to our country and its citizens – Responding to a national disaster fits a commonsense definition of “essential” but apparently not in Washington. To remedy this, the House passed legislation to unshutter disaster relief capabilities immediately.
• Honoring our promise to give veterans the benefits they earned through their service to our country – Just as Americans who earned their Social Security checks are continuing to receive them, Americans who earned veterans benefits should receive them too. The House passed legislation to keep veterans benefits coming until a larger agreement on government funding is reached.
• Granting back pay for federal workers affected by the shutdown – Federal workers aren’t responsible for this budget impasse and shouldn’t be penalized for this shutdown. The House passed legislation that promises federal workers will receive their full paychecks once the budget is resolved.
• Unfortunately, the Senate refuses to take up these crucial bills and President Obama has threatened to veto all House-passed bills, except the bill granting back pay to federal workers. This is wrong. The President shouldn’t hold non-controversial spending items hostage over areas where there is real disagreement.
President Obama’s repeated refusals to negotiate on funding our government is hurting our economy, inflicting unnecessary hardships on Americans and putting our country at serious risk of long-term economic damage.
Soon, our nation will reach the maximum amount of debt allowed under law (or the ‘debt ceiling’) for the fifth time since President Obama has taken office. In just five years, our national debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to $16.9 trillion.
My hope is President Obama will engage Members of Congress in the dialogue to address the drivers of our deficit and debt to achieve meaningful long-term solutions. The House of Representatives has – and will – remain committed to passing bipartisan bills to reopen the government, protect the American people from an unworkable healthcare law, and set our nation on a path of fiscal certainty.
Just yesterday, the House proposed establishing a bipartisan working group made up of House and Senate Republicans and Democrats to immediately begin talks to find a path forward.
The American people expect their leaders to sit down and negotiate. We are ready to work to end this funding impasse – we encourage the President and Senate to actively engage in discussions so we can find a common-sense path forward to maintain operations of the federal government.
Now if someone who never knew a single thing about what goes on in American politics would have stumbled about Issa's statement, then it's quite possible that with Issa referencing how President Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill worked together and how Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton worked together, this low-information voter might be convinced that what Issa is saying
makes sense right?
Just one problem: Congressman Issa never served in the House of Representatives during Reagan's presidency nor Clinton's presidency. He first ran for Congress in 2000 and from there on ever since Issa's time representing California's 49th Congressional District, Congress has become progressively partisan. And for whatever Issa may be arguing as far as President Obama working together with House Speaker John Boehner, Issa certainly isn't showing such an ability to do so himself.
Look at none other than the IRS investigation:
And how Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY) points out how the IRS investigation has happened:
Then of course in terms of the House GOP budget strategy which basically amounts to defund Obamacare/delay Obamacare for a year or government shutdown, as a number of you have already seen, this doesn't sound like Issa and others are working with President Obama.
Which is why one just can't understand this Issa man when he gets worked up to the point where he snaps at a reporter courtesy of CBS:
And Issa sure can't get much far with snapping at CNN and saying "oh, it's all President Obama's fault."
The point is, low information voters will listen to Darrell Issa but those of us who have lived in California haven't forgotten Issa was just this partisan when he bankrolled the stupid 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall Election only to wimp out and drop out when Arnold Schwarzenegger came in the race.
It might be said that blaming not Schwarzenegger, but Issa for the continued budget problems after Gov. Gray Davis left could be a reasonable argument since his recall election allowed Ah-Nold to run.
However, since then, thanks to the CA Republican Party and GOP in the Golden State being as popular as dog doo-doo, Issa's CA-49 Congressional District is now more situated in San Diego County than before and given SD County voter registration numbers show a competitive voter registration fight over Democrats vs. Republicans, now may be a time to start doing voter registration drives in CA-49 to turn the district into purple, whether by 2014, 2016 or 2018.
Here's the voter registration as of February 2013 by the actual CA-49 Congressional District, which combines parts of San Diego and Orange County. Note the number of Decline-to-State/Independents:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/...
Orange County:
Democrats: 22,239
Republicans: 44,833
Decline-to-State/Independent: 19,077
San Diego County:
Democrats: 84,282
Republicans: 107,221
Decline-to-State/Independent: 70,938
Total:
Democrats: 106,521
Republicans: 152,054
Decline-to-State/Independent: 90,015
Now if you live in or near CA-49 and want a reason to start voter registration drives or take part in them, note that San Diego County Democratic Party has a calendar that keeps track of all activity going on, whether local Democratic club meetings or voter registration drive events:
http://www.sddemocrats.org/...
Darrell Issa has a Democratic challenger in 2014, at least one so far. His name is Dave Peiser and here is his contact information:
Dave Peiser for Congress: http://peiserforcongress.com/
Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/...
Information: info@peiserforcongress.com
Phone: (760) 405-1257
The website still needs more updating and we still need to know where Peiser stands so if you desire to have another candidate, start contacting the CA State Democratic Party and the San Diego County Democratic Party to see about getting additional candidates to run in the primary against Darrell Issa.
California Democratic Party
Website: http://www.cadem.org/
Address: 1401 21st Street, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 442-5707
Fax: (916) 442-5715
San Diego County Democratic Party Website: http://www.sddemocrats.org/
Address: 8340 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Suite 10 San Diego, CA 92111
Phone: (858) 277-3367
Fax: (858) 571-0275
E-mail: info@sddemocrats.org
Contact Form: http://www.sddemocrats.org/...
Might as well harass the DCCC:
DCCC
Website: http://www.dccc.org/
Address: 430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
Phone: (202) 863-1500
Contact Form: http://www.dccc.org/...