Soo...The bill to grant health care to first responders in 9/11 was shot down.

[Wolfy]

Well, not shot down...Democrats did have the Majority (255 to 194, I think..according to the Daily Show, anyway), but rather than..ya know..simply going with that, no, no no no, they used a method that required 2/3rds majority, because they didn't want republicans putting up amendments that would make them look bad come election year. (From my understanding, anyway)

And, from my understanding, most Republicans were against it anyway.

....is it just me, or is our government..useless? O-o I mean..honestly...doing some asinine bull-crap just so that you won't 'look bad' come election time is just..stupid. o-o

One of the Amendments the Republicans wanted to add was that no healthcare would go to Illegal immigrants involved in the incident...which, as the Daily Show put it, boils down to : "Oh, you helped out our country in our greatest time of need, and are suffering detrimental effects because of your heroism, but you don't have a green card? F U!"..o-o

I mean, I can understand if it was so that people couldn't, you know, claim they were there or something..but geez. o-o



Just my opinion, anyway..from what I understand of the whole matter.

Thoughts, Elliquiy? o3o

[HockeyGod]

Is your question about the bill or about government being useless or about illegal/undocumented workers?

The bill? Shame on them.

As for government being useless? Absolutely not and it isn't really a question that can be answered easily in this thread.

Illegal/undocumented workers? Grant them citizenship and labor rights.

[Wolfy]

Well, it's more about the fact that Democrats decided to do something stupid to avoid 'looking bad' in the future, and the Republicans were being dicks with their amendments..basically. o3o

*sigh* I wish we could all just work together rather than working towards our own selfish goals..o-o

[cassia]

Playing the Devil's advocate here - the Democrats have to think long-term. Obama's approval ratings have slipped, and the American people aren't as enamored with the way things are going as two years ago. If they lose too many seats in the November elections, they lose a lot of power, and making other changes will be much harder. The two parties have very different methods in mind for controlling economic and social problems. If they push too hard on one small issue and lose even more favor, it could come back to bite them in the bottom in a few months, reducing their ability to implement bigger changes.

[HockeyGod]

The GOP is quickly becoming painted as the party of "No" and anti-immigration - those are 2 things that will factor in any elections this fall.

[itsbeenfun2000]

Quickly becoming the party of No? It has been two years.

As far as not passing the bill shame on them. These people risked their lives and now they are denied help because of a political football. Part of the problem is not the government but the people doing the governing. It is more important to get reelected by professional politicians then it is to do the right thing.

When a friend asked me about the GOP I borrowed a quote "I didn't leave the republican party it left me" Hopefully they will come to their senses and start moving forward.

[Callie Del Noire]

Didn't the democrats pretty much say after the last election that they didn't want want to work with the GOP. I'm sure being told they didn't matter by Pelosi after the last election pissed them off.

Face it both parties are run by total tools and hypocrites   

[Jude]

Didn't the democrats pretty much say after the last election that they didn't want want to work with the GOP. I'm sure being told they didn't matter by Pelosi after the last election pissed them off.

I don't ever recall them saying that, in fact they've repeatedly said the opposite even though that's more media posturing and grandstanding than a true desire to do so (in my opinion).

Bipartisanship is a buzzword:  politicians known that the American public salivates whenever that term is employed, so they want desperately to appear to want it as well when all any politician really wants is to get their policies enacted (that's the whole point of being an elected official to begin with), which really has very little to do with bipartisanship (if anything that's a hurdle to their agenda).

The lesson that the Pelosi/Reid congress has failed to learn, in my opinion, is that trying to negotiate with people that are more interested in scoring political points so that they can marginalize your power base is a wasted effort.  The Democrats have focused far too much on trying to get things done no matter what the cost (in principles and political capital), and not enough on standing up for what they fundamentally believe in.

Example:  In the stimulus they tried to invoke Keynesian Economic Policy, which I think works (which is evident by looking at history) if evoked in earnest and carefully executed.  Instead of doing this like a third of the bill ended up as tax cuts; tax cuts are not part of the Keynesian Economic Stimulus playbook.  They were shown to be vastly less effective by the calculations of economists at the time, and the Dems still wasted a third of the resources on that.

The Democrats simply do not have the balls to argue their case forcefully enough to actually seem like real politicians.  They do things then spend a long time explaining why in a very weak way, take the Bank Bailout for example.  None of them will say, "yes the American people don't like it but the facts show that it saved our economy, and I'd do it again if need be."  Americans admire that kind of confidence not the whole, "well, we didn't really want to do it... but we felt we had to" rhetoric.

The Democrats are completely spineless and don't seem to understand that victories won in the Senate do not happen only during voting time.  If they'd pushed the issue and made the Republicans stand up and filibuster all of the times they threatened to, we would not be here today, the media would've had a grand old time showing them time and time again blocking the power of the elected majority and it would've meant major blowback.

When it comes down to it, it's pointless to try and please everyone.  Republicans are going to hate Democratic policies basically no matter what the Democrats do:  they're largely convinced that FDR was failure, how exactly would any current President actually impress them other than by doing exactly what they want done?  The Democrats need to worry about their base and independents, and independents just want to see the Dems actually making an effort to get things done with measure and poise; something that congress seems to be lacking entirely.

[RubySlippers]

Wait - I recall the State and City of New York set-up a fund for health care for these people right after 9/11, so why do they now need a Federal option to do whats already been put into place? If its a matter of red tape that could be dealth with at the state level or more money the same way.