We are currently living under a tyranny of the minority. The Republican Party, which was sent into the minority in November 2008, has decided that any success by the Obama administration would be politically bad for them. So they have decided that they will obstruct any legislation that can be seen as a victory for the Democrats. With this in mind, the word reconciliation has been tossed around by the Democrats. Simply put, reconciliation is when the majority party pushes through legislation against the gentlemen's agreement of needing 60 votes.
Now we were all taught that it took 51 votes to pass a bill in the Senate. But somehow 51 votes are now not enough. Republicans will tell you that reconciliation must not be used. That it would send a bad message to the public who, they claim, want bi-partisanship. Never mind the critics of reconciliation are the same people who didn't have a problem using it during the Bush years. And the calling for bi-partisanship by Republicans is hypocritical. It's interesting how the word "bi-partisanship" is only uttered by the GOP when they are in the minority. Bi-partisanship was never called for by the Republicans when they pushed through the Bush tax cuts. Something else was never called for, health care reform. With control of the White House and both houses of congress, the Republicans failed to address the need for health care reform. All they did was pass the budget killing Medicare plan D. The D stands for deficit.
Now suddenly, after eight years in power and doing nothing but increase the deficit and ignoring health care reform, the GOP now wants to do something about health care reform. And if you've read the proposals, their ideas amount to nothing more than the typical pro-big business philosophies that got us into the health care and economic messes we are currently in. In November 2008, the American people, in large numbers and regardless of party affiliation, voted against these philosophies. Something the Republicans want you to forget. But wait, it gets better.
Minority Whip Eric Cantor recently called for a bi-partisanship approach to health care reform. What is his idea of bi-partisanship? He wants to scrap the current bill and replace it with a Republican one. And that is a perfect example on why nothing is getting done in Washington. Republicans have an all-or-nothing mentality. They want all their ideas in a bill and all other ideas out. Anything short of that and they will vote no. The Republicans, now out of power, are acting like petulant children and are the party of no.
And here's one for the Tea Party crowd. Last week fiscally conservative Richard Shelby decided he alone would hold up nominations, some of them to fill vacancies in our nation security apparatus, if he doesn't get what he wants. What does he want? He wants the Air Force to reverse a $100 billion contract awarded to Boeing, which they won through a competitive bid process, and award the contract to a foreign company that has facilities in his state of Alabama. He also wants a $45 million project that he earmarked in 2008 to move forward. So the choice is give the Shelby his earmarks or important positions will remain unfilled. So the GOP is now willing to hold the nation hostage so that they can cash in on those earmarks they always campaign against. But don't despair. The GOP will get another opportunity to say yes. A question will be asked. With our current deficit problem, can we allow the fiscally irresponsible Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to continue? And the party of no will rise as one and say yes we can.
