What Do You Expect From a GOP Majority?
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
August 25, 2010 4:24pm CST
With all the talk and predictions about the "bloodbath" coming for the Democrats in November I've been really curious as to what those of you who are hoping for this would like to have happen once the GOP actually takes control of one or both Houses of Congress. I mean, do you think the economy will miraculously and suddenly improve? Will the unemployment rate fall immediately? Will everyone instantly be happy again?
Well, here are a few clues as to what some GOP House members think or hope will happen. Jom Jordan of Ohio doesn't think much of anything will happen other than getting ready to defeat the President in 2012.
Read and listen here:
JORDAN: If we win, what will we get done? Mostly, I’ll be honest, most of what we can get done is have the big fight, have the big debate, and have the framework for the 2012 election.
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r3DqEYSyQA
Michele Bachmann of Minnesota wants investigations instead of legislation:
QUESTION: I might be putting the cart before the horse here, but assuming the Republicans win the House back this next cycle, how do you feel about the chances for a little oversight and a little accountability now that the Republicans would have the subpoena power? How aggressive do you think?
BACHMANN: Well I think that’s all we should do. I think all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that has gone on. And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership, because the American people’s patience is about this big. [...]
And this is the year, this is it. All of our chips are on November. If we don’t get it back and then starve the beast, the House – we have the power of the purse – so we can starve Obamacare, we don’t have to fund any of these programs. And that’s exactly what we need to do: defund all of this nonsense and then unwind it.
: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/23/bachmann-issue-subpoenas/
Finally, Peter King of New York doesn't think we should be told too much of what their agenda is because it could become a "campaign issue"...
BENNETT: Is it enough for Republicans to say we are opposed to what [Obama's] doing — stimulus, health care, we don’t like what he’s doing with the government, and look at the job situation — or do we need to have meat on the bones? And say, this is what we are for? Do we have to have positive proposals? [...]
KING: So, It’s a combination of being against what Obama is for, and also giving certain specifics of what we are for. Having said that, I don’t think we have to lay out a complete agenda, from top to bottom, because then we would have the national mainstream media jumping on every point trying to make that a campaign issue.
: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/16/king-no-agenda-please/
To repeat my title question, what do youy expect from a GOP majority in the House and/or Senate after the November elections? Is the above what you're hoping for or do you have higher expectations?
Annie
1 person likes this
7 responses
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
27 Aug 10
I honestly don't see any big shake up coming in November. Maybe the tea party folks will grab a couple seats but it will be balanced out by the likes of Charlie Crist getting Independent seats and caucusing with the Dems. Basically, I just see more gridlock ahead which is unfortunate and I'd almost rather see a real line in the sand.
Another possiblity that I do not discount would be that the Democrats actually picked up a couple of seats. Now that would be a real chance for Obama to move things along and get stuff done. I'd like to see that happen and in spite of the current predictions, I think it is a very real possibility.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
30 Aug 10
Irisheyes, I predict if the tea party folks DO win any seats their careers will be short-lived once the people see what extremists they are. What it will amount to is more precious time wasted instead of anything constructive being done.
Taskr, they may have had a "filibuster proof supermajority" on paper but, unlike your buddies the Democrats don't all vote in lockstep with one another.
Annie
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
29 Aug 10
Why would the dems need to pick up seats? They had a filibuster proof supermajority and did NOTHING that helped the economy or the people of this country. All they did was reward those who gave to their campaigns with stupid earmarks. They've had the majority in the house and senate for 4 years now. Why haven't they been moving things along for the past 4 years?
Look at the polls. There is almost no chance whatsoever of them picking up more seats than they have now. There's a fair chance they'll keep the majority, but it will be a much smaller majority than they have now and they only have themselves to blame for it.
@TheMetallion (1834)
• United States
26 Aug 10
I'd expect the same things from the cheap labor Republicants that we've ever gotten: tax breaks for the rich, ever higher deficits, dismantling of the social safety net, exporting jobs off-shore, and driving the economy into the ground any way the can in order to make people so desperate that they'll be cheap labor.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
26 Aug 10
I think you may be right. The scary thing is that as things get worse instead of better they'll find some way to convince the voters it's President Obama's and the Democrats' fault so they can regain the White House in 2012.
Then, God help us!
Annie
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
25 Aug 10
Thank you for those completely unbiased blogs as sources. Clearly none of them have records of snipping or splicing audio and video to mislead their audience. Since you couldn't provide any sources with so much as a hint of honesty in their reporting, I'm not going to address the statements you're referring to.
What do I expect? If all we get are more establishment politicians then I fully expect a slew of broken promises, legislation written to reward those who contribute to political campaigns, grandstanding from both sides saying the other side is evil, and a whole slew of filibusters from the left and vetoes from Obama to make sure that even if they do push decent legislation, none of it will get anywhere.
The problem is that the majority, regardless of party, will still be long time congressmen and senators who will maintain their stranglehold to prevent any change from the freshman in both houses.
With any luck there will be some investigations into why the Obama administration supports racist voter intimidation. I'm not saying anyone will get into any trouble, but at least people who don't watch Fox News might actually hear about it since the rest of the media has done their best to bury the story.
I'd like to say they might cut spending, but frankly, I don't believe it. There are always too many people that are too concerned with getting reelected to make the tough decisions and choose what to cut and what to keep. Everytime they try to cut something, be it welfare, food stamps, etc. They will be called evil by the Democrats and the many cowards will give up rather than risk being demonized by the press. If we had term limits at least we could count on them to do something without fear during their last term, but term limits seem like a pipe dream.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
26 Aug 10
Maybe you could tell me where I can find these "completely unbiased" sources. I'm serious, we could all spend all our time here doing nothing but arguing about each other's sources. However, if anyone dares to post something from memory, someone "demands" a link to prove it. Therefore I know my telling you I HEARD all of these people with my own ears saying what they said won't mean a thing...oh, well...
Anyway, you're probably right about nothing constructive getting done. I agree it's time for both parties to stop these stupid, childish games they've been playing in recent years. The filibuster has been terribly abused the last two years and I'd like to see it done away with no matter which party does so.
I don't want to get too far off-track by having a long discussion about the "voter intimidation" issue, but if you're referring to the case in Philadelphia I really don't see how they could have done much intimidation since it was an overwhelmingly predominantly black district. The Bush Justice Department originally chose not to prosecute those men criminally but somehow that's gotten lost. By the way, I'm not defending those "New Black Panther" thugs, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't "voter intimidation" since there was nobody there to intimidate!
Annie
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
27 Aug 10
"The filibuster has been terribly abused the last two years and I'd like to see it done away with no matter which party does so."
It was abused by democrats too Annie or have you forgotten the way they used it to block judicial nominees not because there was anything wrong with the nominees, but just to show Bush what they could do.
Annie, do you realize how freaking scary it is for you to say their behavior wasn't voter intimidation because white people were a minority in that area? Have you seen the video? Would you really say the same thing if this was the KKK in a predominately white part of Alabama?
Oh who cares if the KKK were there with weapons? White people outnumber black folks there so it's ok to threaten them.
I just can't wrap my head around how you can possibly say it's ok to threaten a minority with weapons BECAUSE THEY ARE A MINORITY.
You can keep repeating the garbage you heard from Olbermann, but it's a simple fact that the Obama administration dropped the charges in May of 2009 AFTER winning the case against the black panthers.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/29/charges-new-black-panthers-dropped-obama-justice-dept/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-20010581-504564.html
Do you really think there was nobody there to intimidate? Did Olbermann tell you that lie? If you'd watched ANY of the videos you'd know full well that there were white people there including the guy with the cell phone who told them it was intimidating to carry a weapon and stand in front of the door. There was also the guy interviewed who talked about being threatened by them.
Oh and here's a video for your viewing pleasure showing how wholesome that guy with the nightstick is as he talks about killing white babies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2DjQUgVF8
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
30 Aug 10
What do i expect? The same thing we got from a democratic majority. I expect more government, bigger government, more powerful government, more liberty robbing law, more special interest catering,....in short, I expect a right wing statist congress that acts pretty much the same as the currant left wing statist congress is.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
26 Aug 10
Well I am playing catch up on all the primaries over the weekend. But honestly...if they do take over one or both of the houses in November I don't see a lot changing except more fighting and grid lock. Unless somehow the rest of congress takes it as a wakeup call that so many of the "old guard" are getting voted out that they rethink how they play the game and honestly start compromising and working together. That is what it is going to take to fix things.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
26 Aug 10
I'm not so sure so many of the "old guard" are going to get voted out, Lil. For all the talk of there being an "anti-incumbent" mood so far only about 7 or 8 incumbents have lost their primaries while well over 300 have won. It would sure be nice if the two parties would actually work together for the good of the country but I sure don't see that happening anytime soon.
One thing I do know and that's that I sure wouldn't vote for anyone whose main goal is to win the next election!
Annie
@artistry (4151)
• United States
30 Aug 10
...Hi there annie, hope that you are doing well. I really think that the GOP wants to have a majoruty in the house to do nothing and hog tie Obama for his last rwo years so that they might have someone, anyone who is Republican in the Oval Office. They don't want to get anthing done that would be to Obama's benefit he would be credited. They certainly don't care about the American people that's been show time and again. Just listen to Bachman, is that someone who cares if a person gets health care, let's defund, just let the people die, they don't need health care, cold hearted ingrates. Soooo what to do? Get the majority in 2010, stall and push for more control in 2012 with Mitt or God
forbid Palin or Pawlenty or whatever darkhorse they can find, maybe Scott Brown if he can win again in Massachusetts. It's going to be interesting, because whether they win a majority of seats or not, if people don't start spending their money and the banks don't let loose of their money in loans, we are going to double dip back into recessionary times hard. Take it easy.
@bhanuprakash95 (2)
• India
26 Aug 10
i don't expect from your gop majority n i dont understand ur about ur project my dear freind
