A Dem controls the White House. The GOP controls the House. With the filibuster and blue dogs, the Senate is evenly split. We have a 9.1% unemployment rate, the economy is in the shitter, and yet nothing is getting done. A jobs bill? Nope. Stimulus? Nope. Getting out of Afghanistan? Nope. Extending unemployment benefits? Nope. Raising the minimum wage? Nope. Addressing the climate crisis? Nope. Cutting military spending? Nope. Passing a freaking budget? Nope.
Absolutely nothing is getting done. No one can agree with anyone on anything....except this....
Three new free trade deals, with South Korea, Panama, and that worker friendly paradise known as Colombia, all passed with healthy bi-partisan majorities in both chambers. The free trade deal with Colombia, where in great Latin American Junta tradition, people are regularly "disappeared" if they raise any fuss, passed 66 to 33 in the Senate, and 262 to 167 in the House. The free trade deals with Panama and South Korea passed with even stronger majorities.
Isn't it nice to know that in post-industrial America, where 53,000 factories have been closed, and China's economy looks like it will soon overtake the US as the biggest economy in the world, with 9.1% unemployment, and an economy that continues to falter due to job growth only happening in the "do you want fries with that?" sector, that we can count on both parties to put partisan bickering aside to fuck this country over and make the problem worse in order to toe the line of their corporate bribers.
And some people still wonder why Wall Street is being occupied for a 28th straight day.
differing solutions to our problems. And, they believe them very, very strongly! Plus, they see no upside to voting differently if they want to be re-elected. So, if they are truly representing their constituency they are doing their job. So, the problem is us, the constituency of each congressman and president. Us as individuals! Oops! But, corporations and unions are now considered individuals. And, they have more money, thus more power than the rest of us. Let's see who really represents the voting individual. Is it Romney or Obama. Compare Romney's number of small contributors to Obama's. Or, is it Republicans or Democrats. Of course we'll problem never know now with the SuperPacs.
Do you want to prioritize them? Re Free Trade bills, they've been sitting on Obama's desk since his inauguration. Why did he forward them to Congress for approval NOW? And coincidentally he has a State Dinner for South Korea. I guess he was pretty confident that the REPUBLICANS would pass it.
Re the jobs bill, have you even read the bill? Here is one component of the bill that is absolutely stupid. Obama wants to protect the unemployed from discrimination in the workplace. That's a noble goal, but his bill would have the opposite effect by making it illegal to use a candidate’s employment status as a qualification for work.
So I'm about ready to hire some folks. What do you think I'm going to do? I've got this discrimination suit potentially staring me in the face for failing to hire an unemployed applicant. Guess what? I wouldn't even grant the candidate an interview. I'm going to throw their resumes in the trash. The only beneficiaries of this provision are lawyers who get to sue.
Do you want more willy? It's another Stimulus bill. We already spent $800B and got nothing, and now the libs want to spend another $450B. If the first stimulus had been successful, Obama wouldn’t be hawking version 2.0, with many of the same short-term incentives. You know what the definition of insanity is willy? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Maybe one or two elements will be passed, but that's it. It's a stupid bill.
"You know what the definition of insanity is willy? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."
I can't wait for you to concede that cutting taxes on rich people tanks the economy, and tax schemes to repatriate corporate money will cost even more jobs. 