United States Senate

[AmazonGrace]

It is no longer a hoax now?

 

Wondering what her followers and voters think of this. Do they even notice the contradiction?

[Alisamer]

2 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Wondering what her followers and voters think of this. Do they even notice the contradiction?

I feel like the majority of those people have become so good at mental gymnastics and self-deception that it's amazing they are able to function at all. 

Have they signed the thing for the new stimulus package,  yet? I'd like to use my huge $600 check to get the furnace fixed so I can have heat in my house.  

[AmazonGrace]

10 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

 

Have they signed the thing for the new stimulus package,  yet?

If it's part of this, it seems not yet?
The American way of legislating is so weird.

Conflating a million issues and then voting on them blind seems like stupid governing.

[Alisamer]

6 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

If it's part of this, it seems not yet?
The American way of legislating is so weird.

Conflating a million issues and then voting on them blind seems like stupid governing.

It is really wierd. They are supposed to vote on that today, though I have no idea how they expect anyone to have read through it and understood it in time to do so.

Also, I have no idea why they've puttered around for months and months trying to cram semi-unrelated stuff all through in one bill. The previous help for actual everyday people ran out months and months ago. The majority of the people in congress are so incredibly clueless about how real life works that they seem to think it's no problem at all for millions of people to have their incomes cut by half or more (or totally) with no help for half a year. Knowing full well that they couldn't possibly live on $350 a week, much less support a family on that. 

I put away as much as I could when we were getting the extra $600 per week in unemployment, and I'm glad I did because I've run through all of it since that ran out. I did take a chance and sign up for health insurance for next year (I had none this year) - there was a crappy plan that after the subsidy cost me only $104 a month. It's going to be tough to come up with that extra payment if business stays as slow as it has, but I figured with a pandemic still on it was safer to get it than not. It doesn't pay for much until I've hit the massive deductible, but healthcare prices are so crazy in the US that I'll reach that in no time if something major happens to me. 

[AmazonGrace]

Well I'm sure you will be happy to know that the Covid relief bill contains 2 billion for the Space Force.

 

[Cartmann99]

Loeffler wants you to crack open those wallets for her.

 

[Audrey2]

4 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Loeffler wants you to crack open those wallets for her.

 

Kelly, you are no Dr Seuss. Leave the Grinch alone! we already know that your heart will not grow three sizes if you are elected. Trump's didn't. In fact, it shrunk.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Audrey2

[Cartmann99]

Bless her heart...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Perdue is trying to out-corrupt Loeffler:

 

[fraurosena]

23 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

we already know that your heart will not grow three sizes if you are elected. Trump's didn't. In fact, it shrunk.

Help me out here. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. How can something that doesn't exist shrink in size? 

[GreyhoundFan]

Please, citizens of Georgia, vote this piece of crap out of office.

[Cartmann99]

[church_of_dog]

sorry, changed my mind.

 

Wish stupid people weren't stupid.  That is all.

Edited December 25, 2020 by church_of_dog

[Cartmann99]

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Eva Braun is trying to stay in the senate:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm not a violent person, but I wouldn't mind seeing someone smash a rancid pie in Marco's face.

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Sad, but true: "'You think Congress is frustrating now? Just wait"

Quote

Americans are not happy with Congress. In fact, the latest Gallup poll shows approval of Congress at a mere 15 percent — higher than the all-time low of 9 percent registered after congressional Republicans shut down the government in 2013, but lower than the recent high of 31 percent after the Cares Act was passed earlier this year.

None of this is surprising. Even if many Americans have a baseline presumption that Congress is worthy of nothing but contempt, when it gets things done the public is happier, and when it fails they grow disgusted. Watching the agonizing conflict over another round of pandemic relief, they naturally concluded that Congress is doing a terrible job.

So if you can’t stand Machiavellian maneuvering, meaningless grandstanding and a general lack of results, the next few years might drive you nuts. Assuming that Republicans win one or both of the runoff elections in Georgia and thereby keep control of the Senate, the fight over the latest pandemic relief package will soon seem like a model of efficient bipartisan legislating.

Congress will, however, be a busy place, even if there’s not much to show for all the activity. While people like me have predicted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will allow no bills of any real consequence to pass when Joe Biden is president, the reality will be somewhat more complicated. In the end, no major bills will pass — unless they somehow achieve a goal Republicans are eager for — but along the way, there will be lots of bills offered, debated, wrangled over and then ultimately crushed beneath McConnell’s boot.

The reality of Republican control won’t keep Biden from offering up all the agenda items he ran on as legislation; he’ll have to do it if for no other reason than to show he’s trying to follow through on his promises. So the bills will get a full consideration in the House: Ideas such as a public health insurance option or comprehensive immigration reform will be subjected to lengthy hearings and floor debates, turned into bill text and eventually voted on.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, McConnell will labor to drag things out as much as possible. Following a play he ran to great effect when Barack Obama was president, he’ll likely say that Republicans are willing to work with the administration and Democrats on these bills, teasing that there might be some theoretical alteration to each one that would win their support.

Months will go by, with Democrats saying, “How about if we drop this provision or change that one?” and Republicans replying, “Hmm … no, but keep trying.” There will be cajoling and arguing and complaining and angry outbursts and everything else that makes Congress look like a place that generates heat but no light. Eventually the bills will all die.

In response, the public will grow disgusted with Congress — which is just fine with McConnell. In fact, it will show his strategy is working. As a general matter, voters usually like and reelect their own representatives even if they hate Congress as a whole (this is known as Fenno’s Paradox, after the late political scientist Richard Fenno), so gridlock itself doesn’t do much to endanger his caucus. It will, however, hurt Biden.

Voters will attribute the lack of results to “Washington” and not to Republicans specifically, regardless of the fact that it’s their fault. The blame will then fall on Biden and his party. The worse McConnell can make things, the greater the chances Republicans will win a sweeping victory in the 2022 midterm elections.

But don’t think that if Democrats win both those Senate seats and take full control, then Congress will turn into a smoothly operating legislative assembly line. If that happens, there will still be the filibuster to deal with, allowing Republicans to stifle any bill except those passed under once-yearly reconciliation, which is not subject to the filibuster.

While Democrats could change Senate rules to get rid of it, with just 50 votes they wouldn’t be able to do it if even a single member of their caucus objected. And Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the most conservative Democratic senator, has been emphatic in saying that he will never allow the filibuster to be eliminated. Manchin labors under the bizarre delusion that the filibuster promotes moderate compromise and were it not in place, the Senate could become too partisan.

That he thinks this despite not having literally been in a coma for the past 30 years is an enduring mystery. But in any case, even on those 50-vote reconciliation bills, Manchin will hold the balance of power — and don’t forget that he has built his career on being the Democrat who tells Democrats they’re a bunch of crazy liberals whose national ambitions should be limited by the opinions of the conservative Whites who populate his home state (where Trump beat Biden by 39 points).

So even in a Democratic Senate, every legislative battle will involve a great deal of begging and pleading with Manchin, in addition to the difficulty of keeping all the other Democrats in line. Meanwhile, we’ll have to deal with Republicans shouting that the bill being debated will deliver us to a socialist dystopia and the conservative media whipping up the latest version of “death panels” to terrify the public.

In other words, no matter which party holds the Senate, there will be plenty of legislative sausage-making repulsive enough to try the patience of even those of the firmest constitutions. The future is difficult to predict precisely, and it’s possible that through some combination of circumstances there will still be worthwhile legislation that emerges. But the journey between here and there will not be a pleasant one.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

Our tax dollars at work.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Poor pup, having to be on the same boat as Cruz.

[GreyhoundFan]

The only service he's done as a senator is for Twitler and MoscowMitch.

 

[hoipolloi]

Heads up on the piece of rotting human slime, GOP Senator Josh Hawley from MO. 

He's playing the long game con and, unfortunately, is smarter than your average GOP fuckwad. 

This MO native has some good insights on Joshy who, I must say, reminds me a LOT of Doug Phillips. 

 

[Xan]

23 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Heads up on the piece of rotting human slime, GOP Senator Josh Hawley from MO. 

He's playing the long game con and, unfortunately, is smarter than your average GOP fuckwad. 

This MO native has some good insights on Joshy who, I must say, reminds me a LOT of Doug Phillips. 

Yeah.  Hawley's a piece of work.  Private school.  Stanford.  Yale Law.  And he pretends to be a Missouri farm boy.  He's using Trump's playbook but he's way smarter and more ambitious.  He needs watching.