Congress Finally Does Some Good
November 19, 2007 by Mike Rushmore
The Democrats realized something recently. They control the congress. Sure, it took them about a year to realize, but they’ve realized it. They have control, and they are finally starting to make that clear to the president.
Perhaps the most gutsy move by congress has been to threaten withholding war spending. The house passed a bill on the 14th of November to fund the war in Iraq, but it included a provision that combat should end by December 2008. This bill did not pass in the senate, but that isn’t the end of the world. The democrats have claimed that they are not going to fund the war without withdrawal plan, and if they don’t let anything pass, the Pentagon will run out of money to fund the war part way though next year. Bush will be forced to accept a funding bill that includes a withdrawal plan.
Another example of the democrats actually taking charge in congress is their first override of a presidential veto. Earlier this month, congress overrode Bush’s veto of a bill dealing with water resources. Although it wasn’t the most important bill, it was still an override of the president’s veto, and that’s something.
The most recent move by congress to attempt to create some sort of accountability is Senator Reid’s plan to keep the senate in session throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. The senator hopes to avoid any sneaky recess appointments that Bush might try to make while the senate is not in session. This is a very smart move that should help to show Bush who is in charge now.
If the democrats in congress can keep this up, especially the move to delay funding of the Iraq war, they may just be able to earn the respect of the public, do some good for the country, and make Bush realize that he isn’t supreme ruler of our nation.
Congress has done nothing. I am thoroughly disgusted with the whole lot of them. They have pledged to not pass funding without a timeline for withdrawal before, and they crumpled, they let a funding bill pass. They have passed timelines before, only to stop trying after the president vetoed it. Just you watch, nothing will be done, nothing will happen, and I certainly wouldn’t count on any of the things that you described actually happening. If the Democrats were serious about getting out of Iraq, they would either use the power of the purse or hold a cloture vote every single day to override the President’s veto, neither of which they are doing. And the fact that they overrode his veto on a bill that was not controversial in the slightest is not a large accomplishment. It seems to me that Congress has not finally done some good; rather, they are threatening to. Only threatening to do so, because we all know how awful doing some good and making some progress is. And Bush is the Supreme ruler of this nation, because the Congress consistently bends to his will, the most recent notable example being the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment (which would give Bush a reason to go to war with Iran, by declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group), which passed overwhelmingly in the Democratic Congress. The measure of their resistance is dwarfed by their measure of compliance.
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Congress is definitely moving the right direction. I don’t think anyone gave Democrats enough credit for passing the College Cost Reduction Act, which is literally the single greatest piece of legislation impacting young American’s in more than a decade. It will save young American’s millions of dollars and make our incredibly overpriced higher education system somewhat more bearable. Thank you Democrats!
Now just imagine what Dems could do with a filibuster proof majority in the Senate…
I’m talking universal health care, ending the war in Iraq, huge investments in clean and alternative energy, restoring habeas corpus and the other parts of the constitution which this administration so haphazardly shredded, rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and so much more.
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