9.23.2011

After-midnight madness

Why in hell am I doing this? The political blogging experience is a two-edged sword. You find yourself either preaching to the choir or leading horses to water they stubbornly refuse to drink. Either result is ineffectual.

Well, somebody’s gotta do it. Am I naïve enough to think I can change the world? No. But, if I can inform just one person who might otherwise miss something as important as this post, I’m willing to do what it takes.

There was a vote in the U.S. House Wednesday that got almost unheard of bipartisan support. The 195 to 230 vote killed a measure which would have robbed a successful job-producing program in order to fund disaster aid for Americans.

The jobs program has created 40,000 new jobs in 11 states, has the potential of creating 50,000 to 60,000 more and will save Americans millions of gallons of gasoline.

The Democrats voted against the measure for obvious reasons. Robbing Peter to pay Paul should not rob Americans of much-needed jobs or disaster aid.

The Republicans voted against the measure  because the $1.5 billion was not ENOUGH to steal from the jobs program.

So, after freely funding rebuilding programs in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans are holding back on disaster relief for Americans.

My God, I thought, people need to know these facts. So, why do they prefer to ignore them? I'm betting many Americans, including those who need jobs and those who need or will need disaster aid, are paying little attention to what goes on in the U.S. House.

Some who have read this far will think I’m feeding them a load of Democratic BS. I honestly wish I were.

Read the backstory HERE.

In a spate of after-midnight madness, House Republicans did it – passed a measure by a vote of 219 to 203 to keep the government running a little longer by cutting disaster aid to Americans.

Now, they are ready for a week-long break. But, Mr. Reid says not so fast, the Senate is prepared to forfeit a break to fight this measure.  Read this breaking story HERE.

There might come a day when those who represent us in Washington fight for Americans instead of having to fight each other. My money's on the Democrats.

3 comments:

B.J. said...

From the breaking news story:

"The move was intended to persuade the 48 Republicans who voted against the GOP measure Wednesday night to change their minds, according to the GOP aide. In the end, 23 Republicans, who initially opposed the bill, flipped to support it, giving it enough votes to pass."

Nance said...

Nobody does it better, BJ.

I know what you mean about wondering if your efforts are futile, but the option is to sit it out and stew in bitterness. Go on doing what you can. Do EVERYTHING you can. It helps when we try to sleep at night.

Tiny cheering for the true journalist said...

BJ, sometimes the choir needs a refrain! Plus, those who haven't listened before need to sit up and take notice of what they are doing to themselves when they stew in prejudice, hate, racism etc. So keep pouring it on. You do such a great job of telling it like it is and that's what people need to hear. Not the distortions that get echoed over and over via the airwaves, like the speech given to the Blacl Caucus is being done. So sock it to 'em!