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This blockade of doing what's in the public interest should be a page 1, top-of-the-fold or lead-off story news-at-seven item every time Moscow Mitch kills another Bill, but it's not. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/cc/flickr)
A Trump Impeachment Inquiry Isn't Keeping Congress From 'Getting Things Done'--Mitch McConnell Is.
As long as people keep voting for anti-government candidates they will elect people who are not interested in—or even knowledgeable about—governing. And that means things the people want, won’t get done.
Oct 10, 2019
One of the Republican's talking points about impeaching Trump is that it will keep Congress from "doing the business of governing" or the "people's business."
Like so much else coming out of the Republican cult, this is pure BS. The thing that's keeping us from doing the people's business is Mitch Mc Connell and the Republican Senate.
The fact is, as of July--more than a month before Democrats initiated an impeachment inquiry--the House had passed more than 569 Bills that are stalled in the Republican controlled Senate.
Among these Bills are proposals that enjoy bi-partisan support, and Bills that are popular with the majority of Americans. They include:
- HR 1 - Reforms for campaign finance and voting rights--supported by about 2/3 of Americans;
- HR 6 - Protection for Dreamers--with close to 90 percent of Americans wanting to protect Dreamers, this should be a no-brainer;
- HR 5 - Extend equal rights protections to the LGBTQ community--supported by 53 percent of Americans;
- HR 8 - Require background checks for gun purchases--Again, with 90 percent of Americans favoring this, it certainly qualifies as "the people's business;"
- HR 9 - The Climate Action Now Act--this too enjoys widespread support--in fact, some 60 percent of Americans favor the far more comprehensive Green New Deal;
- HR 987 - Strengthening health care and lowering prescription drug prices. Again, this enjoys widespread support, and as with climate, a majority favor a more comprehensive approach such as Medicare for All;
- HR 582 - Raise the Wage Act--supported by 55 percent of Americans, this Bill would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
If doing the "people's business" means passing the Bills people want passed, then it should be clear that Senate Republicans have been blocking any attempt at doing that since the last election.
It is a sign of the Democrats inability to message, and the press's addiction to "both side-ism" that people don't know the extent to which the Republican Senate has induced legislative paralysis on our system of government. This blockade of doing what's in the public interest should be a page 1, top-of-the-fold or lead-off story news-at-seven item every time Moscow Mitch kills another Bill, but it's not.
In fact, Republicans have been doing this for years, now. A look at the record of filibusters and cloture votes shows Republicans have been the Party of no for decades now.
This shouldn't be surprising. As long as people keep voting for anti-government candidates they will elect people who are not interested in--or even knowledgeable about--governing. And that means things the people want, won't get done. Tea partiers just want to tear down the system, and that's become true of the entire Republican Party.
This means that things that need to get done, won't. It means that power will be relinquished to corporations and the wealthy. It means that government will become as bad as the government hating Republicans tell you it is.
Trump is the logical conclusion of electing anti-government know-nothings to office. His foreign policy is erratic, ad hoc, and dangerous. His economic policy is destructive. His domestic policy is mean, divisive and vindictive.
But as for paralysis? Impeachment has nothing to do with it--the government was at a standstill long before it was officially pursued. It's not rocket science folks--if we continue to swallow the oligarch's claims about "government being the problem" and electing people whose main skill is railing against government, we'll get bad governance.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
John Atcheson
John Atcheson, 1948-2020, was a long-time Common Dreams contributor, climate activist and author of, "A Being Darkly Wise, and a book on our fractured political landscape entitled, "WTF, America? How the US Went Off the Rails and How to Get It Back On Track". John was tragically killed in a California car accident in January 2020.
One of the Republican's talking points about impeaching Trump is that it will keep Congress from "doing the business of governing" or the "people's business."
Like so much else coming out of the Republican cult, this is pure BS. The thing that's keeping us from doing the people's business is Mitch Mc Connell and the Republican Senate.
The fact is, as of July--more than a month before Democrats initiated an impeachment inquiry--the House had passed more than 569 Bills that are stalled in the Republican controlled Senate.
Among these Bills are proposals that enjoy bi-partisan support, and Bills that are popular with the majority of Americans. They include:
- HR 1 - Reforms for campaign finance and voting rights--supported by about 2/3 of Americans;
- HR 6 - Protection for Dreamers--with close to 90 percent of Americans wanting to protect Dreamers, this should be a no-brainer;
- HR 5 - Extend equal rights protections to the LGBTQ community--supported by 53 percent of Americans;
- HR 8 - Require background checks for gun purchases--Again, with 90 percent of Americans favoring this, it certainly qualifies as "the people's business;"
- HR 9 - The Climate Action Now Act--this too enjoys widespread support--in fact, some 60 percent of Americans favor the far more comprehensive Green New Deal;
- HR 987 - Strengthening health care and lowering prescription drug prices. Again, this enjoys widespread support, and as with climate, a majority favor a more comprehensive approach such as Medicare for All;
- HR 582 - Raise the Wage Act--supported by 55 percent of Americans, this Bill would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
If doing the "people's business" means passing the Bills people want passed, then it should be clear that Senate Republicans have been blocking any attempt at doing that since the last election.
It is a sign of the Democrats inability to message, and the press's addiction to "both side-ism" that people don't know the extent to which the Republican Senate has induced legislative paralysis on our system of government. This blockade of doing what's in the public interest should be a page 1, top-of-the-fold or lead-off story news-at-seven item every time Moscow Mitch kills another Bill, but it's not.
In fact, Republicans have been doing this for years, now. A look at the record of filibusters and cloture votes shows Republicans have been the Party of no for decades now.
This shouldn't be surprising. As long as people keep voting for anti-government candidates they will elect people who are not interested in--or even knowledgeable about--governing. And that means things the people want, won't get done. Tea partiers just want to tear down the system, and that's become true of the entire Republican Party.
This means that things that need to get done, won't. It means that power will be relinquished to corporations and the wealthy. It means that government will become as bad as the government hating Republicans tell you it is.
Trump is the logical conclusion of electing anti-government know-nothings to office. His foreign policy is erratic, ad hoc, and dangerous. His economic policy is destructive. His domestic policy is mean, divisive and vindictive.
But as for paralysis? Impeachment has nothing to do with it--the government was at a standstill long before it was officially pursued. It's not rocket science folks--if we continue to swallow the oligarch's claims about "government being the problem" and electing people whose main skill is railing against government, we'll get bad governance.
John Atcheson
John Atcheson, 1948-2020, was a long-time Common Dreams contributor, climate activist and author of, "A Being Darkly Wise, and a book on our fractured political landscape entitled, "WTF, America? How the US Went Off the Rails and How to Get It Back On Track". John was tragically killed in a California car accident in January 2020.
One of the Republican's talking points about impeaching Trump is that it will keep Congress from "doing the business of governing" or the "people's business."
Like so much else coming out of the Republican cult, this is pure BS. The thing that's keeping us from doing the people's business is Mitch Mc Connell and the Republican Senate.
The fact is, as of July--more than a month before Democrats initiated an impeachment inquiry--the House had passed more than 569 Bills that are stalled in the Republican controlled Senate.
Among these Bills are proposals that enjoy bi-partisan support, and Bills that are popular with the majority of Americans. They include:
- HR 1 - Reforms for campaign finance and voting rights--supported by about 2/3 of Americans;
- HR 6 - Protection for Dreamers--with close to 90 percent of Americans wanting to protect Dreamers, this should be a no-brainer;
- HR 5 - Extend equal rights protections to the LGBTQ community--supported by 53 percent of Americans;
- HR 8 - Require background checks for gun purchases--Again, with 90 percent of Americans favoring this, it certainly qualifies as "the people's business;"
- HR 9 - The Climate Action Now Act--this too enjoys widespread support--in fact, some 60 percent of Americans favor the far more comprehensive Green New Deal;
- HR 987 - Strengthening health care and lowering prescription drug prices. Again, this enjoys widespread support, and as with climate, a majority favor a more comprehensive approach such as Medicare for All;
- HR 582 - Raise the Wage Act--supported by 55 percent of Americans, this Bill would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
If doing the "people's business" means passing the Bills people want passed, then it should be clear that Senate Republicans have been blocking any attempt at doing that since the last election.
It is a sign of the Democrats inability to message, and the press's addiction to "both side-ism" that people don't know the extent to which the Republican Senate has induced legislative paralysis on our system of government. This blockade of doing what's in the public interest should be a page 1, top-of-the-fold or lead-off story news-at-seven item every time Moscow Mitch kills another Bill, but it's not.
In fact, Republicans have been doing this for years, now. A look at the record of filibusters and cloture votes shows Republicans have been the Party of no for decades now.
This shouldn't be surprising. As long as people keep voting for anti-government candidates they will elect people who are not interested in--or even knowledgeable about--governing. And that means things the people want, won't get done. Tea partiers just want to tear down the system, and that's become true of the entire Republican Party.
This means that things that need to get done, won't. It means that power will be relinquished to corporations and the wealthy. It means that government will become as bad as the government hating Republicans tell you it is.
Trump is the logical conclusion of electing anti-government know-nothings to office. His foreign policy is erratic, ad hoc, and dangerous. His economic policy is destructive. His domestic policy is mean, divisive and vindictive.
But as for paralysis? Impeachment has nothing to do with it--the government was at a standstill long before it was officially pursued. It's not rocket science folks--if we continue to swallow the oligarch's claims about "government being the problem" and electing people whose main skill is railing against government, we'll get bad governance.
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