{"id":2154,"date":"2004-07-19T13:05:19","date_gmt":"2004-07-19T18:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2154.html"},"modified":"2004-07-19T13:05:19","modified_gmt":"2004-07-19T18:05:19","slug":"bush-complaints-about-congress-ring-hollow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-complaints-about-congress-ring-hollow\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush complaints about Congress ring hollow"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1996, as Bill Clinton was hitting the campaign trail to seek re-election, Congress passed a massive welfare reform law and a minimum wage increase, both of which Clinton signed into law. The president was able to remind voters that even with a Republican Congress, led by a rabid partisan like Newt Gingrich, he could make the process of government work effectively in Washington.<\/p>\n

Fast forward eight years. Can you name one major achievement for the White House this year? Neither can anyone else<\/a> — and Bush is having trouble coming up with an effective excuse.<\/p>\n

After three years of getting most of the major legislation he wanted through a cooperative Congress, President Bush is coming up almost empty-handed this year as he heads into the homestretch of his reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

Capitol Hill has turned into a sinkhole for the unfinished business on Bush’s agenda, which includes bills to spur domestic energy production, crack down on lawsuits, extend his 2001 tax cuts and liberalize immigration rules.<\/p>\n

Bush and his GOP allies blame the Democrats for the stalemate, as the minority party has become more united and stubborn in its opposition to White House initiatives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How amusing. Republicans control the White House, the Senate, the House, the federal judiciary, and most state governments. But when governing comes to a complete halt, who’s to blame? Democrats, of course.<\/p>\n

Even some GOP lawmakers are finding this nonsense hard to swallow.<\/p>\n

“You can’t just point your finger and call Democrats obstructionist,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). “If you have a job to do, you have to do it. People aren’t interested in how many storms you encounter at sea. They want to know when you pull into port.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moreover, GOP whining about the Dems obscures a more important point: nothing is getting done because Republicans are fighting amongst themselves.
\n<\/p>\n

But many issues, such as highway funding and additional tax cuts, have languished not just because of Democratic obstruction but also because of divisions among Republicans — between the House and Senate, moderates and conservatives, and Bush and congressional leaders.<\/p>\n

Last week’s Senate debate on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was symptomatic of the many forces conspiring to turn this year into a legislative bust for the White House. Despite Bush’s strong push for the amendment — a crowd pleaser for his party’s conservative wing — it met with resounding defeat in the face of solid Democratic opposition and a divided Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Even in the House, where Republicans are generally more disciplined in following Bush, his agenda is facing challenges. The House this month nearly passed a measure to scale back Bush’s signature anti-terrorism law, the Patriot Act. Only an intensive, 11th-hour round of arm-twisting by GOP leaders spared Bush an embarrassing defeat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’d add that congressional Republicans have been at odds with the White House over shaping the federal budget<\/a>, leading to a stalemate. This will probably be only the third year in three decades in which the federal government will not have a detailed blueprint for government spending and tax policy, all because the GOP is divided against itself.<\/p>\n

Bush aides, with all of their collective wisdom, can’t think of a better excuse than blaming Dems. So much for the era of responsibility.<\/p>\n

“We would like Congress to do more,” said [Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman]. “But we may have to wait for an election to change those sorts of prospects.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oddly enough, I’m inclined to agree with Duffy’s point wholeheartedly. We will<\/i> have to wait for an election to produce change in Washington. Duffy’s vision — an election that keeps everything in GOP hands — doesn’t make any sense, since we already have that and it’s not working. <\/p>\n

So, how about we try the opposite?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1996, as Bill Clinton was hitting the campaign trail to seek re-election, Congress passed a massive welfare reform law and a minimum wage increase, both of which Clinton signed into law. The president was able to remind voters that even with a Republican Congress, led by a rabid partisan like Newt Gingrich, he could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}