Republicans, Please Quit Blaming the Democrats

October 16, 2008

Rant by Me: The Congress, Let’s do the Math.

I don’t know if you are hearing the same argument, about how the Democrats have been the majority in the Senate and House for the past two years and this has led to the problems we are currently facing; Bad economy, tremendous debt, large government, etc. And as usual the Democrats put up a weak defense regarding their culpability for our issues.

For example Republicans may say (para-phrasing here), “Democrats have run Congress for the past two years, they are at fault.”

Well I have a different opinion and I feel the Democrats should use this as fodder - For the record I am a registered Independent and although ideologically I trend toward the Dems, I certainly agree with Republicans on certain issues - Bottom line, Bush has been president for about eight years. During his time as president Republicans owned Congress (Senate and the House) for six years. The Democrats have owned Congress for the past two years (when America woke up).

So here is how it worked; Bush and the Republican congress had free reign of the US for six years, moving through legislation unabated, as Democrats had no power to counter the majority Republican congress and the President (who has the last word (remember “The Buck Stops Here.”). Then, when the Democrats took over Congress in 2006 they still faced an uphill battle. Why? Well, the buck really does stop with the President. Any legislation proposed by the Congress has to go through the President. Bush has veto power. To be fair, with the Democrats running Congress they can also halt legislation before it gets to the President. So, In essence you have a stalemate on most issues and nothing gets done. That’s why a Democratic congress and Republican President is bad. The same can be said for a Democratic President and a Republican congress.

We must realize over the past eight years the Republicans dropped the ball by not acting to avert the issues we face today. We can only partially blame the Democrats as they were faced with a President who has no desire to work across party lines. It is pertinent we keep the Democrats in power in the Congress and we vote for Obama as President. Now is the time to give the Democrats a chance to shine and work without barriers. They deserve the chance to better our standing here at home and around the world. It is apparent the two parties cannot work together to make America a better place.

1 Comment

tkrosh says: 16 October 2008 - 10:03 am

FYI - In the almost 28 years since Reagan was first elected in 1981, the ratio of Republican years of control to Democrat years of control in the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives is:
White House: 20R to 8D
Senate: 16R to 12D
House of Rep.: 12R to 16D
Overall, it looks as though Republicans have had about a 3 to 2 advantage in total years of control over these three important bodies. Like FactFace says, do the math.