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Adieu, Adieu, Remember Me
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McConnell Pushing Vote to Block the EPA from Regulating Carbon Emissions
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More Barbour on Afghanistan
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House Passes Three Week Spending Bill
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The Spectacle Blog
Agree or disagree with their policies or tactics, one thing that’s for sure is that the 111th Congress was one of the most productive ever — the $862 billion economic stimulus package, national health care, financial regulation and repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” are just a few of the significant pieces of legislation to get through. Democrats and the Obama administration realized that political power was fleeting, and they decided to push through as many liberal priorities as they could during that short period in power. They put real points on the board during that time. ObamaCare alone is the most significant achievement since the creation of Medicare in 1965. Contrast this with the way Republicans operated when they had unified control. President Bush was able to get temporary tax cuts passed which we now know will require continued bargaining with Democrats to maintain. When Bush proposed to actually do something real on Social Security, Republicans in Congress ran scared under Democratic demagoguery, and ended up losing power the next year anyway. In their defense, Republicans did not have a 60-vote majority in the Senate like the Democrats had for that window before Scott Brown’s victory. Yet that still doesn’t explain why when he did flex his legislative muscle, Bush did so to fight battles on liberal turf — passing the “No Child Left Behind” law that increased the federal role in education and the Medicare prescription drug plan that had been the largest expansion of entitlements since the Great Society (until the passage of ObamaCare). While conservatives are celebrating the end of the ram and jam ways of the 111th Congress, they should also hope that Republicans learn something from it, and actually advance conservative policies when in power.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/12/23/learning-from-the-111th
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Warrior | 12.23.10 @ 11:26AM
Mr. Klein:
Did you just awaken from a 2 month coma? The Republican party is not conservative and has no intention of moving from dangerously left of center to anything that resembles conservative issues. They have already negotiated away their position of strength on tax rates for nothing more than keeping one playing field level while giving liberals victories on many others (death tax, continuing handouts to those who are not paying taxes, extension of unemployment, etc.). If any additional evidence is needed, they in large mass caved on START and didn't even put up a token effort on DADT. The existing members are going to marginalize the conservatives in maverick fashion and the entitlement bubble keeps inflating while we all watch waiting for the large pop. These elected morons will continue to negotiate and will claim victory when the debt is reduced to 1.4 or 1.5 trillion annually. We are royally screwed. The only difference is the Republicans are willing to give us fake kisses and pretend to apply lube before bending us over while the Democrats just flat out tell us that this is for our own good and we have to take it to find out how much we are really going to enjoy it.
Quartermaster| 12.23.10 @ 11:28AM
The Republicans have performed very poorly in the 111th congress. The Republican left, with McConnell's acquiescence, has certainly blackened the name of the party. Once more the two morons from Maine, Murkowski, Brown (we had such great hopes fer ye), Alexander, King George Voinovich, show us the GOP can never be trusted. It's long past time these idiots were gone.
Paul Clare| 12.23.10 @ 11:47AM
Oh, sad to admit but you all are so right. We just have to see how the "New Blood" works out, BUT so far Brown and Kirk "New Blood" have failed to match expectations. We need to keep watch and expand our efforts to take out any slackers - old or new in 2012. Hopefully we can still do this through the ballot box!
Occam's Tool| 12.23.10 @ 11:52AM
Yeah, productive---just like meetings of the Presidium in Commieland.
Liberty4usa | 12.23.10 @ 1:16PM
Like the 110th Congress, the 111th taught us (even faster) that the barriers to adhering to the U.S. Constitution lay somewhere behind them... in their minds. What are referred to as "achievements" here are the equivalent of notches on a killers gun. In this case however the victims are the American people, who have been forced to watch as arrogant elitists manufacture excuses to seize power from them, and then proceed against the people's will regardless as to whether or not the people "buy" their charades. In the process of bankrupting our children, they have also made them more subjects than citizens, and abused their limited powers in unprecedented ways. As others have stated above, the GOP has barely put up a protest or even leveled with the people about the severity of these changes to kill off freedom. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and our property rights are now targeted as if they are impeding progress for the greater good. This war is one of our will verses their will, and we are yet to see an effective defense or any type of offensive against their assault. Our entire way of life is at stake. Historically, there are many parallels in the history of government's to heed and should make it clear the path we are on. This current state is what our founders, who were very well versed in history of governments were guarding against with the masterful construction of our Constitution. The people must demand that we return all government to their place behind the limits of their power, as intended, and not allow for the operation of government with judicially created exceptions. How we can we do this, when those we elect are so afraid to admit how far beyond those limits we are?
Mugwa| 12.23.10 @ 2:50PM
I too think the GOP performance has been horrid as they ride back into power. The answer is to go ahead and split the vote into the Tea Party and make the GOP the minority. The only reason many people vote for GOP is they hope there are conservatives within. So lets purify and wage all out war.
White_wolf| 12.23.10 @ 3:35PM
The lame duck session was a flat-out disaster for the GOP. Barack Obama nullified the election of 2010 and completely defeated the Republicans. In fact, it is very possible that he mortally wounded them as a viable opposition for the rest of his term.
ith the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" he divided and demoralized much of the GOP, not just for now, but into the future. Plus, he advanced the gay agenda in a way that now gives it the advantage in all future battles, thus further depressing a key element of the GOP coalition.
He pushed through START, giving more impetus to future "arms control" baloney. The extension of unemployment benefits and other goodies, at the slight cost to him of a temporary hold on tax rate increases, expanded the government AND greatly increased deficit spending! This right on the heels of an election that told the government to stop this very thing!
Further, and perhaps most importantly, he created a new public expectation of "bipartisan compromise" which is draining the fight out of the new GOP House majority even before it takes office. The new congress had been elected to confront and stop the Obama agenda, now it will be very hard for them not to be co-opted by it. How sad.
Finally, his Democrat-dominated FCC, in a blatant, unprecedented political power grab, just exerted control over the internet! This is a very dangerous development and disheartening to conservatives.
All of this has been done in the last two weeks and after Obama and the liberal Democrats in Congress suffered one of the worst defeats in modern times. You've got to give the devil his due. He pulled victory out of defeat and, in the process, looked presidential, made great strides toward re-election, and poisoned the well for the new GOP congressional majority. Not too bad for two weeks work.
It goes without saying that the failure of the GOP to be concerned about its political future and have the guts to stay together is responsible for almost all of this. But, after decades of this kind of limp-wristed betrayal, should we really be surprised? I for one would listen to a pitch for a new family/freedom party.
Greta| 12.23.10 @ 7:56PM
There is little hope we can depend on any Senator from a Blue State to be anything but a RINO. We need to make sure that we do not have democrats or RINO's in Red or Purple states. We need to work on state level to get better conservatives in office so we can build a strong bench. We need to keep strong focus on every vote and make sure they hear from us every time on any major issue which in today's world is just about every vote. While I would love to see a new conservative party, it would simply give power to the democratic party and we have all seen wheat Barry, Pelosi, and Reid can do with all those seats. If we happen to get a RINO in one of the blue states, we should consider them as we would a democrat but use them where possible which will be for nothing that is very critical to true conservatives.
jgo | 12.24.10 @ 12:14PM
Nothing liberal was enacted during the 111th congress. It was all radical leftist and the liberals were shut out of the process.