Quote:
Originally Posted by Axeman
Not quite true Kane. The Democrats had a big advantage of seats in the House, and a super majority 60 seat caucus in the Senate. They could have done anything and everything they wanted to do. The Republican had absolutely zero power to stop anything at all in Congress. That changed when Senator Kennedy passed away, and was replaced by Scott Brown to give the Dems only 59 seats, and no longer the super majority they enjoyed for nearly 2 years.
Then the Republicans had a way to filibuster in the Senate, which is why the Democrats did the around the bout, hack job rush bill with the Reconciliation maneuver.
Then in Jan 2011, the new congress took hold where the Republicans then had the House again, and more seats in the Senate. That is when you saw the House start to block the Senates moves, and the Senate start to shelve all bills from the House that Obama didn't want to veto or deal with. That is when the full on grid lock truly started.
Did the Republicans want to block and slow down Obama the first 2 years? Of course they did. They just were absolutely powerless to do so.
Democrats didn't pass all their dream projects and ideas those first 2 years, for one reason only. They wanted to be reelected. Healthcare was going to take all the political capital they could get away with, and still have Obama win in 2012. If they went full bore on EPA, Immigration, Healthcare etc in those first 2 years, he would have been a one and done.
Funny how Immigration wasn't a massive, urgent, must fix at any costs issue those 2 years  |
I have a feeling those first few years the democrats felt like they were going to be in power for a while. They had swept into office and there was a strong anti-republican feel in the nation.
The super-majority didn't stop the republicans from filibustering. From 2007-the first few months of 2010 there were at least 142 filibusters and votes for cloture. The democrats had the 60 votes to pass things, but since there were actually 58 democrats and 2 independents it was't a 100% guaranteed thing that they could get 60 votes on ever bill. not to mention the stalling tactics the republicans used in the house to delay things.
To me both parties during that time laid down a blueprint on how to cause problems for the other party. The republicans showed that if you are the minority and you just adopt the "Say no to everything" attitude you can be rewarded during the election. The democrats showed that there are ways to get around the filibuster and stall tactics so you can still do what you want. Both of those plans can come back to bite you if the roles are reversed.
I won't be shocked to see the democrats trying to block anything and everything republican based over the next two years and I won't be shocked to see the republicans use some of the same tactics they slammed the democrats for using to get around it.