House?
A lot of folks think presidents run the country–when in fact the democratic congress is the reason the economy is os bad–and democratic congress started the Iraq war–and is the reason for most of our problems…what say you?
Democrats have HAD a majority int he Congress FOR 2 YEARS!
I’m going to answer you as honestly as possible. I hope you can appreciate a viewpoint from the other side of the isle 
Please read, I want to answer your question respectfully.
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The constitution is designed in such a way as to not give one branch too much power. That is the very essence of the separation of powers our forefathers wrote in articels 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution (link below). For example, congress may narrowly pass a bill, say 52% yea – 48% nay, but a Presidential veto will send it back to congress, this time requiring a 66% yea. When democrats only hold a slight congressional majority (they held 51senate seats before the last election), it becomes increasingly hard to override a presidential veto because they then have to lobby republicans to vote in their favor. Can you imagine how hard it is for democrats having to lobby an additional 16% worth of republican support when they couldn’t even get a single republican to support this last bill that passed yesterday?
I’m not trying to make a case for one side or the other- all I’m saying is that the powers are divided. If one party only holds a slight majority (like the democrats did), the president will have more power. Now, if the democrats held a 2/3 majority in congress, then Congress would’ve had more power because they easily could’ve overridden a presidential veto. So to answer your question- it depends on the above. In this case, I would respectfully argue that the democrats majority wasn’t big enough to override the president’s vetos, therefore democrats couldn’t get legislation passed, therefore you cannot blame them. It’s not political bias- only fairness.
Also- What did the democratic congress do to make the economy bad? Some would argue that republicans lifted the government regulations which protected foreclosure victims- those regulations were put in place after the great depression to "firewall" another great depression.
Have you ever heard of Phil Gramm? He was McCain’s economic adviser. He pushed through congress a major deregulation bill in 2000 which was a huge component in the mortgage meltdown. As you know- the housing crisis caused the credit crisis, which is causing the massive job losses today. If you really want the truth about who to blame, read this article.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
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Look, my party has screwed up in the past, and I’ll admit it. And not all republicans have bad ideas. But republican deregulation is probably more responsible this time around. Admitting that does not make you less of a republican- it just makes you able to hear both sides of the story.
And that’s the problem with the American political system today- no one wants to hear both sides of the story…don’t you agree?
hope this helped. Good luck
April 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Republicans held a majority in both houses of Congress from 1995 until this most recent election, with the exception of an even Senate twice. Where is this Democratic Congress you speak of?
Ahh.. yeah there was a Democratic majority in the House for the last two years. I missed that part. The Senate was still even. But you still can’t claim that the "Democratic Congress" is the cause of the poor economy, or that they started the Iraq War. The war started in 2003, when the Senate was 51-48 in favor of Republicans (1 independent), and the House was 229-205 in favor of Republicans (1 independent). I find it funny how Republicans were furious at Democrats for opposing Bush’s war plans, and now that the war is unpopular, Republicans are trying to blame Dems for it.
Furthermore, a quick read of the Constitution would answer this for you. Remember hearing about "balance of powers" in elementary school?
References :
April 29th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I’m going to answer you as honestly as possible. I hope you can appreciate a viewpoint from the other side of the isle
Please read, I want to answer your question respectfully.
=========
The constitution is designed in such a way as to not give one branch too much power. That is the very essence of the separation of powers our forefathers wrote in articels 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution (link below). For example, congress may narrowly pass a bill, say 52% yea – 48% nay, but a Presidential veto will send it back to congress, this time requiring a 66% yea. When democrats only hold a slight congressional majority (they held 51senate seats before the last election), it becomes increasingly hard to override a presidential veto because they then have to lobby republicans to vote in their favor. Can you imagine how hard it is for democrats having to lobby an additional 16% worth of republican support when they couldn’t even get a single republican to support this last bill that passed yesterday?
I’m not trying to make a case for one side or the other- all I’m saying is that the powers are divided. If one party only holds a slight majority (like the democrats did), the president will have more power. Now, if the democrats held a 2/3 majority in congress, then Congress would’ve had more power because they easily could’ve overridden a presidential veto. So to answer your question- it depends on the above. In this case, I would respectfully argue that the democrats majority wasn’t big enough to override the president’s vetos, therefore democrats couldn’t get legislation passed, therefore you cannot blame them. It’s not political bias- only fairness.
Also- What did the democratic congress do to make the economy bad? Some would argue that republicans lifted the government regulations which protected foreclosure victims- those regulations were put in place after the great depression to "firewall" another great depression.
Have you ever heard of Phil Gramm? He was McCain’s economic adviser. He pushed through congress a major deregulation bill in 2000 which was a huge component in the mortgage meltdown. As you know- the housing crisis caused the credit crisis, which is causing the massive job losses today. If you really want the truth about who to blame, read this article.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
===
Look, my party has screwed up in the past, and I’ll admit it. And not all republicans have bad ideas. But republican deregulation is probably more responsible this time around. Admitting that does not make you less of a republican- it just makes you able to hear both sides of the story.
And that’s the problem with the American political system today- no one wants to hear both sides of the story…don’t you agree?
hope this helped. Good luck
References :
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_cnb.html