This do-nothing Congress did all the wrong things
Christian Science Monitor
by Daniel Schorr
12/15/06
At 4:35 a.m. last Saturday, Sen. Bill Frist performed his last act as majority leader. To the handful of members still there, he announced the adjournment of the 109th Congress 'sine die' -- that is, forever -- leaving behind the most unproductive session in recent history. Congress has been in session only 103 days this year, compared with 110 for President Truman's 'do-nothing Congress.' It did not perform its most basic constitutional duty -- to vote the appropriations necessary to run the government. Of 11 departmental appropriations, it had managed to pass only two -- defense and homeland security. The rest of the government was left to limp along on a stopgap resolution that was constantly in danger of expiring -- the next deadline is Feb. 15...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p09s02-cods.html
Excess baggage
The American Prospect
by Greg Anrig
12/15/06
When the outgoing Republican Congress failed to enact appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began October 1, all of their difficult spending decisions were left squarely on the shoulders of the new Democratic majority. Journalists and their sources invoked apt metaphors of sabotage. As David Rogers of The Wall Street Journal wrote: 'Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.' Rogers might just as well have been describing the entirety of what conservatives have been doing to both the executive and legislative branches of government for the past six years. ... The central if unstated mission ... is to weaken the public sector in order to minimize its capacity to tax and regulate the private sector...
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12303
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Daniel+Schorr
by Daniel Schorr
12/15/06
At 4:35 a.m. last Saturday, Sen. Bill Frist performed his last act as majority leader. To the handful of members still there, he announced the adjournment of the 109th Congress 'sine die' -- that is, forever -- leaving behind the most unproductive session in recent history. Congress has been in session only 103 days this year, compared with 110 for President Truman's 'do-nothing Congress.' It did not perform its most basic constitutional duty -- to vote the appropriations necessary to run the government. Of 11 departmental appropriations, it had managed to pass only two -- defense and homeland security. The rest of the government was left to limp along on a stopgap resolution that was constantly in danger of expiring -- the next deadline is Feb. 15...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p09s02-cods.html
Excess baggage
The American Prospect
by Greg Anrig
12/15/06
When the outgoing Republican Congress failed to enact appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began October 1, all of their difficult spending decisions were left squarely on the shoulders of the new Democratic majority. Journalists and their sources invoked apt metaphors of sabotage. As David Rogers of The Wall Street Journal wrote: 'Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.' Rogers might just as well have been describing the entirety of what conservatives have been doing to both the executive and legislative branches of government for the past six years. ... The central if unstated mission ... is to weaken the public sector in order to minimize its capacity to tax and regulate the private sector...
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12303
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Daniel+Schorr
rudkla - 18. Dez, 15:14
