Sunday, January 24, 2010
Republicans: Obama Isn't Acting Like A Grown-Up, He Was Born In Kenya And He's Probably The Antichrist
There exists in the mainstream media a very persistent notion that the lack of bipartisanship in Washington is entirely the fault of the Democrats. The Republicans would like to make a deal, this theory goes, they really and truly would, but the Democrats have been so arrogant and so unreasonable that it simply hasn't been possible. But now that Scott Brown has won the Senate election in Massachusetts, maybe Reid and Pelosi and The One will come to their senses and starting acting like grown-ups.
E.D. Kain of the Ordinary Gentlemen blog lays it all out for us:
And yes, even though it may cause healthcare reform to die in its tracks, I still think that the right person won in Massachusetts. I also think that there are ways the Democrats could scale back reform and get some conservatives on board with a much more modest, more market-friendly reform that still helps a lot of people who need help.Earth to E.D. Kain: the health care reform bill in the Senate was modest and market-friendly. It was not socialized medicine. It was not a single-payer system. It didn't even include a public option. It was about the most anemic excuse for "reform" ever to come out of Washington -- and that's saying something.
Does Kain really believe the Republicans would have voted for a more modest bill?
Kain and his fellow Republicans claim that they are not advocating obstructionism except as a way to protect the Constitution from the machinations of Obama and his socialist agenda.
So let's put that idea to the test.
Here's what I propose: let's go through the Constitution, line by line, and look for the word "filibuster". If the Constitution doesn't provide for it, it doesn't exist, so our strict-constructionist friends on the right claim. So maybe we can dispense with this nonsense that a supermajority is required to pass legislation in the Senate.
