Saturday, November 13, 2010

New Leadership, new ideas?

Congratulations to the Republican Party. They have regained the House of Representatives majority and will receive the benefits including Committee Chairmenships and Majority Leader ( who is third behind the President) and a whole set of things they want to change/repeal. Almost immediately, they are going after allowing the tax cut on those over $250,000 to be extended and it appears that Mr.Obama is going to go along, as long as no one else has taxes applied. This will be a reprieve for the very wealthy as their tax cut was running out December 31, 2010, as it is predicted, it may be extended 2 or 3 years. No politican wants to raise taxes in this economy, immigration is going on the backburner, a possible trade war is brewing world-wide, currency changes in America and China are also possibilities, cuts to the budget are being directed at sacred cows--a sacred cow is an untouchable item in the budget. An example, defense budget is usually never touched,however, there is discussion about a possible 30% cut, pulling troops out of countries, an example would be pulling troops out of Japan, South Korea, and Europe, think of the possible savings. But, social security benefits are not going to be touched, in fact, there is talk of a $250 across the board, one-time check in January. Why won't they touch the biggest "sacred cow", social security? Social security benefits for the most part, go to elderly people. They are the people who study the elections and VOTE more than any other group. I hope I have whetted your appetite for items to investigate in Congess. This when you start studying for the 2012 election. The stakes will be bigger. The President will be re-elected/elected, all House of Represenatives, and 1/3 rd of the Senate. Depending what the Democrats do, or the Republican do, that election may set the tone for the next four years.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Power Shift--The headline in the AZ Republic Nov 3rd

Thank you all for voting. This turnout was very high for a mid-term election. It showed that people wanted to get their message out to the world.
The big winners were the Republicans. They took the House majority back, as well as help from Tea Party winners. The loser, the Democrats, losing the majority in the House of Representatives, but retaining the majority in the Senate.
Majority means a great deal in either house. First, the majority party gets to set the agenda, they get the
Chairperson of the active committees.
That Chairperson sets the agenda for the committee. If you are a House member and you want your bill to be considered by a certain committee, you must place
bill in the "hopper" and that bill is then doled out to the various committees that would have oversight on that specific bill. The committee would look into
the possibility of passage and would have hearings to gather evidence to support the passage of the bill.  But, if you are not the majority party,
or have made an enemy of the chairman, or the chairman needs a "favor", etc. your bill may end up at the bottom of the agenda and may never see the light of day.  All bills must start over each legislative session.  A legislative session is two years.  If your bill never gets discussed, it may never get voted on, thus is the "game" of politics.  Commonly known as "you scratch my back, I scratch your back." 
What exactly is going to get done this coming legislative session?  Well, the Republicans have an agenda that is completely the opposite of the agenda the Democrats have, but the Republicans do not have any power to get bills passed the Senate, nor passed the President. And, the Democrats do not have the power, nor the votes to get things passed in the House of Representatives and  the President has the power of the veto.  That means he can stop a bill by refusing to sign it.  Now Congress can "override" a veto with a 2/3rds majority--commonly known as a "super-majority", in both houses, which is very difficult to obtain.  In reality, there will be a STALEMATE for the next two years, where virtually NOTHING will get done!!