NOT SURE WHAT IS GOING ON

There were many strange things about this last election.  Perhaps the most weird was the re-election of Sam Brownback as governor of Kansas.  His tax cuts ruined the economy of Kansas and he degraded the schools, but the electorate reelected him anyway.  Are Kansas Republicans constitutionally unable to vote for anyone but a Republican no matter how bad?

The House Republicans love to tell how many bills they have passed that are held up in the Senate (I can't recall if it is closer to 240 or 420), but they never tell us what these bills are to do.  We know that something like 50 are to repeal the ACA (Affordability Care Act), what are the others?

New York Times, Oct. 22: “Some of those things will help,” Matthew J. Slaughter, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, said after reviewing nearly four dozen measures that House Republicans have labeled “jobs bills.” He cited some business tax cuts, for example, even as he cautioned about the cost of such actions.

“But,” added Mr. Slaughter, who served on President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, “it just struck me as sort of a compendium of modest expectations. If you ask me, ‘What’s your ballpark guess for how many jobs are going to be created?,’ it’s just not many.”

So there are nearly 4 dozen "jobs bills" passed in the House, but even a Republican economics professor says they are mainly for show.

But then there are some House bills proposed by Democrats that are also held up such as:

"A bill penned by Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) regarding the Coconino National Forrest is anticipated to be included in a package of Natural Resources bills that will come for a full Senate vote later this year, her office said. (http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200228-house-dems-to-senate-dems-pass-our-bills)"

Or the even noncontroversial bill by a Democrat that:

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) has sponsored a bill aimed at naming an outpatient clinic after the late Major General William H. Gourley. It cleared the House in November.   

“It's nothing more than a bill to name a building so I am not sure why it's being held up,” Farr said. “I'd love to see it move.” ( http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200228-house-dems-to-senate-dems-pass-our-bills)


Such things sound silly except Harry Reid (and I am no fan of his) is trying to get the House to act on the Senate bipartisan immigration bill, perhaps one of the most important bills of recent history.  If that is his plan, it is not working.