THE DO NOTHING SPEAKER GOES

Well I for one do not shed a tear for the retirement of the Speaker of the House Of Representatives John Boehner.  What he will go down in history for is presiding over the worst two years of passing bills in the post-WWII history of the House. In 2013, the House only passed 57 bills that became law for the least productive year.  My only reserve is that Boehner's replacement might be even worse.  Well, lets see what Paul Ryan actually does.  Let's be optimistic unless he proves otherwise.

I had hoped that Boehner would have given us a vote on the Senate immigration reform bill, but no luck.  It seems Republicans don't want to try to solve the problem but just use immigration as a whipping boy.  We are supposed to be happy that he avoided a government shutdown again.

This record was preceded by a number of years that set records for non-productivity at the time since 1947: 2012-61, 2011-90, and 2009-129.*  You will note that 2010 is an exception with 258 bills passed which was not a record at the time; however.  And so it was during administration of Barack Obama.  Some want to blame Obama. He entered the Presidency as a conciliator, but found that, to get 20% of he wanted, he had to give the Republicans 80% of what they wanted.  Furthermore the Republicans would then beat Obama over the head with things that he compromised on like delaying the tax increase on the wealthy.  Otherwise it was pretty much a slash and burn Congress.  For the House record see the Huffington Post article (quotes in italics):*

As 2012 comes to a close, the 112th Congress [Jan. 5 2011-Jan. 3 2012] is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s.
According to a Huffington Post review of all the bills that hit President Barack Obama's desk this session, Obama has signed 219 bills passed by the 112th Congress into law [Reference two** says 284 total for the two year period]. With less than a week to go in the year, there are currently another 20 bills pending presidential action. In comparison, the last Congress passed 383 bills, while the one before it passed 460. [Note: Reference two** says 385 bills passed.]

The 104th Congress (1995-1996) currently holds the ignominious distinction of being the least productive session of Congress, according to the U.S. House Clerk's Office, which has records going back to 1947. Just 333 bills became law during that two-year period, [Reference two** says 337] *** meaning the 112th Congress needs to send nearly 100 more bills to Obama's desk in the next few days if it wants to avoid going down in history -- an unlikely prospect, considering that both chambers are squarely focused on averting the "fiscal cliff" before the new year.
The 112th Congress has done far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948), which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the "Do-Nothing Congress." Those lawmakers passed 906 bills that became law.

The 213th congress (Jan. 3, 2013 to Jan. 02, 2015) was only slightly better  than the 212th with 296 bills enacted. They did spend a lot of time passing bills to repeal the so-called Obamacare (the ACA)- 37 times to be exact in an exercise of futility.  And most things past were things like naming new post offices and naming special days.  I agree that Obamacare could be much improved - single payer for one example rather than the personal mandate, but they didn't even try this.**  But the House did not just vote against Obamacare, they didn't vote to replace it with anything.  They don't want government sponsored health insurance at all.

And in 2014, the House initiated the fewest bills since at least 1984.  Lest you think that President Obama has been vetoing a lot of bills, there were no vetoes in any of these 4 years.

* http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-08-14/unproductive-congress-not-passing-bills/57060096/1
**http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/congress-unproductive_n_2371387.html
*** It should be pointed out that even the 385 bills passed by the 111th Congress is probably also a record low up to then because the only two worst numbers were for Congresses in effect for less than two years: the 107 Congress (Jan. 3, 2001-Nov. 22, 2002) and the even shorter 104th Congress (Jan. 4, 1995 - Oct. 4, 1996).

KEVIN MCCARTHY DEOPS OUT OF HOUSE SPEAKER RACE

I don't know how good of a speaker Kevein McCarthy would have been, but, in his first speech, he seemed illiterate.  He even kept making the same grammatical mistakes over and over.  Of course from a Republican standpoint, his worst offense was that he reinforced, what we already knew, that the Benghazi committee's purpose was to harm Hillary Clinton's Presidential aspirations.

So it looks like John Boehner will stay as Speaker for the foreseeable future.  I hoped as a parting gift that he would let the Senate Immigration Bill be voted on in the House, but no such luck.  I view him as a weak speaker, caving in again and again to a vocal nihilistic group in his Party, but maybe he is better than any alternative.

PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS

The Speaker of the House John Boehner says he will sue the president because of all the executive orders he is issuing.  Though it does seem as if President Obama is keeping the country running by Executive Orders, It turns out he is a piker.

At 4 yrs and 3 mo. into his presidency (March), President Barack Obama issued 175 Executive Orders.*  At this rate (3.4314/mo.), he will have 329 Executive Orders beating his predicessor George Bush (#43)  with 291.

And there are four Presidents in the 1,000 or more Executive Order Club club: Woodrow Wilson with 1803 (first member), Theodore Roosevelt with 1081, Calvin Cooledge with 1203, and Franklin Roosevelt with 3522 (the champion).  There are two honorable mentions with more than 900 Executive Orders: Herbert Hoover with 968 and Harry S. Truman with 907, making four Presidents in a row with at least 900 Executive Orders.  Then things dropped off markedly as Dwight D. Eisenhower had "only" 484.

Since Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan is the champion with 381 followed by Bill Clinton with 364, both recent records probably safe from Obama.

I believe Jimmy Carter had the most of one-term presidents with 320.

So based on number of Executive Orders, I think it will be hard to make a case that Obama has been making an execessive amount; however, I presume the case will be made that his Orders are more meaningful. 

  * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_order

WAGES

One hears Republicans like John Boehner talk about jobs being the most important thing.  I am unaware, however, of any real effort by Republican's to produce more jobs except for the fraudulent argument that the wealthy are the job creators so allowing them to have more money will create more jobs.*  In fact, the powers that be in the Republican party will do everything they can to eliminate jobs through automation and off shoring.  In addition they feel that workers are overpaid and the way to increase jobs is to lower or eliminate the minimum wage, thus increasing poverty level employment if indeed there is any increase in employment at all.**

Because the upper 1% of incomes have done exceedingly well in recent years, the jobs picture should be flourishing if increasing the wealth of the wealthy argument were true, but, though there has been a steady increase in employment, everyone seems to agree it is not rapid enough.

You would think that workers are a natural constituency of the Democrats; however, there is a group of white male workers who feel that the Democrats have done too much for minorities, women, and homosexuals and are thus taking away their jobs. This group is an important constituency of the Republicans who pay them some lip service now and then, particularly in election years (e.g. The Real Americans), but do nothing for them of a substantial nature.  I suspect that a significant percentage of the white males workers are also members of the despised 47% (now 43%) of households who pay no Federal income tax.

I'm not sure what Democrats could do to woo these workers back to the Democratic Party except maybe to keep plumping for public infrastructure projects.  I have supported the completion of the double fence along our southern border and hiring more guards as a jobs program,*** even if it is ineffective in preventing illegal entry into the U.S.  As it is, the Republican party has to do nothing to keep them so the Republicans do nothing for them.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/05/effectiveness-of-taxes.html
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-race-to-bottom.html
*** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/07/complete-danged-fence.html

THE SHUTDOWN AND DEBT LIMIT (RECAP)

On the TV political analysis show, Morning Joe, the other morning, Joe Scarborough and another conservative bemoaned Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid holding up 14 bills the House of Representative passed opening this and that part of the government from the House instituted shut down.  I suppose it is only natural when you are in the wrong that you try to justify your actions and blame it on the "other guy."

Pardon me, but there was a bill before the House, that Speaker John Boehner refused to let be voted upon that would have prevented the shut down for 12 weeks (sic!).*  Furthermore, the bill was in effect a Republican bill drafted and passed in the Senate that carried a budget actually not only below the original Paul Ryan level but even below the Sequester limit and significantly below what the Senate Democrats wanted (see figure).  The Democrats in the Senate helped pass this bill in a futile attempt to get a clean continuation resolution  bill. It turned out that budgetary success wasn't  enough for the House Republicans so they added bigger things to it than the bill itself (like destroying the ACA or Obamacare).  Though the Republican dominated House passed various bills opening up various agencies and attacking the ACA, they were held up in the Senate that was first asking for a clean continuing resolution bill such as the one they had passed.

However, the continuing resolution bill was not the only problem  After years of complaining that the Senate never came forth with a budget, this fiscal year they finally did.  The House also had a budget, but, again, Republican House Speaker Boehner refused to let their bill go to a conference committee to find an agreement between the two bills.  The Senate requested a conference committee 18 times.**  Included here is the record in excruciating detail.***

So spin as they might, the Republicans cannot squirm out of the responsibility for the October budget and debt limit fiascos.

It is interesting that in the final compromise bill, the government has been reopened for 12 weeks (as in the original continuing resolution), there is to be a conference Senate-House committee on the budget (that had been requested by the Senate for half a year), and income verification of earnings from ACA (Obamacare) recipients of subsidies (which is in the original ACA bill).  That's the bright side, but we get to go through this again in the middle of January.  Republican Sen. Mich Mcconnell, minority leader of the Senate, says there will be no shutdown in January (http://www.drudge.com/news/173116/mcconnell-promises-no-more-shutdowns).

* http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuing-resolution-is-already-a-compromise/
** http://www.chrisweigant.com/2013/10/10/a-complete-timeline-of-republican-obstructionism-on-budget-negotiations-they-are-now-demanding-part-2/
***
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/a-complete-timeline-of-re_b_4074372.html
http://www.chrisweigant.com/2013/10/10/a-complete-timeline-of-republican-obstructionism-on-budget-negotiations-they-are-now-demanding-part-2/

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO KIND TO JOHN BOEHNER?

I don't understand why Democrats are so kind to John Boehner.  I haven't heard any Democratic Senator or Representative bad mouth him; yet every time I hear him speak he lets out one or more whoppers.  The Continuing Resolution supposedly being considered is the number wanted by Republicans.  The Republicans not only won that battle but the number is lower than the Sequester value.

Boehner says "This is not some damn game."  But I'm sorry Mr Boehner, it is some damn game you are playing. (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101065750) and a dangerous one at that.  All that posturing by Republican Representatives in front of the WW-II Memorial when they voted to lower funding for the VA.  If it isn't a political game, what is it?   You and some other Republicans may feel this was the place to get rid of the Afforadable Care Act, but many other Republicans and conservatives warned against it.  A threat is no good if the other side isn't worried.

But I understand that some strategy is needed and to wait for the Debt limit and then allow an up or down vote will be the time to fall on your sword.  You don't want to do it too early.  Maybe in the end you will actually have missed the sword and survive.  I also have heard some Democrats trying to think of ways to bail you out.  What weird politics we are in when it is the opposing party trying to find a way to bail you out.

JOHN BOEHNER - THE FATE OF THE COUNTRY IN HIS HANDS

The issue supposedly is the Continuing Resolution.  There is no argument over the Continuing Resolution (CR).  The Democrats have agreed with the Republican figure.  So there is no argument.   The Republicans won that battle, and the agreed upon figure is actually below the Sequester level.  The argument has nothing to do with the CR and is actually over a law that survived a test in the Supreme Court, if narrowly, the so called Obamacare or Affordable Care Act law (ACA).  So the Speaker of The House, has refused to let the CR be voted upon unless the ACA is destroyed.  Oh yes, they have proposed delaying ithe ACA for a year, but then will demand another year, etc. In the meantime, the ACA is open for business and early returns seems very encouraging.

Most if not all Republicans would like to see this ACA law repealed; however, the president is not likely to let this law be destroyed, especially since everyone seems to agree that the House would approve the CR if allowed to vote on it.  So to prevent the CR from being passed and allow the Federal government to remain open, the Speaker Of The House, John Boehner, has refused to let the CR be voted upon.  Thus now, 40% of the government is shut down, except for essential positions.  I fully expect the government to remain closed for the next two weeks until we face the debt limit.  We are undergoing other cute maneuvers like trying to open the government piecemeal but, in the end, never funding the ACA.  Paying our soldiers on time has been the one exception that has been passed on a bipartisan basis, an exception with which I agree.

So will the Speaker refuse to let the Debt Limit be raised and destroy the Full Faith And Credit Of The U.S. Government because we will not pay bills that are already incurred?  Oh, perhaps if we let this go for a few days, it will not matter, but we don't know what our creditors will do.  And if you do this the first time, doing it a second time is easier, etc.  So Mr. Boehner holds the fate of America in his hands.  Will he keep the government closed and, in addition, destroy the full faith and credit of America?  It seems to be his choice.  Will he be the man who destroyed America or the hero that saved it?  Right now we do not know.  Is holding the Speakership worth destroying a great country?

[Warren] Buffett did provide a glimmer of hope if the Oct. 17 debt limit deadline is breached. "If it goes one second beyond the debt limit, that will not do us in. If it goes a year beyond that would be unbelievable." http://www.cnbc.com/id/101083360

[Hank Paulsen] said he hates the whole concept of the debit limit—calling it a "flaw" in the system. "Congress has already approved the spending. And then say 'you have to then come back and agree to allow us to meet our obligations,' that's ridiculous."  http://www.cnbc.com/id/101083367