How Things Are Going

I probably don't need to explain to anyone how happy I am that Barack Obama is President of the United States of America. If there was anyone I could pull out of thin air and wish they were president it would have been him. So the zen feeling about it is very real to me. So far I'm very pleased with his executive orders that present a direct change from the last 8 years. I still have my Obama List of which I'm willing to be patient as well.

With all the good feelingness stuff out of the way, there is a point of confusion towards what exactly the strategy is with the Obama administration wanting so much GOP support for his policies. I can understand the desire to want a drastic approach from the Bush years of 'my way or no way.' There's nothing wrong with wanting not to be George Bush. But there is such a thing as giving too much credit to a Party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt.

Here's my deal. Obama does not need one single Republican vote in the House to pass the stimulus plan. And despite popular myth, Obama does not need one single Republican vote in the senate either. In other words, Obama's stimulus bill, which I believe is now the House Dems' stimulus bill, can pass without a single shred of Republican support. Would it be nice to have a few Repubs break and make it a somewhat bipartisan effort? Sure it would. If the GOP sees it differently then so be it. Why give them more power than what they deserve or were given by the American people two months ago? We shouldn't. Definetely President Obama shouldn't.

I'll go just a little deeper even. For some reason there's a 60 vote myth floating around about bills being passed in the senate. It does not require 60 votes to pass anything in the senate. I'll repeat again because for some reason people can't grasp this law. A simple majority is required to pass a bill in the U.S. Senate! Simple meaning 51 votes. The Democrats currently have 58 votes, 59 if you include Senator Al Franken who will be seated any day. The 60 vote myth is a rule set up by Republicans in 2006 when they lost their majority, and agreed upon by the Dems. It requires 60 votes for cloture or force a filibuster. Guess what? Make the Republicans filibuster the stimulus bill. Make them do it. Make the tough, macho, Rush Limbaugh circle jerkers actually filibuster it.

I don't see any point in conceding to the Republicans more George Bush policies. Why henge this bill on the inclusion of the same failed Republican policies that got us into this mess? And where is frank talk about all this in the media-- talk about not one single Republican vote is needed to pass the stimulus bill. Why is none of this being said?