So why not toss bones to the base on something that matters?

Something that matters may get passed though.

What's that gonna be?

Ok let's list the things that matters.

Defense
Social Security
Medicare/Medicaid
Welfare
Healthcare bill

Aside from the healthcare bill, which of those can they propose to cut substantially w/o getting demagogued from now to the next election? Defense is the only one I can think of, and that'll piss off the base. Republicans aren't completely ******ed, they are going to let the president propose any and all major legislation.

I thought repealing the healthcare bill actually costs money instead of saving it?

so you agree that there is nothing that can be done. The base must be appeased, and politiking is essential to remaining elected.

That means no substantial leadership will be offered to the general citizens of the republic. See, the process of governing is to perform tasks that are in the best interest of ALL the citizens, not just your buddies. The GOP never read, or refuse to accept, that memo.

OK, so instead they'll get demagogued as hypocrites on balancing the budget and the economy? Or else the planned cuts that end up getting seriously proposed will be "Obama's plan," in which case either Obama gets the credit for balancing the budget, or else the GOP has to be hypocrites in opposing it.

And your position seems pretty ridiculous, will. If the Republicans proposed legislation that made significant and genuine aims at reducing the deficit and pushed it through the House, that earns the Republicans a lot of "well, we tried until you guys shut us down" credit for the next election. Sitting on their asses trying to ram through anti-abortion bills or whatever is hardly going to help them out in two years.

Also, is it voters that would be pissed off if Repubs tried to cut defense spending, or just the big contributors to congressional campaigns?

You think democrats are different? President Obama went from a Liberal to a centrist over the course of two month. Did he do that because he had a sudden change of faith, or because he wants to be reelected?

OMG I got caught defending republicans...I need to crawl back in my libertarian cave.

Facts are pretty simple (and sad). So long as republicans don't do much of anything, they aren't going to get blamed for anything. If they try to cut medicare/medicaid and it doesn't pass (which it won't) they'll get crushed for 2 years because of that vote.

Right now they are banking on the economy not recovering much between now and 2012. They are trying to keep the base relatively happy, while not pissing off everyone else for a couple years. If the economy still sucks, then they have a chance at the white house and the senate.

Talk about spouting nonsense. He put through a legislative session that was quite remarkable, in the face of petty squabbling repubs. Then worked to clear some bills at the end of the last session, the 911 bill that never should have been stalled, or the nuclear arms treaty (that also had been stalled by the ******ed GOP)

All along trying to get some support from the right to offer a centric bill, yet they never contributed. as you missed it the first time I posted it

Ah, the old 'my guise may suck but those other guise suck too!" argument. False dichotomies ftw.

I have no idea.

What I know for sure is that the GOP doesn't want to outlaw abortion.

Well, actually both sides do suck. There's a reason I've never voted for a democrat or a republican

Cres I think I'm missing something. Do you expect President Obama to not do much of anything because it's the second half of his term, but you expect the House to try to push legislation for at the first year of their term?

OK, I'll bite. Politics 101 is to perform the unpopular or polarizing actions in the 1st half of a mandate, and to then legislate more in a non-partisan nature during the runup to a possible re-election. To think this is the first time this revolutionary method of electoral politics has been discussed is, amazing.

To your last statement, the House is supposed to push legislation, its their job. And their mandate, or elected task, is decided each and every 2 years. Its not dictated on who is in the Whitehouse, or who is in control of the Senate. Or which TEA Party yabbler is popular at the time. Did I strike a hook, or am I in safe waters.

Allright, that's an interesting take on things. I generally agree with presidential politics. But politically it's never a good idea to push controversial legislation if it has no chance of passing. There's not any upside, so why would the house try to do anything big right now? They are much better off trying to win the next election.

Anti-abortion bills, dude.

Not very controversial in that every knows republicans are against abortion.

It's said how far the definition of liberal has moved to the center. Obama's economic team really represented the communists of the academic world. How far can one move towards the Center before ending up on the other side? Meanwhile, furthering the problem, Cres attempts to defend Obama.

But yeh 58 billion is a joke and anyone trying to defend this is jockriding partisanship.

And everyone knows the Republicans want to balance the budget and shrink the size of government.

Lolol. You do remember '95 and '96 right? Republicans brought up medicare and got the **** kicked out of them. They bring up abortion every other week, and for the most part people don't care.

Do you really expect Republicans to commit political suicide on medicare/medicaid again? I'm sure that you're hoping they try.

No. I'm expecting them to look at defense. But if they only examine non-defense discretionary spending, I'll call them a bunch of hypocrites who'll both never balance the budget and who would rather bomb Afghan weddings than promote the arts and sciences and education.

Agreed. They are a bunch of hypocrites.

I'd hope you will at least agree that Democrats are almost as bad as republicans in this area. They like to talk about defense cuts so long as it doesn't involve anything in their own district

I thought people criticized the Dems for not even paying lip service to cuts. Obama finally did recently. We'll see if he proposes substantial legislation in accordance with the recommendations of the study section he set up. If not, he's a hypocrite, naturally. If he does and it doesn't pass, well, he's not Congress.