If you're like me, since the election it's been hard to tear away from the spectacle of Republicans trying to find anything to change other than their core policy of pure evil. I'm sure it's just a communication problem right? I guess you could say they were at a CrossRoads. While the 'Pubbies are in disarray, we should get down to business. First up on the list:
#1: Jump off the Fiscal (Deficit) Cliff (Package agreement)!
Honk if you think deficit reduction packages are sweeeet!
Why is a pre-agreed deficit reduction package "too much of a good thing"? The debt package relief reducing our military from 1065 generals to a mere 998, and returning marginal tax rates on the rich back to Bush II days, but I'm sure there's bad ideas in there too. They're taking away cat food from starving old ladies, right?
No. Budget sequestration affects the military and cabinet agencies, along with the raise on taxes for the rich, the middle-tax cuts expire. Yes, that's $2000 dollars a family in the US, but it's not like they can't just pass a law immediately after that restoring them. And after playing along with the newest lunatic form of budgetary chicken, Obama can finally take away the crazy by asserting Article 14. Hey, can we arrest the Republicans for questioning our debt validity? Someone send a legal memo over to John Yoo and have him stamp it for us.
#2: Mr. Smith the Filibuster!
We're going to talk about "global warming" until you believe, consarn it all.
A filibuster has always been the dick move of parliamentary procedure. Everyone else wants something passed. Not as long as you have something to say about it -- But wouldn't it be great if you could just sign a card that says you're filibustering and not have to do all that annoying actual talking? Yeah, that's how it works now. You sign something that is a 'notional filibuster' without all that standing and talking until you collapse Hollywood stuff.
The master of political dick moves. Will be playing himself in the movie after not finding a suitable actor
Minorities in a parlaiment having obstructive powers are a needed form of protection against the majority in a Democracy, however secret obstructionism that blocks all bills effectively raises the 50 votes needed to 60, without the offenders even needing to see the light of day is a recipe for lasting stagnation.
Either get rid of it entirely, or bring back the Mr. Smith style. If you want to block a bill that forces oil companies to pay for damages caused, well get right up there Mr. Senator and talk about how much you love BP in the A until your puppet strings break. Expect to see your filibuster footage about a jillion times by your next opponent's attack ads, and I expect you'll be back in the private sector where hopefully you'll just run the company into the ground and not the nation.
#3: Taking the day off to Vote
WTF, America? Sure, it made sense back in the 1700s to hold elections on a day when the farmers could straggle in from the rural counties after Church concluded on Sunday, but having a voting day without a holiday is both a deviation from international standard, and well, just plain dumb. Without the cushion of time that a holiday creates, you give opportunities for the skullduggerous Republican vote-suppression schemes, which even they admit is their winning edge at this point.
Yeah, so sidebar. Ballot destruction and tampering should be a felony. Deliberate vote suppression should be an arrestable offense. Getting a date or time wrong in an official message to the voting constituents from an election official should also be a jailable offense. What's wrong Republicans? If you don't plan on getting your facts deliberately wrong, you should have nothing to fear.
And it's not like we're swimming in Holidays here, we have on average, less than 10, and they aren't federal holidays in the sense that absolutely no one enforces them. Did Christopher Columbus have venereal disease? Don't care, put his holiday back. Did Martin Luther King have venereal disease... actually, that's kind of a trend. (When's the Big Dog getting his Day?) We need more holidays in general, and what better way to start then enshrining the beating heart of a democracy with enough time so that no person has to choose between exercising it and an already over-stuffed day.
And with the time of voting spread out over eight hours as opposed to a morning and evening rush (and without the temptation to manipulate further) we wouldn't see any more of this:
He'll kick your ass if 4-5 hours after he votes. Or now if he can keep his spot in line.