Independents, Reaping What You Sowed: The Tea Party Kept Their Promise: Gridlock in Congress (updated 2/28/15)

FOR THIS HUB MY CONCERN ISN'T WITH THE Conservatives or is it the Tea Party, instead, it is for the Independents who voted for the Conservatives and Tea Party candidates in 2010 (and again in 2014). All I can say is, "I hope you are happy".

You had plenty of warning what has happened over the last nine (now 42) months was going to happen; the candidates you voted for told you this was going to happen; they didn't keep it a secret. Senator McConnell stood up on camera and said that his primary goal in the next two years was to make sure President Obama failed as a President, which, by extension, means America must fail as a Nation (fortunately he failed in keeping his promise and the Nation improved despite his Party's best efforts; just not as well as it might have if the Conservatives had been on America's side during such a time of crisis.) Didn't you listen to every Tea Party candidate tell you they were not going to compromise? Where you somewhere else when they said that there was no way on God's green earth they were going to allow any increase in revenues other than through increased economic growth? Didn't you think they were serious when you voted for them? Well, they were.

And now we are suffering the consequences. I must say, I didn't envision a downgrade in our credit rating but now that it has happened, I can't say that I am surprised. Why shouldn't they? What they saw was the American voter put into office a set of politicians dedicated to bringing down the government if they didn't get their way. They said they would do that, in so many words, and that is what they have done. What Standard and Poor sees a major part of our electorate that lives by slogans rather than their reason. They see an electorate that thought President Obama was supposed to be a superman in 2009 and got revenge by voting in gridlock in 2010 when they found out he wasn't superman because he wasn't able to put 12 million Americans back to work inside of two years.

We have gone way off the path of a Great Nation and I don't know if we can find our way back anytime soon, if ever; it is really starting to seem like Rome is burning and the American people are just fiddling around.

ALREADY, LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AFTER CONSERVATIVES assumed control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House, gridlock is taking hold. It started out inauspiciously for the House Republicans as Speaker Boehner had to fight back a rare uprising for his Majority Leader seat. This was followed by:

Bills Passed By House -

• Jan 6, 2015: HR 3 - Authorize XL pipeline
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 22 - Hire More Heroes Act of 2015 (a bill to weaken ACA)
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 23 - National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization of 2015 (funds through FY 2017)
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 25 - Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, (extends through 2020) - LAW
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 30 - Save American Workers Act of 2015 (change ACA "full-time definition from 30 hours to average of 40 hours per week)
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 33 - Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act (exempts, in certain cases, from ACA requirements) - Passed Senate, in reconciliation)
• Jan 6, 2015: HR 37 - Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act (seems to loosen regulation requirements of hedge funds for certain swap transactions)
• Jan 8, 2015: HR 234 - Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (directs intelligence sharing)
• Jan 9, 2015: HR 240 - Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (Fund DHS and gut President Obama's immigration reform.) - Successfully filibustered by Democrats in Senate; replacement still pending.
• Jan 21, 2015: HR 7 - No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015 (Attacks woman's right to choose and replaces bill pulled after revolt by Republican women)
• Jan 28, 2015: HR 529 - To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, and for other purposes. (Repeal ACA)
• Feb 2, 2015: HR 629 - America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015 (Makes permanent small business tax breaks.
• Feb 4, 2015: HR 734 - Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2015 (Requires FCC to report every 2 years about the communications marketplace and identify geographic areas not covered by advanced broadband)
• Feb 9, 2015: HR 810 - NASA Authorization Act of 2015 (Increases NASA funding to 2012 levels)
• Feb 20, 2015: HR 2010 - STEM Education Act of 2015 (Requires NSF to give grants to alternative non-schools and reduces requirements to receive Master Teacher designation from needed a Masters to needing a Bachelor degree)
• The House has initiated and/or passed many bills dealing with human trafficking

Senate Passed Bills

• Jan 6, 2015: S 1- Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act - Vetoed

At this point in time (Feb 28, 2015) nothing of major national importance has made it through Congress and into law. The -

1. Speaker Boehner beat back (and then punished those responsible) a rare attempt to deny him his Speakership
2. Conservative attempt to ban abortions after 20 weeks was defeated by the women in the Republican Party
3. Republican attempt to by-pass regular order and direct approval of the construction of the XL pipeline was vetoed. (ed..note. I think PBO should have withdrawn his objections well before the vote after the last major legal hurdle had been resolved.)
4. Conservative's attempt to stop PBO's executive action on fair immigration practices was successfully filibustered by Democrats. Senate willing to pass a clean DHS appropriations bill but House is not. A one-week, lol, funding extension was just passed in the House.

That's all folks.