Why Doesn't Obama and the Democrats Get Credit for their Marvelous Legislative Accomplishments?

Tags: Dems No Credit for Major Accomplishments, Fault Repubs Corporate Media Meek Dems, Blame for Crisis but Fault of Republicans

In the stimulus bill each family got an $800 tax reduction, but no one talks about it! It was unfortunately taken out of with-holding instead of stupidly sending 95% of Americans a check. I guess they wanted to save mailing costs!

Healthcare bill has actually been very popular with the public once the provisions become active such as no denial of insurance for children and adults with pre-existing conditions, families can insure their children until age 26, and all sorts of little things that will make life a lot more livable in this dog eat dog world.

The Finance Reform Bill is as good as it can be in passing the bill with a little Republican help and almost all the Republican senators opposing it. The restriction on naked options on farm products is also in the bill so Goldman Sachs cannot corner the market on red Wheat used in bread again where prices mushroomed while there was a surplus! Sugar makers tried to put genetically modified Beets for sugar without any tests of environment fallouts. We should drop the tariffs on cane sugar so more corporations can stop using High Fructose Corn Syrup, a deadly health problem that the NY Times does not want to acknowledge. I wonder why?

We always talk about Wall Street controlling the Congress, but we fail to even mention the same holds for the TV news media advertising controlled by corporations. Even PBS has to worry. That is the only reason why they kept stodgy announcer Lehrer and stodgy commentators Brooks and the other guy on the show. BBC is much better, but the new PM will cut their budget strongly to stifle contrary news.

In their "new" plan, the Republican proposed Healthcare bills that was already in the passed bill and no one bothered to say this enough. One time is not enough for tired and sleepy Americans. That is why all Republicans the same words they get from billionaire founded conservative Think Tanks such as the Heritage Foundation or American Enterprise Institute or Chamber of Commerce. They don't mind acting like Stepford Wives! But the message gets through after repeating a thousand times by Republicans and the media.

While I have my hair cut once monthly, I find out that the public knows something is wrong and the media wrongly tells them what is wrong. I know they are kept extraordinarily ignorant unless we read. I was asked to give a good summary of the Great Depression so she would not look stupid when she has to discuss it with her friend. Over a thousand books have been written about the Depression. I would not be surprised that they are almost always top down. In other words, the elite who do not suffer the same problems as the rest of us with the up and down economy and stock market being manipulated by unseen and unknown rich and powerful people.

What is wrong is that since Reagan we got a capitalistic system that strongly favors the Rich and Powerful at the sacrifice of the rest of us. All the laws that protect us from the powerful have been ignored like the Wagner labor law and fraud on Wall Street. We practice morality in our lives. They practice the game of making more money no matter what they have to do, legal or not.

What the numbers don't tell us is the constant fear Americans have of losing their jobs and not finding another. This is true where twice as many of those over 55 being fired during this almost Depression cannot find another job. Any job. A job means more to us than just about anything else except family so the devastation can only be felt when we experience it.

Jim Kawakami, Oct 19, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Accomplishments by Democratic Congress Not Acknowledged

_Making college loans more affordable.

_The Cash for Clunkers program that helped rejuvenate the auto industry.

_New consumer protections for credit card users.

_Making it easier for women to challenge pay discrimination.

_Increasing federal regulation of tobacco products.

_Cracking down on waste in Pentagon weapons acquisition.

_Making attacks based on sexual orientation a federal hate crime.

_Giving businesses tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.

_Tax credits for first-time homeowners.

So where is the love?

Polls suggest three-fourths of Americans disapprove of Congress.

Why Doesn't Obama and the Democrats Get Credit for their Marvelous Legislative Accomplishments?

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer – Mon Oct 18, 12:47 pm ET

WASHINGTON – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_bi_ge/us_prolific_congress The public panned it. Republicans obstructed it. Many Democrats fled from it. Even so, the session of Congress now drawing to a close was the most productive in nearly half a century.

Not since the explosive years of the civil rights movement and the hard-fought debut of government-supported health care for the elderly and poor have so many big things — love them or hate them — been done so quickly.

Gridlock? It may feel that way. But that's not the story of the 111th Congress — not the story history will remember.

Democrats are dearly hoping history won't repeat itself. In 1966, after Democrats created Medicare and Medicaid and passed civil rights laws, they got hammered in the election, losing 48 seats in the House and four in the Senate. They maintained their majorities in both at the time, but an identical result next month would turn the House over to Republicans.

In the 1960s, Democrats paid the price for events largely outside their control — an escalating war in Vietnam going badly, rowdy anti-war protests and violence in American cities, said Linda Fowler, professor of government at Dartmouth College.

"I think that's what's going on this time too," Fowler said, "despite a very significant record of accomplishment."

Democrats struggling now to retain majorities in the House and Senate must deal with a public that is quick to blame Washington for the prolonged economic downturn, and that resents the bank bailouts that were actually passed by the previous Congress.

In terms of legislative successes, the current session of Congress is "at least on a par with the 89th Congress" of 1965-1966, said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

But, he added, Republicans have done all they could to discredit Congress and Democrats have failed to sell their agenda. Moreover, it will take years to fully feel the effects of the health care law and financial regulation.

"A world dominated by bickering and epithet-throwing and bomb tossing in Washington obscures accomplishments," Ornstein said.

Congress passed an $814 billion economic stimulus package soon after President Barack Obama took office, tapping a staggering sum of money to avoid a full-blown depression. Democrats have trumpeted the gains from that effort, but know it's not enough for restive voters. "Americans still see themselves in a ditch," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Obama has also signed into law at least a dozen other pieces of legislation of significance. They include:The two other landmark acts of this session were the health care overhaul, a giant step toward universal coverage that had eluded presidents back to Franklin Roosevelt if not Teddy Roosevelt, and the Wall Street accountability act.

_Making college loans more affordable.

_The Cash for Clunkers program that helped rejuvenate the auto industry.

_New consumer protections for credit card users.

_Making it easier for women to challenge pay discrimination.

_Increasing federal regulation of tobacco products.

_Cracking down on waste in Pentagon weapons acquisition.

_Making attacks based on sexual orientation a federal hate crime.

_Giving businesses tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.

_Tax credits for first-time homeowners.

So where is the love?

Polls suggest three-fourths of Americans disapprove of Congress.

The 1960s were a time of upheaval, and Medicare only arrived after a bitter debate echoing with cries from the right that socialism was on the march in America. Yet people had a lot more faith in government to do the right thing, polls from that time indicate.

And Medicare grew to be so popular that Republicans, the party that resisted it, have been quick to accuse Democrats of trying to cut it when they proposed to slow its growth and use the savings to help provide medical care to millions who lack health insurance.

An erosion of trust in institutions in general has enabled Republicans to score points by arguing that Democratic Big Government programs are exploding the national debt, Ornstein said. The result, he added, is that not many Democrats are campaigning on the benefits of the stimulus package, even though one-third of it was tax cuts that put money in most people's pockets.

"The amazing thing is that we have had such a productive Congress despite the obstructionism," Hoyer said. "Republicans and their media have successfully sent out a message that the Congress has failed."

Democrats cling to a hope that voters in the last two weeks before the election will come to a more favorable view of how the party handled health care and the economy.

But in taking on issues for the history books, Democrats have failed on some matters close to the hearts of allies whose energy is vital in an election. Legislation making it easier to unionize workplaces is stalled, Hispanics are still pressing for an overhaul of the immigration system and environmental groups want action on climate change.

Democratic leaders put off action for nearly two years on preventing a massive tax increase come Jan. 1, when the Bush-era tax cuts run out. And they couldn't even put a budget together this year. But it's not what Congress didn't accomplish the past two years, it's what it did do that seems to have voters most riled.