Day 778 – Let the Baby Have His Bottle

In an episode of The Simpsons where Bart loses his election for class president, his father tries to comfort him by pointing out that the job would have no extra perks and a lot more work. Homer ended by suggesting “let the baby have his bottle,” meaning that the kid who was elected can keep his meaningless prize.

This may describe what happened in 2008 when conservatives were sick and tired of being called the source of all failure in the government and decided to let Democratic politics run rampant for 2 years. I’m just wondering if the moderate Republicans in Congress, having been diminished by the fall elections, are doing something similar to the American people.

There is some strategy at play. Things like the unemployment extension, the “school lunch” bill and the 9/11 first responder health insurance bill are all things that will get Republicans painted as heartless bastards for not passing. They will be hit with this for the next 2 years if they don’t pass, even though the budget is the only thing that needs to pass in the lame duck session. Everything else, including the tax cuts, could roll into early January.

Democrats had this planned all along. They passed every piece of garbage legislation that the American people didn’t want as early as possible. Obama Romneycare needed 60 Democrats to pass. The stimulus (number 1) required a lot of horse trading. The Pigford settlement to non-existent black farmers and $3.5 trillion annual budgets full of pork were passed almost exclusively by Democrats. They saved the bills that are supposedly important, but popular with everyone, until the point where they figure they can ram them through then blame the Republicans for another $1.5 trillion in deficit spending.

I agree with Michelle Bachmann. Instead of this opposition strategy by Republicans that just became a delay tactic, or whining about missing Christmas, the Senate should have said they were only going to pass a budget extension to keep the government funded through February. Lame duck sessions are legally dubious and should not be used to pass items the lame Congress didn’t bother with before they lost elections. They should have filibustered everything, letting the newly elected Congress properly deal with government.Take this 9/11 first responder legislation. The meat puppets on MSNBC are full of righteous indignation as to how the Republicans would dare to block health care. Well, let’s see. If this is so important, nine years in the making, why didn’t the Congress pass this bill in the previous 100 weeks of the Democratic majority? Why not have added it to the Health Care Bill that would have only added maybe 2% to the cost? Why does New York have no extra funding provisions while Nebraska never has to pay for Medicaid again? Why is there student loan regulation in a health care bill and nothing for first responders? Why wait almost another year?

It’s all politics. I suspect it’s the same way with the moderates who either have been beaten or beaten back in the Senate. Murkowski sold out her party to get another term, she should have her seniority removed next year. If the GOP leadership lets this spending continue next year to placate the polls that say people want fiscal responsibility at the same time they want unlimited free stuff, they might as well be given their walking papers, too. Those babies don’t need their bottles.

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