· Repeal of tax subsidies for oil companies that were making record profits.
· A “cap-and-trade” process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, defray the cost of gasoline to consumers, and encourage green energy alternatives.
· Increase oversight and regulate speculative trading of energy futures which has driven up energy prices.
· Allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices.
· Adequate rest for military personnel between deployments to the war zone.
· Make it easier for workers to form or join unions.
· Provide relief for homeowners facing foreclosure and state and local governments burdened with foreclosed properties.
This is just a small sampling of the kind of bills filibustered by Republican Senators since 2006. For a more complete listing (with Bill Numbers and vote totals) go to
http://assets.ourfuture.org/documents/con-20081009-obstruction-real-story-110.pdf
Why did Republican Senators filibuster these popular initiatives?
· “I think [Democrats’ inability to pass legislation] will give the Republicans the one opening they are going to have in 2008. Everything is running against the Republicans, but I think they have a chance if they argue that the Democrats have been in charge and they are the do-nothing Congress.”--Conservative pundit Charles Krauthamme, Fox News, 7/24/07
To paraphrase a cranky, old presidential candidate, “The Republicans would rather sabotage Congress than lose an election.”
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Thanks to George W. Bush and his accomplices in Congress, our next President is going to be handed the biggest bag of flaming dog poop in the history of the United States.
· “It took the Republican Great Depression to wake people up. It took Franklin D. Roosevelt to speak the truth. If a politician said the same things today that Roosevelt did in the 1930s -- openly accusing big business of being anti-American and antiworker--he’d be accused of socialism and communism.”-- Air America Radio host Thom Hartmann, in Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class--And What We Can Do About It.
Now the Republicans are accusing Obama of being a socialist. Does that mean Obama is the next FDR? I hope so. We could sure use one right now.
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