PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

HOUSES PASSES BILL TO SORT OF FUND GOVERNMENT

The House of Representatives, otherwise known as the Tea Pot Congress, has passed one of those continuing resolutions that are necessary to keep the U.S. funded. However, this is a trick bill, not a real one. The Republicans are picking and choosing the things they want to keep funded, like the military, while trying to let other things they don’t like or want cut to shutdown.

President Obama is really going to have no choice on this legislation. What happened is that the Republicans were suddenly confronted with the idea that they were going to leave soldiers on the battlefield without pay while the government shutdown. Oops. The shouted cry Wednesday (4.6.11) of “Shut it down!” from the Tea Party groups in a rally on Capitol Hill doesn’t sound so great when you realize it means people who are putting their lives on the line in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. So, now the Republicans have come up with a side door idea of funding the government and the trick is that they will force Obama to veto their legislation and try to make him take the blame for a shutdown.

This is a moment when Obama’s presidency could be on the line and I don’t think he will fail this test. The Republicans are attempting to extort their way to cutbacks or termination of programs they don’t like, such as Planned Parenthood. If Obama caves to the Republicans on this one, without some major concessions, his presidency is over. On the other hand, if the American public winds up blaming him for all of this mess, then his re-election could be over, but it is a risk I think he will have no choice but to take.

Keep this in mind. There are 83 new members of the House of Representatives in this Tea Pot Congress. They came to Washington having made pledges not to do business as usual and that doesn’t mean that what they do has to make any sense. The pledge is the first order of business.

Most of the new members of Congress are generally inexperienced in politics and many of them say they don’t care if they don’t earn careers as a result of their election. They view politics, a vital part of our democracy, as a kind of permanent corruption of the soul. They are taking actions which represent an insult to the hard work and taxes of American citizens, but they don’t see it that way.  They did not win a major national mandate to destroy the functioning of government or to alter it in ways that would only be pleasing to red state voters, but they and their Tea Pot supporters think they are in charge. Until they find out otherwise, we are in for a spot of trouble, as the Brits would say.

Doug Terry. 4.7.11

The NY Times has an excellent editorial (4.8.11) running down the demands the Tea Pot Congress, specifically the House, is holding out for in the budget deal.

http://tinyurl.com/3g8e95b

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