Home > Republicans Walk Out, Americans Pray They Won’t Return

Republicans Walk Out, Americans Pray They Won’t Return

by Open-Publishing - Friday 15 February 2008
2 comments

Parties USA

Republican lawmakers in Washington, DC, did today what voters and citizens across the country have been trying to do for the better part of the last 8 years: they removed themselves from the House chamber of the Capitol.

Following an impassioned speech decrying "political grandstanding" by minority leader John Boehner, Republican members of the House of Representatives walked out of congress and onto the steps of the Capitol in a move oddly similar to "political grandstanding."

Many Americans cheered the move, but asked, "how can we keep them from coming back? Could they all just go home and stop bothering us?"

The Republicans supposedly walked out in protest that the Democratic members would not approve a Senate bill that granted blanket retroactive immunity to telecom companies involved in the Bush administration’s "warrantless wiretapping" practices.

Strangely enough, since that measure was not going to come to a vote, the next item on the agenda, forwarded by Chairman of the Judiciary Committee John Conyers, was to hold administration officials Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton in contempt of Congress and authorized a civil contempt suit against the two by the House. When that issue came to a vote, there were no Republicans in the chamber and the measure passed, 223-32.

Sadly, the Republicans returned to their offices and various hearings moments later, dashing the hopes of millions that once gone, they would stay away.

Hack N. Spend, an interested bystander, hoped the Republican lawmakers would make use of FEMA trailers that New Orleans hurricane victims have been living in for the past two years and now were being told by FEMA executives that they are unsafe for human habitation.

"The Republicans could camp right out here in those FEMA trailers since they’re said to be not fit for regular people," said Spend. "Believe me, these Republicans are anything but regular," he added.

Published simultaneously at Thought Puh-Leeze Political Blog

Forum posts

  • There are many things that Congress could fix if they would do their job!
    It’s not just a Republican problem. The Democrats are to blame also.

    THE 545 PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR AMERICA’S WOES!!
    By Charley Reese

    Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then
    campaign against them.

    Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are
    against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all
    the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation
    and high taxes?
    You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I
    don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The
    House of Representatives does. You and I don’t write the tax code.
    Congress does.You and I don’t set fiscal policy. Congress does. You and I
    don’t control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.

    One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme
    Court Justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly,
    legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems
    that plague this country.

    I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem
    was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its
    Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered
    but private central bank.

    I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.
    They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a
    congressman or a president to do one cotton- picking thing. I don’t care
    if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has
    the power to accept or reject it.

    No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s
    responsibility to determine how he votes.

    A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY

    Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that
    what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con
    regardless of party.

    What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive
    amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a SPEAKER,
    who stood up and criticized G.W. BUSH for creating deficits.

    The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to
    accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives
    sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and
    approving appropriations and taxes.

    Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party.
    She and fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they
    want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto.

    REPLACE THE SCOUNDRELS

    It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace
    545 people who stand convicted — by present facts - of incompetence and
    irresponsibility.

    I can’t think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to
    defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

    When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of
    the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they
    want to exist.

    If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair. If the
    budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red. If the
    Marines are in IRAQ, it’s because they want them in IRAQ.
    There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people
    shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can
    abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to
    regulators, to whom theygive the power to regulate and from whom they can
    take this power.

    Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist
    disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics"
    that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

    Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone,
    have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the
    people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to
    manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and
    clean up their mess.