Barney Frank, one of Congress' most liberal and powerful members, shares this insight. "[O]ur respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.”
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Barney Frank: Back to the Drawing Board
Barney Frank, one of Congress' most liberal and powerful members, shares this insight. "[O]ur respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.”
13 comments:
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The bribery.
ReplyDeleteThe corruption.
The backroom deals.
The lies.
It is just beginning. The Democrats will be more desperate than ever.
IPP,
ReplyDeleteI don't like blanket condemnations of either party. Barney Frank's statement is encouraging bc it demonstrates a desire to work with the other side. Sure, he should have done this before, but better late than ever.
Let's nmot make the mistake the seems to be repeated over and over again. One side villifies the other. That has to stop.
You act as if Bawney has been an honest moderwate bwoker aw awong. In wealwity, Congwessman Fwank has done a weal about face here. I think he wealwizes the GOP now holds some cawds and deserves a pwace at the table. I hope he's changed his stwipes. But I sewiouswy doubt it.
ReplyDeleteThe 60 vote supermajority is designed to give any law the leglative support it needs to be viewed as valid by the American people (although the Dems have proved they can still screw that up).
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine 1/6 of the economy being taken over by a vote 51-49 (or worse yet 50-50 and the tie being broken by the V.P.). Laws could be invalidated/revalidated by subsequent sessions of Congress.
Imagine trying to plan for your business or family when such uncertainty could exist in what laws we have to live under.
Barney Frank, one of Congress' most liberal and powerful members?
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me! Get off the drugs.
He might be more of a corporatist
than most Republicans would dream aspired too!
"lol" of the insanity of the people of the valley.
Anon 1:39 -
ReplyDeleteBarney Frank IS one of the most powerful, progressive, liberal leaders in the House.
I'm sorry if you believe that the Progressives are not the ones in bed with big business. Perhaps you should check the White House visitor logs and see who cut which deals in the current health care bills.
The fact is Progressives (in both parties) will gladly join up with big business and big labor to promote big government. The end result is less freedom for all individuals.
Big government, big business, hand in hand? Take a look at Western Europe.
ReplyDeleteScott Armstrong
Don't think too many are agreeing with you about Frank, O'Hare.
ReplyDeleteFrank is a lying clown.
The D's had their chance.
THEY LIED and LIED and LIED some more.
They are power thirsty radicals.
Wake up, dude.
Got Transparency?
Got this campaign promise, or that one?
No, you don't!
You got a bunch of BS rhetoric.
Get off the drugs.
That's about right.
Come on Bernie, you are way smarter than that. This guy is trying to save his own skin and to throw a little water on the fire. I'm still looking for a map to back it up, but I've heard and seen commentary about Brown doing very well in Frank's district.
ReplyDeletePig is right to a great extent, if we are to judge by how the D's have conducted themselves to this point, and Obama and friends threatening to "double down" and ram the bill through. The part he leaves out is that the Republicans did much the same thing, failed to govern and took what advantage they could and sold out to special interests when they were in power as well.
There are some good people, like the freshman R's in 1995 that kept to their term limit pledges, and Bob Casey Sr, that go into politics. But the parties and their leaders are exactly as the PIG grunts.
Maybe this guy Brown can change things. We shall see.
I give Frank credit, however belatedly, ffor sayimng something that needed to be said. I wish he had said it earlier.
ReplyDeleteI like when Barney told about always wanting to have sex on George H.W. Bush's old Congressional locker. He's a real class act.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=799&dat=19891020&id=C4APAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B4gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5287,2024206
I'm a dem; i voted for the big O.
ReplyDeleteI stayed at home last night cheering for Brown. No one likes the deals that were made in the weeks before the Senate votes. I really mind having to pay my share and part of Nebraska's, etc.
This was not an election about politics, it was an election about evil. Harry Reid is evil. When you look at him, you see a person with one foot in hell. Look in his eyes; he is pure evil
Hey you so-called "conservatives" -- show me where the 60 vote rule is in the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1:36 said...
"The 60 vote supermajority is designed to give any law the leglative support it needs to be viewed as valid by the American people (although the Dems have proved they can still screw that up)."
Bullcookies. The 60 vote rule is all about ignoring the will of the people and protecting the ruling class.
Who is the ruling class? Those folks we continue to re-elect even after they have screwed us over.
We got the government we deserved. H. L. Mencken was right.
Jefferson (That's Thomas - one of the Founding Fathers) held that universal suffrage made necessary the accompanying idea of universal education, yet today we have so-called "conservatives" such as Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh assert that educated folks are the "elite."
This Teabagger thing is not going to end well.