In his weekly address, President Obama spoke about oil production and energy policy in general, but also spent some time shining a light on a pending piece of legislation that's going to matter quite a bit this week.
For those who can't watch clips online, this was the important part of Obama's comments:
"So much of America needs to be rebuilt right now. We've got crumbling roads and bridges. A power grid that wastes too much energy. An incomplete high-speed broadband network. And we've got thousands of unemployed construction workers who've been looking for a job ever since the housing market collapsed.
"But once again, we're waiting on Congress. You see, in a matter of days, funding will stop for all sorts of transportation projects. Construction sites will go idle. Workers will have to go home. And our economy will take a hit. This Congress cannot let that happen."
Well, Congress shouldn't let that happen, but time is running out.
As we discussed two weeks ago, the Senate easily approved a bipartisan, two-year, $109 billion highway bill. The package was crafted by one of the chamber's most liberal members, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and one of its most conservative, James Inhoffe (R-Okla.), before passing the chamber on a 74-to-22 vote.
Ordinarily, easy Senate passage of the highway bill would have led to a lot of sighs of relief. After all, the highway bill is critically important to financing infrastructure projects nationwide, and is usually one of the year's least-contentious legislative fights. Everyone knows this bill has to pass.
But with the Republican caucuses moving so sharply to the right, this year is ... tricky.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made his transportation bill one of his top 2012 priorities, only to see it fail spectacularly. The Speaker instead signaled recently he'd try again with the Senate bill.
This, of course, leads to two questions: (1) can the House pass the Senate version? and (2) what happens if it doesn't?
On the first question, this should be an easy lift for the House, but as we've seen many times over the last year, what should happen in the lower chamber and what does happen are two very different things. Rank-and-file Republicans effectively believe the nation will be better off if Congress invests less in infrastructure, and the bipartisan nature of the Senate bill doesn't seem to matter.
As for the second question, if the House rejects the Senate bill, Congress will be forced to pass another short-term measure -- the latest in a series of short-term extensions -- before existing funding expires this Saturday (March 31).
Regrettably, this temporary extension appears to be the most likely route. Because rank-and-file House Republicans perceive the bipartisan Senate bill as insufficiently right-wing, the lower chamber is eyeing a 90-day extension of existing transportation funding.
This is hardly ideal -- short-term bills make it very difficult for states to do any sort of meaningful transportation planning -- but at least there won't be a disaster, right? Well, maybe. Brad Plumer reported this morning on congressional prospects.
[W]ith time running out, the bill is being considered under a suspension of the rules, which means it needs a two-thirds majority in the House to pass. And that's far from assured. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats, who would prefer the House just take up their bipartisan two-year highway bill, have quietly conceded that they'll consider a short-term extension instead -- say, 45 or 60 days -- to avoid immediate chaos. But the Senate's also running out of time, and there's the danger that even a short-term bill could get caught in the snags and delays and cloture motions the chamber is famous for.
Odds are, the House and Senate will figure something out, and soon.
They'll have to -- current funding stops in about five days.
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"Ordinarily, easy Senate passage of the highway bill. . ."
But, we live in EXTRAordinary times!
"Besides, this is an election year, and we have to get the Kenyan out of our White House, for Pete's sake!"
Another impasse because of the House will play into the Dems hands. Failure to pass a bill could cost every state more jobs. That gives Dems an issue to beat on the Republicans. We may be seeing the last gasps of the Tea Party who are watching opinion polls which are not favorable. The hard core right wing may believe that reviving the deficit issue is their ticket to reelection. If they are wrong, Republicans in the House are going to get slaughtered. On this highway bill, I am going with the voters who will be angry about the jobs lost.
More proof that Republicans are lower on the evolutionary scale than amoebas.
If the tealiban hasn't been paying attention to the writing on the wall they are going to be surprised come January 2013 when they are told to pick up their broken toys and go home. Couldn't happen to a nicer group of liars. Well, I know saying nice is going a stretch.
This Healthcare reform is confusing. Since if I cannot afford health insurance, then I still will not have health insurance, regardless any attempted penalty from the IRS. You can only squeeze so much blood from a turnip. So if it fails at the supreme court, then do it better and right the next time.
Ignore our obstructionism. Blame the man we want you to hate for the state of the economy. After all it's God's will.
So once again the American people (99%) are getting screwed over, because the "spoiled tamper throwing children" in the House haven't a friggin clue about what really defines "government", why am I not surprised!
I feel what is happening now, is the GOP has been turning away bills for so long, that if those bills were passed they would have by now had a great impact on the state of our economy. It has now become an accepted part of our legislature that the GOP will not pass any bills that are introduced by a Democrat. We know it, are they assuming, making an ass of you and me, that Most Americans don't pay attention to what goes on in The Congress? I think it used to be that way, but, now more people are paying close attention to the obstruction. They are trying to wear us down. I am sick of all this probably like a lot of people but, it still needs to be reported. Every lie, every vote against The Middle Class and the poor, every right that has been taken away, every attempt to ridicule the President based on lies....it all needs to be reported. And the media needs to keep reporting it. We can't let our guard down. The GOP goes t work and spends their time on issues that are of no importance to us right now. They dress up real perty matching cufflings to go along with their gold and diamond studded tie clips. They lunch at the finest restaurants for lunch. Then they go home with nothing accomplished. How much are we paying them again?
If Obama was the far-left-wing radical Republicans claim he is he'd already have slashed the military budget and put the money into construction projects. Instead he caves on military spending, allowing Republicans to attack him on debt, and wrings his hands on infrastructure construction. What we see is Obama is one of them, a Republican, and why criticisms of Obama Republicans make are such rabid lies.
If Obama were actually a leftist he'd have nationalized the oil industry, broken up the financial services industry so the remaining providers would no longer be "too big to fail", repealed Bush tax cuts, doubled stimulus spending, reinstated Glass/Stiegall, curtailed military aggression by pulling back US forces overseas and cutting military spending, and made jobs with domestic spending. On this blog a topic claims "Obama added, "'his is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility'." Let's hope in his next term he will find the nerve.
Man, give this man a break! Why don't you go and try to do all of those things along with everything he has done and then get back to us on that one. Meanwhile entrance to the Gloom and Doom Party is to the Right there's quite an expensive cover charge though. Your soul.
Obama is not a Republican - he is a centrist, but you are correct that he is not the left wing radical socialist that the GOP keeps portraying him as. The problem with being a centrist, is that the GOP has lurched so far to the right that it has moved the center farther to the right. Obama strikes me as a pragmatist, and just wanting to get things done (whether it is for the good of the country or feathers in his cap for reelection, that is up for debate). I think
Obama has done a decent job, but he dropped the ball his first 100 days in office when he should have slammed through drastic financial reforms such as the Glass-Stegal act and breaking up the big banks. It took Obama too long to find his footing once he took office, and sometimes he is just too calculating. The fight over health care has engulfed his entire Presidency, and with an entire party of obstructionists shouting lies and miss-truths to any person with a microphone, he has been lucky to get done what he already has.
I agree with your premise though - Obama is not a true liberal.
Obama fooled us into thinking he was a liberal in order to bank off anti-Bush sentiment. He fooled those guys in Stockholm, too. Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize but has increased military spending, compromised civil rights in the DoD bill, renewed the PATRIOT Act, increased US forces in Afghanistan, provoked Pakistan, increased drone attacks and civilian deaths, and only reduced forces in Iraq in accordance with the Bush SOFA.
Why continue the BS that the president can do anything independently.The title is president not emperor. Perhaps if the electorate wakes up and votes in some actual legislators instead of obstructionists, something significant can be done.