Why people hate politicians

[Todd33]

?It is an excuse to make it a do-nothing Congress,? Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said. ?And we are turning our back on the middle-class and poor people in this country who depend on the minimum wage and death-tax relief.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/washi...b7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

She supports the increase in min wage? She thinks "middle-class and poor people" benifit from killing the Paris Hilton tax? LOL.

Her record:

Voted NO on raising the minimum wage to $7.25 rather than $6.25. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on repealing Clinton's ergonomic rules on repetitive stress. (Mar 2001)
Voted YES on killing an increase in the minimum wage. (Nov 1999)
Voted YES on allowing workers to choose between overtime & comp-time. (May 1997)
Voted YES on replacing farm price supports. (Feb 1996)
Rated 0% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. (Dec 2003)

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Kay_Bailey_Hutchison.htm

This would be funny if it were not so serious.

 

[zendari]

If democrats would allow a fair up or down vote on the estate tax they would get a fair up or down vote on the minimum wage. But nope, they chose not to.

 

[Todd33]

Damn those Dems with their minority control of both houses.

 

[zendari]

Damn the 60 vote BS actually which lets Democrats turn this into a do nothing Congress.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: zendari
Damn the 60 vote BS actually which lets Democrats turn this into a do nothing Congress.

Next you're going to tell us that 'democracy means majority rules' right?

 

[nageov3t]

there was a comment in a wapo op-ed today that I thought really hit the nail on the head...

The most obvious, outrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night when the Senate voted on a bill that would have simultaneously raised the minimum wage and slashed taxes on inherited wealth.

Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage.

So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed.

The episode was significant because it meant Republicans were acknowledging that they would not hold congressional power without the help of moderates. That is because there is nothing close to a conservative majority in the United States.

from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/08/03/AR2006080301259.html ("The End of the Right?")

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: loki8481
there was a comment in a wapo op-ed today that I thought really hit the nail on the head...

The most obvious, outrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night when the Senate voted on a bill that would have simultaneously raised the minimum wage and slashed taxes on inherited wealth.

Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage.

So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed.

The episode was significant because it meant Republicans were acknowledging that they would not hold congressional power without the help of moderates. That is because there is nothing close to a conservative majority in the United States.

from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/08/03/AR2006080301259.html ("The End of the Right?")

Excellent OP-ED, I saw that earlier and was going to post something about it...but it slipped my mind.

What really interested me is that last comment, mostly because it's true and especially because I think Republicans are finally waking up from the fantasy that after the 2004 election, the country took a massive step to the right. Remember the weeks after the election? That's all you could hear Republicans talking about. It wasn't that the Dems had lost because Republicans did a better job convincing voters, no, Dems lost because they were out of step with the mainstream, because the mainstream had drifted to the right and left the Dems behind. It struck me at the time as a load of BS, and I'm glad to see I'm being proved right...although I'm not convinced the Dems have the stones to take advantage of the current situation...