Really? JamesF, the Dems (as a minority) mostly couldn’t and certainly didn’t stop anything Bush wanted. I only wish they knew some “tricks” to stop even just some of the insanity put forth by the right wing at that time.

While the Dems were in the minority, Bush’s Republican Rubber Stamp Congress pass every hideous piece of legislation they wanted, except of course, outlawing abortion. They need that for their rainy-day election pandering.

… and, what are you talking about here? :
—> ” Are you in favor of the 1.6 billion dollar tax break to trial lawyers that was included in this bill? What about “authority to disclose information related to terrorist activities made permanent”? ”

It’s not in the hr:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:o3J8KB_pTD0J:waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/110/bill.pdf+HR6049&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Are you in favor of the 1.6 billion dollar tax break to trial lawyers that was included in this bill? What about “authority to disclose information related to terrorist activities made permanent”? What in the heck do those items have to do with energy or jobs creation? As you can see, the Repub minority blocked this not due to those items that the name would imply, but items completely unrelated

Part me thinks that they add “poison pills” like these to bills to ensure that the opposition party will block the bill from passing, so that can make political hay over it, while not passing anything they may be responsible for (not that policitians are ever held accountable for actual results, the intention is the only thing that matters). Why not just make a bill that provides the things everyone agrees about ( like rather than “Comprehensive Immigration Reform, lets just build the fence and debate the rest later”?)

From another blog: “…its seriously naive to ask, but how does an act “to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes” — aka “tax code kitchen sink” come to be called Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008? ”

http://blog.b-e-f.org/2008/06/10/senate-says-no-to-the-renewable-energy-and-job-creation-act-of-2008/

Another question to ask, is the purpoose of the tax code really for funding government? It seems to me that politicans these days use it more for social engineering - to get get people//businesses to do what they want them to do…

A Republican minority in the Senate today used procedural tricks to kill the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 — a measure that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives on May 21 by a vote of 263 to 160. The law, among things, would have extended tax incentives crucial to existing green energy businesses, and secured 100,000 jobs now at risk. Sierra Club’s Carl Pope called it

…..kicking the economy while it’s down.

http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080610/senate-republicans-kill-renewable-energy-and-job-creation-bill-wheres-mccain

http://energysmart.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/republicans-do-nothing-unless-it-is-drill-and-kill/

When the economy was recovering well after 9-11, did you attribute it to the Pres? I seem to doubt it. Actually the economy is not as bad as the media would make it out to be - it is an effort to elect BO. Once he is president, the economic news will surprisingly become much rosier, despite the fact that none of his policies will have had time to create a effect.

Furthermore, are you honestly pretending that if the economy was doing well you wouldn’t be attributing it to the genius of the Republican administration? Or do you only attribute problems to the administration if it’s a Democratic administration running the show?

At least the good news is that you won’t have to worry about blaming problems on a sitting Republican president next year.