Considered bold by some, Republican Senate leaders have all come together (yes, all 42 of them) to block all current and future legislation until the tax cuts are extended and they can agree on a bill that will properly fund the Federal Government.
While President Obama is in a crisis mode, trying to figure out how to address the situation, Republican Senators remain firm on the matter wanting to only concentrate their efforts on the tax and spending bills before the end of the year. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says all Democratic Senators are doing is simply "ignoring" what the voters decided on in the Midterm elections.
Democratic Senators lead by Majority Leader Harry Reid, say the pack is threatening their attempts to lift controversial legislation such as allowing openly gay members to serve in the military, and the DREAM Act, a Congressional measure to allow illegal aliens under the age of 16 a path to citizenship, and to go to college.
Republicans overwhelmingly do not support the DREAM Act because they say it is simply a form of amnesty. The measure seems more or less, targeted at a majority of Latinos and Hispanics who support the measure, yet even special interest groups have begun to criticize Senator Reid and President Obama for simply not doing enough to support the DREAM Act, and to repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, which Republicans want as remaining legislation.
Its nothing that we have not seen before in partisan politics, but we can definitively see why it is called the 'Lame Duck Congress'... You'll have one party saying no, and the other party saying yes, and with no compromise.
But probably the most important issue is the tax cuts themselves. Too many people are struggling and cannot deal with being taxed to death any longer. That should be the top priority among the Senate, not the DREAM Act and not the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy.
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