Republicans to block bill, until tax cuts extended

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.

Election Results: Some good, some bad

There is absolutely no question that this was a difficult midterm election, and it appeared that Republicans took back the U.S. House of Representatives now holding 239, with 185 held by the Democrats. House Minority Leader John Boehner is anticipating taking over as Speaker of the House from Nancy Pelosi, and that is a blessing in disguise. Pelosi's position as Speaker has probably been more embarassing than some of the things Sarah Palin has said, and Democrats even said that if they were to continue to control of Congress, they would have replaced Pelosi as well. She was beyond awful.

It is pretty clear that Americans all across the country voted out some of the long time incumbents within the House, but that was not the case in the U.S. Senate with Democrats holding on 51 seats, compared to 46 seats held by Republicans. Some of the tea-party favorites such as Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio defeated his main opponent, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who was running as an Independent. Rand Paul defeated Jack Conway by a landslide in Kentucky. Some of the others such as Christine O'Donnell, another tea-party favorite, pretty much cut her own throat, and was defeated by Democrat Chris Coons for the Delaware Senate.

In a surprising turn of events, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came back and defeated tea-party favorite Sharron Angle for Nevada, at was seems to be virtually at the last minute. Other U.S. Senators that held their seats included Incumbent Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, in a very disappointing election in California, voters decided to re-elect Incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who really needs to just retire.

Now that Republicans have taken control of the House, Americans are skeptical, but anticipating, that they will stop the bleeding spending on the federal level. Already, Speaker-elect, John Boehner has entertained the notion of repealing President Obama's controversial Healthcare Reform Bill, but if that is the case, President Obama could always veto the decision, unless Congress could overturn any veto by a 2/3 majority.
We'll see.

The truth of the matter is, while this midterm has certainly sent a message across the nation and to Washington concerning the nation's concern with massive spending and governmental control, there will also be a greater sense of divisiveness in terms of actually getting progress done through Congress. It is fair to say that the Republicans are going to try to cut the federal spending, which is in itself good, but I sincerely doubt there will be any "compromise" between the now Republican controlled House, with the Senate and President Obama.

The coming months all the way to the 2012 election, will display a very interesting slate of events.