House Speaker John Boehner
Wishing for 2012 — it can’t come fast enough.
Remember the last two years of the previous administration when folks kept asking each other, “will we make it to 2009?” Things were so bad in this country from the decisions made by the previous administration lead by Republicans, even some among their ranks were looking forward to change in the White House.
Republicans’ resolve to first just say no tore at the fabric of governing. We suffered that for two years. After the midterm elections, however, it went from bad to worse. The Republican-controlled Congress have come up with over 900 bills that seek to eliminate women’s rights, redefine rape, redefine justifiable homicide to include murder of a anyone in an abortion clinic, and more.
Every bill seems to be bent on hurting the American people. They’re giving tax breaks to big oil companies and then make us pay for it. I’ve got that old feeling again, “will we make it to 2012″ and the next election to vote these folks out of office.
This week in the Republican-controlled Congress was no different from the last. The Republican-controlled Congress voted on:
- a bill to eliminate funding for school-based health centers—that’s funding for kids who don’t have any other way to see a doctor. One city in my state was hoping to use this money to help buy the software and hardware to build an electronic medical records system at four health clinics and buy a digital x-ray machine for the dental clinic.
- a measure that scales back the right of women to have access to reproductive health care. The bill pushed through by House Republicans is an unprecedented attack on women’s access to the full range of health care services. Their bill actually places restrictions on how women with private insurance can spend private dollars in purchasing healthcare.
And yesterday the Republican-controlled Congress topped the week off with legislation that keeps the gravy train flowing to the oil companies. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster of last summer, which killed 11 people and dumped five million barrels of oil into the Gulf and onto its beaches, the Obama administration revamped the negligent regulatory regime and halted the sales of deepwater leases to oil companies until they could be shown to be safe.
- Yesterday Republicans passed legislation to require the sale of those leases. That won’t change gas prices at the pump a penny. The Democrats tried to bring up legislation that would end the $4-5 billion in subsidies U.S. taxpayers send to the oil companies. No dice. Last week, Exxon Mobil reported quarterly profits of over $10 billion.
2012 can’t come fast enough for me.
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