The latest version of "playing politics first" couldn't have been more clearly stated by one of the de facto leaders of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, when he declared his desire for President Obama to fail. With that call for the games to begin, Party faithfuls do what they can to cause Democratic Party efforts to fail purely with the end goal in mind to gain back legislative seats in Congress come next election. Whether or not it is good for the country is a secondary issue with this 111th Congress. This was never more clear than the recent Senate vote on the health care bill where not one Republican voted for it even after the Democrats capitulated to them by pulling out the public option and the Medicare buy-in.
There have been others to suggest a change to the process. Recently Chris Matthews of MSNBC fame and the Huffington Report have supported reducing the number of votes required to bring cloture. Without it we will continue to get legislation that is a perversion of its original intent and doesn't reflect the will of the people. But then, can the will of the people ever be realized in a system where money interests have more power than the voters?
There are some who say that they would rather have gridlock in Congress where no legislation gets passed. In other words, America is better off if Congress does nothing at all. I must admit, this argument does have some merit.
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