GOPeacocking!

[GreaTOne_65]

Here is the list of the 112th Congresses accomplishments! A really proud record I might add! Please if you would point out where other than the grandstand vote on the Healthcare bill, any of what they promised they would do if elected. Jobs and the Economy??

They have given the American people more reason to vote them out than in!

Quick math: The last three Houses have by this time in their tenure produced an average of 76 laws each.

But when House Republicans are actually in session, it's not exactly like they're doing nothing. They've made a point of passing bills that "send a message." Over and over, they've brought legislation to the floor that was doomed to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Why? To put taxpayer money where Republican congresspersons' mouths (and votes) are. Yes, the House Republicans of 112th Congress are having a love affair with the symbolic vote.

Below you'll find a list compiled by The Atlantic of the go-nowhere votes House Republicans have made. On the list are some repeat GOP bogeymen. The House majority has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, EPA and NPR multiple times -- in riders, in amendments, in emergency bills -- none to ever become law. They've also voted at least twice to override President Obama's moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. And of course they've voted several times to defund and block the dreaded "Obamacare."

Call it grand standing, posturing, or GOPeacocking -- in the 112th Congress it's the new normal.

The following are bills the House of the 112th Congress has passed even though the bill will die in the Senate or face a presidential veto:

1. H.R. 2, Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, Jan. 19

2. H.R. 1, Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act (amendments include: defunding the EPA, czars, Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.) Feb. 18

3. H.R. 3, No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, May 4

4. H.CON.RES.34 Ryan Budget Bill (lowering taxing for wealthy, dismantling Medicare), Apr. 11

5. H.R. 1363, One-week budget bill (with Planned Parenthood, EPA and NPR defunding riders), Apr. 7

6. H.R. 910, Energy Tax Prevention Act (a.k.a. Stop EPA bill), Apr. 7

7. H.R. 359, Eliminate public finance, Jan. 26

8. H.R. 217, to Defund Planned Parenthood, Feb. 21

9. H.R. 1076, Defund NPR (this was an emergency vote), Mar. 15.

10. H.R. 1230: Restarting American Offshore Leasing Act, May 5

11. H.J. Res. 37: Disapproving Net neutrality, Apr. 9

12. H.R. 861, Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Termination Act, Mar. 16

13. H.R.1214, Block Money for Constructing School-Based Health Centers, May 4

14. H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act, April 13

15. H.R. 2560, Cut, Cap and Balance Act, July 19

16. H.R. 830, FHA Refinance Program Termination Act, Mar. 10

17. H.R. 836, the Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act, Mar. 14

18. H.R. 839, the HAMP Termination Act, Mar. 29

19. H.R. 1213, To repeal mandatory funding provided to States in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, May 3

20. H.R. 1217, to repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund, Apr. 13

21. H.R. 1255, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act, Apr. 1 (This bill had language in it claiming if the Senate didn't pass H.R. 1, then it became law)

22. H.R. 1315, Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act (gutting CFPB), Jul. 21

Honorable mentions (brought to a vote by the majority only to be voted down by them too): Light bulbs!; clean bill for debt increase; defunding the Libyan conflict.

[BA Deere]

See GTO, you don`t fix what ain`t broken.  This session of Congress tried to git rid of 0bamacare, that is why we voted for `em.  If we could repeal laws and eliminate agencies our problems would be half solved.  And after 3/4 of gov`t workers are fired, we pay politicans to go on vacation and stay away from Washington where they do their dirt to us.  At least try the common sense approach one time!

[GreaTOne_65]

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@BA Deere wrote:

See GTO, you don`t fix what ain`t broken.  This session of Congress tried to git rid of 0bamacare, that is why we voted for `em.  If we could repeal laws and eliminate agencies our problems would be half solved.  And after 3/4 of gov`t workers are fired, we pay politicans to go on vacation and stay away from Washington where they do their dirt to us.  At least try the common sense approach one time!

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You call call that common sense thinking?? You don't think healthcare is broken? If you didn't have $6.00 dollar corn right now, would you have any healthcare, at all? Are you really that niave? Stupid? I don't think you've really thought what you wrote out very well? Your going to fire 3/4 of the gov't workers? What do you suppose they are going to do for jobs, start farming? That's a brilliant idea, then you can watch your bottom line revert back to the 90's and $1.50 corn, $2.50 beans? And no FSA to bail your ass out? Your attitude that you can live without the government is not in the least bit logical, it's down, right comical. Where it not for our government, we would be no better than the worst third world country on the planet. Your thinking, and the thinking of the Repbuclicans is completely wrong headed.

[Nebrfarmr]

Yup, too much politicking, and campaigning from the office, and not enough doing the right thing.  On the other hand, I think we already have more than enough laws and regulations out there, and passing more legislation, just for the sake of passing more legislation is not a good thing.  Simplifying what is already out there, might be a better use of their time.

I think it was Will Rogers that said that the only sure things in life, are death and taxes, and the biggest difference between them, is that Congress doesn't get together every year, and make death worse.

[BA Deere]

You got that wrong GTO, I can get along without the government just fine, it`s the government that would have a tough time getting along without "me".  If we want to fix healthcare, seriously let`s put our heads together and think outside the box.  In the 50`s my Dad got layed up in the hospital up to "Rochester"  he was "doctoring" for a couple yrs, staph infection, nearly lost a leg.  Well sir, he was thankfull he had insurance, but the bill really wasn`t that bad that it would have broke him.  Today that kind of "doctoring" would break a richman.   Now there are 2 problems Number 1  "doctoring" has gotten more advacned than we can afford, alot of specialized machinery that needs paid for that is amortized onto everyone`s bill(getting stitches for $1200 partly pays for a hyporbolic chamber for wound care, ect).  The second problem is "doctoring"  can`t so much be shipped over seas to lower costs like our other jobs.   Now, we used to make tv`s and such, why don`t we slap a tariff on foreign tv`s and such coming in to cover poor paying jobs?  Afterall the true cost of a $1000   50"  flat screen is far higher when you figure our country`s lost productivity....in other words send the bill it`s to proper place.   As far as "What would you do with out of work gov`t employees?" Well in other words our tax money is making a job for them ...no productivity, that ain`t smart.  Let `em be unemployed and send `em a welfare check.  That`s right pay them to sit on their butts for 1/4 of their current salary and keep their noses out of my bloody business!!....that was easy 

[kraft-t]

What do you mean no productivity. They are not factory workers. They handle tasks needed to be done by government. You sound as if they are doing stuff not worth doing. That's a simplistic notion that you have pulled out of your ***.

Go to your local FSA office or your post office. The people working there are doing jobs that we need to have done. Those other folks are doing other tasks that need to be done.

[dagwud]

While I agree this Congress has been a disappointment I don't judge Congress's performance based on how many laws they pass and think it is a poor idea to do so.   I would rather have a Congress that passes laws that actually help the country become better.   My problem with members of Congress from both parties it that they to often put themselves (getting re-elected) and their party above the good of the country.  Many times Congress passes laws that do little to improve things yet raise the costs for businesses and others.  

Take for example Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform and other past education reforms.  Have schools gotten any better?  Have test scores improved?   Are American students doing better compared to students from other countries?  I would argue no yet every school these days has at least one full time employee who's only job is to make sure the school is in compliance with government regulations.

On the subject of health care I have always believed all Americans should have access to good quality health care.  I have also felt the biggest problem regarding health care is that the cost have been rising for many years now faster then the rate of inflation and people's wages.   I think we have the best doctors, clinics and hospitals in the world it is just that we can not afford them.  I believe we need and would be in favor of health care reform if it helps control cost but have serious doubts that our recently passed health care reform will help lower costs or even control them.

In today's Des Moine's Register's Opinion Page there is an editorial written by the paper's editorial staff about Iowa's new high risk insurance pool.  As part of the recently passed health care reform Congress established a program for high risks insurance pools and gave states the option of operating the pools themselves and allocated $5 billion dollars for the program.  Iowa's former governor Chet Culver decided Iowa would operate it's own high-risk pool.   However the reporting by the Register points out how poorly the program has worked out. 

In 18 months Iowa's high-risk pool called HIP-IOWA-FED has enrolled only 200 people spending $2.7 million on paying health care claims while spending $776,429 on "administration."   Nearly $300,000 of that $776,429 was on advertising.  Critics including the Register have complained about the high administrative costs of nearly 30% of the amount paid for actual health care.  Kansas has spent 8.4% while Illinois has spent 3.5 % on administrative costs compared to Iowa for their high-risk pools.  Missouri has more then three times as many enrolled then Iowa yet it spent less money on administrative costs.

According to the Des Moines Register the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services which oversees the high-risk pools, insist Iowa's administrative costs are not out of line?????  Now you see why I have grave concerns about controlling costs.

[schnurrbart]

Maybe that means--at least to me--that Iowa has a large number of **bleep**ing crooks as compared to other states.

[BA Deere]

I mean the Fed DOT, what a worthless bunch of basterds, putting impossible to follow laws on truckers and farmers..reference back to what I said about the soviet union, everyone was guilty of something and too scared to complain.  EPA ..arrogant ashsoles atempting regulating combine dust ..you ever have any luck combining when it wasn`t dusty???  Making farmers build a dike around fuel storage of over 1300 gallons.  If 0bamacare doesn`t get repealed we`ll be saddled with socialized medicine until we all go broke .  Now you`re worried about the FSA workers?   Well God hell aren`t you liberals like Hobby Farmer wanting all farm subsidies done away with???  I agree the workers are nice and top notch but if we do away with the programs what will the workers have to do?  Look my Church has tough decisions to make.  Years of more funerals than baptisms have taken a toll.  I said look, the treasurer says we owe $2,500 in lp and we pay the janitor $3K and appealling to the congregation for more money isn`t working.  So let`s let the janitor(do the cleaning ourselves) go and get out of debt.  They said, "The janitor really needs the job, we can cut this this and this and make it".  Well, we`ll see, I need to see real cuts, because this Church ain`t closing it`s doors owing for heating bills.  See, tough decisions have to be made all over folks, the gravy days are over. 

[GreaTOne_65]

When the administrative costs are that out of wack, I agree with Brian. Something is rotten in Des Moines! Maybe it's time for an investigation!?