JIM MCGOVERN

On that day, the Republican Majority in the House adopted a strategy to attach conditions to the normal budget process that they knew was unacceptable to the Senate and the President. The United States Government, the greatest nation on Earth, literally shut down all but the most essential services. What was worse is that the majority of the House of Representatives would pass a clean budget if they could vote on it. But the Tea Party Republicans blackmailed the Republican speaker that he would lose his speakership if he did not follow their strategy which was ironically controlled by a Republican Senator who had already lost on the issues they wanted in the Senate and in a Presidential election.

His Republican controlled House of Representatives frequently were presented with the leadership with a vote they had to make on legislation which the minority Democrats, and often many of the Republicans, did not have any opportunity to know the details of the legislation on which they were voting.

The House Rules Committee had evolved into a very powerful committee which controlled the debate rules of every piece of legislation that came before the House. This Congress—the worst in American History—passed fewer bills than any other. Those that ever got out of the Rules Committee had Rules that prohibited the minority from even offering amendments.

The bill fixed the “Sequester Problem” but for only 2 years at which point the Sequester becomes operational which most members thought was a bad outcome. The years was a compromise between those legislators who wanted the Sequester abolished completely and those who didn’t want to get rid of it at all as it imposed some fiscal discipline on Congress even of the outcome was irrational and destructive in some areas.

His Republican controlled House of Representatives frequently were presented with the leadership with a vote they had to make on legislation which the minority Democrats, and often many of the Republicans, did not have any opportunity to know the details of the legislation on which they were voting.

On that day, the Republican Majority in the House adopted a strategy to attach conditions to the normal budget process that they knew was unacceptable to the Senate and the President. The United States Government, the greatest nation on Earth, literally shut down all but the most essential services. What was worse is that the majority of the House of Representatives would pass a clean budget if they could vote on it. But the Tea Party Republicans blackmailed the Republican speaker that he would lose his speakership if he did not follow their strategy which was ironically controlled by a Republican Senator who had already lost on the issues they wanted in the Senate and in a Presidential election.

The House Rules Committee had evolved into a very powerful committee which controlled the debate rules of every piece of legislation that came before the House. This Congress—the worst in American History—passed fewer bills than any other. Those that ever got out of the Rules Committee had Rules that prohibited the minority from even offering amendments.

The bill fixed the “Sequester Problem” but for only 2 years at which point the Sequester becomes operational which most members thought was a bad outcome. The years was a compromise between those legislators who wanted the Sequester abolished completely and those who didn’t want to get rid of it at all as it imposed some fiscal discipline on Congress even of the outcome was irrational and destructive in some areas.