As you know, in a democracy, the majority rules. Unless you’re in the Senate where, because of some stupid rule, you need a Super Majority (able to leap tall precedents in a single bound!). 
Senate President Harry Reid today used a parliamentary loophole to get around the rule that allowed a minority of Senators to block legislation without having to do a damn thing except say that they wanted to block it. This is why the current Congress has passed less laws than any Congress in the past 70 years. No jobs bill, no infrastructure bill, no tax reform — although they did try almost fifty times to repeal Obamacare. That must have kept them busy.
On one hand, I hate the idea of using these kinds of loopholes. On the other, this is getting ridiculous. We need judges appointed so that courts aren’t so overworked and justice gets done, and the Senate is blocking them for no good reason other than that they can. This move by Reid will allow our government to do the work it has to do. Well, at least regarding appointments. 
In order to keep the minority from blocking legislation, another rule will need to be changed. Maybe in January.
It’s about time that we, the majority, took the government back from a group that actively is trying to destroy it. They closed us down during their childish crying fit when they didn’t get their way over Obamacare, and they’ve been doing everything they can to prevent anything from being accomplished in the meantime.
So Reid used the “nuclear option” to try to take democracy back. I am now having a difficult time not imagine him riding a bomb down to the ground like Major Kong…
Anyway, I’d say “let’s use the nuclear option to bomb the Republicans back to the stone age” but they’re already there.
It’s so nice to have to post welcomes to states that finally allow all citizens to get married, and Illinois is the latest to join when the governor signed the bill today.
The sad news is that almost all of the states left are Republican states and many of them have Constitutional amendments the specifically prohibit gay marriage. Those will take either another amendment to repeal it, or a decision from federal courts stating that these amendments are unconstitutional.
And then there is my home state of Pennsylvania again, the only state in the northeast behind the times. It’s also the only state in the northeast with a Tea Party governor and a legislature dominated by Republicans (thanks to gerrymandering, since more people voted for Democrats). Despite the fact that a majority of Pennsylvania citizens support gay marriage, it’s not going to happen until we get rid of the politicians who do not represent us.
Gay marriage (or as we like to call it “marriage”) will happen over the United States eventually. It’s inevitable. Deal with it.
Based on media coverage of Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz and everyone else, it’s time for a Presidential election!
Oh wait, the election isn’t in 2014, is it?
Hmm. And it’s not in 2015 either.
Guess it’s almost exactly three years away, which makes sense because the last one was just a year ago.
But hey, might as well start discussing this endlessly on the news now, because what happens now is very important for what happens in the election three years from now!
After all, three years before the 2008 election, we all knew that the Democratic candidate would be Hillary Clinton and the Republican one would be Rudy Guiliani. Clearly. (And this State Senator named Barack Obama? Don’t make us laugh!)
As you know, prior to Obamacare, rates were escalating greatly, people were denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, children were denied care, insured could be kicked off if they reached their limit, and health care costs was one of the main reasons for bankruptcy and foreclosures.
Obamacare has had some tremendous problems in its roll out, though, and has come under a lot of criticism even as it addressed these problems.
Let’s now look at what the Republicans are offering as an alternative.
Oh. Right.
Yes, the rollout initially went terrible because the website wasn’t ready. I’m not going to defend Obama over that, and even he apologized for “fumbling.” But let’s look at a few facts to place this in perspective.
1. The website isn’t Obamacare. It just allows you to compare prices and apply for subsidies. So you don’t have to use the website. You can get health care coverage in many other ways.
2. Not a lot of people have signed up through the website, but a lot of people are using other means, such as their own state’s website or their insurance broker.
3. To compare the numbers to Romneycare, the sign up is actually doing better. With Romneycare, everyone waited till the last minute and didn’t jump in and sign up during the first few months. (What? Americans procrastinate? Shocking!)
4. States with Democratic governors that actively promoted their own web page signs ups and encouraged people had good signup numbers. States with Republican governors that did everything they could to defeat Obamacare and make it as difficult as possible for their people to get health care had lower numbers. Who could have predicted that?
5. One of the problems the Obamacare website had may be related to massive hacking on the part of those trying to make it fail. A tool called “Destroy Obamacare” has been circulating which encourages hackers, and the site has been attacked at least sixteen times in the past month according to ABC News.
6. Republicans are concentrating on inadequate, scam plans that are being cancelled because they don’t provide enough coverage under the new law. Well, duh. That was the point of the law, after all — to give everyone real health care and not be ripped off by the insurance companies.
7. Republicans are also pointing out how some people’s rates are going up (the people who had scam policies in the first place). Where were they when everyone’s rates were going up prior to Obamacare? Why should anyone pay attention to these hypocrites?
8. The site is now running very smoothly and there are no major problems. Obama’s promise to have it running well by the end of November has already been met.
And in conclusion, just let me say to those Republicans who are using everything they can to knock down Obamacare and prevent it from being successful, remember: This was your plan. We wanted a single-payer medicare-for-all plan that saves money, already has a bureaucracy in place and has run smoothly for fifty years.
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