How's your "6 in '06" doing?

I was just thinking back today to the last national elections. A group of Democrats who were running for positions in the House of Representatives were making some big promises. They called it their "6 in '06."

From the Democrats own website:
http://www.democrats.org/agenda.html

In 2006, the Democratic Party promised to address six important issues in Congress. Now that Democrats are back in charge in the U.S. House and Senate, you can keep up with the Democrats as they follow through on their promise for a new direction.

OK, so let's look at this and see how each of these are looking now...

First, honest leadership and open government. Let's look first at 2 local people serving their people in Congress. Mr. McNulty and Ms. Gillibrand. They both worked on one special bill over the past 2 years. At the time of the vote on bill # 3161, Mr. McNulty was sitting in the position to take the vote for this bill and it was his job, at the appropriate time to gavel the vote closed.

The following is the night as captured on politico.com.

House erupts in chaos


In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions (video link courtesy Breitbart.tv), Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and a distinct low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber because members of one party have rarely, if ever, walked off the floor without casting a vote.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.



One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders – but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call - a strange development in itself.

Whatever the final tally, acrimony quickly exploded between lawmakers on either side of the aisle as Democratic leaders tried to plot a solution, while parliamentarians on either side argued over protocol.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) eventually offered a motion to reconsider, according to floor staff on either side, ostensibly giving members a chance to recast their votes. But the maneuver sparked a chorus of angry protests from the Republicans, yelling “shame” on Democrats, while they returned fire with angry volleys of their own.

When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

“Obviously, the Democrats don’t want to stand up against illegal immigration – so much so that they’re willing to cheat in order to win a vote,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in an e-mail. “They’re desperate – and it shows.”

The official House website did not show a record of the vote as of 1 a.m. Friday

Add this to the fact that Ms. Nancy Pelosi decided to literally turn off the lights in Congress.
CBS News article

House Dems Turn Out The Lights But GOP Keeps Talking
By John Bresnahan

Aug 1, 2008

(The Politico) Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the light and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m. and are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on, and the microphones have been turned on as well.

But C-SPAN has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one is witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.

Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20 now, according to Patrick O'Connor.

"This is the people's House," Rep, Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said. "This is not Pelosi's politiburo."

Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker's Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.

"You're not covering this, are you?" complaing one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans "morons" for staying on the floor.

Update - The Capitol Police are now trying to kick reporters out of the press gallery above the floor, meaning we can't watch the Republicans anymore. But Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is now in the gallery talking to reporters, so the cops have held off for a minute. Clearly, Democrats don't want Republicans getting any press for this episode. GOP leaders are trying to find other Republicans to rotate in for Blunt so reporters aren't kicked out.

Update 2 - This message was sent out by Blunt's office:

"Although, this Democrat Majority just Adjourned for the Democrat 5-Week Vacation, House Republicans are continuing to fight on the House Floor. Although the lights, mics and C-SPAN camera's have been turned off, House Republicans are on the Floor speaking to the tax payers in the gallery who, not surprisingly, agree with Republican Energy proposals.

All Republicans who are in town are encouraged to come to the House Floor."

Update 3 - Democrats just turned out the lights again. Republicans cheered.

Update 4 - Republican leaders just sent out a notice looking for a bullhorn and leadership aides are trying to corral all the members who are still in town to come speak on the floor and sustain this one-sided debate.

Also, Republicans can thank Shadegg for turning on the microphones the first time. Apparently, the fiesty Arizona conservative started typing random codes into the chamber's public address system and accidentally typed the correct code, allowing Republicans brief access to the microphone before it was turned off again.

"I love this," Shadegg told reporters up in the press gallery afterward. "Congress can be so boring...This is a kick."


Copyright 2008 POLITICO

So, even though at this point it's been in the news that Nancy Pelosi has agreed that we need the vote on energy, for some reason, the lights are still out in Washington, D.C.

I guess that takes care of points # 1 and 3.

Point #2: Real Security: Seems to me that Congress has done everything they could to this point to block the wall from being built at the border of the United States and Mexico. In fact, they have removed the funding from this, therefore, from what I understand, unless another bill is passed, there will be no fence, therefore, no security.

Point #4: Economic Prosperity and Educational Excellence. I'm sorry, but if they think that their program of "No Child Left Behind" actually does anything to help, they are sadly mistaken. I agree with many who have given this the more proper name, "No Child Gets an Education." This is what this program really is, as since they decided that they needed this program, the realization has swept across America that the determination of if this is coming true is per scores on tests. Now, I realize that testing is important, but if the only qualification is how many kids pass a test, then you'll get what you have now, teachers teaching so that kids can pass a test, not to make sure they can learn. They need to be able to spew facts out of books (which, in themselves, are open to controversy if the information in them is actual fact or not).

5. A Healthcare System that works for Everyone. Now, I see that they have constantly tried to work on this, both at the state and the national level. I would like to pose the question first to the House and Senate in Washington, D.C., what part of the Constitution is it that allows you to make up and run a national healthcare system? And haven't you realized with running Medicare and Medicaid that things just aren't working? The "New Plan" from many years ago needs to be done away with. We need, instead, to go with the "Old Plan," allowing the free market to decide who is going to have what coverage. Instead, we here in NY have the Berger Commission closing our hospitals and making things "better" for us. For more on the issues that this has caused locally in Rotterdam, please check out this link at RotterdamNY.info:

And finally, #6, retirement security. Well, I must say, as a person who is living in New York State in my younger 30's, I must say that I have already realized that I need to make long-term plans, as I don't expect that either Social Security or Medicare will be there for me when I get to retire. Also, with everything that's been going on as far as approval / denial of the availability of oil on the open market has played havoc with my (and I'm sure many other people's) 401k plan. The fact that costs have gone up so much on other things makes it so that it is more difficult for me to put away money for retirement, as the costs to live are at a level nowadays that it outweighs the availability of funds. With the price of gas going from somewhere around $3.20 in January 2008 up into the $4.15 - $4.25 per gallon range, only to make us feel secure in prices now that they are down in the range of $3.60 per gallon. That's right, we should be so lucky that the prices are at $3.60 per gallon. Everybody says that the economy has gone so poorly in the past 8 years. I would like to rebut that with saying, with the exception of the time of Hurricane Katrina hitting Louisiana 3 years ago, the only time that the economy seems to have been in a tailspin is within the past 2 years, since the Democrat majority took control in Washington, D.C.

As Fred Thompson said tonight,

"Now, our opponents tell us not to worry about their tax increases, they tell you that they're not going to tax your family, they're only going to tax businesses. So, unless you buy something from a business, like groceries, clothes or gasoline, or unless you get a paycheck from a business, abig business, or a small business, don't worry, it's not going to affect you. They say they're not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the other side of the bucket."