ARE YOU AWAKE YET?
What do you do when you legislate against the wishes of your constituency? You ram everything down their throat before they can kick you out of office.
It started with the "non-Stimulus" bill, followed up by the healthcare transformation bill, then we had the moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf, then they decided not to pass a federal budget (just deem and pass it), then we had financial transformation bill and the lawsuit against Arizona. Next up - Card Check, environmental regulations, more pork barrel spending and several items to usurp states' rights.
I recommend that you read this op-ed from the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704293604575343262629361470.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Notice how the Democrats characterize their intentions:
- "I've got lots of things I want to do" in a lame duck, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W. Va.) told reporters in mid June.
- North Dakota's Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, wants a lame-duck session to act on the recommendations of President Obama's deficit commission. "It could be a huge deal," he told Roll Call last month. "We could get the country on a sound long-term fiscal path." [by raising taxes on the few people who still have a job and redistributing it as the federal government sees fit]
- Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters last month that for bills like "card check"—"the lame duck would be the last chance, quite honestly, for the foreseeable future."
- Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, chair of the Senate committee overseeing labor issues, told the Bill Press radio show in June that "we're still trying to maneuver" a way to pass some parts of the [card check] bill before the next Congress is sworn in.
- A Senate aide told me that "some of the biggest porkers on both sides of the aisle are leaving office this year, and a lame-duck session would be their last hurrah for spending."
