GOPerv Obstructions Endanger Basic Congressional Function

This 110th Congress has provided proof without any doubts that the GOPerv party is hell-bent on perverting the process of legislating rather than using it for the purpose it was intended. In case you're asking what was it intended for? you are laboring under the misimpression that the mess Congress is in is its character.

Long long ago and far far away, I had the privilege of working in the Senate for public interests, and one of the bills I am proud to have participated in advancing is the Cold War GI Bill. Sen. McCain, among many others, were able to get degrees, his a law degree, by the benefits of this bill. Look closely at what's going on in the Senate today, and you will conclude that such really great measures are impossible today.

A look at the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) maneuverings will provide a ghastly view of what is happening in the total politicization that has occurred under the influences of the DeLays, the cretin in chief, Rove, and now Sen. Cronyn acting in their wake to keep the congress from accomplishing anything whatsoever.

In the past, Congress has made repeated short-term fixes to avoid ensnaring middle-income taxpayers. An estimated 4 million taxpayers paid the AMT last year.

But this year, the proposed short-term fix became caught in a spirited debate about fiscal responsibility.

When they assumed majority control in January, Democrats pledged that they would be better fiscal stewards than their Republican predecessors, who presided over years of deficits and a rapidly expanding national debt that now tops $9 trillion.

Democrats adopted pay-as-you-go rules that require lawmakers to offset increased spending or tax cuts by finding revenue elsewhere to balance the national checkbook.

Faced with a $50 billion hole if they shielded millions of Americans from the AMT, House Democrats looked to some of the country's wealthiest taxpayers.

They proposed raising the tax rate on some investment-fund managers and partners in private equity companies, many of whom make millions of dollars but pay only a 15 percent tax rate on much of their income, which they classify as capital gains. If they were subject to the standard income tax, they would pay a 35 percent rate as do other high-income Americans.

But Republicans argued there is no need to make up the lost revenue because the tax was never intended to hit middle-income taxpayers.

When the measure came before the House last month, it passed 216-193 without a single GOP supporter.

In the Senate, where Democrats hold a one-vote majority, Republican lawmakers were able to use Senate rules to block any consideration of the House AMT bill. "We are not going to agree on raising taxes," Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said on the floor yesterday.

Senior Democrats assailed their counterparts for obstructing the legislation. Delays in patching the AMT have slowed the processing of tax refunds, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

"We're here to solve a very imminent problem," said Baucus, who proposed a compromise that would have patched the AMT without offsets, while paying for the extension of other tax breaks.

Republican leaders blocked that compromise, as well. And Democrats could not muster the 60-vote supermajority needed on an earlier procedural vote to bring the House measure to the floor as every GOP senator voted no.

The breakthrough occurred last night as Senate Democrats agreed to drop their insistence that the cost of the AMT patch be offset.

There is a big set-to about the fact that having been (under the condition of sworn secrecy) introduced to the fact that torture was being used in interrogation, Democratic leaders failed to bring down the house around them by doing more than trying to have it investigated. While I too would love to have seen our Democratic leaders make the torture issue of primary importance, I am still not throwing the babies out with the bathwater. That I hate torture, and see it as, among the Iraq war, the existence of Gitmo, the signing statements that violate our constitution, and intimidation of voters, turning back advances that are precious to civilization, I still support and insist we need more Democratic lawmakers.

Without a supermajority in the Senate, we can't promote the public interest. I support the good, while wishing for the perfect, and will not ditch the means to achieving the ends liberals seek.