Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Weeper of the House John Boehner, the "Worst. Speaker. Ever.," can get something done when he abandons the extra-constitutional GOP "Hastert Rule" that requires a "majority of the majority" to bring any bill to the floor for a vote. The Hastert Rule is a corruption of the democratic process, just as the secret hold and filibuster rules in the Senate are a corruption of the democratic process.
The TanMan does not want to abandon the Hastert Rule entirely because it would be an admission that he leads a rump majority in the House — Nancy Pelosi's Democrats with the persuadable votes of a few dozen "moderate" Tea-Publicans comprise the effective majority in the House. Abandoning the Hastert Rule would throw the radical Tea Party Caucus under the bus, and likely cost Boehner his leadership role.
But this is the only way forward to do the people's work in Congress. Boehner abandoned the Hastert Rule on the fiscal cliff bill, and now he has abandoned the Hastert Rule on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill to thwart the obstruction from the billionaire bastard hedge fund managers at the Club for Growth and their radical Tea Party allies in Congress.
The New York Times reports, House approves $50.7 billion in emergency aid for storm victims:
After fierce lobbying by political leaders in states across the
Northeast, the House of Representatives on Tuesday night approved a
long-awaited $50.7 billion emergency bill to provide help to victims of
Hurricane Sandy.The aid package passed 241 to 180, with [just] 49 Republicans joining 192
Democrats. The Senate is expected to pass the measure, and President
Obama has expressed support for it.
The majority of the GOP from the South, Great Plains and West voted against any disaster relief for the Northeast after many years of taking disaster relief from the "donor" Northeast states who pay more taxes than they get back from the federal government. Ideological bias against these "liberal blue states" certainly was a factor. The GOP is fast becoming a regional party. Tea-Publicans are about to become an endangered species in the Northeast.
The next time there is a disaster in a "red state," the "donor" blue states of the Northeast are well within their rights to tell these deadbeat "beneficiary" states "Fuhgettaboutit!"
