That looks like a flag pin on Chuckie. I call that trolling when a Democrat wears a flag pin, because we all know they don't love America.
Political Theater. Look, we all know Trump is in the wrong and the way he has hijacked the Republican party is probably fatal for them. If the Democrats really want to put the final sword in, they would simply move on with their business. Stories like the one mentioned above, about the person rationing their insulin, were written on day 1 of the shutdown and they were just waiting on a time to release it. Political Theater. If someone really wanted to end this they would advise the Air Traffic Controllers to stay home in 4-5 big markets and really disrupt everything. But that won't happen because they don't really care THAT much, they just want their time on TV. Political Theater.
Go home. Go to the districts that elected them and work. Noting is happening in DC except photo ops and TV time.
Democrats can’t tell Federal employees what to do. Democrats can pass legislation in the House and send it to the Senate. Senate Majority Leader then can decide to vote on legislation or sit idly until the President’s tantrum finishes.
Why go home when the government is shutdown and their votes could be needed at any moment? Besides, polls show that people blames the GOP and Trump, not to mention the next election is almost two years away. What would anyone accomplish by going to her/his district?
Especially when you can hang out with free spending lobbyists on the beaches of Puerto Rico. Maybe even take in a show. Hell it is cold back home.
What would be accomplished by going to the districts that elected them? Is this a real question? They could all get back to Washington within 24 hours if necessary and you know this. It's not like they could all be assembled in 5 minutes even if they all were in DC already.
Yes, it is a real question, that you haven't answered. And they'd save 24 hours by being already there.
Your assertions seem to be premised on the theory that they're not doing anything right now other than voting on bills to end the shutdown. Is that accurate? Have committee meetings, etc., on other issues been canceled?
You are right, perhaps they are actually working. However, the premise that they cannot be productive while at the offices in the districts that elected them is something I cannot understand. I would think they should be spending the majority of their time in their home districts. I know that's not how their positions have evolved, but it's also a reason so many are out of touch with their constituents. IMO.
Still haven't answered. What do you expect them to accomplish by visiting their districts at this time? Furthermore, phone, emails, facetime, facebook, twitter, etc.. All of them work both ways, don't they?
I am reminded of this cartoon. One side wants to waste our money on a racist president's vanity project that'll be utterly useless in its stated goal, but 100% useful as a monument to reminding our southern neighbors that we as a nation really truly don't like them. The other side is rightfully saying, "No, that's stupid." Thankfully, we've got Mr. Bothsides here on the case.
They constantly go home & work the phones fundraising. I thought for a minute you meant they should "get on with legislatin" and ignore TrumpCo's many crimes.
Remember the olden days when the heavy work of legislators and members of parliament was the hard graft of select committees? And that work of developing policy into legislative text was valued? And then the amount of text our representatives are supposed to read, understand and vote on
Evolved from when? Is not like it was easy to go back and forth in the pre-airplane era. Where we currently stand is that the house has passed a bill to end the shutdown (bad or good it does not matter for now), the Senate now has to pass their own version of the bill (good or bad). Then they have to go to the process of reconciliation, if they agree then the bill goes to the President to sign or veto. If he vetoes we start again. The senate (McConnell) is holding up the process right not.
Democrats have voted in favor of building border walls before (reluctantly perhaps as a compromise), this particular portion (I have no clue where the 1.5 or 5 billion for new wall would go) may be stupid for sure, but it is not really about border barriers. Also house democrats did vote to give some money to homeland security that includes border security, some of it will be to fix/update parts of already built wall. To me this is more about not letting the president take the government hostage every time he wants something like the petulant child that he is, that is why Dems are correct IMO.
House democrats are working on investigations into Russian interference and looking into the finance of Russian companies into Trump corp. I guess they could allow their staff to do it (the staff does all the work anyways) and go to their districts to raise money or do political theater there.
@stanger: Look, they're going to their districts. I learned something today, I didn't know they were required to travel so often. We have district work periods - our jobs aren’t just to vote in DC, but also require us to be rooted in our communities to oversee constituent casework and community outreach.The work schedule is roughly 4 days DC / 3 days District x3 weeks, then 1 full week in district.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 17, 2019 Also, prime moment for TSA to stop working at Reagan and Dulles.
It seems like there's a path towards universal coverage: A brief (?) thread on the future of health reform, inspired by the new KFF poll. This poll shows a lot of public support for Medicare for All -- but this is a great slogan that could mean different things 1/ https://t.co/umZGJ0HjUo— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 23, 2019
Utah's legislature finding ways to circumvent voters approved Medicaid expansion: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...trying-to-undo-it_us_5c535403e4b01d3c1f11a46d The Utah ballot initiative, known as Proposition 3, not only received majority support statewide but also in most state Senate districts, the Utah Health Policy Project reported. According to a Salt Lake Tribune analysis of the vote Wednesday, 10 Republican senators representing districts where a majority voted in favor of the expansion are supporting the bill to modify it, including the legislation’s main sponsor, Sen. Allen Christensen. A plurality of Utahns opposes changing the voter-backed policy, according to a UtahPolicy.com poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates. “You’ve got to defer to the will of the people at some point,” said state Rep. Brian Frank, the minority leader of the Utah House of Representatives and one of 16 Democrats in the 75-member lower chamber of the Utah State Legislature. “We should not be doing anything to substantively alter that Proposition 3 in a way that delays the implementation one more day.” The GOP bill sends a message to voters, King said: “We don’t really care what the people of the state of Utah want to do or say they want us to do at the Legislature. We’re going to do what we want to do. That’s very troubling to me.” These actions by Utah Republican lawmakers are reminiscent of how then-Gov. Paul LePage (R) defied Maine voters last year by refusing to carry out a Medicaid expansion they approved in 2017. LePage’s successor, Gov. Janet Mills (D), has already begun the process of implementing the expansion. In Idaho, where voters also passed a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, a conservative organization is challenging it before the state Supreme Court.