Check out my opinion piece in today’s Politic365.com
Enough already with all the puffery. It’s only November, and I am getting increasingly frustrated over what appears to be shaping up as quite a stalemate in the 112th Congress.
With the lame duck session already underway, none of the controversial legislation on the docket looks remotely close to being passed before Congress recesses for Winter break. No START. No Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. No Dream Act. No extension of the Middle Class Tax Cuts. Nothing!
The First Lady’s bill to get healthy, nutritious food to school children hasn’t even passed. And congressional Republicans voted last Thursday to deny an extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans, and tried to cut off public funding for National Public Radio, though the effort died due to a procedural issue.
While I am anxious to see what a Republican-lead Congress will offer to help turn the tide on economic recession and get more Americans back to work, I must say, there appears to be more chest beating and showboating than anything else going on right now. And I’ve yet to see the presentation of any concrete solutions, just ‘no, no, and more no.’
This political gamesmanship is just ‘business as usual,’ and it’s not what the American people want or need right now.
It would help tremendously if Republican members of Congress would stop behaving as if the American people put them in power for the sole purpose of reversing all of the legislation the Democrats have put in place during the first 18 months of the Obama administration.
Instead of acting as if the midterm election results were a mandate by ‘the people’ to reverse Democratic policies, understand this: a mere 47 million Americans got out to vote this year. There are more than 310 million people in this country. Though incredibly important, the votes of 15% of our nation’s population is not necessarily indicative of a trend.
What’s more, the 47 million people who came out to vote in the midterms is but one third the number of people who got up off their couches and went to the polls in 2008 to elect Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
