When will the GOP get with what's bothering Americans - like sky high
gas prices?
When will they learn that 'flag burning' doesn't produce enough energy
to keep your house warm in the winter, especially since fuel oil will
probably be 3 bucks this year?
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GOP agenda crashes and burns
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Jul 9, 2006, 07:06
Could a Republican-controlled Congress pass a bill to protect the words
"under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance from court challenges? No
problem, especially if proposed during the patriotic season leading up
to the Fourth of July, Republican leaders thought. No way, it turned out.
The bill, the first item on the GOP's election-year "American Values
Agenda," couldn't get past a House committee. Even worse for the
Republicans: They couldn't blame the flameout on Democrats. One of the
GOP's very own, Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, voted no. Seven other
Judiciary Committee Republicans skipped the panel's meeting entirely.
So it goes this year for House Republicans, their majority in jeopardy
for the first time in more than a decade. An unpopular president, deep
divisions in their ranks and Democrats determined to regain control add
up to a Congress that's having trouble doing its most basic job: passing
legislation.
Republican leaders tried to shrug off the setbacks, while Democrats have
pounced on the lack of progress.
With two-thirds of the 2006 legislative calendar spent, Congress has
passed and sent President Bush only two pieces of major legislation. One
renewed the terrorist-fighting USA Patriot Act while the other extended
$70 billion in tax cuts, roughly divided evenly between investors and
middle-income families.
Stalled or killed are such top GOP priorities as immigration reform,
repealing estate taxes and changing rules on lobbying in response to
several ethics scandals.
Still alive on the agenda this year are renewing the Voting Rights Act,
pension reform and federal funding for embryonic stem cell research,
though President Bush has promised to veto the latter. And don't yet
count dead the bill to protect the Pledge of Allegiance. Leaders can
bypass their judiciary committees and bring it to floor votes in both
houses.
� 2006 The Associated Press
© Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue
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