Americans to Congress: "GET TO WORK!!"

Before Congress passed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, 71% of Americans polled by Rasmussen Reports said that Congress is doing a poor job. Three weeks later, that number stands at 64%.

The message we may draw from this polling is clear: Americans want a government that works; we want a Congress that gets things done.

What is keeping Congress from doing its job?

As of the end of February 2010, The Hill reported that there were 290 bills passed by the House of Representatives in the 111th Congress that the Senate had yet to consider. Of those, 105 were uncontroversial bills that had passed the House with at least 90 Republican votes (a majority of House Republicans) and 139 by voice vote, with no Republicans objecting. That's 244 uncontroversial bipartisan pieces of legislation that passed the House, and that are being held up in the Senate by obstructionist Republicans for no reason other than Republican insistence upon preventing Congress from doing its job.

Obstructionist Republicans are stalling the confirmation of hundreds of President Obama's noncontroversial nominees to Administration positions simply to prevent the President from doing the job we elected him to do.

Called out by the President and members of his own party for his Luntz-lie about pending Wall Street Regulation legislation, Mitch McConnell has had to back down, and is now giving lip service to its passage.

McConnell backing down is a sign that even Republicans understand that the vast majority of the American people do not support their strategy of obstruction, and will take action against obstructionists when we find out about them.

Americans want a Congress that works. Republicans are dedicated to preventing Congress from getting anything done.

Americans need to vote together in November 2010 and again in November 2012 to take the Republican strategy of total obstructionism away from them. We need to elect enough Democrats in the House and Senate that, should it be required, Democrats could even pass a Constitutional amendment without a single Republican vote. This would ensure that we would have enough Senate Democrats in place to overcome Republican obstructionism on all noncontroversial legislation and Presidential nominees, so our government can once again do what we have charged it to do.

We need to establish at least a two-thirds Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

Let's get together and figure out the best way to make that happen!