The Party of No

Why are the Republicans always accused of being the “Party of No”? Can anyone tell me?

I personally think most people hear them being called the “Party of No” and associate the Republicans with not wanting to work together with Dems to pass any legislation. While it does seem like that is the case due to the spin that Democrats are so good at presenting, that isn't the case. Take the whole debt-ceiling fiasco that is currently going on, the Republicans have presented and passed multiple plans (all while being accused by the Dems of not doing anything). Meanwhile the Dems in the the Senate (even the White House) keep insisting that that anything the Republicans in the House passes, they (the Dems) will not even allow it to come to the floor to be looked at. How are any bills supposed to get passed when half the people involved in the process (the Senate Dems) refuse to even look at any of the plans the Republicans have passed?

The really sad thing about how this process usually goes is, each time the Senate refuses to look at these bills that have been passed by the House, the House then turns around and writes up another plan that is a gutted version of the previous bill. The newly gutted bill passes the House, then goes to the Senate where they won't look at it yet again. I think the Dems plan is to just keep rejecting House bills till the House sends them a blank page. So far who sounds like the “Party of No”?

All the while, the Democrats are constantly accusing the Republicans of not wanting to compromise and blaming them of being an obstacle that is preventing anything from passing. The thing that makes this even more absurd is, while they are blaming and spreading demagoguery, they refuse to present any ideas in writing. They work only towards making the Republicans look like villains when in truth the Republicans are the only ones working toward solutions.

The big problem with the Republican party is that in the past when the Dems have used this tactic, it has always worked in getting the Republicans to give in and agree to anything the Democrats want. The Dems even get the Republicans to draw up all the paperwork on it once they give in so that the Dems can come back behind them, copy it and claim that they are the ones who got it done. This definitely made the Republicans the “Party of No”, or as I think of it, the “Party of No Spine”.

Now with the current debt-ceiling debacle, the Democrats are lost once again on what to do so they look to the Republican party for ideas all while blaming the Republicans of doing nothing. Yet this time something is different. Yes, the Republicans have caved little by little on the one-sided (because the Dems are still refusing to do anything) debt-ceiling debate, there are new members in the Republican party that are from the Tea Party crowd. They appear to have at least given the Republican party a partial spine. For once the Republicans seem to be standing firm, refusing to give in anymore past the point that they have (sadly) been whittled down to. While I disagree with how much they have given up due to the Dems tactics, at least they seem to have stopped caving on their principals for the moment.

The Republicans are finally standing up and saying “No”. No new taxes. No new spending. No promised future cuts to the budget that will never come. No allowing the Dems (Obama) to rule against the will of the people.

Lets hope they stick to their guns and stand proud as the “Party of No”