As Congress adjourned for the midterms, President Obama took his fight to the campaign trail, but where was he when the LGBT community needed him?
In case you missed it, Congress is gone. It recessed for the midterms Wednesday evening.
It was missable ... it sort of went out with a whimper. Rather than scratch and claw for one more accomplishment, one more campaign issue, Democrats just couldn’t wait to pack up and go home after passing a small-business tax cut that President Barack Obama signed into law Monday. Eh, why stay in the fight till October 8 — the originally scheduled time to adjourn — when you can just go on home?
So most likely, when the 111th Congress is a wrap in December, the Obama administration’s major legislative accomplishment for the LGBT community will have been passing the hate-crimes bill. Though there may be one last attempt at moving the National Defense Authorization Act with DADT repeal attached, I can’t find a single student of the legislative process in Washington who thinks there’s any better than a slim-to-none chance the defense funding bill will pass during lame-duck.
And just so you’re not left to wonder where it is on the priority list, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs rattled off lame-duck priorities on both Thursday and Friday, mentioning judicial nominations, appointments, child nutrition, and middle-class tax cuts, among other things. Defense authorization was notably absent.
Don’t worry — if you are underwhelmed by the political stylings of the Democrats and the White House leading up to the midterms, you are not alone.
At Thursday’s briefing the White House press corps was equally baffled about the Democratic strategy headed into election season. Here’s a bit of flavor as a couple reporters struggle to grasp why the Dems didn’t force Republicans to take a vote on the middle-class tax cut that they keep saying the GOP is “holding hostage” in favor of passing tax cuts for the rich.
Robert Gibbs: [The Republicans] price tag for the middle-class [tax cut] was the $700 billion. We could have passed the middle-class [tax cut] alone, provided some much needed certainty to the economy and to middle-class families and had — still had plenty of time to debate the $700 billion price tag for the other cuts.
Reporter: Why not do that? Why not introduce the bill —
Reporter: Why not get Republicans on the record?
Reporter: — and force Republicans to filibuster it?
Gibbs: [Republicans] were unwilling to do that. They were unwilling to —
Reporter: But you can introduce a bill is the point. You can introduce the bill.
Gibbs: Guys, my original answer was I don’t think the bill is the existence of the fight. It is that — look, John Boehner said —
Reporter: You’re not even — you’re not even fighting with them.
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