Why I left the Democratic Party

1 – Rescued the country from the Great Recession, cutting the unemployment rate from 10% to 4.7% over six years

2 – Signed the Affordable Care Act which provided health insurance to over 20 million uninsured Americans

3 – Ended the war in Iraq

4 – Ordered for the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden

5 – Passed the $787 billion America Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur economic growth during the Great Recession

6 – Supported the LGBT community’s fight for marriage equality

7 – Commuted the sentences of nearly 1200 drug offenders to reverse “unjust and outdated prison sentences”

8 – Saved the U.S. auto industry

9 – Helped put the U.S. ontrack for energy independence by 2020

10 – Began the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan

11 – Signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals allowing as many as 5 million people living in the U.S. illegally to avoid deportation and receive work permits

12 –Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to re-regulate the financial sector

13 – Dropped the veteran homeless rate by 50 percent

14 – Reversed Bush-era torture policies

15 – Began the process of normalizing relations with Cuba

16 – Increased Department of Veteran Affairs funding

17 – Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act

18 – Boosted fuel efficiency standards for cars

19 – Improved school nutrition with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act

20 – Repealed the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy

21 – Signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, making it a federal crime to assault anyone based on sexual or gender identification

22 – Helped negotiate the landmark Iran Nuclear Deal

23 – He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to combat pay discrimination against women

24 – Nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, making her the first Hispanic ever to serve as a justice

25 – Supported veterans through a $78 billion tuition assistance GI bill

26 – Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”

27 – Launched My Brother’s Keeper, a White House initiative designed to help young minorities achieve their full potential

28 – Expanded embryonic stem cell research leading to groundbreaking work in areas including spinal injury treatment and cancer

The House had a quick, successful start (“Six for ’06” Agenda) and continued to build on that record of accomplishment throughout the Congress. Listed are selected highlights of the legislation signed into law:

INNOVATION AND JOBS

COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY LEGISLATION, which raised vehicle fuel efficiency standards (35 mpg by the year 2020) for the first time in 32 years, and making an historic commitment to American homegrown biofuels.

TAX INCENTIVES FOR CLEAN RENEWABLE ENERGY that helped create or save over 500,000 jobs.

COMPETES ACT promoted high‐tech jobs, expanded math and science education, and boosted research and innovation.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND STIMULUS PACKAGEwith Recovery Rebates for 130 million American middle class families to provide some help during difficult economic period.

EDUCATION

LARGEST EXPANSION OF COLLEGE AID IN SIX DECADES, cutting loan rates in half and increasing Pell Grants.

NEW GI BILLto provide free college education to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

HEAD START REAUTHORIZATION, first reform and expansion in 10 years.

FAIRNESS

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE,first in 10 years, a $4,400 raise for 13 million Americans.

ECONOMIC RESCUSE LEGISLATION to protect Main Street from the crisis on Wall Street.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX REFORM protected 25 million middle‐class families from paying the AMT.

MENTAL HEALTH PARITY to end coverage discrimination against patients seeking treatment for mental illnesses.

LANDMARK LOBBY AND ETHICS REFORM, including creating of an outside, independent ethics panel.

NATIONAL SECURITY

ENACTED 9/11 COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS to strengthen homeland security.

LARGEST INVESTMENT IN VETERANS’ HEATH CAREin the 77‐year history of the VA.

HOUSE ACTIONS BLOCKED BY THE PRESIDENT

MANY MAJOR INITIATIVES PASSED BY THE HOUSE WERE BLOCKED BY PRESIDENT BUSH’S VETOES (11), VETO THREATS (64), OR AN HISTORIC LEVEL OF FILIBUSTERS BY SENATE REPUBLICANS

Among the bills passed by the House that were blocked by the President’s veto or obstruction by Republicans in the Senate were:
■Responsible redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq
■Children’s health insurance for 10 million children
■Fall Economic Recovery and Stimulus Effort to create jobs, build essential infrastructure, help states meet soaring health care costs, expand emergency food programs, and extend
■Unemployment Insurance benefits
■Expansion of life‐saving Stem Cell Research
■Giving Medicare the authority to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices, saving seniors hundreds of dollars a year
■Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to ensure women are paid equal pay for equal work
■Curbing excessive oil speculation
■Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ rights by removing obstacles that prevent workersfrom choosing whether or not they want to form or join a union

I'm just mightily suspicious of anyone pushing the idea that the Dems and Republicans are essentially the same, or that the Dem's lack of ideological purity means that they should be abandoned. I suspect that they're not really looking to improve the United States but rather to drive a wedge anywhere they can in order to bring us all down. I suspect that anyone who's still grinding that ax might not be entirely sincere.

They’re both corrupt and anti-democratic.

I don't like either party, but there's still a pretty vast difference between them.

House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years — but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare, that President Trump vowed not to touch.

The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels.

Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans’ priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. Although the nation’s growing indebtedness has been exacerbated by the GOP’s own policy decisions — including the new tax law, which most analyses say will add at least $1 trillion to the debt — Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory.

No democrat is going to vote for that house bill.

Do ya'll think any democrat is going to support the GOP plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security? If you do not, then, no democrats are not the same as republicans. If they do, then yes you are definetely right. If a few of them do, enough to pass any legislation into law, then those few should held accountable and voted out as quick as possible. I am talking of any of those 'moderate' dems who we vote for in red states to beat republicans, of which I don't agree with.

Quote:

Do ya'll think any democrat is going to support the GOP plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security? If you do not, then, no democrats are not the same as republicans.

This is an Excellent point. This point needs to emphasized and reiterated.

If a few of them do, enough to pass any legislation into law, then those few should held accountable and voted out as quick as possible. I am talking of any of those 'moderate' dems who we vote for in red states to beat republicans, of which I don't agree with.

I wish I was sure. There seem to be a few that are wobbly with their votes.

Many of those red Dems are voted in because the Democrat Party establishment backs them in an effort to prevent progressive democrats from being elected.

Do ya'll think any democrat is going to support the GOP plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security? If you do not, then, no democrats are not the same as republicans. If they do, then yes you are definetely right. If a few of them do, enough to pass any legislation into law, then those few should held accountable and voted out as quick as possible. I am talking of any of those 'moderate' dems who we vote for in red states to beat republicans, of which I don't agree with.

If any democrats do vote yes, it would probably be a very tiny percentage. I suspect that either all or at least the vast majority of the democrats will vote emphatically no.