Common Sense University

Traditionally, the last two years of a two-term presidency have been called Lame-Duck periods, implying that the President does not have much political clout left and cannot really accomplish much of any significance. These are therefore times of gridlock in Washington D.C. whereby the President and Congress battle over whose agendas will be acted upon. We are currently in such a period but from what we can tell, things are different.

While President George W. Bush had to deal with a Republican-run Congress during the first six years in office, in his final two years, his so called ‘Lame-Duck years’ Congress is now run by Democrats who won a plurality in November 2006. At first glance, one had to assume that these would be really tough years for the President because of the antipathy bordering on outright hatred Democrats had accumulated towards him and his agenda. With his poll ratings low, the war in Iraq being extremely unpopular with Americans in general due to the realities on the ground there, it was safe to assume that these would be years where the Democrats would set the agenda and rule the country. Let’s now revisit what happened since the Democrats took control of Congress:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the helm in January and vowed among other things to end the war in Iraq this year, period! In April or May, Harry Reid announced publicly that “The war is lost” while having sent General David Petraeus a few months earlier (in February) to Iraq as the new military commander with the mission to turn things around over there based on a new strategy of counter-insurgency. Congress approved a troop increase of about 30,000 soldiers, called the surge with strings attached such as short-term achievement goals for both the military and the Iraqi government with an interim progress report before Congress by September. The Democrats felt pretty confident and thought they had dictated the agenda. While they continued to criticize the President, the war and the military during these months, something surprising happened.

The General and his commanders (and troops) turned things around in Iraq. In fact, things are going so much better over there that the Iraq war is no longer producing front-page news for American media outlets. The number of troop deaths has fallen dramatically, fatalities among the Iraqi population are greatly reduced, Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have been nearly defeated or rousted out of the country. The Iraqi people are supporting the American troops generally speaking; Iraqi military and police forces are growing in numbers and taking over responsibilities in province after province. In fact, some American units are returning home before the end of this year without having to be replaced. The American people have recognized this turnaround and are supportive of completing the mission and winning the war, a war that seemed un-winnable just six months before.

Common sense would expect this to be good news for all! Wrong, the Democrats in Congress are still not convinced and cannot help themselves in trying to attach mandatory troop withdrawal deadlines to additional funds for the war. At this time, they have vowed not to deal with any additional funding for the war until some time next year. This is irresponsible leadership on the part of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and their lieutenants in Congress. But that is not all, they also have not completed their work on funding all other governmental budget items. They have spent endless time trying to increase government programs such as the ‘S-chips’ program that the President vetoed twice now. They have been mainly stopped by procedural votes in the Senate where the Republican minority prevented the Senate from reaching the 60-vote quorum level. Congress is now facing very short deadlines to achieve these budgetary funding goals and the Democrats are now in such disarray among themselves between the leaders and committee chairpersons, it would be amusing to watch where it not so serious. These funding measures were all supposed to be finished and on the President’s desk for his signature by the end of September. But they were not and might not even be before Christmas. This could lead to a government shut-down. Let us hope that this will not happen. On many other issues, too numerous to list here, the Democrats failed miserably to force their will on the President and had to compromise with his positions.

But we have to ask the question: Who is the Lame Duck and who are the lame ducks? Common sense tells to us that the President is, contrary to conventional wisdom, not a Lame Duck but is instead pretty much in control and at least an equal player in Washington D.C with his veto pen. But we also have to criticize the President who has apparently rediscovered his spending control goals for allowing too much excess ‘pork-barrel’ spending when Republicans were in charge of Congress from 2001 until 2006. Charges of double standards against have some merit.

But for the Democrats, their highly anticipated take-charge goals and objectives for this past year have been much kept to a ridiculously small minimum. Raising the minimum wages in America is not what we would call a major achievement benefiting all Americans. Watching them now scramble to get the funding measures approved with its associated infighting among them, is invoking pity on the part of the observer. The words incompetence and inaptitude best describe this drama being acted out in Congress these days. As far as Lame Duck status is concerned, we conclude that it does not apply to the President but we could suggest that status this year to Congress.

This article and others on Back to Common Sense are designed to provoke further thought and investigation.   It is not the intent for the articles to be politically biased. Sources are referenced in each article to encourage readers to delve into the supporting material.  We welcome all readers to participate with their point of view either in support or contrary with additional information sources.

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