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“More kabuki theater.”

It is interesting how this is playing out. After an unprecedented win in the midterm elections the GOP leadership decides to go for only one big thing in the budget battle — a modification to Dodd Frank which will release some restrictions on derivatives trading on the “too big to fail banks”. Derivatives are financial instruments employed by Wall Street in high stakes speculation and were a major contributor to the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent bailout of Wall Street financial institutions. Instead of pulling funding from Obamacare, executive amnesty, the EPA, or the myriad of leftist organization sucking grant money off the government teat, Boehner and McConnell decide to accomplish one thing in the budget process — reward their buddies on Wall Street with a provision that has nothing to do with government spending but may cost the taxpayer trillions when the banks have to be bailed out again!!!

It appears the Democrats have outfoxed them. Obama got everything he wanted in the way of spending in the House bill and the conservative middle class taxpayers who put the GOP in power got nothing. In the Senate, Elizabeth Warren will bring the government to shutdown unless the Republicans agree to take out the Dodd-Frank provision. Obama, the press, Reid, and Warren are prepared to go to the mat to remove this provision because it furthers Warren’s rise to presidential status. If the Republicans don’t roll over quickly, the fight is going to play out in the press as Warren, the new Joan of Arc, fighting for the little guy against the Republicans and the Wall Street criminals. This is not a public relations battle the Republicans can win. Even if Warren loses this battle, her name recognition and stature will rise.

A fight squandering political capital in a budget battle for a non-budget add on that rewards Wall Street for reckless behavior is both a slap to the face of the conservative base as well as a huge boost for a potential opposition presidential candidate in 2016.

McConnell and Boehner may be the worst Congressional leaders in American history. They are certainly not strategists. Where are Sam Rayburn, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Tip O’Neil, and Everett Dirkson type leaders at this point when the Republic and the party needs them? Dare I even say Lyndon Johnson who was one of the most ruthless and effective Senate majority leaders of the 20th Century?

This is the first battle since an election that should have redefined the political landscape in Congress. Even though the Republicans don’t take the Senate until January, they aren’t behaving like a party capable of exercising power when the new Congress is sworn in a few weeks.

This act of the play can be summed up:
Losers - the American People
Winners - Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and possibly Wall Street speculators if the Dodd-Frank provision doesn’t get stripped.

To think I stood in line on election day in order to be able to watch this pathetic display.

Instead of pulling funding from Obamacare, executive amnesty, the EPA, or the myriad of leftist organization sucking grant money off the government teat, Boehner and McConnell decide to accomplish one thing in the budget process — reward their buddies on Wall Street with a provision that has nothing to do with government spending but may cost the taxpayer trillions when the banks have to be bailed out again!!!

Yep. And it will get worse next year. The Dems are ready for battle with an eye on 2016. While the Dems are going scoreched earth, Ryan is all fired up to cut corporate tax rates. That’s his big battle and it dovetails nicely with the Dem game plan. A pounding Dem populism will wipe the floor with the GOP brand in the next Congress.