US Senate: Missing in Action on Govt Shutdown

Reid, unambiguous: "We're not going to anything other than wait for them to pass our CR, because otherwise, government's going to shut down"

-- Mike O'Brien @mpoindc

Compromise is defined by two sides coming together to forge one promise.

Compromise must be based on the promise of every legislator to honor the Constitution and recognize the best interests of the people who elect them.

　

House Speaker John Boehner

has articulated this premise and integrated his oath of office with the swearing up and down of the voters in this country.

"The American People don't want the government to shut down, and they don't want Obamacare."

The House majority has not only expressed the clear intent of the American People, but the lower body, more populist and purposeful, has offered the upper chamber the opportunity not only to continue funding the government, but also to remove piecemeal an exacerbated, overwhelming piece of legislation which will cost their caucus seats in the 2014 election.

Obamacare has been delayed by the President as well as repealed in part. The House of Representatives had the President and the Senate Majority Leader's efforts constitutional. Yet aside from Senators who protest the bill, who have argued against it, the US Senate as a whole remains missing in action.

　

The Democratic Party never compromised on the passage of Obamacare, buying votes with earmarks, kick-backs, and procedural shenanigans. Not one Republican voted for this train wreck of a law, and to this day, Democrats who have remained in Washington (and hope to stay there) have voted to defund, delay, and diminish the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Majority Leader Reid declared from the outset that he will do nothing with Obamcare. Has he looked at the stats in

his home state of Nevada?

　

Restaurants can't afford it, and neither can individual residents.

President Obama will not negotiate one part of Obamacare. As a community organizer from Illinois, the President should reassess how his law has created disorder and disunity in his

adopted home state.

　

Illinois hospitals are laying off employees, and with the pretended lower costs of health care have come fewer options. Where's the patient protection in this terrible law? At least junior Senator Mark Kirk, who survived a stroke this past year and returned to the Senate to stop this law, can tell his constituents that he voted against Obamacare.

Yet his elder counterpart, Richard Durbin, has argued that the protection for children to stay on their parents' health insurance is a good things.

Durbin should rethink that

assertion.

The American People do not want Obamcare, and the House of Representatives has heard their plea. The United States Senate refuses to stay in Washington to receive the next continuing resolution. Despite Senator Ted Cruz' long-time protestations on the floor of the Senate, despite the heart-felt pleas of millions of Americans to their legislators, to their local leaders, and even in the press, the upper chamber, led by Senator Harry Reid, and the President have refused to negotiate the very law which is strangling job growth and hindering health care.

There was one opportunity, perhaps, for President Obama to meet with House Republicans. But Senate Majority Leader Reid

told him not to. Not only is the US Senate missing in action, but the Senate Leadership has enabled this ongoing budget impasse.

The US Senate remains missing in action. The President refuses to preside, let alone lead. Only the House of Representatives has represented the will of the Constitution, the letter of the law, and the respect of the American People.