I don't get the Democrats

They throw away a great chance to force republicans to vote on the Bush tax cuts, now it will be during the lame duck session, yet they tell seniors 2 weeks before the elections that there will be no increase in S.S. payments this year..Fuzzy politics there...

All i can say is orange. bang. head. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

http://electoral-vote.com/evp2010/Senate/Maps/Oct14-s.html

"A new poll shows that when doing a poll, the devil is in the details (as usual). When the pollster asked people if they were in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts, 54% said yes, with strong support from Republicans and strong opposition from Democrats. But when the question was reworded to ask if the respondent supported continuing the middle-class tax cuts while letting the tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 expire, 65% of the Democrats, 64% of the Republicans, and 63% of the independents were in favor. With such strong majorities in favor of this approach, it is incredible that the Democrats in Congress threw away a golden opportunity to force the Republicans to vote on eliminating the tax cuts for the rich. This could have been the dominant election issue as we go down to the wire. Instead, the vote has been put off until a lame-duck session of Congress after the election".

The Democrats, or Congress for that matter, has nothing to do with whether or not Social Security recipients get a COLA increase. It's based on the Consumer Price Index, compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But of course, most Americans don't know that, and still blame Congress. Most Americans are under the mistaken impression that Congress votes itself raises every year (or fails to vote against the automatic rasise). Also not true. The past two years Congress has voted against its automatic raise.

That being said, the Democrats should have gotten out in front of this to head off the bad PR. And they should have voted to extend the tax cuts before the recess.

of the repeated explanations. Base salary in the Congress is $174,000 a year, so when they 'vote against their raise' it is a raise from that base that they refuse. A good deal of money, $14,500 a month. That is what they voted against raising. Do you think they are suffering?
Your last line is correct, they should have done the politics better. They failed on the tax cut vote, and as always, utterly botched the messaging. For $174,000 a year, they can not manage to do their jobs well.

I'd say tying SS rates to it is a bad idea - unless of course you are not really trying to help SS recipients.

They are spineless wimps who almost always let the repukes control the debate, even when they enjoy huge majorities in both houses of Congress.

So they will have a less of a majority to try to pass it. One might think the Dems are trying to avoid the debate and let the whole package expire. Should make trying to help with a campaign in 12 real fun.

forward with excellent issues. I also find the messaging by the democrats to be deplorable.

Dr. Dean was doing this the word got out immediately. He knew how to fight back and did it well....

after the election. I liked him, I thought he was excellent.

jealous of Dr. Dean's success in the 50-state strategy...

or carefully calculated to not offend their employers....the Top 1%.

Would have really made the repubs look as though they they only care about the wealthy....instead of people just hearing dems say this they would have seen this first hand by forcing a vote. It seems to me that the dems are scared to make the repubs look bad....I guess they that they are the punching bag and not the punchers.

and than goodness for that

I hope Reid wins, but either way we need someone better as a leader in the Senate.

Reid to win his senate race and replace him as Senate Majority leader with either Schumer or Durbin....Preferably Schumer..