Democratic Senators unanmously agree to reform fillbuster rules

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cloturefilings.jpg

The above chart shows the unprecedented abuse of the fillbuster rules of the Senate by the Republican minority. As long as the present rules remain in place there is little to no chance that bi-partisan agreement will be reached as the present rules allow a stubborn, inflexible, partisan minority to stop all legislative work in Washington DC.



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I'm Grateful for President Obama

Pragmatic Persistent Progressive Policies are the path to cementing our position

and self identification numbers among a significant percentage of the American electorate.


Liberal/Progressive ='s 20%
Conservative ='s 40%
Moderates ='s 40%

Until we gain self identification status (we already have majority support for our policies) among a majority of Americans we remain in a vulnerable political position opposed as we are against a monolithic, unified, motivated Republican/Tea Party.

And we must not lose sight of the fact that while the under 25 vote has went our way for the last three election cycles, this demographic is VERY resistant to labels and to considering themselves as a member of one party or the other.

We must control the message and point to the record ad nauseum until the 70 year record of economic accomplishment of the Democratic Party and the utter ineptitude of the Republican Party is as ingrained in the American Public's mind as is presently the falsehood that Republicans have planted that associates the word Liberal with Socialism and failure.

ECONOMIC RECORD: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/economic-record.html
JOB CREATION RECORD: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/job-growth.html
HISTORY OF RECESSION: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/history-of-recessions.html
NATIONAL DEBT: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/national-debt.html

We are on the right and winning side of ALL the above issues. But you would never know it listening to the media and the deeply ingrained Republican Talking Points that have entrenched themselves into the American narrative like a bloodsucking tick. Until the record is known, we will continue to swim upstream.

Results matter, when they are known.

President Obama Holds the Highest Legislative Achievement Record in 50 Years

In his first year in office, President Obama did better even than legendary arm-twister Lyndon Johnson in winning congressional votes on issues where he took a position, a Congressional Quarterly study finds.

The new CQ study gives Obama a higher mark than any other president since it began scoring presidential success rates in Congress more than five decades ago. And that was in a year where Obama tackled how to deal with Afghanistan, Iraq, an expanding terrorist threat, the economic crisis and battles over health care.

Unprecedented Success Rate

Obama has been no different from his predecessors in that he's always ready to send a firm message to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as he "urges members of Congress" to come together and act. All presidents demand specific action by Congress — or at least they ask for it. But when you look at the votes of 2009 in which Obama made his preference clear, his success rate was unprecedented, according to John Cranford of Congressional Quarterly.

"His success was 96.7 percent on all the votes where we said he had a clear position in both the House and the Senate. That's an extraordinary number," Cranford says.

The previous high scores were held by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, with 93 percent, and Dwight Eisenhower, who scored 89 percent in 1953. Cranford notes that George W. Bush's score hit the high 80s in 2001, the year of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. But Obama surpassed them all, Cranford says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122436116

Breakdown of Obama Tax Compromise

The breakdown:

53.1% Middle Class AMT (OBAMA)
3.3% Expensing Provision (OBAMA)
4.2% Tax credits for working families (OBAMA)
6.2% Unemployment Insurance (OBAMA)
13.2% Payroll tax holiday (OBAMA)
6.6% Regular tax extenders such as R&D credit (Bi-Partisan)
13.5% High-Income tax cuts and Lincoln-Kyl estate tax to the top 2% (GOP)

Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (www.cbpp.org )

Who Benefits From The Obama Tax Cut Agreement? -Primarily The poor and middle class-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/taxdealbenefits_blog-011%20%281%29.png

http://blackwaterdog.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/details.jpg

Public/Private Job Creation Graph 1/2008 - 9/2010, nice work President Obama

http://www.polls.newsvine.com/_vine/images/users/nws/jhnwlk/5257756.jpg

President Obama took over at the depths of the George W. Bush Great Recession and immediately stopped the stunning increase in monthly job loss and reversed the trend. We have now witnessed 10 of the last 11 month's producing positive private sector job growth.
(October and November of 2010 also showed an increase in private sector job growth which makes 12 of the last 13 month's in positive territory)

President Obama's economic policies have created more private sector jobs in less than 2 years than George W. Bush's economic policies did in 8.