{"id":1593,"date":"2006-11-19T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-19T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html"},"modified":"2006-11-19T07:14:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-19T07:14:00","slug":"they-are-beginning-to-face-rea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html","title":{"rendered":"They are beginning to face reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s about time we started to see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/11\/18\/AR2006111801001.html?referrer=email\">realistic stories about the Democrats agenda<\/a>. It&#8217;s not going to be as easy as they make it seem (as Pelosi realized when Murtha was defeated &#8212; her people aren&#8217;t under her thumb and now everyone knows it and there is blood in the water and she&#8217;s surrounded by sharks). They have to deal with the Republicans, especially in the Senate and McConnell doesn&#8217;t sound like he&#8217;s in the mood to deal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After retrieving control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, Democrats will set out to redefine the domestic agenda through policies they say would address the economic needs of middle- and working-class Americans.<br \/>\nStriving for a few quick legislative victories in January and longer-term goals whose details &#8212; and viability &#8212; <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">are not yet certain<\/span> [yes, admit it, they can only point out problems, they have no solution], Democratic lawmakers want to shift the dialogue on Capitol Hill to workers&#8217; pay, college tuition, health-care costs, retirees&#8217; income and other issues that touch ordinary families.<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Their success is not assured<\/span>. Democrats will hold a tenuous 51 to 49 majority in the Senate, where Republicans and the Bush administration will be well-positioned to thwart their legislation, and Democrats in the House already are showing signs of division. Democrats will face a conflict, too, <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">between the cost of some of their policies and their pledge to tighten federal spending rules<\/span>.<br \/>\nStill, key Democrats interviewed in recent days portrayed their strategy as an attempt to do several things at once: distinguish themselves from the outgoing Republican majority, heed voters&#8217; messages from the midterm elections and lay groundwork for the 2008 presidential campaign, in which they predict the widening income gap in the United States will be a prominent theme.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>See, this is the bottom line, how do they do the expensive things they want to do without deficient spending or raising taxes?<br \/>\nAnd if they really want to address <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redstate.com\/stories\/elections\/2006\/its_the_spending_stupid\">the issue that the voters cared about<\/a> then they better rethink spending:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By a Margin of Nearly 3-to-1, Americans Vote for Small Government, Even if it Means Fewer Services. When given the choice between a &#8220;larger federal government that provided more services and charged higher taxes&#8221; and a &#8220;smaller federal government that provided fewer services and charged lower taxes,&#8221; Americans indicated a clear desire to downsize. In fact, 62% of voters preferred the smaller government &#8221; and with intensity as 41% would definitely pick a leaner administration. By comparison, just 22% opted for the more expansive government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sorry guys, if you wanted smaller government and less taxes, you shouldn&#8217;t have elected Democrats.  They said they want less spending but their nature will manifest itself. They are like the scorpion who says to the frog, &#8220;Carry me across the pond&#8221; and the frog says &#8220;No, you will sting me.&#8221; But the scorpion says, &#8220;If I do, then I would die as well.&#8221; So the frog carries the scorpion on his back and as they are crossing the pond the scorpion stings the frog and the frog says, &#8220;Why did you do that?&#8221; The scorpion replies, &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t help myself, it&#8217;s my nature.&#8221;<br \/>\nTax and spend is the nature of Democrats.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tag_list\">Tags: <span class=\"tags\"><a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Democrats\" rel=\"tag\">Democrats<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/taxes\" rel=\"tag\">taxes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Congress\" rel=\"tag\">Congress<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/legislative+agenda\" rel=\"tag\">legislative agenda<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s about time we started to see realistic stories about the Democrats agenda. It&#8217;s not going to be as easy as they make it seem (as Pelosi realized when Murtha was defeated &#8212; her people aren&#8217;t under her thumb and now everyone knows it and there is blood in the water and she&#8217;s surrounded by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-under-the-sun"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>They are beginning to face reality - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They are beginning to face reality - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s about time we started to see realistic stories about the Democrats agenda. It&#8217;s not going to be as easy as they make it seem (as Pelosi realized when Murtha was defeated &#8212; her people aren&#8217;t under her thumb and now everyone knows it and there is blood in the water and she&#8217;s surrounded by&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-19T07:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"michele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"They are beginning to face reality - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"They are beginning to face reality - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","og_description":"It&#8217;s about time we started to see realistic stories about the Democrats agenda. It&#8217;s not going to be as easy as they make it seem (as Pelosi realized when Murtha was defeated &#8212; her people aren&#8217;t under her thumb and now everyone knows it and there is blood in the water and she&#8217;s surrounded by&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html","og_site_name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","article_published_time":"2006-11-19T07:14:00+00:00","author":"michele","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html","name":"They are beginning to face reality - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-11-19T07:14:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-11-19T07:14:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/8de1e1f06613d0c6f3bd8a276ac94ab0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2006\/11\/they-are-beginning-to-face-rea.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"They are beginning to face reality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/","name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","description":"Politics and current events from a Reformed perspective, by Michele McGinty","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/8de1e1f06613d0c6f3bd8a276ac94ab0","name":"michele","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"michele"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/author\/michele"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}