Jonah Goldberg// December 5th 2022
The Republican Party
Republican Leadership has worked tirelessly to ensure the success of their party, and have taken seriously the needs of the American people. Throughout the session the performance of the Republican Party has gotten better and better. And even as the minority, with some very strong members (McConell, Cruz, Cornyn, Collins to name a few) they were able to be very productive.
Despite a resistance from their Democratic colleagues, the Republican Party has shown true dedication to the Senate process. They were a strong unit, and were able to develop and pass some great policies because of it. The Republican leadership was admirable, even with rough and questionable actions from previous leadership Senator McConell was able to keep his party united. With members like Senator Graham willing and able to step up, the GOP really put in the work.
The Republicans have fought hard for the possibility of bipartisan legislation, and even the most conservative members were committed to reaching across party lines. And despite the Democratic party's refusal to cooperate they fought till the end to represent their constituents and the best interest of the American people. The Republicans were strategic with every move they made, and were always 2 steps ahead of the Dems. They came to every meeting, floor session prepared to pick up Dem slack and were able to strategically work with the obstacles the Dems had created. For example even though the Dems refused cooperation throughout the entire session, they had created their own draft of the budget (much before the Dems had even thought to start it) and had offered to work with them to create one that would benefit all. And although they said no (without even having a legitimate version themselves) the Republicans continued to attempt some sort of compromise and fought till they end to uphold their values.
All in all, I am proud of the Republican Senators.
Summary word: Dedicated
The Democratic Party :
The Democratic Party throughout the ENTIRE session have carelessly, and arguably blatantly, disrespected congressional procedure. To call Democratic leadership inadequate would be EXTREMELY generous. The cabinet was mostly absent and when they weren’t they might as well have. And Hirono…
The unwillingness of the Democratic party to cooperate with their Republican party has served this session a great detriment. Their blind opposition to the GOP has stopped their ability to do their job. They made NO genuine efforts towards bipartisanship, while hypocritically preaching the importance of bipartisan cooperation for the benefit of the American People. The Democrats with the exception of very few have made it clear that their only priority is to work in spite of the Republican party, as opposed to working in favor of the interest of the American people.
The most notable flop is the budget. The democrats did not pay sufficient attention to the budget process and made several mistakes including the budget framework which was: deficient in necessary information, included inaccurate numbers, late and thus unable to be reviewed, and failed to follow parliamentarian instructions. Additionally they openly refused Republican collaboration on the budget , Hirono even forbade Republican leadership from even reaching out for any matters concerning the budget.
The incompetence of the Democratic Party pushed Republicans to resort to some creative methods of conveying a message, which is that they did not approve of the budget in current state. Methods that the Democratic Party complained about, but if they had done their job properly and put aside their cult-like partisan for the benefit of the people, time on the floor would not have been wasted on Friday. The final Floor session was a perfect depiction of the Dems entire performance, blind partisan voting and inattentiveness.
The Democrats have proven time and time again that they are unfit to do what's best for the American people.They were disorganized, lazy, irresponsible and would rather bribe, bully, and ignore than be bipartisan.
Summary word: Disappointing
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