GOP shutting down agencies by refusing to approve Presidential appointees [View all]

[JohnWxy]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-27/senate-blocks-obama-agency-nominations/52245224/1

When Senate Republicans filibustered President Obama's nominee to a key consumer watchdog post this month, it was the first time in history the Senate blocked an appointment in an effort to effectively shut down an agency.

It likely won't be the last. Already, Senate Republicans are threatening to hold up Obama's nominees to a number of posts overseeing elections, labor law and health care — and in each case, they aim to kill the agency outright.

Senate Republicans say refusing to confirm a nominee is the only recourse they have left after Democrats pushed through legislation without listening to GOP concerns about transparency and accountability.

{"pushed through"... the only way Democrats can get almost any legislation through with this GOP is to pass it with 60 votes, meaning they have to get some Republicans to vote with them. GOP thinks anytime something is passed that doesn't agree with their Trickle Down - DeConstruction of Government agenda and gets anything accomplished is "pushing through" legislation. In other words the only way to not be "pushing through" legislation is to pass something the Corporate Lobbyist Party would have written_JW}

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"If your view is that an agency shouldn't exist, and so you're going to use your one vote against a nominee, that's fine. But using the filibuster to raise the bar to 60 (votes), not because they're awful people, but because you're trying to delegitimize an agency, that's very far over the line," says Norm Ornstein of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
(more)

Interesting to note that USA Today's title for the article was: "Senate politics shut down some agencies" ..... which is safer ... and less accurate than the obvious: "GOP pursuing policy of shutting down Government agencies"