* Don’t you just hate it when journalists feel obliged to present “the other side” as if the two sides were equally balanced when often they’re not balanced at all … here Michael Tomasky provides the numbers to show the GOP deserves the lion’s share of the blame for the counter-productive partisan gridlock in Congress

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voting in the House

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Michael Tomasky writes for the Daily Beast (9/9/11) …

• I’ve settled on four signal legislative achievements of each president and studied the roll call votes in each house on those eight measures to see what the numbers tell us.
• The four Bush bills …
• First Bush Tax Cut:  not much Democratic support—just three of 43 voting senators, and 13 of 210 voting House members; 7 and 6.2 percent, respectively
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB): Democrats rallied to Bush here. Forty-seven of 50 Senate Democrats and 197 of 210 House Democrats backed NCLB; 94 percent in both cases.
• Iraq War Vote:  28 of 50 Democrats backed Bush here, while 82 of 208 House Democrats voted yes. That’s 58 and 39 percent.
• The Medicare prescription-drug bill : 11 of 48 senators backing the bill and 16 of 203 House members in support; 23 and 7.9 percent.
• The four Obama bills …
• The Stimulus: Three of 41 GOP senators backed it, and zero of 177 House members, for support levels of 7.3 and 0 percent.
• Health Care: Zero of 39 senators and one of 177 House members; 0 and .6 percent.
• Dodd-Frank: A little better! Three of 40 senators and three of 178 House members, equaling 7.5 and 1.7 percent.
• DADT Repeal: Mon Dieu, a few votes! Eight of 39 senators and 15 of 179 House members, or 20.5 and 8.4 percent.
• Here’s how it all adds up:
• Average combined House and Senate Democratic support for Bush: 41.1 percent.
• Average combined House and Senate Republican support for Obama: 5.75 percent.

41% of Democrats voted for signature Bush legislation

6% of Republicans voted for signature Obama legislation

• I wish every American knew this. It would be a start for Democrats to tell them.

read the entire article at … http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/09/michael-tomasky-data-show-

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LMW COMMENT …

Don’t you just hate it when journalists feel obliged to present “the other side” as if the two sides were equally balanced. Well, often they’re not balanced at all. 

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