The Hastert Rule is the big problem. It blocks the Republicans from bringing up for a vote in the House a bill that does not have a majority of Republican members willing to vote for it.
Think for a moment what that means. That means that you cannot have a bill pass if a minority of Republicans and all Democrats want it to pass and are willing to vote for it. Just one Republican House member can join other extremist Republicans in the House and prevent a bill from being passed based on cooperation between a minority of Republicans and the Democrats.
At this time there are 234 Republicans and 201 Democrats in the House. A majority of House members is 218. That means if the Democrats were willing to vote for a bill and could attract the votes of 17 Republicans, the bill could pass.
EXCEPT, that cannot happen because of the Hastert Rule (if I understand it correctly.)
Under the Republican (not Democratic, not House) Hastert Rule, Boehner will not, is not supposed to bring a bill up before the House for a vote unless at least 117 (the majority of Republican members rather than 17 which would add up to a total of House members) Republicans support it.
That is why the Republicans and their undemocratic party rules are TOTALLY TO BLAME FOR THE GRIDLOCK IN CONGRESS AND INABILITY OF CONGRESS TO WORK TOGETHER AND SOLVE PROBLEMS.
The media is not explaining this as far as I can tell. The media is, as usual, once again, irresponsible in not reporting clearly to the voters on what the Republicans are pulling in Congress and how they are harming the country. The Democrats and Republicans are not equally responsible for the gridlock. The Republicans are primarily responsible for it. The Hastert Rule is just on example of their super-partisan conduct in Congress.
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