Democrats need to play dirtier

In November 2012, the citizens of the United States elected 234 Republicans to the United States House of Representatives.

What many people forget is that they also elected 201 Democrats to the same chamber.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, the conservative presiding officer and leader the lower chamber of Congress, is charged with a variety of powers, from having control over committees to deciding what legislation comes to the floor of the House.
Unfortunately, Speaker Boehner has been using his power to harm the American people, rather than help them as his job entails.

The 113th Congress has been widely criticized to be one of, if not the single, most dysfunctional and inflammatory Congress in U.S. history.

To have a piece of legislation pass through both the House and the Senate is a miraculous feat for this Congress.

Bipartisanship and civility have been thrown out the window in exchange for a hopeful reelection and to appease Tea Party fundraisers and super political action committees.

Comprehensive immigration reform, for example, has long been a controversial topic for the U.S. That’s why, when the Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill in 2013, it was historic. The bill passed 68-32, with all Democrats and 14 Republicans voting in favor , including big names such as John McCain, R-Ariz., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

I’m not saying immigration reform would or would not pass through the House of Representatives in its current form. What I am saying, however, is that the people of the U.S. deserve a vote — just a simple up-or-down, yes or no vote.

Not every Congressional district elected Speaker Boehner. Two hundred and one districts elected Democrats and 233 elected Republicans who aren’t Boehner.

Boehner is one out of 435 members of the House of Representatives, but he’s put his own political agenda ahead of the political progress of the country.

You can argue the immigration bill won’t pass the House regardless and that’s a possibility. It’s also possible, however, that it could pass.

And it isn’t like the House is busy passing important legislation every day. With the exception of the odd law here and there, the House is more inactive than my love life this past Friday.

It’s time the Democrats demand votes be brought to the floor of the House. Again and again, bills from the Senate have died upon arrival, with the speaker refusing to allow them to pass into Committee.

Democrats have an opportunity to use a parliamentary procedure — a discharge petition — that, with the signatures of 218 Representatives, would force the bill to go directly to the floor of the House. Members of the House, such as House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Mary.) have suggested this tactic already.

And if the Democrats and the Republicans really care about the American people, they will sign that petition.

This country was founded on the principles of deliberation and compromise.

Speaker Boehner is promoting the opposite.

­— ajguenth@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Andrew Guenther on Twitter @GuentherAndrew.