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From data at the Bureau of Labor Statistics

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While Americans continue to struggle making ends meet with unemployment hovering around 10%, health care bills and bad home loans driving main street into bankruptcy, Washington continues to play games with our lives and our futures.

Democrats continue to negotiate away the best parts of health care reform while giving into the worst demands of the the Republicans and lobbyists.

Republicans continue to make demands for certain things and then turn 180 degrees and oppose those things when Democrats concede to them.

It’s enough to make a person want to pull out their hair and cry “Uncle”, which it appears that Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana has done in declaring on short notice and without warning Democratic leaders ahead of time, that he will not run for Re-election in this year. In his announcement speech yesterday, he took several well deserved pot shots at his Senate colleagues.

I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress.

Two weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt,

Just last week, a major piece of legislation to create jobs — the public’s top priority — fell apart amid complaints from both the left and right.

And this morning he told Good Morning America

There’s just too much brain-dead partisanship, tactical maneuvering for short-term political advantage rather than focusing on the greater good, and also just strident ideology, The extremes of both parties have to be willing to accept compromises from time to time to make some progress because some progress for the American people is better than nothing, and all too often recently, we’ve been getting nothing,

Washington is ripe with examples of the type of partisanship that Senator Bayh is talking about. Open Left reported on one for instance…

On February 8th, House Republican Leader John Beohner, wrote this letter to the White House.

If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand? Our ability to move forward in a bipartisan way through this discussion rests on openness and transparency.

So, four days later the White House announces…

Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package. This legislation would put a stop to insurance company abuses, extend coverage to millions of Americans, get control of skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and reduce the deficit.

And just 24 hours later Rep. Beohner responds to the White House giving into his demands… by attacking them.

A productive bipartisan discussion should begin with a clean sheet of paper,” Boehner said in a statement. “We now know that instead of starting the ‘bipartisan’ health care ’summit’ on Feb. 25 with a clean sheet of paper, the president and his party intend to arrive with a new bill written behind closed doors exclusively by Democrats– a backroom deal that will transform one-sixth of our nation’s economy and affect every family and small business in America.

Am I missing something here?

I understand that a big part of what a politician has to do is to ensure he gets re-elected. But seriously, when, politicians of either party, put re-election ahead of the struggles and needs of the people that they were elected to represent in the first place then they don’t deserve to be re-elected.

Republicans realized early in the year that their best bet for short term political gain with chances to retake the House and Senate were to oppose absolutely everything that the President wanted to do, even if it was something that the Republicans had supported in the past.

Democrats on the other hand forgot who swept them into office in November 2008 and basically negotiated away the farm with one hand while feeding Wall Street our tax dollars with the other. Democrats lost sight of the man on the street and the immediate struggles he is facing due to the Great Recession as the shot for the Pie in the sky.

I have yet to really make up my mind of who I am supporting this November, but I’m honestly wishing that there were more viable third party candidates. I’ve certainly had my fill of both the Democrats and the Republicans who seem to have forgotten that this is a nation “Of the People, by the People, and For the People.”

Cross Posted on The Pajama Pundit

Update: According to the Iowa Independent, a bid to invoke the rule in the Senate by Minority Leader Pual McKinly, R-Chariton, has failed to get enough signatures on their petition. It’s sad to think that the source of this hate seems to come from someone representing my home town.

A similar attempt is currently ongoing in the house.

Update 2: According to the Iowa Independent, the effort in the house has also failed.

Here is a video of them talking about their petition.