Roadblock Blog

Record of obstruction

Woo-hoo! The Roadblock Republicans have reached a new feat in obstructionism, filibustering five bills in five days. It's time to break out the party hats and donate to Ted Stevens' legal defense fund.

Some of the legislative accomplishments these brave men and women have managed to circumvent in less than a week are as follows:

• Renewable energy credits and tax incentives for renewable energy.
  
• Energy efficiency deductions.
  
• Tuition tax deductions for students.
  
• Lowering taxes for teachers.
  
• Tax breaks for working-class families.
  
• Federal protection for journalists from being forced to reveal sources, in essence, keeping the press free.
  
• Carbon emission mitigation.
  
• Paralysis, ALS, postpartum depression, and stroke research.
  
• Solving murders from the civil rights era.
  
• More effective child pornography prosecution.
  
• Rescuing drug endangered children from their environments.
  
• Reauthorization of acts protecting coral reefs and rainforests from destruction.
  
• Relief for torture victims.
  
• National infrastructure repairs.
  
• Pre-disaster hazard mitigation.
  
• Increase in aid for poorer families buying heating oil this winter.