Blue Hampshire

NH re elected three big spender, do-little democrats at the top of the ticket, despite a Republican year, good GOP candidates, and plenty of money.  Looks like the takers are out voting the makers in NH.  The rest of the country was smarter, although just barely.  After six years of really awful democratic rule, the democrats still nearly won everywhere.   Although the the national Republicans took control of the Senate, it's a thin majority, just two seats last time I looked, with Virginia still too close to call on the morning after.  And few of the Republican victories were more than a couple of percent.  I don't see a permanent and lasting change in the political complexion of the country here, the democrats could make a comeback just about anytime. 
  Especially if the Republican Congress fails to do anything about jobs, about the economy, ISIS, Keystone XL, Ebola, the VA, the IRS, the budget, taxes,the Ukraine, the deficit, and a lot of other stuff that has the voters hot and bothered.  We have to survive a lame duck session of Congress where the Democratic Senate will likely try to pass a lot of stuff that will be dead when the new Congress convenes next year.  Fortunately the House will be able to block a lot of this stuff if it keeps it's cool.
   Congress ought to start in January on the Federal budget.  They ought to pass appropriation bills for each executive department (Defense, State, Agriculture, Commerce, and so on).  The democratic practice of letting appropriations slide until it's too late, and then passing one humungous continuing resolution, results in a stack of paperwork so thick that no one understands what's in it.  The few savvy inside staffers who do understand what is going down have all the opportunity in the world to slip in pet pork spending that no one will every see, 'cause it's buried so deep. 
   The bennie of separate appropriation bills is the voters can tell how much money is getting spent on what.  With the one humungous continuing resolution nobody knows how much money is going where.
  Then Congress ought to pass a bill that says "Build Keystone XL pipeline now."   Obama will hate it, but will he have the stones to veto it? 
  Then they ought to do something about ISIS, not sure just what, but we ought to figure out just what we are trying to do over there.  Right now we are just putting on fireworks displays, which does nothing for our relations with anyone in the world.  Makes us look stupid.