Yeah...about the only thing he had going for him was that he had better policy positions.

Solely with your choice of username, that is. :)

Why don't you explain to women why equal pay, access to contraception and abortion shouldn't really be important to them?

The truth is everyone was better off before the Bush tax cuts and with stronger financial regulations.

The other side of that coin, of course, is that the Republicans are holding hostage the middle class tax cut to benefit the wealthy.

So that might seem about even at first glance. But in reality, the Democrats know that as soon as the whole thing expires they can pass a middle class tax cut and the Republicans will go along with it (or give up any pretense of actually caring about it, and suffer in the next election).

If you can't tell the difference, you're not paying attention.

Cloture votes to break a filibuster are 60% of Senators (whether present and voting or not), and that may change as the next Senate votes on its rules.

I believe they could. But it's an unwritten agreement between the two parties and worked alright (allowing other business to be conducted instead) until the system was abused. That's why it's likely to change, by new Senate cloture rules as opposed to the less formal agreement.

You should acknowledge that only the GOP has done that, and that they have been using the filibuster much more than the Democrats did.

It doesn't seem to work that way. There is a perverse incentive - the GOP can obstruct Democratic attempts to help the economy, then blame Obama for the poor economy in their campaigns.

How so?

You should also acknowledge the continuing opposition to equal rights by the other party.

It was de-prioritized. He said "I truly am not that concerned about him" and shifted emphasis to Iraq.

We shouldn't let anyone tell us we're so incompetent we can't have a better, cheaper and universal health care system in this country. Other countries do it and we can too.

Hard to argue with that, since you didn't tell us what it is you detest, or mention something you like.

A budget resolution is not a law. It doesn't fund or defund any agency or program.

First of all, they're optional and don't carry the force of law. It's just a road map for the next year (and next 4 years). Appropriations bills are what fund or defund specific things.

Second, the House and Senate need to agree. Currently the Senate has a Democratic majority and the House has a Republican majority.