Congress Brought to a Stand-Still

It is difficult to be a congressional observer these days. I find what is going on in Congress right now ugly, dirty and detrimental to the nation. How bad are your congressional representatives in the House and Senate?
by Charlie Leck

I’ve remarked here, a number of times, that this is the worst Congress ever. The historical accuracy of that statement has been challenged by a number of readers.

Well, there is some statistical data and some historical information to back up my claim. The 112th Congress passed fewer bills than any other in modern history (since we’ve been able to rapidly prepare and print legislation for debate).

The lack of creative activity in Congress can unarguably be blamed on (or credited to – depending on your view point) the radically conservative wing of the Republican Party. Those several dozen members of Congress came there, first and foremost, to be disruptive of the legislative policy.

This radical wing in Congress is devoted to destroying what has become known as Obama Care even though some very bright analysts and health delivery experts see the President’s soon to be implemented health care plan a very workable and efficient means to deliver affordable, quality medical care to the largest number of Americans in history.

This radical element is committed to destroying, disrupting and ending this new health care delivery program before it gets a chance to prove itself and then become routine.

The commitment to destroy Obama Care has taken precedent over all other matters and radical members of the opposition sell their votes to other members of the Congress based on whether or not the buyers will come over to their side to kill the President’s health care plan.

The American people ought to be crying out, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” However, the ordinary guy on the street just doesn’t know what he can do about stopping this radical element. And, I understand that.

These tawdry members of Congress are going so far as to threaten to completely shut-down Congress by not funding it unless enough reasonable members join them in the vote to repeal Obama Care. This has become an irrational motive on the part of these radicals. They really have no substantial and reasonable argument against the new health care program. They just don’t want it implemented.

The Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner, is just not capable enough to pull his own party together for the sake of the nation’s economic health.

The New York Times calls the congressional representatives who are a part of this movement to kill Obama Care “the shrill voices of extremists.” (read the entire editorial here)

These extremists have brought Congress to a virtual stand-still. And, they are proud of it. Several of them, like the weird one from Kentucky, dream of being President one day. OMG!

UPDATE (Sunday, 15 September 2013 at 8:55 a.m.)
Read GOP's own anger about these Tea Party U.S. Senators

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Political Dysfunction Analyzed

Public domain photo from LibraryThing.Com

Here’s how a couple of Independents (one a former Republican and the other a former Democrat) look at current political dysfunction!
by Charlie Leck

A very important opinion page column showed up this morning in our local Sunday newspaper. The authors are Tim Penny and Tom Horner. Now Independents, they were both very strong and loyal members of the major parties until, heavens, the Tea Party and the Radical Right came along and drove them out. You see, Penny and Horner still believe in a quaint political idea that says compromise works.

Horner is a public relations and advertising professional who was chief of staff to former U.S. Senator David Durenberger (Republican, Minnesota). Penny is currently the President and C.E.O. of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. He was formerly a Democratic member of Congress.

You can read their very brief and poignant column by clicking right here.

The thesis (or main point) of their argument seems to be that it won’t do us any good to defeat and throw out the incumbents in the House of Representatives and the Senate. What has to happen is that Congress itself needs to be thoroughly changed; for “Congress is broken.”

“We can vote against incumbents, but that only places new legislators in a system that does not work. We think these reforms would help legislators get their jobs done on time while diminishing special-interest influence. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?”

The two guys writing this column come from the days when I could appreciate a good politician when I met one. They both have that unusual skill that enables them to listen to the other side of the story. And, heavens be praised, they talk a lot about the importance of compromise.

In this particular column, they present five steps that Congress could take to reform itself and make itself more productive (and even more fair). It’s worth taking a look at these ideas and thinking about them. Something has just got to be done to get this Congress under control. It is the most unproductive Congress in the nation’s history and “…68 percent of Americans would like to see the entire Congress replaced.”

Of course, this Congress will never act on these ideas (things like changing the filibuster rule, setting time deadlines on getting certain work done, taking action on Presidential nominations  within 90 days, and completing a budget proposal and adjourning for the summer before July 4; and, oh yes, comprehensive campaign financing reform). So, because they won’t do anything about the sad state of Congress, the bums have to be thrown out.

Personally, I’m part of the 68 percent that would like to see the entire Congress dumped so that we might begin again with fresh faces and unspoiled and less concretized opinions. If this Congress could really take Horner and Penny seriously, I’d be all for it, but I’m not holding my breath.

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How to Fix Congress

Warren Buffet tells CNBC that he knows exactly how to end federal deficits!
by Charlie Leck

The following email is going around. It purports to be from a Warren Buffett interview on CNBC. I don’t think it has a tinker’s chance in hell of ever becoming the law of the land, but I sure wouldn’t mind if it did:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," Buffett told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election".

That was in quotation marks. Then a bunch of other stuff is inserted and the email claims that Buffet wants us to take action on it. Well, here I become more skeptical. I don’t oppose the following ideas but they don’t fact-check as being from Warren Buffett – not according to either Snopes or Fact-Check.com.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months, 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011:

1) No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

2) Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3) Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4) Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5) Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6) Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7) All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are one of my 20+ Please keep it going. Thanks

Good luck in getting such a constitutional amendment passed by Congress; however, I don’t doubt that, in today’s political climate, most states would indeed ratify it.

Thanks to my email friends (all seven of them) who passed this email on to me.

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