The Last Two Speakers
On Monday, the esteemed Supercommittee failed in it’s one and only job, finding a way to cut 1.2 trillion dollars from the federal budget deficit in the next ten years. It failed as everything Congress has attempted to do in the past five or so years has failed. It failed because both political parties have been blaming the other side for their ineptitude. Congress has come to be known as the “do nothing Congress.” Unfortunately, this fits right into President Obama’s game plan for reelection. He can simply blame Congress for all of the woes of the American people.
And, unfortunately, this argument will appear to have some merit. President Obama cannot run on his record. We all know that. Except for some foreign policy achievements, he has done nothing. I’m not going to list his failures again as they have been listed ad nauseum on these pages already. I’m just going to state for the record that if he can succeed in blaming the problems of the American people on Congress, he will probably get re-elected. Not one of the standard bearers of our party can fight that argument.
Why? It’s very simple. Congress currently has the lowest approval ratings in their history. According to Real Clear Politics, Congress’ approval rating is currently at 12.3%. That means approximately one in nine voters think Congress is doing good. The rest consider them a joke or worse. And; are the vast majority that consider Congress a joke, wrong? Hell no! The current Congress is a joke.
After all, what have they accomplished in the last few years?
To begin with, they passed Obamacare: A bill that was unpopular when it was first passed and has since become more unpopular as people begin to discover more of the nightmares associated with it. The Democratic Congress rammed it down everyone’s throats and the current occupant of the White House signed it with glee. Is is probably the single-handed piece of litigation that caused the Republican landslides of 2010. It helped to create the Tea Party and has helped in the decline of President Obama’s approval ratings. Of course, it is probably unconstitutional as well but that is the subject of another article completely.
Maybe Mr. Gingrich is right about everything?
Since then, Congress has done nothing of any substance. Their reaction to the downgrading of America’s debt was to pass the bill which created the Supercommittee. As Newt Gingrich has stated, it is probably one of the worst pieces of legislation ever drafted. Even President Obama intentionally did nothing to help the Supercommittee in their task. He didn’t want to be associated with their inevitable failure. If he was, he wouldn’t have the “do nothing Congress” to blame for the economic woes of the masses. It is my opinion that not one pundit or anyone in Congress ever truly believed that the supercommittee would succeed.
Both the leadership of John Boehner and Ms. Nancy Pelosi before him have been pathetic. Nancy Pelosi was such a useless Speaker of the House that she didn’t even read the health care bill before pushing for it’s passage. Wasn’t it her famous quote that the bill “must be passed before we can find out what’s in it?” What a pathetic excuse for a Congresswomen. Only her overly liberal district in the San Francisco area would continually vote this woman into office. I wonder if they will continue to support her now that there is substantial evidence that she used her position in Congress to personally profit through insider trading.
As for John Boehner, as much as I loved the fact that he took over from Pelosi, thus far he has not been able to do anything in his almost one year in the Speakership. Of course, you can argue that the House has passed a myriad of bills in these eleven months and that the Democratic controlled Senate has not acted on them. This is true, but it does not show the leadership qualities of the man. A true leader would have been capable of working out something with Harry Reid that could have gone to the President’s desk for signature. Passing dozens of bills that have no chance of coming out of Congress is a waste of everyone’s time.
Co-Chairs of the Supercommittee Kyl and Kerry
I truly feel sorry for co-chair of the Supercommittee Senator Kyl from Arizona. From the interviews I’ve seen in the last few days, he really did try to work with the Democrats. He has factual arguments for everything that went on and has answers to the questions straightforward about his attempts to compromise. I do not feel sorry for his Democratic counterpart. John Kerry from Massachusetts, the standard bearer of the Democratic party in 2004, has said nothing about the failure that does not fit the party line. Everything he says reeks of class warfare and the Obama strategy for re-election.
As Newt Gingrich said a few weeks ago when asked about the looney-tunes of Occupy Wall Street, “the beauty of the American Constitution is that you have a revolution every two years.” We are now 11 months away from the next one. Let’s just hope the American populace is mad enough at both Congress and the White House to really create some change. I can only pray that the party in power in January 2013 will be Republican, but anything may be better than what we have now.
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Grid lock and the “failure” of Congress, the Senate, and the White House and finally the super committee are symptoms of the decline of America. This outcome ultimately falls, a very heavy weight and responsibility, on the shoulders of the electorate.
What is obvious is the division of ideologies and wedge issues, “President Obama can’t win by running a constructive campaign, and he won’t be able to govern if he does win a second term.” […]
“But the kind of campaign required for the president’s political survival would make it almost impossible for him to govern—not only during the campaign, but throughout a second term.” Patrick H Caddell (a democratic public opinion pollster and a political film consultant) & Douglas E Shoen (a Democratic Party American politcal analyst, pollster, author, and commentator) WSJ.
These folks hail the ascension of Hillary Clinton, as a salvaging prophet (the second coming) of this administrations, a pending disaster in process, not recognizing it would only be another radical progressive “redefinition” in hope of change. “If President Obama were to withdraw, he would put great pressure on the Republicans to come to the table and negotiate […]”
And this would be a good thing if Republicans negotiated but refused to compromise on fundamentals…anathema for Gandhi. Allow, insist on a Presidential “veto.”
This country has long ago left behind the philosophy of a bipartisan, a democratic, governorship and embraced the ascension of the “political establishment”, a corruption of party, elections, self and self interest.
Thus the lack of demarcation is now framed by “Both the leadership of John Boehner and Ms. Nancy Pelosi before him has been pathetic.” This is the arena of dishonesty and vacuum of integrity, let alone any representation of a constituency…..please “term limits” by elections!!!!!!
“There is no “slippery slope” toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.” Alan K Simpson..
And if one dares go deeper into cause and effect we will soon arrive at the demise of the “informed” body of American voters for unless we act, “The Electorate will become Useless.” America deserves the politicians it elects.
It is rare, almost remarkable and truly valid, the case in point is when the subject of your observations agrees with you objectivism.
Kathleen Kennedy, LAT 11/24/2011, A1, “Even Congress isn’t Pleased by its performance”
“The mood on Capitol Hill is one of open self-loathing after a panel fails to strike a deal on the deficit.”
“To its many issues-dysfunction, occasionally impaired judgment, an inability to get things done-Congress can add one more: Low self-esteem.” LAT
“Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[...] a candidate for a “Progressive Lite” label….or what as “Congress is Useless” all about?http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/2011/11/congress-is-useless/And all that is supported in academia today is under the myth of “academic freedom”. [...]