I like to keep up with current
affairs. I like to do modest research on current events. My high school
teachers made me this way, what with required subscriptions to US News and
World Report or Newsweek magazines, and their weekly quizzes about the current
goings-on. It stuck. I did the same thing to my students when I taught high
school Social Studies; weekly quizzes about current events. That's all to say
that I think I keep up pretty well. This isn't about current events. It
illustrates, however, that if one spends too much time spouting off on one
subject, it's easy to miss other issues hiding in plain sight.
A friend asked me, in so many words,
why I didn’t rant about the Congress sometimes, instead of just grumbling about
the current administration. I gave it some thought. The more I thought about
it, the more I realized that I hadn't kept up on the current goings-on in
Congress. Then I recognized that the Congress hasn’t done much to keep up on,
nothing that would get your attention anyway. I am trying to avoid talking
about the impeachment proceedings. Herein begins the harangue.
We the people send 535 plus people
to the Congress: one hundred Senators and 435 voting members to House of
Representatives. (There are others in Congress that represent our territories,
commonwealths and the District of Columbia, but they don’t vote.) We send them
to make laws, provide oversight of the Executive Branch, approve federal judges
and generally do our bidding. Henry David Thoreau said, “That government is
best which governs least.”[i] The
resident of Walden Pond might think that the 116th Congress is
doing just fine. Some say the country is safest when Congress isn’t in session.
I don’t know who the “some” are, but I tend to agree with them.
As of last month, the House had
passed 400 Bills and sent them to the Senate where they languish. The Senate
leadership has sent 72 bills to the President for his signature. [i]Ten of those
bills involved renaming post offices and Veteran buildings. The Majority Leader
of the Senate, Mitch McConnell doesn't pay much attention to the bills coming
from the Democratic-controlled House. Put another way, over 300 bills have been
Mitch’ed.
The nation has infrastructure
problems. The roads and bridges are crumbling from neglect; the electric grid
is old, unmaintained, and insecure. The cost of drugs is too high, hospitals
take the majority of the healthcare dollars, family-practice doctors are
underpaid, and our mortality rate declines each year. School outcomes trail
other developed nations, colleges are too expensive, and student debt mounts.
Heavy manufacturing is down by historic levels. Technology reduces the need for
low and moderately skilled labor, puts the mom-and-pop businesses out of
business and rural small towns lose reasons to exist. Other countries are
surpassing our ability to lead the AI revolution, and we aren’t ready to utilize
G5 fully. Homelessness is on the rise, homebuilding is too slow to meet the
need, and current laws limit the government’s ability to address the issues.
That’s just for starters.
The first bill sent to the Senate
during the 116th Congress was HR1. It would outlaw all of the
various state laws limiting the right of people to register to vote and to
actually vote. It would appropriate money to help reduce the hacking of voting
machines by the Russians. It also includes provisions to better control election
financing and ethical practices. HR5 provided anti-discrimination protections
for LGBTQ Americans. HR6 provided protection of “Dreamers,” young immigrants
who came to the US illegally with their parents. There were other bills that
dealt with background checks for gun purchases, lowering prescription drug
prices, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and a bill to
ensure internet neutrality. That's just for starters.
Maybe I shouldn't blame the
Congress, but save the wrath for the Senate. The House is doing its job. Mitch
McConnell isn’t doing his. This Congress has accomplished almost nothing of
substance, except the overwhelming partisan approval of 150 new judges by the
Senate that will change the course of jurisprudence for the next thirty years.
They don’t even take votes on many things they agree on. They seem to be afraid
to tackle the serious problems of the nation, so they work at the edges rather
than grappling with core issues. The drive to impeach the President doesn’t encourage
members to work together, but still… The most important accomplishments of this
Congress bolster the argument for term limits.
Harry Truman called the 80th Congress
the “Do-Nothing Congress,” even though they passed 906 public bills. Perhaps we
ought to dub the 116th the “Mitch Doesn't Want To Do
Anything Congress.” They’ve accomplished their goal, with another year to go.
Who knows, they may have an epiphany before the next election. My friend was
right. The Members of Congress are not doing what we send them there to do.
Thus ends the rant!
I feel somewhat better!
[ii] Henry David
Thoreau – Walden – Ticksor & Fields, Boston – 1854
