Our Congress Needs to Get Off Their Butts
If you listen to or watch the news these days and believe what you see and hear, you’d think the most important thing in the country is which political party is in power. Amid the latest news are partisan sound bites. And dependent on which political party we may identify with or lean to, it’s all about which party has the bloody pulpit in who’s church – and the ‘spin’ that power has on their respective congregations.
While we can debate the political cauldron we find ourselves in, the most important thing is not who’s running for president in a year and a half, climate change, the war in Ukraine, the border, gender identity, etc., but the one branch of the federal government that’s supposed to represent us every day: the Congress. The Congress is meant to be the reflection of the citizenry.
Our Congress is failing to live up to that simple expectation.
At the moment, every problem the citizenry thinks are priorities are not those being addressed.
At the top of that citizen list is the economy. It’s always been that way and likely will remain so. Why? Because this is a mess – and Congress isn’t doing its job. That’s being left to the executive branch and sometimes the courts – and that’s just plain indecisiveness, ignorance, wearing partisan eye blinders, or worst case, dereliction on the part of members of our Congress. The House and Senate not only don’t represent the districts and state’s majority, but they’re also playing to small groups outside their actual constituencies – most times moneyed groups – that our Congress considers “influential” – and that’s not the average citizen.
Let’s start with all the laws passed that allow bureaucrats to set economy-killing regulations. It’s a dereliction of duty and the oath members of Congress take when seated.
Then there’s executive orders (EO) issued by the president that are not beneficial to the majority of citizens.
For example, on his first day in office President Biden canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. A subsequent lawsuit filed stated the president overstepped his power under Article II of the Constitution. It also shows over 42,000 jobs and over $2B in investments were canceled with that EO. Whether Biden had the legal authority or not, Congress could have removed any authority assumed by the president by simply passing a law removing that assumed authority. It did nothing. And while that EO was supposedly in the interest of mitigating global warming by lessening the availability of oil, the 830,000 barrels of oil slated to be piped from Canada will continue to be moved by fossil fuel burning truck transports to Gulf refineries. It makes no sense.
With related EOs removing Alaskan and Artic oil exploration and development from possibility, President Biden decided to not only significantly raise the price of gasoline and diesel for all consumers, but he also removed the US from its oil independence. Congress did nothing.
Both EOs were/are highly inflationary – resulting in that added insidious tax on everyone.
And what about student loans? Put the Biden bent to forgive them aside for the moment. The program, passed by Congress, allows students to go deep in debt to pay for exorbitant tuition. On average, college tuition is up 36% in the last 10 years. The currently ‘all government’ program, thanks to Obama’ s Congress, incentivizes colleges to raise costs to students without constraint. Congress should have fixed it years ago and limited the aggregate student loan debt that any one student can amass. If colleges wanted the students, they would have had to contain the greed.
The border. Congress needs to fix our immigration laws to allow some sanity in the numbers crossing our southern borders, including eliminating unlimited basic financial and livelihood benefits in support of immigrants.
There’s a slew of other examples, including continuing the economic shutdown beyond the fall of 2020 when everyone knew who was vulnerable and who was not from COVID. Then there’s the vaccination fiasco by President Biden. Article II of the Constitution makes the president the CEO of the government’s workforce – including the military, but his EO required all companies with contracts with the Feds to fire unvaccinated workers, including airline pilots.
The Congress actually participated in raising inflation to unacceptable heights with passage of a third COVID handout in February of 2021, the passing an inflationary “infrastructure” bill and then the “Inflation Reduction Act” in the summer of 2021 – both designed to enhance further a forced transition to solar and wind electricity generation and requiring the purchase of EVs. Actions on oil/gas and uncontrolled government spending has resulted in citizens paying an increased $700+/month for food, shelter, clothing and transportation.
I could go on and on just with this administration, but prior ones have also overstepped presidential and Dept./agency edicts.
While this stuff makes the news, ofttimes with a biased slant, it hits our pocketbooks and our lives. Our Congress, regardless of party majority or affiliation, has sat on the sidelines – publicly throwing “crisis” darts at each other but doing nothing to fix anything to make it better for the citizenry.
Maybe President Biden and some members of his cabinet need to be impeached.
Regardless, we need our Congressional representatives to get off their partisan butts and appoint permanent, oversight committees to review and fix presidential EOs and agency regulations that negatively impact the American people and their livelihoods – and that make sense.
Period.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
SPIDER Bites
This week’s trivia question: What are baby rabbits called? Answer to last week’s song that Paul McCartney wrote for John Lennon’s son: Jude. McCartney wrote or co-wrote 129 songs. 91 reached the top ten, 33 became #1.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.307% from 4.258% on Wednesday, settling at its highest closing level since 2007. The 30-year Treasury yield hit a 12-year high, rising to 4.411%. Persistent inflation is driving bond yields higher. The national debt becomes even more expensive. Equity investors are “sharpening their pencils” to adjust models for the higher cost of capital as the Fed raises rates to counter inflation. Stock prices tumbled. Bidenomics.
A Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor and her grand jury joined the “Donald Trump indictment club” last week. The charges include violating the Georgia RICO Act—the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer. He and 18 others face charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 general election in the state. With the 4th indictment in 5 months, Trump must be guilty of something, right? Oh, and none of this is political. Right? Right. BTW, I have a bridge for sale in NYC.
Canadian Anne Andrews set a new powerlifting record for women last week, lifting a accumulative total of 1,317 pounds in squat, bench, and deadlift. The closest competitor lifted 200 pounds less. The transgender woman record setter, like all men, has more bone mass, muscle mass and lung capacity than women in that (or any) sport. It’s so unfair, allowing women to now just compete for 2nd place.
