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Congress breaks for 5 weeks‚ but much work undone

   
  

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In this July 12, 2012 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Lawmakers headed home for a five-week break with a laundry list of uncompleted work and little to show for the past year and a half except an eye-popping amount of dissatisfaction _ nearly 80 percent of Americans are unhappy with them. The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have set record lows for production and record highs for dysfunction.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON: Congress' performance matches its approval rating - abysmal.


Lawmakers headed home for a five-week break with a lengthy list of uncompleted work and little to show for the past year and a half except an eye-popping amount of dissatisfaction: Nearly 80 percent of Americans are unhappy with them. The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have set record lows for production and record highs for dysfunction.


Partisanship and election-year politics have left a drought-stricken nation wondering if new help will ever come and the U.S. Postal Service uncertain about its solvency. Some $110 billion in automatic, across-the-board cuts are due to hit military and domestic programs on Jan. 2, yet no bipartisan solution is in sight or even under discussion by those who really matter.


At the same time, President George W. Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans expire, threatening to send a sluggish economy right back into recession.


The standoff is what happens when a bitterly divided government mixes with election-year politics to throw sand in the gears of official Washington. The tea party-dominated House and a Senate controlled by Democrats struggling to keep their narrow majority in November view each other with a palpable disdain.


House Speaker John Boehner, who came to Washington in 1991, bluntly described the divide that has made consensus a rare commodity.


"The American people are probably more polarized now than any time since I've been here," the Ohio Republican told reporters. "And as a result we see that polarization reflected here in the halls of Congress. And even though both sides have some sharply different views and ideologies, our job is still to find the common ground."


But common ground is scarce. This is a Congress that can't do the big stuff while even the small stuff, such as a one-year extension of student loan subsidies that passed in June, makes them sweat.


Congress stumbled out of Washington for a five-week vacation one day early on Thursday on a typical note: a GOP filibuster in the Senate of a bipartisan cybersecurity bill and the House's abandonment of a one-year extension, as Republican leaders had planned, of food and farm policy.


Senate Republicans were unhappy about being denied a chance to amend the cybersecurity bill. House Republicans were unable to find party unity on food stamps and farm subsidies


The House settled for a paltry restoration of expired disaster programs for livestock producers and tree farmers. The Senate wouldn't do even that, demanding instead a full five-year farm bill with 80 percent of it, or about $400 billion, devoted to food stamps.


More broadly, just 151 laws have been enacted in 19 months; more than two dozen of them were to rename post offices and courthouses, or add individuals to the Smithsonian board. By comparison, the previous Congress enacted 383 laws with President Barack Obama in the White House and Democrats controlling Capitol Hill.


Even in 2007-08, when Republican Bush was president and Democrats ran Congress, 460 laws were enacted.


"They think compromise is a dirty word when compromise is necessary to get things done in the era of divided government," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.


A poll last month by CBS News and The New York Times found Congress with a 12 percent approval rating and 79 percent disapproval score.


Lawmakers will return in September for what promises to be an abbreviated pre-election session with two main items of business.


Most important is a six-month spending bill to keep the government running through March and prevent any possibility of a politically explosive government shutdown before the election. Not one of the 13 must-pass spending bills has been completed and the new budget year begins Oct. 1.


The warring sides also need to find some solution on farm subsidies and food stamps before the programs expire Sept. 30. The Senate gave bipartisan approval to its farm bill in June but the House has been unable to pass it or a version of its own.


"The House is pretty well divided. You've got the left concerned about reductions in the food stamp program, you've got the right who don't think the cuts go far enough in the food stamp program," Boehner said. "And frankly, I haven't seen 218 votes in the middle to pass a farm bill."


A leading option would be to punt the issue into the future, as Congress has done with so much else.


Even what passes for accomplishment often simply extends current policy. There were the recent extensions of transportation funding and student loan subsidies, along with earlier action to extend Obama's payroll tax cuts and his demand for additional jobless benefits for the longtime unemployed.


"That's just sort of continuing the status quo," Van Hollen said. "But in terms of tackling big issues, this Congress has been out of commission."


Defense hawks hope political pressure in August will force Congress to address the automatic cuts. The reductions were the default that Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last year as part of a deficit-cutting plan that also raised the nation's borrowing limit.


Republicans accuse Obama of jeopardizing national security. Democrats counter that sparing the military will require Republicans to concede on raising taxes on high-wage earners.


Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., eagerly talked about trying to work out a compromise in August, but other Republicans and Democrats have shown little interest, content to use the issue as a political club.


"I don't know how we get out of debt if we don't have bipartisanship," Graham said.


Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested that Congress put off the issue, delaying the cuts for at least one year. Whether Congress can resolve the issue in the postelection session or wait until next year depends on the outcome of the presidential and congressional races.


The possibility of Romney being sworn in Jan. 21 and Republicans taking control of the Senate and House makes a delay more likely.


The real concern ahead is the debt limit.


The Treasury Department has said the government's borrowing limit will be reached near the end of 2012, but it has the ability to shift money to buy a few months reprieve to give the next Congress time to act. That puts the likely deadline for the borrowing authority on a collision course with the expiration of the temporary spending bill to keep the government operating through March.

Comments1

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Steve Eichler, CEO of TeaParty dot org, a massive growing network of millions of ordinarily citizens and legal residents who have come together to battle both the Democrats and Republicans and opening up chapters across America; as if a third party. The political masters have a fix so it is almost impossible for a third party to be elected; henceforth the TEA PARTY. The TEA PARTY will gain ground within the Republican Party and thereby presenting their influence through oncoming elections. We have seen downplay of both political parties, the media of the unseating of Indiana Senator Richard Lugar to by a Tea Party leader Senate nominee Richard Mourdock, then just this week And now TEA PARTY favorite Ted Cruz (R) took out Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, for the outgoing seat of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Yet another Republican has bitten the dust, replaced a true TEA PARTY supporter. Both hard core Democrats and the Republicans should be very uneasy, very apprehensive indeed about incumbent politicians who despairingly are lost for words TEA PARTY growth? The TEA PARTY, which backs Ted Cruz, stated that the race is a premonition for the country. Seems to me that ordinary Americans have seen an alternative to both political parties in the TEA PARTY ranks? In another congressional primary, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, who has served in Congress for more than 30 years, faces TEA PARTY challenger Lauren Stephens, who has raised only $6,000 and is running a low-profile campaign. Ted Cruz didn’t have a huge campaign chest of money, but he still beat Dewhurst who provided millions of dollars of our own money. This would be a good time for every TEA PARTY members to stand with Stephens and other TEA PARTY leaders to stand firm against Petri. On her webpage, she proposes eliminating the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) because of ineptitude and costs, enforcing policies against illegal immigration and making the nation's official language English. She has stated “Having an official language is makes common sense and builds common ground." Then congressman and current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack need the backing of every Tea Party voters. But even Steve King who is a strict illegal alien enforcer has just as strong habits in a challenge to any Liberal Progressive. In Wisconsin next week Businessman Eric Hovde, is running his first race, charging that former Gov. Tommy Thompson isn’t a true conservative. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, a home builder and former congressman casts himself as the most conservative candidate, and is looking for support from the TEA PARTY. Then State Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald has slipped in raising money, but hopes voters remember his role in passing the conservative ideology in the Legislature. The most dangerous personage in the Democratic Senate is the toxic tongue of Harry Reid of Nevada. Then you have to remember that Nevada has been flooded with illegal aliens and so this ancient Democrat is pandering with utmost zeal to all none citizens. He has derailed cloture in numerous laws, such as the enforcement immigration policies. We need to crowd as many new TEA PARTY members inside the Senate, to stifle the Liberal-Democrats and extract them from their seats of power. LOOK AROUND YOU AND SEE WHAT EITHER THE DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS HAVE DONE FOR THIS COUNTRY? Instead of voting for the same old incumbents or even new faces that are representing either party, investigate who is your local, state or federal TEA PARTY candidate? If I told you 5 years ago that America would elect a man who did the following, you would have called me extreme. Read the short list and then tell me I’m nuts: Kowtows to foreign dictators; Promises Russia (not America) he can do more when he is elected; Pushing the United Nations to grab our guns; Creating the biggest “Tax And Spend Plan” (ObamaCare) in America history for freeloaders; Highest unemployment since the October 1929 Wall Street crash; Denies self-esteem to small business owners, claiming they didn’t build their own business? It is becoming excruciatingly clear the Tea Party must take the lead! Obama, “America’s President” is the product of a secret system of sedition and trickery. A complete underworld of dangerous swindles, unscrupulous scams and deadly con-artists that have been involved are now being exposed… and the picture is pure, raw evil, with the realization America has been duped—such as giving “Solyndra” special treatment as they contributed to Obama’s campaign. Given Obama’s past record, is it any wonder he wants to grab your guns, reach into your wallet and grab your cash for his tax coffers and then extinguish your freedom? The problem is, it is within his reach and most of the Washington Socialist Czars have applauded his actions! Are they blind or stupid—or both? If the unthinkable happens “America’s President” I will do the following the next 4 years. Obama’s Czars desire to confiscate our guns once and for all; the U.S. dollar replaced with global government currency similar to the failing EURO in European Union. All domestic oil drilling stopped, giving places as Brazil and other countries a right to sell us oil. Then currently a burst of regulations from Environmental Protection Agency has closed down coal mines, even though these entities have spent millions to deliver clean coal. American industry is inundated with rules and regulation forcing oil, natural gas, coal to genuflect the crazies in the environmental entities that have brought our energy supplies to almost a halt. Obama’s focus seems directed at the U.S. border, so it ceases to exist when closing down important ports of entry. IF, if Obama gets reelected, we can be assured another 100 percent amnesty for all illegals, which could cost us at least 2 trillion dollars to process—that’s according to a projection of Heritage foundation? Homeownership swapped for government housing. A bloated Public school system, with social services replacing parents; Tea Party—and anyone who opposes the “new rule”—black listed and intimidated as seen not only in Arizona but silently encroaching to other 50 states. It is time to expose “America’s President.” But, you CAN stand in the way of his power grab for America. I have no devotion to Mitt Romney’s administration, and the serious danger of re-electing President Obama is very tangible. My personal opinion about the controversy of Romney’s tax returns is not my business and shouldn’t be that issue for Liberal Senator Reid neither? We can undermine both parties by having our own candidates in Congress, especially in the Senate. He will want to keep paying out taxpayer’s money to Americans who have no interest in seeking a job or in fact never bothered to work in their lives; ‘FREELOADERS—even my family have these people. My spouse allows this, as she is an enabler? A 23 year old man who plays video games all day and a daughter with her boyfriend, who at 40 years old, has never been employed? The exclusion being attributed to the sick and handicapped that taxpayer support? The only real alternative is the TEA PARTY, which is gathering massive amounts of voters as a storm of confidence in a PEOPLES WASHINGTON, instead of the old guard of Republicans and their opposites. Any individual can join the TEA PARTY, as long as they are here in the United States legally. The TEA PARTY is a ‘political Statement’ about a federal government that has run amok of the U.S. Constitution, which has nearly bankrupted this country. A major problem that neither party wants to talk about, is our nation infested with common criminals from across our borders or flying in and posing as visitor, with no intent to leave. Every day the amount of illegal alien drunken drivers keeps rising, mowing down innocent family members. But it’s not crime rate just rising in the Southwest, but the spreading of these people bringing with them their odious records from across the globe. Under each of the main parties nothing will be done, as they are under the strict influence of the corporate purveyors of cash or the insane zealots who wants open borders and the broad spread of poor foreigners who want a better life, which our spineless politicians think we are beholden too. The TEA PARTY would insist on two immigration policies being approved though the Senate and House of Representatives. But more TEA PARTY leadership must gain more seats in Congress, which seems to be actually happening? Plenty of these moderate conservatives and true believers in our U.S. Constitution are ready to influence the other lawmaker’s to enact policies that assist out of work Americans. It will open up jobs for millions of low income Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Asians and all other nationalities lawfully here. If your frustrated with both political parties past performance, vote for a TEA PARTY representative—they are different? It is passed time we enacted the ‘Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2885) and the Birthright citizenship Act (H.R.140)? Isn’t it time that the state of Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other in the 50 states protect their state borders? Each law essential to structure our immigration policies, once again gain a steel gauntlet on our immigration policies. The Birthright Citizenship law has been mutated, as it didn’t mean that anybody who reached into America could gain citizenship, as it only was only an avenue for the emancipation of slaves after the Civil War. Retain this information that none citizens will be voting in November, if Obama’s Liberals get there way the ‘freeloaders will reward him with their votes. One should also determine for themselves if Obama has a right to a second term. I cannot judge for anybody but myself and I have afforded the time as an Independent and a TEA PARTY associate to read the evidence concerning the birth records of Barack Obama. There are many irregularities to his family backdrop, that has some disquieting concerns for me, but THE PEOPLE should interpret about the facts of the investigation and then vote for that reason. No Copyright. Tell everybody. Dave Francis, Indianapolis, IN USA

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