Congressional Dysfunction is Systemic

Public confidence in the performance of Congress has been rock bottom for years. Over the last several decades, respect for the profession of lawmakers is maintained by those in office, beholden to their legislation or aspiring strivers who want to carve out a career of being on the government payroll. For actual taxpayers who carry the freight of an expanding leviathan, the prospects of reversing this course has never been put into motion. Only bigger budgets and higher debt seems to be the only agreement that the two party travesty of representation can muster. When it comes to settling intramural disputes, the showmanship of bitter disparity succumbs to the basic motive that bonds all politicians; namely, get re-elected.

At the offset the valid premise that guides any serious discussion on the institution of Congress rests upon the answer to the essential question. Does the legislation passed by Congress benefit the citizens? For committed cynics the response is seldom or never. Seldom must be included because the laws of probability account for mistakes or lapses in the perfection of tyranny.

Yes, the record within the House of Representatives and the Senate has abdicated its role of functioning as a bi-partisan legislative assembly. If ideology was the true motivation of elected Congressmen or Senators, the reality of cross voting against the demands of their own party, would occur regularly. These patterns of discipline voting has been seen during the eight years of the Obama  administration, and even more pronounced during Trump’s tenure.

The twist added in the first six months is that GOP party ranks resist much of the legislation initiatives that Trump campaigned on in 2016. There is a simple reason why so many beltway insiders rallied to the collectivist cause of Obama’s version of socialization governance. The spigot of K Street lobbyists keep the elitist money flowing and discarding the excrement through the plumbing into the cesspool of a failed democracy.

It is no accident that Obama governed by way of executive orders. The enraged Tea Party Republican freshman elected in 2010 would not support the Obama agenda. Now, under Trump the solid solidarity of a Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer directed Democratic resistance and the internal and subtle Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell opposition and sabotage, has the Donald issuing his own executive orders.

Since many of these decrees are reversals of the Obama legacy, few pseudo constitutionalist seem to care that the Republican majorities are abandoning their responsibilities to govern.

A prime example that reveals the underlying reluctance to get your own house in order comes from the senior Senator from Kentucky. Even the NeoCon publication GOPusa reports.

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has no interest in at least one agenda item preferred by President-elect Donald Trump: term limits for members of Congress.

Trump praised the idea during the campaign, but McConnell said Wednesday the issue is going nowhere in the Senate.

The Kentucky Republican tells reporters: “I would say we have term limits now. They’re called elections. And it will not be on the agenda in the Senate.”

If anyone thinks the Democrats would differ with McConnell on avoiding any attempt to pass term limits, they would be living in a parallel universe.

The Congressional daily dysfunction you see in the mass media is just a distraction for the serious work they carry out. Keeping the government safe for the ruling New World Order power brokers, is and always has been, the bonding glue that keeps government operating.

Incumbents are re-elected cycle after cycle and it usually takes a juicy scandal or an imminent indictment that forces a resignation. Elections have become a sick joke. Spending in Georgia Sixth race pushes past $50 million and Out-of-State Interests Spent $26.2 Million on Georgia Special Election illustrates that the day of an ordinary citizen winning a seat in Congress is remote at best. When a candidate who does not even live in the district can get the backing of the party machine, you know that the system has lost its legitimacy.

Democrat Jon Ossoff was not successful in buying a place in the House. Yet the 435 representatives in Congress have more turn over than the 100 Senators who often take up residence in the senior chamber. One would think with such job security that preordained elected folks would begin to find a way to work together.

Nope, not in these great Disunited States of America. The myth that there is a loyal opposition when in the minority disguises the need to keep on passing every continued resolution to fund the government. Budgets do not pass, because it is easier to preserve the deficit spending addiction then to effectively balance the books.

Revenues keep climbing as taxes keep rolling into the Treasury, but deficits have become a way of life. No matter what the public distraction becomes, reducing the rate of increase in baseline budgeting, dropping government programs, much less cutting actual entitlements, would be unheard of.

Such an arrangement cannot be defined as a functioning government. Congress will never face up to their financial obligations because they are not accountable to the people. The only risk to this endless Ponzi scheme is that the financial markets would need to force a default on the system.

Well, just imagine a debating society invoking their exculpations and turning blame on a besieged President, any President.

Congress originates spending bills. About the only skill they exhort is the ability to keep raising the national debt. The problems of the country are deep and numerous. Waiting for a broken Congress to do the people’s business is too much to ask when the representatives in both assemblies refuse to bargain like responsible adults.

Leadership in both parties needs to retire and be replaced with deal makers. Sadly the prospects of this happening are zero in this environment of swamp alligators. Such critters are burying the country in quick sand. Soon we will all be underwater.