Why Aren't You As Angry As I Am About Congress?


I didn’t realize how angry I was about what the House and Senate are doing…or, more accurately, not doing…until I heard someone who should know better say that Congress would be “returning to work” this week after being out of town for its Memorial Day recess.

Yes, representatives and senators will be coming back to Washington. But saying that Congress will be returning to work is so ridiculous that it should become the standard definition of an oxymoron , that is, of a self-contradictory phrase that can’t possibly be true.

This is especially the case when it comes to the federal budget this year: Congress so far has done nothing and is will likely do even less before the next fiscal year begins on October 1.

Start with the House, which has decided to punt on doing a budget resolution now that the Freedom Caucus Republicans has refused to support what the budget committee barely adopted. Rather than agree to the Freedom Caucus’ demands or develop a compromise that would attract Democratic votes, the GOP leadership has done virtually nothing except set up what it is calling a budget swat team to see if anything is possible.

The Senate has done even less than the House. The Senate Budget Committee has used the phony excuse of wanting to see what the House does before deciding how to do a budget resolution of its own. As a result, the Senate so far hasn’t done anything this year on the budget and it’s increasingly obvious that it won’t.

(For the record, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act requires that Congress adopt a budget resolution each year by April 15, that is, almost two months ago. It doesn’t require that the House go first or mandate that the Senate wait for the House to act.)

House and Senate inaction on the budget is about to be matched with what at best should be considered congressional dithering on appropriations.

In spite of the Republican leadership insisting at the start of the year that passing all of the appropriations by October 1 was one of its highest priorities, it’s now clear that’s not going to happen and that a continuing resolution will again be needed to avoid another federal government shutdown.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2016/06/05/why-arent-you-as-angry-as-i-am-about-congress/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20forbes%2FmdWV%20(Forbes%20-%20Entrepreneurs)&ref=yfp#276ba4a72b77

By the way, one of the members of the so-called House 'Freedom Caucus' is none other than my very own representative -- Scott Perry. This group of non-collaborative, non-cooperative, and uncompromising bunch of obstructionist lawmakers is one of the prime reasons for nothing getting done in the legislative branch of our federal government.