|
|
 |
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
 |
Government by
Commuters, Governing by Crisis
By Susan Olling
The late David Brinkley wrote a wonderful book in the late 1980’s
called Washington Goes to War. He described, in his great
journalistic style, how unprepared Washington, D.C. was to assume the
leadership role needed to win World War Two and how that transformation
took place. Hint, it wasn’t easy.
In one chapter, Mr. Brinkley described Congress in the years before the
war. Legislative sessions averaged a bit longer than five
months. Congress adjourned in May or June, and the next session
started in the fall. Then, some of these elected ones discovered
the air conditioned theaters in Washington. If the theaters could
have this sort of comfort, these gentlemen wondered, why not their
offices and the Capitol chambers? In 1938, they got their
wish: air conditioning in the big domed building. With work
spaces now comfortable in hot weather, some souls thought that Congress
would work the entire year with the result being more government
involvement in everyone’s lives. To this reader, the latter
certainly occurred; the former is pathetically laughable.
These days, the elected ones in the big domed building work Tuesday
through Thursday. On Thursdays, they leave as quickly as
they can to get back to their districts. One vivid memory of the
kids’ 2013 tantrum, my term for a federal government shutdown, was
watching a news report of a bunch of them running down the Capitol
steps one Thursday as if they couldn’t get away fast enough. Why
they would think to leave town with the government shut down is
something for which they probably would have had no clear
explanation. The analogy of rats deserting a sinking ship came to
my mind. In 2016, the gang of 435 will be working 111 days or two
days per week. How does almost seven months of paid vacation next
year sound? Yes, they’ll have that, too. The Senate will be
working all of thirty-one weeks in 2016. Their summer vacation is
half of July and all of August. Doesn’t sound like much will get
done on Capitol Hill.
Oh yes, tax dollars are used to subsidize the elected ones’ apparently
bottomless travel budgets for all of these trips back and forth.
Seems like a waste, doesn’t it? Where are the elected ones who
scream about government spending?
And we let them get away with all this. Why?
Now, it seems that Mr. Speaker wants his family time, and he wants all
House legislation to go through committees with all House members
having a chance to amend bills when they reach the floor. Sorry,
the kid can’t have both of these with the way the House operates.
However, he could have both by doing the following: show some
guts by moving his family to Washington and extending the
workweek in the House to five-days-per-week. Wow, then the others
would have to bring their families, too. They could live where
they work, just like the taxpayers for whom Mr. Speaker and the rest
are supposed to serve. Before anyone starts squealing, read on.
Once upon a time, when being a lawmaker was a five-day-per-week job,
members of Congress moved their families to Washington. The
adults got to know each other. Their children went to local
schools. They all got to rub elbows with the federal employees
who the current crop of lawmakers, and their constituents it appears,
seem to know nothing about when they glibly and eagerly talk about
shutting down the federal government if they don’t get their way.
Sounds like the behavior of little kids, doesn’t it?
However, about twenty years ago, Congressmen stopped bringing their
families with them. Mr. Lawmaker wanted to keep in contact
with his constituents frequently which meant more and more time away
from Washington. Sounds innocent enough, but it’s created a
downward slide to what now exists on Capitol Hill: a
government-by-commuters governing by crisis. The
who-will-blink-first showdowns, bickering of which five-year-olds would
be proud, and federal government shutdowns have gotten to be quite
old.
The world is much smaller and is an even more dangerous place as
witnessed most recently by the events in Paris. This country
desperately needs a full-time Congress working in Washington for the
good of the country and not the part-time, reactive, my-way-or-else
creature that it is now. Sadly, there will be no change
because no one wants to be seen leading in that direction.
I leave you with a question. Congress’s job approval rating is
under 15%. Would someone explain why this number is so low if
these characters are spending so much time with their constituents?
|
|
|
|
