Is it Time to Withdraw Support for a Congress that Can’t Govern?

The U.S. Congress appears almost dysfunctional, unable to address pressing issues of national welfare. And now there’s more alarming news: Congress is failing to meet certain benchmarks–even those that have already been allowed to slip before. Congressional Quarterly says “Deadlines Are Piling up in September for Must-Pass Legislation“:

After failing to meet several previous goals for going to conference on Food and Drug Administration overhaul bills, lawmakers in both chambers are committing to a new wrap-up date of Sept. 21. The legislation (HR 2900, S 1082) would reauthorize the FDA program that approves new drugs. Without a funding renewal, the agency will have to start laying off workers at the end of this month, when current funding expires.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Because Congress has not cleared a single one of the 12 appropriations bills needed to run the government, we face the prospect of entire departments closing their doors on October 1, when current funding expires:

Setting the stage for what one budget analyst predicted will be “great budgetary theater” is the clock. The 2008 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and Congress has yet to send to the president a single appropriations bill needed to keep government agencies running. The House has passed all 12 appropriations bills, but the Senate has passed just one.

We can expect Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to try to gloss over this–to invent new benchmarks with the hope of convincing the American people that they are making progress. But we need to face reality: this Congress simply doesn’t work. It seems that the current leadership is too heavily identified with just one faction and is incapable of bringing together divergent interests. It may be time to toss the lot and hold new elections–or, at the very least, to withhold financial support as a signal of our dissatisfaction.

Related Content