What's the main job of Congress? When you come right down to it, the answer is simple. Congress is in charge of determining what the USA is going to spend each year and how that spending will be divided. Another part of that same job is to determine what taxes and other revenue raising measures will be. To be clear, there are many other important things that Congress does. It has the power to declare war (although president Obama has been fighting ISIS for a year and a half without getting approval from Congress.) It passes laws that are supposed to govern the USA (although here too, Obama seems to ignore many of those laws.) But year in and year out, the biggest job for Congress is money; how is it raised and how is it spent.
Since Obama became president, however, Congress went six years without once actually passing a spending bill that reviewed how the money is to be spent. During the first two of those years, the Democrats controlled Congress and they did not want to provide details of the massive spending increase. For the next four years, control of Congress was split between the Republicans and the Democrats. During that time, there was never any agreement which let detailed spending bills pass. This year, however, there is a Republican majority. Congress should have prepared individual spending bills for each agency and department of the federal government and voted on those separately. Programs that don't work should have been eliminated, and those which are underfunded should have been increased. We finally got such a bill for the Defense Department, but that's about it. Instead of there being spending bills that allowed Congress to supervise federal spending, we got another massive spending measure for the entire government. The bill will now get passed in Congress and no one will have any understanding of what is in it.
Why is it that Congress cannot do its job? My answer is that it is laziness and lack of leadership. Starting in January, Congress ought to be conducting hearings to put together spending bills that actually consider what spending needs to be changed. Those bills then need to be brought to the floor for debate and a vote. All of those idiotic programs that just waste money or pay off cronies need to be eliminated. If the vote is just on the Department of the Interior (for example) it will be harder for there to be gridlock. Congress could actually supervise federal spending as it is supposed to do.
Since this is an election year, my guess is that nothing will change. I hope I am wrong. Expecting Congress to do its job seems like a foolish belief.
Since Obama became president, however, Congress went six years without once actually passing a spending bill that reviewed how the money is to be spent. During the first two of those years, the Democrats controlled Congress and they did not want to provide details of the massive spending increase. For the next four years, control of Congress was split between the Republicans and the Democrats. During that time, there was never any agreement which let detailed spending bills pass. This year, however, there is a Republican majority. Congress should have prepared individual spending bills for each agency and department of the federal government and voted on those separately. Programs that don't work should have been eliminated, and those which are underfunded should have been increased. We finally got such a bill for the Defense Department, but that's about it. Instead of there being spending bills that allowed Congress to supervise federal spending, we got another massive spending measure for the entire government. The bill will now get passed in Congress and no one will have any understanding of what is in it.
Why is it that Congress cannot do its job? My answer is that it is laziness and lack of leadership. Starting in January, Congress ought to be conducting hearings to put together spending bills that actually consider what spending needs to be changed. Those bills then need to be brought to the floor for debate and a vote. All of those idiotic programs that just waste money or pay off cronies need to be eliminated. If the vote is just on the Department of the Interior (for example) it will be harder for there to be gridlock. Congress could actually supervise federal spending as it is supposed to do.
Since this is an election year, my guess is that nothing will change. I hope I am wrong. Expecting Congress to do its job seems like a foolish belief.
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