05 Jan Flailing and Failing, Actually
Tim Walz may be out of the Minnesota governor’s race, but we still have some problems, America, and a major one is our U.S. Congress.
Republicans “control” Congress (while also controlling the White House and Supreme Court), but they can’t control themselves enough to accomplish much. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress oppose Every. Single. Thing. their so-called “racist, fascist” opponents attempt. Such flailing recalcitrance has not achieved anything at all.
Perhaps the worst offenders are the members of the U.S. House of Representatives, which set a record for the fewest votes cast (362) in the first session of a two-year term. That is about half as many as in 2017 (President Trump’s first year of his first term), when Republicans also had a House majority.
In the last year, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which raised our national debt ceiling by another $5 trillion and shortened the time it will take for our country to reach that crushing level of indebtedness. Nothings else of consequence was passed.
Nothing on health care. Nothing to balance future budgets. Nothing to fix our immigration system. No ethics reform. Nothing to save Social Security.
Meanwhile, President Trump signed 225 executive orders last year. By comparison, in 2017 he issued 55 orders, and he signed approximately twice as many actual laws that had been passed by both houses of Congress that year.
Politics as Usual – the New Usual
It is disheartening when the best and most positive word to describe our Congress is dysfunctional.
I have examined the many root causes of the dysfunction problem and narrowed them down to these three: (1) out-of-touch parties and “party leaders;” (2) congresspeople whose strongest desire is to fundraise, get re-elected, and hold power; (3) congressional leaders and members all focused on their own political “team” winning, not caring whether their home districts are safe and citizens can afford life there.
Let me offer some evidence of failure:
- Exhibit A for 2025 was the 43-day government shutdown. Did anything get accomplished during this time? Of course not! Did anything change because of the shutdown? No! Did the members all get paid the same throughout the shutdown? Of course they did!
- Exhibit B is the sickening reality that the first order of business after the shutdown was a vote to release the Epstein files. Not that I am opposed to the release of these files, but, come on, it rubs salt into our wounds that they shut down our government over such an extraneous matter, and then they gave it priority over important issues, such as national security, national finances, public health, the economy, and wars.
- Exhibit C is the complete failure of Congress to anticipate or deal with the affordability and inflationary consequences of the federal spending bills they approved in the past.
- Exhibit D is a composite list of broken promises our “representatives” made when running for office, such as lower prices and loan rates, access to affordable housing and health care, bipartisanship, and a renewed focus on American families’ needs.
- Exhibit E is another list. This one includes all of the corrupt politicians who either lined their own pockets or were more focused on investigating members of the opposing party than they were paying attention to the nation’s business.
Yes, our members of Congress have proven themselves to be weak, partisan, selfish, risk averse, out of touch, dishonest, and catering to the extremes of their own “side.” They indeed have utterly failed.
The adjective that jumps out at me most is weak. The entire legislative branch certainly lacks the strength to stop any presidential administration from accumulating power. The current members have feebly ceded the responsibility granted only to Congress to levy taxes (e.g., tariffs), to make spending decisions, to reform immigration law, and to wage “war” (in Iraq, in various U.S. cities, in waters off South America, and now, most recently and obviously, against Venezuela). That is pathetic.
Given such failure, it is not surprising that only 9% of American poll respondents approve of the job Congress is doing. Even Republicans’ views of the GOP-controlled legislative branch were down to 23% late last year (a drop from the 60% approval by Republicans in July).
It Doesn’t Have to be Like This
Perhaps a glimmer of hope can be found in the current Congress being on pace to set a record for retirements during a single two-year term. That’s a start. (So is the news that Governor Walz is dropping out.)
Term limits are another option, and I will be addressing that possibility again soon.
Our real remedy, folks, is that we are the bosses of our flailing congressional weaklings, who are more concerned with themselves, their political parties, and the desires of special interests than they are about the citizens they represent. With one-star customer satisfaction survey results like those of Congress, any restaurant, body shop, or hotel would be put out of business. At the very least, people would be fired.
It is an election year. I say we put “our representatives” on notice: Unless they quit first, we will fire them and insist on term limits for their successors.
Written by Quentin R. Wittrock, founder of Principle Based Politics.
Look for his periodic posts, as this blog and the Extremely Non-Extreme podcast explore and promote the ideas of principles and non-extremism in politics.
Principle Based Politics does not endorse or support any particular political candidate or party.
V. Putin
Posted at 14:37h, 06 JanuaryAll valid criticisms. This troubling reality exists because of a spoiled (as in fat and happy) American public that has gotten that way by spending future generations’ money.
A balanced budget amendment would likely have a greater impact than term limits. Tremendously difficult to administer at the federal level, but states pull it off.
Quentin
Posted at 14:54h, 06 JanuaryFor anyone who may be wondering (HA!), the above comment is NOT from the true President of Russia. I know the source, who I will let remain annonymous due to his high political prominence (although not as an elected official).
DKnight
Posted at 01:16h, 07 JanuaryOur elected folks all take higher office and get more out of it–prominence and riches–than they give back. They all talk about “serving” like they are in the military–but they aren’t. Again, they reap more than we do from their representation–they all come back from DC with more money and power. I have a theory–(which I believe is reality)–that most elected officials from both are parties–are below average in the categories of wisdom, discernment, benevolence and good judgment. To repeat–they are BELOW AVERAGE in the qualities needed to be effective, competent leaders. Why are they below average? Because their brains are literally consumed with their own self-interest. Thus, many of the people in congress–most actually–are foolish people. But they have an important talent–themselves–they know how to advance themselves and get elected. Some great examples of incompetent fakes that you wouldn’t hire to run a hotdog stand at a county fair–but they can elected to high office: Newsom, Harris, Biden, Bush the Younger, Romney, et al. There are very few great elected leaders–Churchills and Lincolns and Washingtons are rare. So, Congress is currently full of lots of goofballs from both parties–without good leaders to guide them. We are in the middle of a bad class of congressional folks. Plus, the partisanship has gotten worse over time. This hyper-partisanship is tied to the rise of leftism, which is a political philosophy that is intolerant of differing viewpoints. We are in a mess–and if the Dems take over the House and/or Congress this year–it will all get worse. Good luck.