Congressional Approval

Who or what is less popular than Congress?  The most recent Rasmussen poll revealed that only 5% of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing these days.  That 5% is comprised of a small group of 1% of the country who actually believe Congress is doing an “excellent” job and another 4% who think they’ve done a good job.  Since I have to believe that the 1% group must consist of actual Congressional members, staff, relatives or the clinically insane, this means that their actual approval among average Americans could be closer to 4%. To give you some perspective on just how bad that number is, in December of 2008, Wiz Bang Politics reported that Rod Blagojevich’s approval rating was 8%, and that was after he was arrested on corruption charges.  Even Charles Manson, the crazed, sadistic murderer of Sharon Tate has a 9.5% approval rating, nearly double the favorability of Congress.  Yet, the saddest reality in this popularity disaster is that it is well deserved.

The average American has suffered through one disappointment after another with this Congress.  From the debt ceiling debates to the utter failure of the Super Committee to the almost unexplainable fiasco in the payroll tax holiday debate, we have witnessed a total inability to reach consensus in what I consider compromise rich environments. Unfortunately, this failure to agree on anything is just one aspect of our Congress’s dysfunctionality. 

This congress has managed to spend 11 trillion dollars of our money and add more to our debt in the last three years than all congresses from 1983 to 2008 combined.  And they did it without passing a budget.  This is almost unfathomable.  Nancy Pelosi never passed a budget in the House as Speaker and the Senate, under Harry Reid, is approaching three years without one.  Is this not the definition of out of control spending?

Now, there is a new book out called Throw Them All Out, which details how members of congress have used their insider knowledge to enrich themselves through lucrative stock trades.  It also exposes how members of congress have spent your money and mine in the form of earmarks to positively impact their own real estate investments.  Warning – this book will make you sick and will probably lower congressional approval rating even more, if that’s possible.

So, how can we the people help straighten out Congress?  It is actually pretty simple.  We need to elect candidates that will change Congress from the inside, because, unfortunately, Congress controls its own environment.  We need candidates that will run “against” Congress instead of “for” Congress by backing three changes in congressional practices like:

         -Real Blind trusts for Congressional portfolios – This will have at least two benefits for the American people.  First, it should purify the motives for Congressional members as they vote for any bills.  If we remove personal benefit as much as we possibly can, then bills are more likely to pass based on actual merit.  It will also remove the distraction of personal gain from our Congressmen and women’s minds so that they can focus on the real impact on their constituents.  We should also consider recusal from voting on any spending bills that can impact the value of personal property of our representatives.

         -All laws passed by Congress must also apply to Congress – Today, for example, Congress can pass a health care bill that applies to you and me, but leaves them with their existing Cadillac congressional coverage.  It’s easy pass laws when you can simply exempt yourself from its impact.  No More!  And then finally, and most importantly,

         -Term Limits – Our Founding Fathers never anticipated that members of Congress would make a lifetime career of politics.  Their original thought was that people would leave their professions temporarily and serve their country in the political process for a short period and then return to normal life and have to live with any laws they passed while they were in Washington.  The thought of extreme gain from their service was also foreign to them (Washington paid his own troops and Jefferson died in debt). Washington is a fantasyland where a billion dollars is an insignificant rounding error and every year spent there detaches our politicians from the reality that you and I live with every day. In my opinion, 12 years (two terms as a senator and six terms in the House) is sufficient time to accomplish any legislative agenda, and if you are unsuccessful, you need to move out and give someone else a chance.  Term limits would also increase the amount of time our representatives are working without the possibility of re-election, which should reduce the impact of special interest groups and increase the focus on “We the People”.

When you talk to the average American they can’t understand why these rules aren’t already in place already.  86% of Americans think that Congressional politicians are more interested in their careers than they are about helping others.  These rules will certainly appeal to this group and to the 95% that currently don’t approve of their performance.  The only people who seem to have an argument against these changes are the people who are in Washington now.  Is anyone surprised?