Congress Needs an Overhaul, Not Repair

What's wrong with Congress? Let me count the ways. I used the term "bent but not broken" in describing the condition of our Army and Marine Corps. When it comes to Congress, I think we can call it "bent, maybe broken, and certainly not serving the people in any meaningful way."

began this study of the problems of Congress as I usually start new projects, by underestimating the enormity of project. I began with a concern that Congress had allowed the Executive Branch to assume unconstitutional powers that led to a Presidency that is out of control. I am finding (or re-discovering) that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Congress is incapable of doing most of the things for which they were elected.

The Web is filled with sites dedicated to fixing some part of the Congressional mess. Most have analyzed some problems and proposed viable solutions. A few go to the extreme of proposing that we vote out all incumbents. The idea is that, if we vote out all incumbents, the new Congressmen and Congresswomen will understand that their job futures depend on the American voter. I don't personally buy the approach, but it may, in the end, be the only workable approach to a failed Congress.

ost of these sites, in my opinion, do not address the broad range of Congress's problems, with the exception of one new site which I'll mention in a later post. The following are the major topic areas I've collected from a lot of web pages:

• The budget process has become nonfunctional.
• Committees and subcommittees have proliferated. They overlap, discuss the same issues, call the same witnesses, and rarely reach decisions.
• Some committees and subcommittees have the job of adding to the budget while claiming they are reducing it.
• Because of the proliferation of committees and subcommittees, few if any Congressmen know where any element of the budget stands at any time, let alone knowing the condition of the entire budget.
• It is impossible for citizens to follow the budget process.
• Earmarks can be added without other Congressmen or citizens knowing who added them. Thus, the budget grows without accountability.
• The budget cycle is never on schedule, sometimes even resulting in approval after the spending has started.
• News/media report on individual members of Congress, but rarely report on the workings of Congress as a legislative body.
• The seniority system died in 1975 (a good thing), but it leaves us with 100 individual prima donnas in the Senate and 435 in the House. Each vies for publicity and exposure to their constituents.
• With media-type news that has little ability or interest in reporting on complex issues, the media gravitates to the sound bites of Congressional prima donnas, but never tells us about what's going on in Congress.
• Issues that become publicized are voted on along strict Party lines. This is partly due to the rise of the power of the Republican Party (now being emulated by the Democratic Party) and partly due to the above prima donna effect wherein our Congressmen seek publicity by being partisan. Result: nothing gets done.
• Related to the above issue is the hidden control of Congress by PACs. Partisan voting is also due to the money influence of PACs. Depending on your political, financial, or moral leanings, some PACs are good, some are bad, but all enjoy hidden relationships with the peoples' representatives. Since it is obvious that those we elect dance to the tune of powers other than the voter, we should, at the very least, know who is calling the dance.
• Social Security and, especially, Medicare are in trouble and approaching crisis. We've known this for years. Congress has also known it for years. Yet nothing has been done in the last three Administrations or the last six or seven Congresses. The time for action is running out yet Congress only promises action in the next Congress, again and again.
• Congress should hold government agencies accountable for the funds Congress gives to them. Yet waste abounds and Congress can do nothing.
• Some Congressmen are corrupt, a very few are very corrupt.

ut the biggest problem isn't listed above. And that is, if Congress is to change, then only Congress can make that change. Catch-22. There are some Congressmen that do want change, but most do not. New Congressmen spend so much time trying to learn the baroque workings of the place, that once they get used to it, they don't want to change it.

I listed personal corruption last because I do not believe that it is a major problem. Even if corruption is worse than I believe, all the other issues must be addressed before we could effectively root out much corruption.

I've see a couple of sites that say that today, more than at any other time in the recent past, Americans are ready to make Congress change. I agree, but how do we go about it? In later posts I will get into a little more depth on some of the major issues. Mostly I will try to summarize the issues and point the reader to sites that cover the issues in more depth. I will present the various solutions that others have proposed and again point to those sites. I might even propose my own solutions.

Grand Canyon 1, 9x10 colored pencil, 2000