One thing that incenses me above else is the behavior of the current 112th Congress. This Congress was elected in 2010 in the middle of the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, certainly a time when we should be turning to our elected officials to lead us out of danger. Instead, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives was content to sit back and just say No to everything that the Senate sent it. They chose to cow-tow to the Tea Party voters whose political movement and conservative revival they had rode into office. Did you know that EVERY single member of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress signed a "No New Taxes Ever" pledge as soon as the caucus was created in 2010? Already these legislators had tied their credibility and re-election prospects to saying no to a key element of any possible compromise with Democrats over debt reduction and had set the tone for the next year. The way the Republicans have used their majority in the house for things like blocking the end of the Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires, and forcing spending cuts into the 2011 federal budget is both, I think, an abuse of power and harmful to the nation's economic outlook. 70% of all Americans approved of ending the tax cuts yet they are still around. Moreover the fact that they are blocking all these initiatives while at the same time forcing stupid, meaningless, symbolic legislation like a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution and the repeal of Obama's healthcare bill is even worse. A Balanced Budget Amendment would leave the government helpless to get emergency money in the event of a national crisis or sudden war, and Obama spent much of the early part of his term working to get this healthcare law passed, of course he and the Senate Democrats are going to block the repeal.
The absolute worst part though was the dangerous display of brinksmanship during the debt ceiling debate earlier this year. For House Republicans to delay raising the limit until several "deadlines" had passed and the Treasury was doing magic with its accounting to find enough money to run the government is ridiculous. What I found most frightening about it though was the talk of a government shutdown and default on our debt. The fact that people would even be discussing possibly letting that happen is terrifying. The U.S. government has never defaulted on a penny of its debt in all of history and for it to do so in 2011 would more than likely create such a panic that it would end the financial system as we know it. Using that as a threat to push through ill-advised spending cuts is irresponsible and I think that the Republican Party will pay for it in the 2012 election.
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I must agree with Gabe in that the recent deadlocked and polarized behavior of Congress is quite possibly the worst thing our country needs right now. As the Founders stated in Federalist No. 10, factions pose a considerable danger to the functioning of a federal government (a problem they believed would be resolved by the large size of our republic). However, the very partisanship about which they warned us runs rampant in Congress. But even so--the Founders warned us against major factions uniting over major issues. The 112th Congress has revealed factions of the minutia--staying divided over the most insignificant of issues and thus perpetuating the impasse of legislative change.
Although you both point out some significant short comings in the actions of Congress, I'd like to point out a few things. First of all, most balanced budget proposals make exceptions in times of war and national emergency and it is not a radical idea to believe that such a proposal could lead to economic growth. I do think that recent Republican behavior has been silly and irresponsible, however talk of default on the debt has taken place all year and although it is a dangerous subject to play with as Congress has been, I think it's just an empty threat used to light some kind of fire in congressional debate. Current behavior by both parties is, to me, irresponsible and providing little hope for the future of our country.
Although I doubt that the Republicans in Congress were actually going to let the U.S. default on its debt, I think their stubbornness should be taken more seriously than as just an empty threat. They refused to pass anything that would raise the debt ceiling without a "compromise" that resulted in a deal with big wins for the Republicans and their Tea Party friends. The deal was made on the last possible day, which was so close that S&P downgraded our credit rating. On a sidenote, S&P also stated that the possibility of Republicans in Congress not letting Bush-era tax cuts expire in 2012 was a part of the reason for our credit downgrade, because that would mean that we would not have the additional tax money to lower our deficit.
It seems as though Republicans are basing their actions too much on self-interest. This nation has a representative government for the purpose of being able to make more educated choices in the interest of the people as a whole. It appears that Republicans are opposing increased taxes on themselves and special interest groups. There are few if not no good reasons to oppose increased taxes on the rich. They can definitely handle taxes a lot better than families who are living paycheck to paycheck. This nation needs the republicans in congress to get their heads out of their rears and act more in the interest of the people.
Last week, I saw a post on Reddit.com that said Congress' approval rating is currently at "an abysmal 9%," meaning that polls show 91% of Americans are frustrated with Congress' actions and behavior. The post led me to an interesting CNN opinion article. The author provided a possible solution: limit the terms of Congress members so that the turnover would change the make-up of Congress. The problem is that the Constitution needs to be amended to put this proposal into effect, and as we just learned, the process starts with a 2/3 majority vote from Congress. That's definitely not going to happen. Our best bet is to have candidates running for Congress to pledge to limiting their terms. Hopefully, this or some other solution will catch on in our upcoming 2012 election.
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