Sites like NBC and the New York Daily News have been covering the return of the congress from it's "summer vacation." Changes have already been made, but one opinion post argues that the most important job congress has right now is deciding on a spending bill. This brings up the topic of a border well again, though the editorial board of the Washington Post believes there is almost no way this will actually result in any sort of government shut down.
Instead of a government shut down, the Post argues Hurricane Harvey may actually have made the need for a spending bill even greater, and is the reason a government shut down isn't possible. Jason Silverstein from the New York Daily News has claimed that congress has the economy hanging in it's hands as a result of the tight deadline that has resulted from it's summer recess.
All of this leads back to the posts written in early August, before the recess. CNN covered the recess, explaining that it was tradition that almost didn't happen this year. Interestingly, ten republican senators asked to cancel the recess, supporting the opinion post in the Washington Post by describing five important aspects that congress needed to solve right away, "fixing health care, funding the government, dealing with the debt ceiling, passing a budget resolution and improving the tax code." Three of those five relate to our economy, thus making these last few days for the congress to come up with decisions incredibly important.
In terms of discussion, what do you believe would have been the right thing to do? Should senators have stayed and solved these major problems? Do you agree that the economy is the most important problem for congress to solve? What do you think is the right move for congress as they come closer and closer to a major deadline?
note: all links have more descriptive opinions on the importance of congress's decisions, and what they will be deciding.
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I recently read a Times article title “Shaken by Harvey, Congress May Try Something New: Bipartisanship,” which suggested that Harvey may have some major effects on major upcoming legislation. The border wall appears to be off the table for the time being because both Trump and Congress are more concerned about passing relief bills for Harvey. Because funding for the wall was originally a prerequisite for Trump to sign an increase of the debt ceiling, the chance of the U.S. defaulting has decreased significantly.
Houston will need to rebuild, and much of the construction sector of the area is comprised of latino immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Hopefully, their work will help some realize the important role that immigrants serve in our country.
It appears likely that Trump is going to end DACA, which allows undocumented immigrants who arrived as children to stay in the US. This is needless and cruel. Many of these people are American citizens in all but name, as they have grown up in the country virtually their entire life. If deported, they would arrive as foreigners in their country of origin. The most important thing for Congress to do right now is to swiftly pass legislation to protect these people. Even though Trump plans to leave a six month window between his announcement and DACA actually ending, their would be great uncertainty in the intervening time between the announcement and passage of legislation. Sadly, judging by their willingness to repeal the ACA without offering a replacement, the Republican Congress does not appear to care whether or not they keep people’s lives in suspense.
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