Congressional Six Month Checkup

The 110th congress is ready for their well deserved summer break. This was a very ambitious congress and they should be exhausted. They ran on a very industrious 100 day platform with a laundry list of to dos. They essentially promised everyone nirvana after 100 days. It didn’t work out so well for them, their list or those who stood around waiting on nirvana.

First there was the misunderstanding of what constituted 100 days. They pulled a Bill Clinton on the meaning of 100 days:

“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”

It was assumed that 100 days started on January 3 and ensued for 100 days. But they only ran the clock on the days they were actually in session, stopping it when the took a break, lunch, left the chambers, weekends and for football games. and stopping it at their discretion then restarting it again.

Here are a few of their more significant accomplishments since January 3rd:

• Spent some time debating a constitutional amendment on flag burning.
• The immigration debate. Took some time off to hold hearing around the country. Came back and debated some more.
• Debated a constitutional amendment on gay marriage.
• Launched over 300 investigations, had over 350 requests for documents, numerous interviews and over 600 oversight hearings over the Iraqi war, too many supeunas to count, firing of federal attorneys and Scooter Libby. Not one of them do they have any authority over and regardless of the outcome of the hearings, they cannot take any action.

• Spent some more time voting 246 to 182 on a non-binding resolution opposing the Iraqi war.
• Passed a 100 billion war spending bill after buying the votes to pass it with 20 billion in pork spending.
• The speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, met with the President of Syria, Bashar Assad, after being told not to by the State Department. She relayed a message to him from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, that Israel was ready for peace talks with Syria. Olmert vehemently denied ever making that statement to Pelosi.
• Congress demanded a meeting with Gen. Petraues, the new U.S. General in Iraq, but Pelosi was too busy to attend the briefing with him.
• Harry Reid announced to Al Queda that the U.S. had been defeated by them and we should give up an bring the troops home.
• Proposing the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
• Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, requested an Air Force C-32 (757) to ferry her and her entourage around at $22,000 per hour. Is demanding that lawmakers be allowed to bring their adult children on tax-payer funded travel for free.
• Worked very hard at getting their approval rating down to 28%, then blamed it on George Bush and the Republicans in congress.
• Raised the minimum wage with results that will further decimate low wage earners.

Yes, they have been very busy indeed. It really would be unfair to call them a “do nothing Congress.”