Dysfunctional Congress ‘worse’ than ever? - Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan
I’d like to thank the Tea Party and the GOP for this fine mess.
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I am a fiscal conservative and I’d much rather see the debt limit and taxes raised to avoid default and put our house in order. Once we do not have the default hanging over our heads, we can talk spending cuts & budgets in detail. But not under duress.
After three straight lopsided elections, Congress still can’t — or won’t — function.
Just 18 bills have become law through the first half of 2011, and 15 of those named a building after someone, temporarily extended expiring laws or appointed an official to the board of the Smithsonian Institution. Congress can’t decide what to do on critical issues like Libya, spending or the nation’s debt limit, and no compromise is in sight on a host of other issues.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, a freshman Republican from Kansas who has never before served in elective office, explained that it is more a matter of “deep division” and “two sharp worldviews” between the parties than a lack of trust in specific party leaders.
But Pompeo questions what Obama, Geithner and even House GOP leaders are saying about the debt limit: It must be raised — and soon — to avert an economic calamity.
“There’s nothing in my judgment that indicates that Aug. 2 is a magic moment,” said Pompeo, who argues that a true financial meltdown will occur only if investors conclude that the government isn’t serious about repaying the debts it already has incurred.
The American public has seen what is happening on Capitol Hill, and so far, it doesn’t like it.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58076_Page2.html#ixzz1QmquXB6P
