A Month In The Life Of The U.S. House Of Representatives

Many times I have referenced the great website, www.flipcongress2010.com. The owners of this website have done a fantastic job of researching, analyzing, and publishing the wasted time, effort, and money that the political class expends without solving any of the major problems currently confronting the country. These problems include a skyrocketing deficit, high national debt, failing public schools, a lost War On Drugs, two wars in the Middle East, high taxes, rising health care costs, Social Security and Medicare heading for bankruptcy, no national energy strategy, impotent immigration policies, just to name a few.

Rather than work on these handful of major problems, www.flipcongress2010.com documented the resolutions passed by the House Of Representatives during the month of March, 2009. To me, they seem pretty trivial when compared to my list above but I will let you be the judge. However, I have taken the liberty to cynically comment on these resolutions, using some of the insights that the www.flipcongress2010.com folks used on their website:

• Congratulating the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia for more than 100 years of service and leadership to the United States. Too bad none of these leaders ever made it to Washington, a vacuum when it comes to leadership skills.
• Raising awareness and promoting education on the criminal justice system by establishing March as National Criminal Justice Month. Nice thought but would it have been a better tribute to solve the War on Drugs failure, a major criminal justice issue?
• Recognizing and honoring the employees of the Department of Homeland Security on its sixth anniversary for their continuous efforts to keep the nation safe. Isn't what they are supposed to do? Why are we congratulating someone on just doing their job? Would this resolution pass today given the horrible job Homeland Security did relative to the Christmas day underwear bomber?
• Recognizing Beverly Eckerts service to the Nation and particularly to the survivors and families of the September 11 2001 attacks. Kudos to Ms. Eckerts but 1) is she the only one do deserve this honor and 2) wouldn't focusing on fixing Social Security have been a better use of the House's time?
• Commending the University of Southern California Trojan football team for its victory in the 2009 Rose Bowl. Why stop at the Rose Bowl? Why didn't Congress finish the job and congratulate the winners of the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Mienke Car Care Bowl, The St. Petersburg Bowl, Gator Bow, Outback Bowl, Chic Filet Bowl, etc.?
• Supporting the goals and ideals of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week. Nice idea but why stop with the one disease and not include the hundreds of others that are just as worthy?
• Designating March 2 2009 as Read Across America Day. According to the website, this resolution passed a few weeks after March 2. Missed it by that much. Tough to hype your Congressional endorsement day after the day actually happened.
• Congratulating the National Assessment Governing Board on its 20th Anniversary in measuring student academic achievement. I cannot even come up with a witty retort for this insanity, what in the world is the National Assessment Governing Board?
• Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance. Wow, aren't they smart? How come no one else figured out that having a food in your stomach is good for learning? They are so smart in Washington.
• R. Jess Brown United States Courthouse. First naming of a building to suck up Congressional time.
• J. Herbert W. Small Federal Building and United States Courthouse. Second naming of a building to suck up Congressional time.
• Recognizing the plight of the Tibetan people on the 50th anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama being forced into exile and calling for a sustained multilateral effort to bring about a durable and peaceful solution to the Tibet issue. Apparently they called for a multilateral effort but provided no insights on what that effort would be. Probably because they have no clue what to do here.
• Recognizing and commending the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cornell University for the success of the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the 5th anniversary of their successful landing. First machines to suck up Congressional time.
• Supporting the designation of Pi Day. As a math major in college, it brings a tear to my eyes that all powerful Pi, the cornerstone to figuring out the area AND circumference of a circle has at long last been recognized by the Congress of the United States. I would love to you who thought up and sponsored this idea, devoting Congressional time to a Greek alphabet letter.
• Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office. Third naming of a building sucking up Congressional time.
• Specialist Peter J. Navarro Post Office Building. Fourth naming of a building sucking up Congressional time.
• John Scott Challis Jr. Post Office. Fifth naming of a building sucking up Congressional time.
• Supporting the goals and ideals of National Womens History Month. Nice thought but what about working on fixing the rising health care costs first?
• To support the goals and ideals of Professional Social Work Month and World Social Work Day. Nice thought but how about fixing the failing public schools problem first?
• Lance Corporal Drew W. Weaver Post Office Building Designation. Sixth naming of a building sucking up Congressional time.
• Stan Lundine Post Office Building Designation. Seventh naming of a building sucking up Congressional time.
• Expressing support for designation of the week of March 1 through March 8 2009 as School Social Work Week. Also just missed on this effort from a timing perspective. This resolution was passed two weeks after the week getting supported had passed.
• Recognizing the 188th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy. Not the 50th, not the 100th, not the 200th or any other typical milestone, Congress decided to weigh in on the 188th anniversary.
• Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Nice thought but how about working on peace treaties between Israel and the rest of the Arab world?

A lot of these are noble thoughts and I am sure many of the individuals and organizations were thrilled to have resolutions passed in their names. However, I bet they would be more thrilled and would likely trade in their resolutions if Congress and the ruling political class got together to solve the bigger issues first, the ones we listed in the first paragraph above. As mentioned many, many times in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," we have to get government so much smaller and focused in order to not only reduce our taxes but to get them focused on solving the major problems facing America today. Naming Post Offices, honoring Greek letters, etc. will not make a difference in the lives of most of the 300 million Americans living today.

The sad thing is that the above efforts all occurred in just one month's time. Can you imagine how many hours and dollars of staff and elected officials time is spent over the course of twelve months?