Congress Actually Does Do Jack

I saw an article this week about how the House of Representatives passed another anti-abortion bill; this one to further strengthen the ban on public funding for the procedure.

Now, the merits of this particular bill aside, this kind of thing further demonstrates what’s wrong with politics in the last five years.  (And isn’t it funny how it coincides with having an African-American president, huh?)  What I’m talking about is repeatedly passing bills in one chamber (almost always the House) that have zero chance of becoming law. 

Perhaps our fine congressional leaders should go back and review their episodes of Schoolhouse Rock, and learn how a bill becomes a law. 

The Democratic-controlled Senate also has to approve the bill.  Then after House and Senate leaders meet to work out the differences, it has to be signed by the President. So this bill will not pass the Senate, (nor will it even come up for a vote), and if it somehow did, the President would veto it.

When the House passes bills on these super-partisan issues like abortion, birth control, tax cuts, and most often, health care, it’s all done strictly for show.  The Congressmen want to be able to go home and tell the voters, “I voted for all of these things multiple times, so please send me back to I can keep on voting for them.  If it wasn’t for those miserable Democrats, the bills would actually become law.”

As long as they’re bemoaning the state of these D.O.A. bills, they don’t have to explain why they keep funding high-end tax cuts and subsidies for the richest companies on the planet.  When have you ever heard a Republican insist that farm or oil subsidies need to be “paid for” through other cuts?  But unemployment benefits?  Food stamps?  School lunch programs or after-care?  They want offsets, because after all, the people who would benefit are really just a bunch of lousy “takers.”

Anyway, repeatedly passing useless bills is 100% politics and it accomplishes nothing for anyone, except for the Congressmen trying to keep their own jobs.  It renders the political process inert, and doesn’t fund a single project, put a single American to work, or make anyone’s life better.

Sending bill after bill that revokes the very laws the other side worked exceedingly hard to pass is an exercise in futility.  It just feels good for them to do it; essentially, it’s political masturbation.

But that’s what you get when you elect so many jerk-offs.