Since Congress has willfully chosen not to fulfill its duties in passing a budget, I was interested in what they could possibly be doing. I was going to post this earlier, but I thought the vote to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” trumped even these horrible examples of legislative work…so here they are.
Senator Bob Casey, (D-Pa.) has introduced legislation that would provide a $165 billion bailout for union pension plans that are in trouble. Perhaps the unions should have spent their money more wisely….perhaps on supporting their members instead of politicians. Speaking of which, it has not taken long for Congress to attempt to get around the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case (at the request of the President) If you remember one of the most un-presidential moments in our country’s history, President Obama told Congress to find a way (a loophole, if you will) around the Constitution. Congress’ attempt is the “DISCLOSE” Act (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Election Act) or more accurately called the “Democratic Incumbents Seeking to contain Losses by Outlawing Speech in Elections Act”. That last one was dubbed by former FEC Chairman Brad Smith. The fact that Democrats voted down several amendments that would make this legislation also apply to unions made their intentions extremely clear. Spakovsky at the Heritage Foundation put it perfectly when he said
“The DISCLOSE Act seems intended to deter and intimidate the political speech of those whom the sponsors and supporters of the bill do not want to hear from in the political arena, which are the hundreds of thousands of businesses and voluntary associations throughout America who are being hurt by the foolish economic and regulatory decisions being made in Congress. ”
Another thing Congress is doing relates to the first spending cut proposed through the You Cut website. Democrats voted down this spending cut, which was to remove a program created with the “Stimulus” that undermined the very successful welfare reforms of the 1990′s. But not only did they not take the hint from everyday Americans, tucked away in HR 4213 they have added an additional $2.5 billion in funding for this program. Talk about a slap in the face of Average Joe.
Congress is obviously rushing everything through as fast as they can before they get voted out. And they are all horrible policies. These I mentioned today are only the tip of the iceberg. Maybe tomorrow we can talk about what the President is doing, but that is not much better.
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