Congress

"James Madison was explicit about the function of the United States Senate – it was “to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority”. Indeed, that’s precisely what it does. As Jamelle Bouie points out, the Senate has “an affluent membership composed mostly of white men, who are about 30% of the population but hold 71 of the seats” out of 100. Though popular opinion may overwhelmingly favor universal healthcare and more progressive taxation, these policies are said to be “politically impossible” because the millionaires who populate Congress do not favor them." Rich white men rule America. How much longer will we tolerate that? (5/20/2019)
"If you wonder why the United States is the only country in the industrialized world not to have a national health care program, if you're asking why we pay the highest price in the world for prescription drugs, or why we spend more money on the military than the rest of the world combined, you are talking about campaign finance. You are talking about the unbelievable power that big-money interests have over every legislative decision." Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt)
Just after the November 2012 election newly elected Democratic members of Congress learned from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that fund-raising calls would take up a large part of their average day. The DCCC proposed this schedule: 1 hour for ¨Strategic Outreach, Breakfasts, Meet and Greet¨, 2 hours Committee/Floor; 1-2 hours Constituent Visits; 4 hours Call Time to raise funds for their next campaign. Rep John Larson (D-CT) called it ¨a miserable business. You might as well be putting bamboo shoots under my fingernails.¨ American Oligarchy, The permanent Political Class: Ron Formisano
"Nothing can be passed by Congress that is opposed by Wall Street or large corporations. Nothing." Senator Bernie Sanders
..."We've been trying to educate some of the members of Congress that there are a lot more direct ways to help their districts. If you support the F-22 based on jobs in your district, you're trying to recruit a coalition. Somebody says, I'll support you on the F-22 if you support me on the F-18. And I'll support you on missile defense if you support me nuclear weapons. Next thing you know, they've woven together this coalition of death. It's not just the cost of that one plane, it's the cost of doing business that way, allowing the Pentagon and its contractors to sort out the budget and the economy." William Hartung quoted in Loving This Planet, Helen Caldicott

Will the Senate Save America From Trump's Cabinet? (11/15/2024)

Chip Roy (R-Tx) ‘Give Me One Thing I Can Go Campaign On and Say We Did!’

"The U.S. Senate has not ratified a major multilateral treaty since 1997." GlobalSolutions.org

Is this the worst Congress ever? Let’s count the ways (3/28/2024)

GOP Congressional Report Card

Trumpist Mike Johnson is the US House speaker. There’s plenty to fear (10/26/2023)

‘A dangerous game’: Republican chaos and indecision as crises shake the world (10/14/2023)

US heads for debt-ceiling standoff as House Republicans refuse to budge (1/20/2023)

147 insurrectionists

The 147 Members of Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election on January 6th, hours after their armed followers stormed the Capitol, trying to overturn the results.

Mark Meadows Exchanged Texts With 34 Members Of Congress About Plans To Overturn The 2020 Election (12/12/2022)

Trump is now effectively in control of the US House of Representatives (11/17/2022) Guardian

Mitch McConnell greatly damaged US democracy with quiet, chess-like moves (8/15/2022) The Guardian

There Are 100 People in America With Way Too Much Power NYT (7/23/2022)

Joe Manchin Is a Symptom, but It’s the Senate That’s Sick (7/19/2022)

Until the US Senate is accountable to America, we’ll never get gun control (6/3/2022) Guardian

In Nearly All Other Democracies, This Is Not Normal (7/21/2021)

Here are the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2022 (7/8/2021)

GOP Congressional Report Card

Links

"The US Congress is possibly one of the most dysfunctional governance institutions/organizations on the planet (followed all too closely by the Supreme Court and the Presidency) given its enormous resources and historical context. Their inability to grasp the real nature of the economic woes and to find solutions that will help, for example, the working poor, is having a major negative impact on human happiness, but it is insidious and subtle in how it plays out. Discerning exactly how it works is a lot like trying to ascertain how global warming is “causing” any particular weather catastrophe. We know the causal links exist but tracing them through all of the connections in a complex network of relations is a daunting task." Civilization Collapse 3.0
Under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war.
Every major decision governing our diverse, majority-female, and increasingly liberal country bears the stamp of the United States Senate, an institution controlled by people who are almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly male, and disproportionately conservative. Although they do not represent a majority of Americans—and will not for the foreseeable future—today’s Republican senators possess the power to block most legislation. Once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” the Senate has become one of the greatest threats to our democracy. How did this happen? Kill Switch, The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

Pressure grows on Biden to end the filibuster (3/5/2021)

18% dominate the Senate.

‘Bait and switch’: Liz Cheney book tears into Mike Johnson over pro-Trump January 6 brief (11/29/2023)

The Senate Is Making a Mockery of Itself (2/12/2021)

The Senate Has Become a Dadaist Nightmare (2/4/2021)

‘From Crisis to Crisis’: The Moments That Defined a Historic Congress (1/2/2021)

The Snake-Oil Salesmen of the Senate (11/24/2020)

Republican Senators Are Afraid of Trump, No Matter How Mad They Get When Someone Says So (1/25/2020)

by 2040, about 70% of Americans are expected to live in the 15 largest states. They will have only 30 senators representing them, while the remaining 30% of Americans will have 70 senators representing them. David Birdsell, dean of the school of public and international affairs at Baruch College (11/21/17)

What the Senate Does Now Will Cast a Long Shadow (12/23/2019)

Let the Lewandowski Circus Change Congressional Hearings Forever (9/18/2019)

Mitch McConnell: The Man Who Sold America (9/17/2019)

Are the New Congressional Progressives Real ? (12/14/2018)

The Senate is so rigged that Democrats may never control it ever again (11/7/2018)

Who’s Afraid of Nancy Pelosi? (8/14/2018)

“President Chaos” and a return to Congressional government (1/23/2018)

Most of Congress 'Likes War' and Opposes Ending US Support for Saudi War in Yemen (11/7/2017)

End Citizens United
“core pathology of national politics today is congressional abdication.” In the 19th century, one of three Supreme Court nominees was turned down; today, Congressional nominations are largely rubber stamps. The Congress has also increasingly abdicated its power to declare and fund wars. The last real power Congress has is the power of budgeting and spending money. If Congress refuses to override the coming veto and defend its legislative powers, we will be witnessing the final death throes of the great history of the United States Congress and with it our Constitution. Bright Lights (3/17/2019)
The Senate has done a poor job of monitoring lobbying documents that have not been filed with the Senate Office of Public Records; pursuing lobbyists who do not register; and making sure that the largest lobbying firms file the required forms with the Congress. Several years ago, there was a bipartisan effort to create an independent Office of Public Integrity, but the chairman and and ranking minority member of the Ethics Committee’s successfully opposed such legislation. What is to be Done? Melvin Goodman
Congress Approval RatingIn our politics there are four neglected virtues that could light the path from where we are to where we ought to go: (1) respect for evidence, (2) tolerance of ambiguity, (3) caring about consequences, and (4) commitment to the common good. All are diminished by the ideology of radical individualism and neglected by much of the mainstream media. As our politics become more ideological, neglect of these four virtues in our political debates and media coverage exacerbates the polarization and gridlock in Congress. More attention to these tenets by the press and public would be a helpful antidote to our poisonous political culture." Tom Allen's book Dangerous Convictions: What's Really Wrong with the U. S. Congress
And for the Republicans in Congress, there’s another interest—namely, to undermine anything that Obama, you know, the Antichrist, might try to do. So that’s a separate issue there. The Republicans stopped being an ordinary parliamentary party some years ago. They were described, I think accurately, by Norman Ornstein, the very respected conservative political analyst, American Enterprise Institute; he said the party has become a radical insurgency which has abandoned any commitment to parliamentary democracy. And their goal for the last years has simply been to undermine anything that Obama might do, in an effort to regain power and serve their primary constituency, which is the very wealthy and the corporate sector. They try to conceal this with all sorts of other means. In doing so, they’ve had to—you can’t get votes that way, so they’ve had to mobilize sectors of the population which have always been there but were never mobilized into an organized political force: evangelical Christians, extreme nationalists, terrified people who have to carry guns into Starbucks because somebody might be after them, and so on and so forth. That’s a big force. And inspiring fear is not very difficult in the United States. It’s a long history, back to colonial times, of—as an extremely frightened society, which is an interesting story in itself. And mobilizing people in fear of them, whoever "them" happens to be, is an effective technique used over and over again. And right now, the Republicans have—their nonpolicy has succeeded in putting them back in a position of at least congressional power. So, the attack on—this is a personal attack on Obama, and intended that way, is simply part of that general effort. But there is a common strategic concern underlying it, I think, and that is pretty much what U.S. intelligence analyzes: preventing any deterrent in the region to U.S. and Israeli actions." Noam Chomsky comments on Netanyahu talk to the Congress 2015
Executive branch authorities can access congressional communications in almost undetectable ways without a warrant, just as they can retrieve emails and phone calls made by other citizens. Elected representatives risk disgrace or worse because many can be accused of fund-raising violations or sexual misconduct. Dossiers and blackmail did not go out of fashion with J. Edgar Hoover's death. Hoover's success merely showcased the effectiveness of the tool." Presidential Puppetry: Andrew Kreig
"The Republican party has become an insurgent outlier -- ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise, unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, science, and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the center of American politics,it is extremely difficult to enact policies responsive to the countries most pressing challenges..." Thomas Mann and Norman Orenstein: It's Even Worse than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism
The widespread practice of corporations funding the campaigns of key committee members and other influential lawmakers who are directly in charge of supervising the corporations' commercial interests has somehow escaped being interpreted as bribery. Thus, when corporations that want to protect sugar quotas, oil company tax breaks, deferred air pollution rules, the granting of pipeline or broadcast licenses, or the the procurement of bailouts target key lawmakers for contributions, these exchanges are not considered bribes --even though everyone knows that the contributions are being tendered in exchange for legislative services rendered." Ralph Nader: The Seventeen Solutions Pg 102
"The imperial presidency would not exist were it not for the Congress, which has willingly ceded authority to the executive branch, especially on matters touching, however remotely on national security. As the chief executive achieved supremacy, the legislative branch not only lost clout but gradually made itself the object of ridicule. David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, pungently described the philosophy of the Bush administration this way: "We're going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop." Even under Democratic control, the Congress has not remotely threatened to be that large force." The Limits of Power, the End of American Exceptionalism: Andrew J. Bacevich
"...Systemic risk in the financial system can be remedied by the taxpayer, but no one will come to the rescue if the environment is destroyed. That it must be destroyed is close to an institutional imperative. Business leaders who are conducting propaganda campaigns to convince the population that anthropogenic global warming is a liberal hoax understand full well how grave is the threat, but they must maximize short-term profit and market share. If they don't, someone else will. This vicious cycle could well turn out to be lethal. To see how grave the danger is, simply have a look at the new Congress in the U.S., propelled into power by business funding and propaganda. Almost all are climate deniers. They have already begun to cut funding for measures that might mitigate environmental catastrophe. Worse, some are true believers; for example, the new head of a subcommittee on the environment who explained that global warming cannot be a problem because God promised Noah that there will not be another flood." Noam Chomsky
"A key point I took home from my examination of Congress was that both parties, Democratic and Republican, were equally guilty in what really was a conspiracy to run the government without outside interference. The only way the public could protest all the handouts and earmarks and fast-tracked tax breaks and other monstrosities was to vote for the other party -- and the other party, it turned out, was inevitably whoring fo the same monied masters." Matt Taibbi: The Great Derangement

How the Republicans Broke Congress (12/2/2017)

Elizabeth Warren: 'Wall Street Lobbyists Are Swarming This Place' (5/28/2016)

The Most Dangerous Bill You've Never Heard of Just Passed the House (1/11/2017)

House GOP moves to punish broadcasting from chamber floor (12/27/2016)

How Money Drives US Congressional Elections (8/2016)

Consider the proposed Republican budget and their tax 'reform' for the wealthy: Does the Republican Congress work on behalf of the people ? Serious academic studies found that it does not: Gilens and Page of Princeton, Lawrence Lessig's book "Republic Lost", Hacker and Pierson in Winner Take All Politics, Noam Chomsky's book Failed States, argue that Congress responds to funders, not people.

For example: Republicans tried many times to repeal the Affordable Care Act removing millions from health insurance. The replacement was worse or non-existent, but would save money for what they really want: tax cuts for the wealthy. It is disgraceful that Republicans use American's health care as a bargaining chip.

History shows tax cuts do not pay for themselves, but resulting financial strain could impact healthcare, Social Security, Education, welfare, etc.

Undaunted, Republicans are still moving to cut taxes for the wealthy, now paid directly from deficit spending. Elimination of the inheritance tax alone would benefit, in billions, Trump $4, Koch $38.6, Waltons $51.6, Adelson 12.2 ... As Dick Cheney said: " deficits don't matter". Other features of the GOP tax plan would also increase income inequality, yet another attack on democracy.

The Federal budget is about the reverse of what people, when polled, would want. We have reached new extremes of income inequality and, according to scholar Thomas Piketty, it's going to get worse. The U.S. is now an oligopoly, not a democracy. Republicans allowed lobbyists to draft legislation for monopoly industries and they created ALEC. This policy has led to massive concentration of power in private hands, corrupt media, redistributed income upward, restructured the economy, corrupted politics, and led to extreme income inequality. The economy is unfair, unjust. unstable, and unsustainable. None of this is accidental, it is the result of policy. The Supreme Court has been treasonous in facilitating this fascist coup.

Government, as shown in budget priorities, notably does not do what people (when polled) want it to do. The Republican budget proposed by Paul Ryan was contrary to public opinion, rewarded the wealthy at the expense of the vulnerable, and made hypocrisy of religion.

Studies show that Congress responds to the wishes of the wealthy, not the people. We have experienced, as Lawrence Lessig points out in his book 'Republic Lost', a coup. Our government is no longer responsive to the people. It serves monied interests. Studies show that the U.S. has become an oligarchy.

They did find $700 billion to kill people.

War is a deeply counterproductive way to conduct foreign policy, it has been disastrous for the Middle East, we are engaged on a world-wide battlefield in an apparently endless war, yet Republicans are clearly planning for much more of it. Don't think that we are safer as a result. In passing the AUMF, the Congress about abdicated its Constitutional power to authorize war.

GOP billionaires despise democracy...so without a fight we may not have it much longer. They attack media, undermine elections, pack the Courts, empower corporations, expand the military, pass harsher laws, bust unions, make education expensive, spread their ideology disguised as philanthropy to dodge taxes, attempt to privatise everything from schools, prisons, Social Security, Medicare, public land, and infrastructure. Since they are solidifying their gains, it is not clear that the system is self-correcting.

To pay for tax gifts to the wealthy including elimination of the inheritance tax, Republicans cut healthcare, Medicaid, meals on wheels, social supports. block consumer protections, oppose the CFPB, scrap the fiduciary rule, ignore anti-trust, make student loans more expensive, weaken privacy, cancel net neutrality, and increase the debt ceiling. They allow corporations to extract as much money from people as they can.

Agencies are being dismantled by political appointees who oppose their very purpose. Republicans stated goal is the 'deconstruction of the administrative State.' Deregulation makes corporations unaccountable so they can continue union busting, fossil fuel pollution, financial recklessness. Rule by corporations is Fascism. The Fascist State functions for the oligarchy, and doesn't much care about the people.

Democracy requires an informed electorate, fair elections, transparent government, but It is getting weaker fast. U.S. media is highly concentrated and has little motivation to keep people informed. The result: Congress does the bidding of the funders, not the people. (See Lessig's Republic Lost which is free to download.)

To see how undemocratic and mean-spirited Republicans are, see their budget plans

As U. S. physical infrastructure is deteriorating, so is the infrastructure of democracy: declining education outcomes have resulted in wide-spread illiteracy; traditional media like newspapers and magazines are facing poor financial prospects; broadcasters feel no public obligation and increasingly sell time to advertising, trivia, sports, and propaganda; elections are fueled by big money and results are suspect; government does not act as people,when polled prefer, and has embarked on a program of universal surveillance but acts more and more in secret. There is also a massively funded right-wing initiative to bring Fascism to the U.S. It is difficult to see how we can avoid dystopia.

I did the math: 12% of the U.S. population controls 60% of the Senate. (2015)

Congress Can - and Should - Declassify the TPP (5/28/2015)

House Gives $334 Billion Tax Break to 25 Richest Americans (4/28/2015)

The GOP's Coming Horror Show: Why the New Congress May Be Worse than You Think (1/8/2015)

For the Planet and Future Generations, New Congress May Be Most Dangerous Yet (1/6/2015)

Chuck Todd: 'Collective IQ of Congress goes down every two years' (11/20/2014)

The Imperial Congress (12/1/2014)

Want to Fix Our Dysfunctional Congress? Vote Right-Wing Republicans Out of Office (10/29/14)

Dangerous Convictions: What's Really Wrong With the U.S. Congress (8/23/2014)

Confidence in Congress Hits a New Low (6/14/2013)

The CBO Report: Six Things You Can't Talk About In Washington (2/6/2013)

GOP Holding the Economy Hostage With The Debt Ceiling (1/13/2013)

Credit Gerrymandering For gop control (11/16/2012)

A Timeline of Republican Obstruction (6/29/2012)

Congress Runs on Fundraising _ Lots of It (4/8/2012)

Lawrence Lessig's message at ChangeCongress.org explains Congress dependency on money, not the people.

The Republican Congress continues to engage in brinksmanship, putting off all but the most important legislation to the last minute, and then making only short-term fixes. The better tp continue the brinksmanship.

Republicans shouldn't be in government.

Congress is driven by money, and that's why, more often than not, they get it wrong:

  • Congress gave away the public airwaves to a handful of corporations, allowed them to consolidate, and did not require any public responsibility.
  • US elections need massive clean up, but Congress won't do anything about it.
  • They have, for decades, cut taxes for corporations and the extremely wealthy and ignored rising inequality and the sinking middle class.
  • They cut important social programs without regard for the pain and suffering they cause.: social security, education, healthcare are all on the chopping block. Banks, regularly get bailed out, then use their gains to lobby against any regulation.
  • US healthcare is the world's most expensive with outcomes not much better than Cuba's, but Congress refuses to recognize that employer based healthcare was a huge mistake, for-profit healthcare does not work, and insurance companies are not part of the solution.
  • Their budgets do not agree with the people's wishes (when polled).
  • They have created the world's largest military and funded weapons of mass destruction that can never be used. They cannot stop it because it is a widely dispersed, disgusting jobs program. They have not stood down nuclear first-strike forces.
  • They have not bothered to address the climate challenges that we are sure to face: there will be more violent storms. food shortages, wildfires, droughts, rising seawater, melting glaciers, worsening pollution, resource shortages of all kinds, ... but Congress is dysfunctional.
  • Because Congress cannot do the right thing, it has to carry out many of its functions in secret. It cannot stand the light of day. See the movie Gasland II for example.
  • They are incapable of regulating rogue financial concerns. We will have worse financial crises in the future because banks that were too-big-to-fail ane even larger now. Economic growth is over.
  • They have given the President the power to make endless war in a battlefield that covers the entire earth.
  • They dream of world dominating empire.
  • The Patriot Act was deliberately enacted to destroy civil liberties.

Buying Congress in 2012 (1/5/2012)

Congress FAILs on Jobs Again (5/14/2010)

How to Get Our Democracy Back: Lawrence Lessig 2/22/2010

Congress may not be broken but oversight is

US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street

Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein unite to call for eye on government (3/1/2010) see the video of this event.

Health Care: Not All Republicans Are on the Crazy Train -- Just the Ones in Congress (10/7/2009)

Alleged U.S. Contractor Rape Victim Fights for Day in Court --Senate Passes Amendment to Stop Contractors From Forcing Employees into Arbitration 07 Oct 2009 Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old young woman working her fourth day on the job in Baghdad for contractor Halliburton/KBR in 2005, when she says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven U.S contractors and held captive by two KBR guards in a shipping container. But Jones is still waiting for her day in court because when she signed her employment contract, she lost her rights to a jury trial and, instead, was forced into having her claims decided through secret, binding arbitration. Today, the Senate approved an amendment by a vote of 68-30 that would prohibit "the Defense Department from contracting with companies that require employees to resolve sexual assault allegations and other claims through arbitration." [The thirty Republican scumbags who voted no: Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS).] (From CLG News) See her story in this online, free movie: Hot Coffee.

VIDEO | Keith Olberman: Legislators for Sale (8/3/2009)
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC Countdown: "Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on Health Care Reform in this country, and in particular, the 'public insurance option.'"

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