Stubborn Issues Unresolved for Congress

[dusty64]

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The congressional year ends with the future of President Bush (news - web sites)'s vaunted energy bill uncertain and no decision on how to fix the nation's crumbling highways or avoid a looming trade war with Europe. With Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, it wasn't supposed to be this hard.



Republicans enter the 2004 election year with some real bragging rights: Congress this year gave full financial backing to the military and rebuilding effort in Iraq (news - web sites) and passed a $330 billion tax cut that Republicans credit for rejuvenating the economy. The crowning achievement was a $395 billion Medicare bill with a new prescription drug benefit for seniors and the disabled and a new role for private insurers.


Democrats saw these GOP victories as a minus for the country, blaming the tax cuts and new spending for helping push the federal deficit to a record $374 billion this year. "They inherited a surplus and turned it into huge, huge deficits," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House's no. 2 Democrat.


Congress also left Washington this week without completing half the spending bills for the 2004 budget year that began Oct. 1 and with a long list of items they failed to get through during the first year of the 108th Congress.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=1278&e=1&u=/ap/20031129/ap_on_go_co/congress_unfinished

[ramapo]

1. Dysfunctional Group

Congress is all about solidifying corporate governance through payback to the financial backers that provide the resources to allow these people to spend millions of dollars on media propaganda (aka the campaign).

They cannot function as a governing body for the people. It is all about power and crushing the opposition. There is a thin layer presented by the media that positions them as doing the "peoples" business.

They are incapable of addressing the real problems facing us: the environment, job loss, soaring debt, crumbling infrastructure, and so on. Why? Because the solutions would run counter to the goals of corporate governance.

ed. for sp.