Will Congress Ever Work?

I was listening to NPR while heading home from work today. I listened to a story on how the U.S. Senate was unable to get the votes needed to vote on two bills to raise taxes for individuals making more the $250,000 a year and it dawned on me, we are so screwed. Now you may be asking yourself, why is Grimie working on a Saturday and why did the Senate fail to get enough votes to vote on a bill to raise taxes? In some strange coincidence these two questions are linked in more ways than one.

Like many other people in this country I need to work on Saturdays to help make ends meet. Yes I have a full time job and so does my wife, but working on a Saturday is not an option for us. Now strangely enough due to the cosmic alignment of the moon, Venus, and three moons of Saturn, the U.S. Senate decided to actually meet and work on a Saturday to vote on allowing the Bush Era tax cuts to expire for individuals making $250,000 or more and a separate vote to allow these tax cuts to expire for individuals making $1 million or more. In a political climate where federal deficit spending is the top subject of our congressional representatives one would think that these votes would be a slam-dunk. After all President Obama just announced the freezing of federal employee salaries are being frozen for two years, so wouldn't it make sense if everyone including the wealthy shared in some sacrifice? Not to the U.S. Senate, who decided in both instances not even to bring the above bills to the floor for a vote. Not a bad job to have on a Saturday huh?

So rest easy America. While you are working six or some cases seven-day weeks to make ends meet Congress is working hard to attempt to work for you. While 9.8% of Americans are unemployed and many of their unemployment benefits will be running out, Congress is "working" for you. While tax cuts for all Americans expire on 12/31/10, Congress is "working" for you. While seniors contribute more and more to Medicare and health coverages are slashed for those on Medicaid, Congress is "working" for you. And while you are looking for answers and clues to solve to the mounting problems of our nation so is Congress, "working" to have a clue.