Sunday, June 30, 2013


 
When we have a complaint about anything in government we are told to write to our local Congressperson and then we will get an explanation or if it is a good cause or idea they will pursue it further till some results are made. Our Presidents used to have Congressional Committees get together to get to the bottom of a problem and solve things. Not so much anymore. Congress seems to just be an old boys club and I mean old, really old and they really do not seem to represent the people of their towns anymore.


Maybe nothing much gets done from Congressmen anymore because they are all unconscious at the job and they seem to get away with it term after term. Most of them are really so old that showing up to work simply means put your suit on and sleep. I go into sleeping comas all the time too but I have an excuse. I work hard. Lets look at some of our representatives that seem to get voted in term after term. Look at 87 year old Michigan’s Congressman John Dingell.

Rep. John Dingell of Michigan recently became the longest-serving member of Congress in history, surpassing the longevity record previously held by the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Dingell, a Democrat, has now served in the House of Representatives for over 57 years. He was sworn in on Dec. 14, 1955, after winning a special election to fill the seat his father had held for more than two decades. During his father’s tenure, Dingell also worked for a time as a congressional page. As the longest-tenured member, Dingell has the honorary title of dean of the House. Now at 87 years old, Dingell is actually the second-oldest member of the House, behind Texas Republican Ralph Hall. Yes, there really is someone older that him making our decisions in government.

Why does everyone applaud the fact that this dinosaur is still on tax payer salary? It’s bad enough that he basically got handed his job from his father decades ago in another generation. Is this some kind of monarchy or kingship? That is not supposed to happen in America. The best thing George Washington did was to demand that the Presidency would only be an 8 year job. Two terms and then you are out. Unless you are the Bush family and there are many sons to carry your torch. There is a difference between public service and hoarding. Dingell has had thirty terms. He was first elected in 1955. That is six years before Obama was even born.

Then there is Congressman Ralph Hall of Texas God Bless him who is 90 years old and who is running for re-election which would be cool if he was one of those old guys who still plays tennis or at least does crossword puzzles, but he is not in touch with current technology and recently said he does not believe in climate change. He said, “I’m really in fear of freezing.” Well maybe that is because he is 90 years old. On November 27, 2012, Congressman Hall became the oldest member in the U.S. House of Representatives to ever cast a vote, surpassing the previous record held by Rep. Charles Stedman (D-NC). The following month, on December 25, 2012, he became the oldest-serving Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in recorded history.

When younger people dare to run for these jobs they are called disrespectful by the top aids of the older guys who refuse to leave office. The issue here is not about age; it is more about Congressmen who are awful at their jobs because their job now is to keep awake; forget about having the energy to fight for the rights of the people they represent. Our rules need to be changed because these men are taking advantage of the system because their jobs are never in jeopardy of loosing.
There are only three ways a Congressman can go out. They die in office, they cash in and become a lobbyist or they mistakenly tweet a picture of their wiener. Currently the approval rating of our Congress is at an all time low of ten percent yet in the 2012 election over 90% of them won re-election. Why do we continue to vote for the same guys we say are doing a lousy job year after year?



We have created a system where it is almost impossible to beat an incumbent. The districts are too gerrymandered and the advertisements are too expensive. So, every few years we are exposed to some crypt keeper who gets wheeled out by some staff and raises his skeleton hand to vote aye on some bill he slept through the reading of it to him. These guys refer to a microphone as the machine while voting on stem cell research. Our Congress should not just be a sequel to the Weekend at Bernie’s movie.



 

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment