Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Boehner Rejects 'Do Nothing' Label For This Congress
This article talks about the pathetic efforts the House and the Senate to try and blame each other for the lack of bills passed this year. I think the article, although short, points out many of the flaws regarding Congress. For one, the ridiculously small number of weeks the House and Senate actually work in any given year. It seems that they are on vacation for most of the year, and when they are actually in session all they can do is blame others for their inability to accomplish anything. People are obviously fed up with Congress, considering their dismal popularity, and yet this doesn't seem to change anything at all.
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"Any lack of progress was the upper chamber's fault." This is an interesting change in viewpoint compared to what I normally see on this blog we all contribute to assiduously. It was interesting to read an article that didn't say the GOP is unwilling to compromise. This article shows that the Senate and Congress are back and forth, give and take type organizations. Although I do believe not much has been done, despite his remarks.
ReplyDeleteI read Lydia's article about our underachieving congress and this article was a nice addition. It continued to point out the flaws that exist in congress. One thing that really stuck out to me was the blaming. Democrats and Republicans need to stop pointing fingers at one another, and instead focus on doing their job.
ReplyDeleteSomething that as a voter I would like to see is congress taking responsibility for their actions. I think that it shows you to be mature and the bigger person if you realize what you have done and try to work hard to overcome any issues that have arisen. I would vote either way if someone tried to start a compromise and I think many other moderate Americans would as well.
ReplyDeleteInstead of blaming each other for this and that, the House and the Senate need to focus on passing legislation and doing their jobs. That was a pretty big list of things that the government failed to accomplish this year, and who knows how much they might not get done next year if another potential shutdown is on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Yarrow that politicians in government need to start taking more responsibility for their actions. It shows more character to admit mistakes and work to fix things in the future rather than try to pass the blame off to someone else. If Congress continues to keep pointing fingers at each other, nothing is going to get done.
ReplyDeleteAnna I believe that you nailed the description of Congress with one adjective in your introduction: pathetic. I do not believe there will be much controversy among my classmates about this. Even the existence of this article and the many posts before it demonstrate the pathetic finger pointing between these groups of politicians. To be blunt, it's just immature.
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely be a refreshing change if politicians started to accept that they are doing something wrong instead of blaming everyone else. Maybe once they admit to being wrong they can begin to actually get some stuff done, considering there is plenty to be done. "A lack of progress" is more than just one group or one side's fault, it's everyone's. It needs to be changed immediately, for everyone's sake.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my classmates in saying that congress and the government in general need to start taking responsibility for their actions. The first step for the government become more efficient is owning up to their faults. It is discouraging to see that the congress will happily point the finger at the senate for not getting anything done. Both the congress and senate need to support each other instead of using each other as their scapegoats.
ReplyDeleteClearly the american public is very unhappy with the recent actions of congress (the shutdown, and the lack of productivity), but I can't think of a solution to the problems. Yes, we could vote to replace all of the congressmen in the next election, but I don't know how effective this would be (nor do I think this would actually happen). Thinking about the state of our current government makes me feel a little sick, but I don't know that the answer is.
ReplyDeleteAs I had commented on a previous article, the blame game needs to stop. One shutdown was obviously not enough to rejuvenate our politicians. They still can't compromise. Something or someone needs to wake them up. I'm not sure what or who that is, but I am tired of the blame game.
ReplyDeleteThis continuing attitude elf blaming the people across the aisle has done nothing for the progress mad eby either side up to this point. If they are unable to make compromises nothing will be solved. What this article brought up that was interesting to me was that it didn't cite the problem as being in just the House, but that is happening in the Senate as well.
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ReplyDeleteThere is almost no way to dispute this article. Congress has proven itself as almost useless as of now. But the worst part is they refuse to take any of the responsibility for their lack of productiveness.
This article said nothing new to me. We have a polarized congress that seems incapable of compromise. I think that this is due to the strong two party system we have, and the abundance of careerism in politics these days.
ReplyDeleteAs we have discussed in class, the format in which congress was developed is such that it fosters "gridlock". I think the real question is whether or not this kind of system is appropriate. My opinion on that subject would be that efficiency is and should be second to what is right.
ReplyDeleteThe actions of both parties in this article remind me of elementary school children. Both parties are pointing fingers at the other in order to save themselves, and in doing so, they are making a mockery of our political system. Instead of distributing blame, it would be far more productive if one party were to take charge and either inspire or force to other party to compromise and actually achieve something. Boehner's statement: "we've done our work" shows the laziness of politicians and their inability to do more than what they think is required of them.
ReplyDeleteThis article enforces what we have been talking about in class. The gridlock in congress has made our government very inefficient. In addition, the finger-pointing that is going on is making it very hard for anything to get done. Somebody needs to take charge and inspire some compromise.
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