Can Congress Legislate?

No! Can anyone govern these United States at this time? No! How did we get into this mess, and how long has it been going on? Can anything be done, and does anyone even care?

Gridlock in Washington is not a new phenomemon, and has in fact even been celebrated at times. There have been times when I have personally been grateful for gridlock when it prevented the other party from passing legislation I found disagreeable. Sometimes it is a positive thing to prevent government from moving too quickly or failing to consider all the possible ramifications of a particular policy. There is a value in having a loyal opposition.

Yet the constitution established our government on the concept of having the majority rule. There is a difference between slowing down legislation to ensure it makes sense, and simply stopping the government in its tracks. Even when Congress and the President actually shut the government down back in the 90's, it continued for only a few days. The government actually did go back to work. We have now turned the country upside down so that 41 Senators constitute a majority, and 59 or 60 Senators have become the minority party. I'm pretty sure that's not what the founding fathers had in mind.

Some will say that nothing has changed. It has always been this way. Every party takes advantage of the rules. This is somewhat true, but there are some differences. What has occurred here is a decision by the minority to simply kill every item of a president's agenda, even if they actually think that a particular part of that agenda might be good for the country. The nice thing about the present strategy is that if it is successful and Republicans win back the Congress, you can rest assured that the new Democratic minority (or is it a majority) will use the same tactics to ensure that Republicans will also be unable to govern.

Do we need a new political party? Perhaps. What needs to happen of course, is that both political parties come together and craft legislation that can pass both houses of congress. We have not even touched on the absurd practice of a single Senator placing an indefinite hold on all judicial or agency appointments. Undoubtedly, this is a good way to shut down all phases of government. The only way out of this failure of government is for Senators to choose to make decisions based on what is good for the country, and not what is good for their political interests. Unfortunately, there is little indication that anything like this is about to happen.

Yet it needs to happen. We are playing a game with the future of our country. Energy independence, health care, climate change, immigration reform, financial regulation, and how we respond to these challenges will determine the future of our country. The current plan for responding to these challenges appears to be to do nothing. That is not good enough. Our country will suffer from a failure to move forward in these critical areas. We will be unable to compete with countries like China and India on alternative energy technologies and other important innovative practices. We will fall behind. We will fall behind because we have created a legislative structure that is making it impossible to govern.

Are we going to allow this impasse to continue? Will winning political points remain more important than the general welfare of our country? Where will the leadership and courage come from to move us out of this predicament and bring some sanity back to government? Bi-partisan coalitions need to emerge to pass meaningful legislation. Arcane Senate rules need to be updated to facilitate movement in COngress. America is waiting.