Kiner's Korner: The Do-Nothing Congress

Ask the American people this one question - what do you believe should be the number one priority of Congress? The answer would be a resounding "fix the economy and create jobs"!

But for Congressional Republicans there would be a different priority. Here is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's take on what he thinks should be accomplished - "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. That's my single most important political goal along with every active Republican in the country."

Well now, our Republican friends in Washington D.C. are certainly nothing less than honest. The problem however, is that when Congress and the President should be focused on creating jobs, what we get from Republicans is obstructionism. Come on guys, the unemployment rate officially stands at 9.1% (over fourteen million unemployed Americans). Most economists believe that when you factor in those Americans who have given up looking for employment, along with those who are underemployed, the number is closer to 16%. Maybe I am just cynical, but it looks to me as though some people are willing to put millions of Americans out of work so that one man might lose his job in November.

Last week President Obama took a page out of Harry Truman's presidential script. In 1948 President Truman was on the ropes. His chances of reelection were minimal at best. Polls showed that Truman's approval rating prior to the November elections was at 36%. Truman called Congress into special session to pass legislation needed at that time. The Republican led Congress did nothing and Harry Truman now referred to that 80th Congress as the "Do Nothing Congress".

The "Do Nothing Congress" of 1948 was probably as responsible for Harry Truman's reelection as was Truman's "whistle stop" campaign. As history tends to repeat itself, we find both presidents having lost Congressional majorities in  midterm elections, and both presidents having seen their poll numbers plummet to new lows. President Obama has called on Congress to pass his jobs bill. The Congressional response-"DOA-dead on arrival". President Obama's response: “If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them. I think the American people will run them out of town.....I would love nothing more than to see Congress act so aggressively that I can’t campaign against them as a do-nothing Congress.”

Come on folks. Maybe Obama's jobs bill won't do everything that the President claims it will. But at least bring the bill to the floor, debate it, and make the improvements needed. Congress has to let the President try something. What's the harm in going forward with the bill? If it doesn't work, then try something else.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had it right. In 1932 he said that “It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” He called for "bold, persistent experimentation".

To Obama's credit, he is willing to try anything to get Americans back to work. The Republican House, on the other hand is stuck in reverse. Economists know that what brought about the Great Depression was, among other things, an unequal distribution of wealth. Little government regulation and very low taxes on the rich were also causes of the Great Depression say many economists. President Obama is a pragmatist and is willing  to try anything to put people back to work and back into their homes. Much like Roosevelt, he is willing to experiment. The Republican majority in the House, on the other hand, is persistent in their belief that low taxes on millionaires and minimal government involvement is what will save the day.

A few weeks ago I commented on President Obama once more coming on as the fighter for middle class values. What I said in that column was the following: This week you once more showed that you can fight. You have once again regained that fighting spirit that so impressed us in 2008. President Obama's jobs bill, though maligned by Republicans, is still worth the effort of a fight.

Is it no wonder that in a recent Gallup Poll, only 14% of Americans polled said that they approved of the job being done by Congress. The only question that I have is who makes up that 14% and do they actually have a pulse? Perhaps the obstructionists in Congress should wake up to the fact that the American people want action. They don't want Congress to play politics with their lives. They want Congress to be more concerned with creating jobs, than with putting one person out of a job.

The election is thirteen months away. And as the old axiom goes, "A year is a long time in politics, and longer than a year is an eternity." Stay tuned.