Since I've begun nurturing a growing interest in domestic and international politics, one glaring problem I have seen rear its ugly head time and time again is the way the U.S. Congress chooses to deal with two issues:
The Debt Ceiling & the renewing of the Federal Budget for the new fiscal year.
Last year, the problem got so bad that Congress actually held itself hostage at one point, pushing back their deadline to continue their hyper-partisan bickering until at one point they created a plan that everyone in both the House and the Senate loathed as a way to force some kind of bipartisan deal -- a plan which by the way, didn't work.
Now, here we are again, listening to the same old song from Congress.
This time, the Republican-majority in the House of Representatives has approved a bill allowing for the renewing of the federal budget IF the provision allowing for the complete de-funding of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare) is allowed through as well, a provision which the Democratic-controlled Senate has already vowed to strike down.
With time running short -- Congress only has until Monday night to approve a new federal budget so that a partial government shutdown might be averted -- it seems that once again the polarized U.S. Congress has figuratively kidnapped the immediate future of the American People, using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to obtain what one side or the other wants (or does not want).
In addition to this, the looming threat of a credit default by the U.S. in October, should Congress not approve a measure to raise the Debt Ceiling, has also been warped as a tool to force the de-funding of the Affordable Care Act.
Whether one agrees with the Affordable Care Act or not, it must be recognized that this kind of mindless bickering, this perverted use of power by the U.S. Congress to try to force one group to do the bidding of another in an despotic, futile attempt to display dominance is the exact reason why the U.S. has lost its standing in the world as a political and economic beacon of power and stability.
The career politicians in Congress who have become so detached from "Main Street" America have allowed their ideological interests to bypass the practical, compromising, and compassionate processes with which a Democracy should be run.
In summation, if they can't do their job correctly, then maybe its time -- really time -- for the American populace to get their own acts together and elect people who can.
