Congress Leaves the Nation in Shambles as it Begins Its Five-Week Summer Vacation

I am so glad that our hard-working members of Congress can now enjoy a five-week summer recess to relax with their families as they engage in traditional summer pursuits.

As usual, they have left the nation in a shambles, but who cares?  They are no longer public servants; rather we answer to them.

Republicans continue to insist on unraveling the Affordable Care Act (which is not "affordable" in the least) and many members of the party vow that they will not fund the government after September 30 if one dime is appropriated to enact the president's health care plan. Because federal spending continues at an unsustainable level, we are again up against a limit in the debt ceiling, the staggering figure of $16.7 trillion, with Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads over whether an increase will be enacted in exchange for decreased spending, the president insisting that hiking the debt limit is non-negotiable and that a threat to scuttle an increase could have worldwide economic reverberations.

When the members return tanned and rested in September, there will be little time to resolve differences, not that this is something they would be inclined to do even if there were unlimited time available.

A game of chicken will ensue with the prospect of another looming government shutdown and panic in the financial markets being dangled before our eyes. 

The most likely outcome is yet another eleventh hour stopgap measure to keep the government operating for a short period of time and the debt limit increased slightly until the next manufactured crisis occurs, which will be soon.

The word "compromise" does not exist among the increased number of hard-liners in the House and Senate and any action which enables a member of the opposing party to be credited for something is anathema to partisan leaders that care only about being re-elected.

Is anyone sufficiently naive as to believe that in this environment, Congress will pass and the president will sign a bill which provides corporate and individual tax reform/relief, that a system will be enacted which loosens the noose around our necks which is installed by the Internal Revenue Service and its arcane, incomprehensible tens of thousands of pages of Tax Code gobbledygook?

The members of both parties are largely the captives of special interests and worthy of condemnation, but the ultimate responsibility for the state of our nation falls on we, the people.  Most of us do not care about issues affecting our lives and either do not vote or we elect the same cast of characters that has brought us to government dysfunction and standstill.  Why should the members of a do-nothing Congress change when they know we will return them to office?