The 113th United States Congress was sworn in about a year ago to represent us, we the people. But so were the last Congress and all those that have gone before. So why are we not holding this Congress accountable to make decisions that are in our best interest?
The billion dollar question: Will we hold this Congress accountable, or continue to have them get away with doing little or nothing?
Every two years, we have the opportunity to select someone to go to Washington to make sure that the issues that affect the quality of life in our city, community, and household are taken into consideration when policy decisions are made and dollars are spent. But we repeatedly fail to hold the Congress we elected accountable. We will have that opportunity in 2014, about a year from now.
After casting your vote, what have you done or what will you do to ensure that your Congressional representative is looking out for you and not his or her largest contributor, or party affiliation?
The outcome of the 2012 election should be evidence that money is not all powerful. The people's vote was the power that ruled the day with the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election, as well as many contested elections in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives despite the unprecedented amount of money spent.
The outcomes should trump the growing cynicism about whether our political process works.
But the elections outcome was just the beginning. Our real work as citizens had just begun. We should have been actively engaged in holding Congress accountable.
If you have any doubt, just review the lack of performance of the last United States Congress as well as the current one. The last Congress faded into the annals of history as one of the worst, most ineffective, “Peoples House” since the founding of the Republic. We failed abysmally in holding this Congress accountable, and it is on the road to following suit, with the lowest approval ratings in Congressional history.
But really, who is to blame? We, the people. The United State Congress represents us. We elect them and then leave them to bask in their personal and partisan bickering, while we the people, endure a struggling economy, chronic unemployment, look inept as a nation, and lost enviable credibility on the world stage.
No doubt, divisiveness and partisan bickering have plagued Congresses of ages past, but the country found a way forward.
But during the last three years, we have sat back and watched as America aired its dirty underwear.
There has been a perpetual parade of disrespect of the Office of President – unprecedented in American history. But then so is Barack Obama as the first African-American President.
Getting the nation's fiscal house in order has taken a second seat to the ardent and strident efforts to maintain irrational and antiquated political philosophies while the nation's, and to a great extent the world's, economic health continued to decline.
To secure the availability of healthcare services for most Americans took an act of the Supreme Court, which was dubious at best. But a dubious act turns out to be better than a negative one.
The only way to have avoid a repeat of the performance of the last United States Congress was to hold this and any new Congress accountable.
Will we? Or, will it be business as usual, while all we do is sit around and complain? We have a year remaining with the current Congress.
If we fail at holding this Congress accountable, re-elect them, and we get another two years like the last three, we have only ourselves to blame.
We might as well become a large cheering squad on the sidelines, because with our inaction we are essentially saying: You, go Congress!