A Gallup poll reveals that only 11 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in Congress, and though it’s the lowest ranking ever, one wonders what malady afflicts the yea-sayers. Might a review of reality correct their misperceptions?
To do the task justice would require at least as many pages as some of the bills Congress passes, but that itself is a place to start — mention of a debt-stimulating stimulus bill over 1,000 pages long, of a topsy-turvy health-care remake over 2,000 pages long and of a recent financial-regulation mishmash also over 2,000 pages long.
Members of Congress maybe have some study-guide notion of what’s in these bills, but no grasp of all the possible catastrophes hidden in multiple unread clauses. Passing them is therefore akin to the blindfolded racing of a bus down a busy highway. The public — the passengers — knows even less, of course, and has to guess at what might happen to it.
At least some of the devilish details do emerge in time, and so you learn that even if an $862 billion stimulus was defensible in theory, the political handouts got out of hand, virtually ensuring any assault on the recession would be feathery at best.Members of Congress maybe have some study-guide notion of what’s in these bills, but no grasp of all the possible catastrophes hidden in multiple unread clauses. Passing them is therefore akin to the blindfolded racing of a bus down a busy highway. The public — the passengers — knows even less, of course, and has to guess at what might happen to it.
At least some of the devilish details do emerge in time, and so you learn that even if an $862 billion stimulus was defensible in theory, the political handouts got out of hand, virtually ensuring any assault on the recession would be feathery at best.
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Updates:
1:41 pm EDT, July 29th, 2010 — An Unserious Presidency On View
Hasn’t the approval rate been around the 11% range for the past several years? I seem to remember the dems bashing GWB’s approval rate for being low while having an approval rate of their own that was even lower.
I guess it doesn’t matter anyway seeing as this is obviously the fault of George W. Bush.:-)
Out of control spending, don’t listen to their constituents, go on P.C. crusades, break promises, spend like drunken sailors, don’t inspire confidence in their competence or honesty, pork barrelling, passing complex legislation without reading or understanding the contents hoping the bureaucracy can come up with something to make it work at the regulations level !
Old tired and crony crammed political Parties ……. !
“Why have we lost confidence”? You’re kidding, right?
#2 probably why Canadians no longer vote like they use to because “their all the same” and I dont think its any different in America.