4.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Advertisements

For a government to be nominally effective in a democracy, the public has to have a minimal amount or faith or belief that their representatives and leaders act in a right, proper, or competent way in serving the people who elected them. The idea of effective government in America was dealt a crushing blow when Republicans plotted on Inauguration night in 2009 to oppose and obstruct anything the newly installed President proposed, and after teabaggers helped Republicans win a majority in the 2010 midterm elections, government has all but failed to serve the people. It is no wonder then, that confidence in Congress has steadily declined as Republicans have openly obstructed President Obama’s attempts to create jobs, grow the economy, and advance policies to serve the people whether it is consumer protections, effective social programs, or national security.

In a new poll released Thursday, the American people’s confidence in Congress fell to 10% and it represents the worst showing for any societal institution in the history of the Gallup poll, and is three percentage points below last year’s numbers and the fourth year in a row Congress is the least trusted institution in America. Over the past four-and-a-half years, Americans have demanded that both parties compromise and work to solve the nation’s problems in a bipartisan manner, and yet regardless Democrats and President Obama perpetually cede ground to Republicans on issues near and dear to liberals, Republicans have made no attempts to compromise or accept any concessions including on policy issues they proposed.

Advertisements

Congressional stagnation and ineffectiveness cannot be assigned to Democrats, and it is not just a liberal point of view because when Republicans created the debt ceiling crisis in 2011 that resulted in S&P downgrading America’s credit rating for the first time in history, they blamed Republican intransigence on the Bush-era tax cuts and expressed no confidence that with Republican obstructionism Washington could govern the nation effectively. Last year, two long-time political scholars, Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, argued that congressional dysfunction was solely the fault of right wing radicals within the Republican Party who engaged in “policy hostage-taking,” and they repeated their assessment again six weeks ago reiterating their charge citing Congress’ failure to make progress on gun control despite support for background checks from 90% of the American public. It is also noteworthy that Ornstein and Mann agree with this column’s assertion that mainstream media and media fact-checkers add to the problem by indulging in “false equivalency” pretending both parties are equally to blame.

What Mann and Ornstien claimed for the second time in a year is that Republican intransigence and opposition to anything President Obama supports was “symptomatic of a legislative branch reduced to dysfunction, partisan ravings and obstruction.” In fact, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) remarked that Republicans shut down discussion on background checks for gun purchases that many Republicans supported because “there were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done.” It is no wonder the people have little confidence in Congress and doubtless why government is at a standstill, or as Thomas Mann succinctly put it, “the Republican House is a formula for inaction and absolutist opposition politics, not for problem solving.” But that is the point; Republicans are not in Congress to solve problems, and despite their three-year assertion that jobs and the economy are their primary focus, they have spent the lion’s share of their time restricting women’s reproductive health choices, investigating phony scandals surrounding the Benghazi attack and IRS doing its job, voting over thirty times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as a investigating a variety of imagined slights dreamt up by House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa.

There have even been House Republicans obstructing bipartisan Senate bills that typically garner universal support for legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act and Transportation bills that were either already funded or have minimal impact on spending, and the goal is always obstruction for the sake of obstruction. Besides the VAWA, the farm bill currently under debate was passed in the Senate last year, and because House Republicans demanded harsher cuts to the SNAP program (food stamps) the bill expired and has to be passed again in the new session of Congress. Last month House Republicans voted to cut $20.5 billion from SNAP which would take food stamps away from 2 million Americans and hundreds-of-thousands of children, but extremists in Republican ranks are balking on those Draconian cuts and insisting on even slashing funding deeper to fall in line with Paul Ryan’s budget that calls for $135 billion in food stamp cuts, as well as privatizing Medicare, 14.9% tax cut for the rich, and 15% tax increase on the poor. The great majority of Americans support increased funding for SNAP, tax increases on the wealthy, and strengthening social programs and safety net spending, so Republicans cannot claim their intransigence is acting on behalf of the majority of Americans.

Republicans have accomplished teabagger goals of shutting down Congress and prevented; a jobs agenda, a budget, a deficit reduction deal, gun safety measures, tax reform, minimum wage increase, and likely will prevent comprehensive immigration reform, but they did give Americans a sequester cutting education, national defense, safety nets, and infrastructure improvements. As Robert Reich noted, it has fallen to individual states to take action and depending on which party controls a state’s legislature, it is either a curse or a blessing for residents as left-leaning states like California, Maryland, and Colorado voted to raise taxes on the wealthy and helped fund education, healthcare for the poor, and still have a long-term budget surplus. However, residents in states lurching farther to the right like Kansas and Wisconsin are suffering higher taxes on the poor, horrific job losses, massive education and healthcare cuts, and very generous tax cuts for the rich and corporations. If Republicans in Congress demonstrated any willingness to govern other than bringing government to a halt, beleaguered residents in red states would be spared abject devastation of out of control right-wing ALEC extremism.

It is seriously amazing that there are 10% of Americans who have confidence in Congress and doubtless they are extremist conservatives and teabaggers hopeful Republicans continue neutering government, or optimistic souls who believe sanity and reason will win the day and Republicans will actually work for the good of the people. However, after over four-and-a-half years of obstruction, job killing, and hostage taking crises, and a population falling deeper into poverty, there is nothing whatsoever to be confident about except more dire effects of Republicans intent on bringing governance to a halt. It is noteworthy though, that Republicans act decisively and with great resolve when their wealthy and extremist supporters demand action, but that is likely the same 10% who still have confidence in Congress and sadly they are driving the direction of the nation.