At this point, a citizen of the United States would be forgiven for losing track of what exactly Congress is supposed to do. Believe it or not, the remit for senators and congressmen is not to wait for the lobbying firms on K-Street to send over a tax bill in the afternoon so that they can hammer it through a few hours later, in the middle of the night, before anyone's had a chance to look at it. The Senate's job is not to find a way to confirm the president's judicial nominee, on the sole basis that they are "conservative," regardless of their credentials as jurists. A congressman's job is not to make tax filers' lives harder and less affordable because TurboTax wants to maximize profits—and made some campaign donations. For that last one, thank Democrats.



No, the job of someone who sits in the House of Representatives is to represent the interests of the people who elected them. Not corporate donors from another state, not lobbyists and special interests who are the fauna of the very real Swamp. You are supposed to represent your constituents in the federal legislature. And that is what Katie Porter, a Democrat who serves California's 45th district, did during a House Financial Services Committee hearing featuring executives from several Too Big to Fail Banks this week. She asked Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, what financial advice he'd give to a theoretical employee of his working in Irvine—a city in her district. It did not disappoint.

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.@RepKatiePorter challenged big bank CEO Jamie Dimon to pay his workers a living wage by literally showing him the math pic.twitter.com/Sr7S8Agv5c — NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 11, 2019

This is how it's done. The way to illustrate the deep structural problems in our political economy is to ask the CEO who makes $31 million a year how his employee is supposed to make ends meet on a wage that just does not pay the bills. This is a representative sample: top American CEOs make close to 300 times what their average workers do. In the 1950s, a boomtime for the American economy, it was 20-to-1. In the meantime, real wages—that is, pay when you account for the rising cost of living—have barely risen.

Beyond the more global question of whether Dimon is doing as much to power a consumption economy as his thousands of employees would if they were paid a decent wage and had some discretionary income to spent at Target, this lays out the basic struggle faced by many working people in America. From the way Porter speaks—including when she gets emotional contemplating this plight—you can tell she genuinely gives a shit. In fact, you can tell she's been there.

The contrast with the Republican members of the committee was...striking. For a while now, these folks have sought to roll back the rules and regulations imposed on the financial services sector after it tanked the world economy in 2008 by talking about small, regional banks. We're imposing too many burdens on smaller banks that can't afford the compliance costs, the thinking went, so they should be made exempt—often via legislation featuring provisions that bigger banks might exploit to do an end-run around the regulations.

But now, in this age of Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud, Republicans are just kind of flaunting their big love for big banks. Here's a sample of their questioning for these CEOs who control a collective $12 trillion in assets, courtesy of Zach Carter at HuffPost:

“I just want to make a note to the panel [of bank CEOs],” Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) said. “I appreciate what you do for America.”

“Thank you for the good work that you do,” said Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.).

“I actually wanted to say thank you to [JPMorgan CEO Jamie] Dimon,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), celebrating the head of the largest American bank for … making car loans and stuff. “If that person wants to achieve the American dream and get a car, you’ll help finance it. If that person wants to be able to own a home to achieve the American dream, they’re gonna come to you.”

Thanks, guys. I'm sure your constituents, who are customers and/or employees at these massive institutions that wield unbelievable power in our society, would be happy to know you're spending your five minutes praising these American Dream Heroes. Of course, these guys are banking on the idea voters in their district won't be watching. Maybe they're working long hours at a job that barely pays enough to make ends meet. It seems plenty of people have correctly deduced that they are getting screwed, however: the approval rating for Congress is currently clocking in at 26 percent. Maybe these guys are just trying to get on the Jeb Hensarling Express.

If the corruption doesn't get you, the stupid will. Since we've highlighted this week's best Congressional Episode, from Congressman Porter, let's remember the worst. It may be the dumbest line of questioning ever let loose in the halls of the Capitol:

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Watch this for your morning laugh. @RepThomasMassie is apparently serious but this is the dumbest line of questioning in committee this year, and that’s hard to do. pic.twitter.com/QIuaPuzCbA — Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) April 10, 2019

This brings to mind one of the only good things to emerge from Adam Sandler's career.

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But the real pits is the interference that veteran members of Congress are now running for the president. Lindsey Graham, who once said the president was a "kook" who's "crazy" and "unfit for office," is now fully determined to bury The Mueller Report. Even the folks in the Mainstream Media who bought that The Barr Letter was all above-board must now realize there's a reason we got only four partial sentences of the actual report in it, that Barr then backtracked and fudged whether his was a "summary" of the actual report, and now the president and his allies are working overtime to prevent the release of the actual report. Graham was doing his part on Fox & Friends this morning, and the president was kind enough to share what he said.

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“I don’t need to know any more. We’re done, absolutely done, he (Mueller) tried the case. There’s NO COLLUSION.” @LindseyGrahamSC @foxandfriends No matter what we do or give to the Radical Left, it will never be enough! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019

But we were told the Mueller Report COMPLETELY EXONERATES! the president. Surely the president his allies—Brave American Patriots all, who are thinking of their beloved country first—would support the full document's release so we can put this long national nightmare behind us. It would be great to know the president does not have any shady business dealings with the Russian kleptocrats! That would be a good thing for everyone! But it's almost like this is a coordinated strategy to prevent the public from seeing what Mueller actually found. Strange, considering the attorney general who refuses to release it spent this week spreading Trumpist conspiracy theories during congressional testimony.

Elsewhere in the Congressional Hall of Fame, there's Chuck Grassley steadfastly refusing to look at Trump's tax returns.

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"I don't want to see them!" he said. Then I might have to do something! Never mind that the president's sister, Marion Trump Barry, retired from her gig as a federal judge this week, a move that incidentally will end an inquiry into, according to The New York Times, "whether she violated judicial conduct rules by participating in fraudulent tax schemes with her siblings." This is the tax scheme uncovered by the Times itself, which found that "President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud." But Ol' Chuck subscribes to the see no evil school of congressional oversight. I mean, how do you explain this?

"I think sexual misconduct is wrong,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), while adding, “if it’s a barrier to people being in public office, the president wouldn’t be president.”

You're almost there, Chuck!

Anyway, that's what the United States Congress is now. A bunch of toadies sucking up to the rich and powerful in the hopes of getting a lucrative next job through the revolving door. A bunch of presidential Yes Men who have completely abdicated their constitutional obligation to provide oversight of the Executive Branch. Some Democrats who take corporate money and craft policy at their constituents' expense. And some Democrats who fight for the working people in their district, who elected them to represent their interests in Washington. The question of which we need more of is not complicated. The answer is Katie Porter.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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