Our half-(p)assed Congress
It's safe to come out. Congress has wrapped up its two weeks of work and fled D.C. again. At least they passed a continuing resolution to fund the government th...
The House and Senate have left town, again for another extended break. Many are busy campaigning so they can get reelected and come back to a town and a broken system they claim to dislike.
Others, in safe districts that have been tailored so that their party’s candidate can’t lose, are either on “fact finding” trips abroad, or helping less-fortunate colleagues in districts that haven’t been gerrymandered-safe. Yet.
And it, the most recent session of Congress, could have been worse, which, considering congressional behavior over the last few years, is saying a lot.
Democrats of course blame Republicans. Former President George W. Bush started it all! If he didn’t do it look for Richard Nixon’s fingerprints. The GOP-controlled House is determined to block everything. When children of die-hard Democrats misbehave, some parents threaten them with Photoshopped pictures of House Speaker John Boehner going into a tanning parlor.
Republicans, naturally, see the same events and actions through a different political prism. The administration has its own agenda that doesn’t include what’s best for most Americans. Democrats have minimized or covered up major White House-State Department-IRS gaffs. The Democratic-dominated Senate goes against almost anything generated by the House.
The result has been (not for the first time under either political party) failure to approve budgets. That, combined with the still mystifying impact of sequestration on government operations, makes planning for the future difficult at best.
The good news is that Congress approved (again) a continuing resolution allowing agencies to spend at current levels — which is to say a previous CR — through December. Minus, of course, any dings and dents imposed by sequestration.
This time last year feds, who had been furloughed earlier, were prepping for a government shutdown. Democrats and Republicans denounced a shutdown as stupid and unnecessary but both sides let it happen. But it did happen. And although workers eventually got paid (thereby wiping out any savings), lots of things — from national parks to people programs — were disrupted.
The free (members and staff only) parking spaces at Dulles and National airports are full today. And even though you are paying their salaries while they are off, and picking up their “free” parking tab, relax. At least until after the election.
NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:
The earliest use of the phrase “half-assed” to describe someone as “ineffectual” can be found in the “General Orders of the War Department: Embracing the Years 1861, 1862 & 1863, Volume 2” by Military Attorneys of Kansas Thomas M. O’Brien and Oliver Diefendorf. The phrase appears as evidence in a 1863 general court martial over an incident that took place in January 1862:
“In this; that he, the said Captain John H. Behan, Company F, 16th Regiment Virginia Volunteers, while on duty in camp, on or about the 12th day of December 1862, did use abusive and grossly insulting language to Joseph B Hamilton, 2d Lieutenant of said Company F, before and in the presence of said Company F, while he, the said Joseph B. Hamilton, was on duty and was acting Adjutant of said 16th Regiment Virginia Volunteers, in words as follows, to wit: ‘There goes our half-assed Adjutant;’ which was calculated to impair and weaken the influence and control of said Lieutenant Joseph B. Hamilton as Adjutant of said Regiment, and also his influence and control over said Company.”
Source: English Language & Usage.
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Mike Causey
Mike Causey is senior correspondent for Federal News Network and writes his daily Federal Report column on federal employees’ pay, benefits and retirement.
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