Congress is a failure

EDITOR:

When results are measured against responsibilities Congress emerges as a dismal failure.

The preamble to the Constitution is not simply a bit of fluff, cheerleading or frothy verbiage. It is very explicit about why the Constitution was written and the specific overall responsibilities of the bodies it created. The Congress as well as the president and the Supreme Court are, in line with their individual authority, responsible for establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

The president only recommends a budget; the congress writes and passes the federal budget. Congress has the sole power to borrow money on the credit of the United States, set and collect taxes and appropriate money from the treasury. Deficit spending and the national debt is the result of the actions of Congress. Passing the ever increasing national debt on to future generations is not securing the blessings of liberty to our posterity.

Congress has the power to regulate commerce. The severity of known mortgage problems (sub-prime mortgages) has been voiced loudly to and by Congress for years, yet Congress has denied or ignored the problem. In 2004 auditors advised Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had serious safety and soundness problems and were in urgent need of a new regulatory structure. Nothing was done by Congress until in 2008 these two enterprises, owning or guaranteeing about half of the entire U.S. mortgage market, went into receivership. This signaled the collapse of the housing market which to date has caused millions to lose their homes in foreclosure. This is not promoting the general welfare.

In 1973 OPEC placed an embargo on shipping foreign petroleum to the United States. This was a major contributing factor in causing the 1973-74 stock market crash with accompanied drastic inflation. Since that time numerous congressional actions were taken to supposedly reduce our dependence on foreign oil including Congress passing legislation creating the Department of Energy in 1977. They have made the DOE the single largest supporter of basic energy research in energy sciences in the country providing more than 40 percent of the total funding in this vital area. During the period of 1973 to 2005 the percentage of our daily consumption of foreign petroleum increased over three fold. We now import twice the amount of foreign petroleum as we produce. In the 2009 federal budget Congress provided DOE with $777 million to further invest in 46 research centers over the next five years.

These efforts to reduce our dependence on foreign petroleum are a dismal failure. The spike in petroleum prices in 2008 is unarguably a major cause of starting what is euphemistically called the current economic downturn. Regardless of the bailouts people are still loosing their jobs, businesses, homes, retirement funds, health insurance, et al. The resulting reduction in local revenues is causing state and local governments to struggle in reducing general services which is anything but promoting the general welfare.

It is the height of conceit for those who passively, actively or collectively caused our economic problems to now blame others and tout themselves as the pundits who know what must be done to reverse the results of their failures. The origin of our economic problems lies directly at the feet of Congress. They should stop telling the American people what must be done, and show us some results.

Ben Justus

Gardnerville