I’m sure Members of Congress are scratching their heads about why their approval ratings in opinion polls are flirting with the single digits. “We are public servants who work hard,” they no doubt rationalize. “Why can’t the American people see that and appreciate what we do for them?”
Here’s a partial answer to that question. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat and the assistant majority leader in the Senate, has announced he’s going to hold hearings on the “bounty” issue in the NFL in order to decide whether bribery laws should be expanded to include professional sports bounties. For those of you whose attention was distracted from that topic of crucial national importance by minor issues like skyrocketing gas prices, crushing federal debt, and the continued crappy economy, the NFL recently disciplined members of the New Orleans Saints for running a “bounty” pool in which players were paid if they put a hit on key players for the opposing team and knocked them out of the game.
Such bounties are cheap and dirty stuff, of course, and aren’t consistent with time-honored concepts of sportsmanship, but it’s silly to think they should command even one instant of Congress’ time. This isn’t a federal issue, it’s an effort by another of our political leaders to grab some headlines and on-camera time with grandstanding about an issue that isn’t of any material significance. No doubt some staffer in Senator Durbin’s office, whose salary is paid by tax dollars, decided that hearings about NFL bounties would be a way to get the Senator some face time with big stars and boost his recognition ratings — and I’m sure other Senators will be perfectly happy to join in.
As a country, we’ve got a lot of problems that our politicians should be addressing. Sports bounties aren’t one of them. Instead, they’re just a distraction that politicians invent to keep people from focusing on the fact that they aren’t doing their jobs. The problem for Congress is that people aren’t distracted — they’re paying attention, and they are sick and tired of these stupid political games that continue to be played while the frightening, fundamental problems go unaddressed.
Kucinich 
The primary pits two long-time Democratic Representatives, Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur, against each other in a new district that runs from Cleveland west along Lake Erie to Toledo. Kucinich and Kaptur have been friends and colleagues with very similar voting records — but 
I don’t think you can assess the performance of a Congress by simply counting how many new laws were enacted. Quality, not quantity, should be the measuring rod. Yet even by that measure, our Congress has been a colossal failure. Last year saw the United States lose its AAA credit rating and rack up enormous deficits that are adding to our already staggering national debt. How did our legislative leaders respond? They created an ad hoc “supercommittee” that allowed them to punt on the issue, the “supercommittee” couldn’t reach agreement, and as a result another year slid by without anything meaningful being done to address our headlong rush to fiscal ruin.
What I find interesting is not that Toledo is having a problem with abandoned houses — Toledo, like many Midwestern cities, has been hard hit by our ongoing economic woes and home foreclosures — but that the demolition effort is being funded in significant part by the federal government. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is contributing more than $1 million toward the total cost. Although the story linked above doesn’t identify the specific source of the federal funds, a look at the HUD website suggests that the funds are part of 
The
The first part of the speech seemed like “same old, same old,” and I think it will generally be perceived as such. It appears to be more of the “stimulus” concept that has been tried and — in the views of many people, at least, including me — has been found wanting. We’ll see what the bill itself says, but funding road and bridge construction projects to benefit construction firms and construction workers, extending unemployment benefits for yet another year, and arguing that the federal government should pay for the hiring of teachers, among other proposals, all sounds very familiar. How is any of this different from the massive 2009 stimulus bill that has come, been borrowed and spent, and gone, and nevertheless left unemployment above 9 percent?
The media is reporting that 
This should not surprise anyone. Even by Washington standards, $1.5 trillion is a lot of money. AARP, farming interests, NPR, corporations, hospitals, colleges, state and local governments, and all of the various special interests who could lose part of their federal funding or their special tax breaks will be willing to do whatever it takes to protect their turf and make sure the cuts come out of somebody else’s hide. Lobbyists who have good relationships with any of the Joint Select Committee members will be in high demand. Lobbyists who don’t will be sucking wind. And for the special interests, it’s not a bad deal — instead of having to lobby 535 Senators and Representatives for years at a time, they only need to influence the decisions of 12 people who must submit their recommendation within a few months.
As I sit here tonight, amazed that President Obama and congressional leaders have taken us to the brink of apparent default, I wonder: If the debt ceiling is not increased, if the United States defaults, and if ratings agencies downgrade the investment value of United States government securities — with the likely negative ripple effect of those developments throughout the economy — does anyone doubt that the stock market will plunge and our carefully considered long-term investments are going to take a huge, unnecessary hit? And if that inevitable hit occurs, how long will it take for our retirement funds to recover from it — if ever?
It’s like an old fan dance, where the flashing fans of the dancer seek to tantalize while hiding what lies beneath. The Senate has contributed the ill-defined “Gang of Six” proposal. The House Republicans passed “cut, cap, and balance.” President Obama continues to insist on a “balanced approach.” Everybody uses every opportunity to trumpet that everybody else is behaving abominably and making outrageous proposals. And the latest report is that the 
The wealth in Congress knows no party-line boundaries; Republicans and Democrats alike are doing well. According to the reports, the 
