We Hate You, We Really Hate You!

As increasing numbers of Americans slip out of the middle class into the “low income or less” socioeconomic class (according to the 2010 Census, that is now half of us), as the number of homes in foreclosure or underwater soars to record heights, and as the number of people who have simply given up looking for work hits a level we have never seen before, the Washington Post-ABC shows President Obama’s ratings are pretty mediocre, representing a huge fall from his 68% approval rating in February of 2009. “Slightly more than half the respondents — 52 percent — say Obama has accomplished ‘not much’ or ‘little or nothing’ as president, while 47 percent offer a positive assessment of his record. Those findings are identical to public attitudes two years ago.” Washington Post, January 17^th. Sure the job statistics look better… the able among that unemployed universe have found “something” even if it is seasonal and part-time. But those in the older segments have simply dropped out and retired with less than they need seeing little other choice.

As European austerity and falling credit ratings threaten to impact us – either from our banks with the wrong kind of European sovereign wealth exposure or the cutback in our exports and US companies’ doing business in the EU – our own credit rating has dropped to the lowest it has ever been based substantially on our continuing political impasse, we have a bickering Congress unable to make serious decisions. Congress, joined by a “follow the polls” president, seem to want to follow Europe’s ruinous decision (Standard & Poor’s assessment of the EU austerity program’s current likely impact) to embrace austerity without serious reductions in defense spending and off-setting growth investments in education, infrastructure and research needed to recapture growth.

With Tea Party representatives unwilling to veer from long-since-irrelevant “no new taxes” pledges, the Congressional statement simply continues, as the coming agenda looks like “legislation light,” sidestepping what needs immediate attention in favor of less relevant and less controversial considerations that won’t make our representatives look as inane as they have in recent sessions. But don’t let that fool you; as their new Congressional session begins, our representatives are avoiding making the kinds of hard choices we need to get back on the right track simply to look more “electable.”

Congress – more specifically the House of Representatives – is a joke. It has been four long years since that “esteemed” institution had even a 30% approval rating. And from where most voters see these idiotic incumbents, 30% would look mighty-fine right now: “A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that a record 84 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, with almost two-thirds saying they ‘disapprove strongly.’ Just 13 percent of Americans approve of how things are going after the 112th Congress’s first year of action, solidifying an unprecedented level of public disgust that has both sides worried about their positions less than 10 months before voters decide their fates.” Washington Post, January 16^th.

Indeed, it does seem as if the president senses this obvious weakness with a couple of bills that are likely to find favor with the electorate: “Most prominent among them is President Obama’s proposal to extend a payroll tax holiday for workers through this year, an issue that hamstrung House Republicans before the holidays.” The Post. He is also asking Congress for the power to consolidate government agencies, starting with the Department of Commerce, subject solely to a yes or no Congressional vote, a position consistent with Republican goals and likely to find resonance with voters.

House Speaker, Republican John Boehner’s (pictured above) office, on the other hand, tells us that the do-nothing Republican caucus will be “relentlessly focused on the issue of jobs in 2012,” but since that seems always to be nothing more than the “reduce taxes and regulations” same old-same old mantra, no one should actually believe that any meaningful job-creation legislation is likely. This seems to be a strength in the President’s agenda. “By 55 percent to 38 percent, more Americans consider [economic] inequality the bigger economic issue than over-regulation of free enterprise.” The Post/ABC poll, reported January 17^th.

Our frozen legislators are generating evidence that our non-parliamentary form of democracy is cracking at the seams. Parliaments – often based on negotiated coalitions – place the chief executive (the prime minister) and the prevailing party on the same side. We have a different structure where president and legislature, indeed where legislature (House) and legislature (Senate) may be from divergent parties. Additionally, our permissive filibuster rules and the hideously disproportionate representative power of US senators (where Wyoming, with 245 thousand people, has the same two senators that California, with 37 million people, does, a disparity multiple of over 150 times!) seems to suggest that our implementation of democratic ideals leaves much to be desired. Right, left or centrist, the American people deserve better!

I’m Peter Dekom, and it will be interesting to see if Americans forget these polls and reelect same idiots to Congress that they seem to hate today.