Does Congress Have “Chops” to Eat More’n Pork?

Letter to Ephesians: A scary Q after the mid-terms is whether Congress is a “House of Ideas or Hacks?” Consider the messes we’re in thanks to BOTH parties: A $41T national debt, Social Security’s looming insolvency, unaffordable healthcare, ignorant immigrants everywhere & NO ONE with the policy chops to solve anything …

This almost existential question may have been unintentionally raised by the WSJ’s asking, “Can new minority [House] leader Jim Jordan get Republicans to care about policy again?” The op ed focused on whether the GOP’s newest leader can “dig his party out of its deep hole;” and it opines that to do so “he’ll have to rebuild his conference’s intellectual capital – on taxes, healthcare and much else.” But as the editors go on to detail, the Republicans in Congress have shown little to no “intellectual capital” these past two years when it comes to solving the country’s most pressing problems. Meanwhile, neither have their Democrat counterparts. During the last election campaign, they’ve done little more than squeal about the “Affordability” issue THEY largely triggered during the Biden Administration yet threw nary a bone at solving the underlying issues regardless of who’s fault it is.

And, let’s face it, the early indications are that the paper's “policy chops” deficiency in Congress is only going to get worse as the newly empowered Dems warn the chastised Reps to “lawyer up.” In suggesting Trump & congressional Republicans have been “corrupt” & gotten “rich” the past two years, one might get the impression the Dems who controlled Congress under Biden have first-hand knowledge of “corruption” & “getting rich”. I’d take it a step further & be a tad blunter about this state of disarray: Policy be damned. The only “chops” EVERYONE in our disunited Congress has shown recently is of the “pork” variety.

Davd Soul