George will has an editorial in today's Washington Post called "The Toxic Assets We Elected". George Will points out that the latest plan to deal with toxic assets comes almost six months after Congress voted $700 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and has spent $325 billion of that money without buying any toxic assets. The TARP funds have, however, been spent on automobile companies and their parts suppliers.
Congress is also making decisions that are clearly not in keeping with the US Constitution or basic common sense. After telling Mexico that the secret ballot is necessary in giving workers the freedom to decide whether or not to unionize, Congress is considering 'card check' which takes the secret ballot away from American workers in union votes.
Congress has also passed laws that are in contradiction with an existing treaty--NAFTA. In the recent omnibus spending bill, Congress has abolished a program to allow Mexican long-haul trucks on U.S. roads. The program, testing the safety of Mexican trucking, became an embarrassment because it found Mexican trucking at least as safe as U.S. trucking. Mexico has resorted to protectionism -- tariffs on many U.S. goods -- in retaliation for Democrats' protection of the Teamsters union.
Congress has also taken up the cause of giving Washington, D. C., congressional representation. It is clearly stated in the US Constitution that Washington, D. C., should not be considered a state, but a seat of government to be managed by Congress. Congress has done a really rotten job of managing Washington, D. C., but putting their representatives in Congress will not help solve that problem.
George Will points out in the editorial:
"Jefferson warned that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." But Democrats, who trace their party's pedigree to Jefferson, are contemplating using "reconciliation" -- a legislative maneuver abused by both parties to severely truncate debate and limit the minority's right to resist -- to impose vast and controversial changes on the 17 percent of the economy that is health care. When the Congressional Budget Office announced that the president's budget underestimates by $2.3 trillion the likely deficits over the next decade, his budget director, Peter Orszag, said: All long-range budget forecasts are notoriously unreliable -- so rely on ours."
We have given too much power to people who either do not understand or do not respect our constitution. We need to unelect these 'toxic assets' in 2010!
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