The fools on the hill

With the August recess rapidly approaching, it’s refreshing to find Congress hard at work, tackling the most pressing issues facing the nation.

In the Senate, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has taken a hard line against college football’s Bowl Championship Series – perhaps the most egregious violation of antitrust law in our nation’s history – during a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggesting the Justice Department ought to investigate.

Across the rotunda, Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., recently introduced a bill to alleviate the numerous inefficiencies and inconveniences of our nation’s air transportation system, calling for restrictions on carry-on baggage to no more than 50 linear inches and imposing financial penalties on airlines that fail to off-load checked bags in a timely manner.

Ever the buzzkill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was quick to dismiss House Resolution 600, proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, honoring the late Michael Jackson for his humanitarian work. Meanwhile, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., staked out the opposite side of this decisive debate, even taking the time to release a video labeling Jackson a “pervert” and a “pedophile.”

Though the industriousness and initiative that Congress has recently displayed certainly deserves applause, I can’t help but offer this one little suggestion:

Grow the hell up.

Granted, Washington, D.C. has always been an insular town out of touch with the concerns of the rest of the world – or for that matter, reality – but the manner in which Congress has chosen to occupy itself as of late is offensive given the issues currently facing this country.

Apparently they remain ignorant that the economy is in the midst of a major recession, national unemployment hovers just below 10 percent, health-care costs continue to soar at an astonishing clip and the federal budget deficit is projected to exceed $1.8 trillion for the current fiscal year.

Climate change threatens to visit Hurricane Katrina upon us on a global scale, as hundreds of millions are displaced from coastal flooding and hundreds of millions more suffer disease, draught and destitution. But you wouldn’t know it.

One could only express shock and awe to recall the United States is currently embroiled in wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, while agitators from Tehran to Moscow to Pyongyang thumb their collective nose at us.

Even when concerning itself with these serious issues, Congress’ ineptitude is frighteningly apparent; serious political debate devolves ever so quickly into the lobbing of hackneyed partisan attacks.

In light of the innumerable challenges and tough decisions facing our nation, our elected leaders remain completely ineffectual.

Republicans bury their heads in the sand and claim that things were perfectly fine until Obama came along, while Democrats insist that the skies would clear if only they could soak the rich for a few billion dollars more so they could throw it at all the world’s problems.

Time ticks by, and our elected leaders continue to concern themselves with such trivial pursuits. Unless they soon reverse course, their behavior will soon lead us down the path to ruination.