*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
It has been a very good year for Republicans in Congress who finally are pretending to be back on the job after seven weeks of vacation; one of the longest in modern history. In two weeks, Congress will be taking another paid vacation because unlike the American people, they want a bunch of free stuff and are unwilling to even feign they are doing anything worthwhile for the American people paying their bloated salaries. No matter how one parses it, congressional Republicans are the epitome of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand’s “takers;†they are contributing nothing and wantonly taking taxpayer money as if they are entitled to a serious bunch of free stuff.
That lack of willingness to work for what they are overpaid for never seems to bother conservative voters who are happy Republicans refuse to contribute to a functioning government; because they hate the idea of an African American President. Over the weekend, after Vice President Joe Biden attempted to “coax†congressional Republicans to get off their lazy asses and do their jobs last week, President Obama took to the radio in his weekly address to upbraid the lazy GOP representatives and senators for not doing their jobs.
The President said,
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“I’ve delivered a few hundred of these weekly addresses over the years. And you may have noticed a theme that pops up pretty often:
The Republicans who run this Congress aren’t doing their jobs.
Well, guess what? Congress recently returned from a seven-week vacation. They’ve only got two weeks left until their next one. But there’s a lot of business they need to get done first.
First – even as we’re seeing more and more Zika cases inside the United States, they’ve refused to fund our efforts to protect women and children by fighting Zika in a serious way.â€
Now the President is right, of course, but he could, and should, have explained to the American people precisely why Republicans refuse to fund efforts to “protect women and children;†their allegiance to the Catholic and evangelical religion. Republicans refuse to appropriate one penny to fight the Zika virus until the President agrees to defund Planned Parenthood because the organization provides contraception in the form of condoms to prevent the spread of the virus.
It is noteworthy that Planned Parenthood is the one organization on the forefront of the battle to stop the spread of Zika to “protect women and children.†It is a secondary reason why religious Republicans want the organization abolished because protecting anything or anyone except the extremely rich and the extremely religious is anathema to an inaptly-named “social conservative.†There is nothing whatsoever “social†about a group of religious acolytes who refuse to help women and children.
Keeping on the subject of Republicans refusing to help any Americans, the President said,
“Second – they [Republicans] still need to provide resources to help the people of Louisiana recover from last month’s terrible floods, and to help communities like Flint recover from their own challenges.â€
The President knows, like any conscious American, that providing resources to help disaster victims or poisoned children is not acceptable to Republicans and likely why they sequestered themselves out of the public eye for seven weeks. Now, if President Obama asked Republicans to provide money for Israel’s military, greater tax cuts for the rich and corporations, or fund a new war, Republicans would have cut their seven week vacation short, convened a special session of Congress, and passed appropriate legislation for the President to sign within a day of returning back to “work.†Helping Americans is just something Republicans refuse to do.
The President also reminded Americans, and Republican members of Congress that,
“By the way, it’s been almost a decade since Congress voted to raise the minimum wage. I’m just saying.â€
While Americans who actually have to go to work every day of every month and are damn lucky to have a job with a week’s paid vacation, members of Congress have received nine pay raises during the same general period working Americans have had none. It is also noteworthy that if any American showed up to work a cushy part-time job earning a minimum of $179,000 a year, with superb benefits and literally entire months’ worth of paid vacations and still refused to do the work they were paid to do, they would be summarily fired. And, they would be extremely fortunate to ever get an employer’s recommendation as a worthwhile hire, much less a job. And, these are the same Republicans who want to eliminate the minimum wage and regularly accuse Americans of being inherently lazy and just want “a bunch of free stuff†like a living wage, a paid vacation, sick leave, and family necessitated leave that every member of Congress enjoys for doing nothing.
The President wrapped up his weekly scold saying the glaringly obvious:
“None of this should be controversial. All of it is within our reach. This is America – we can do anything. We just need a Congress that works as hard as you do. At the very least, we should expect that they do their jobs;†like protecting Americans from disease, earn a decent living and help Americans recover from climate changed-caused disasters.
The President reminded Americans that if “any of these priorities matter to you, let your Congressperson know. And if they still refuse to do their jobs – well, you know what to do in November. Our government only works as well as the people we elect. And that’s entirely up to you.”
America’s government hasn’t worked since 2011 when the Koch brothers bought the Republican Party and installed a group of malcontent conservatives to make governing impossible. President Obama knows all too well that Republicans in Congress are not going to accomplish even one of the minimal goals he mentioned for two reasons. One, they have no interest doing any work to help the American people, and two, they are anxiously counting down the next two weeks of not doing any work till they take another underserved paid vacation.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
