"Departing Congress leaves piles of unfinished business"

This editorial appears on USA Today's website and approaches the issue of Congress finishing its term without resolving the majority of the issues facing the United States. It was written by a group of people apart of the Editorial Board at USA Today. There are two different audiences that are being addressed in this editorial, first, Congress, secondly, the citizens.

The authors claim that the 111th Congress only accomplished three things; stimulating the economy to help avoid a depression, the health care reform and the financial reform. The reason given why this had happened is because each party in Congress has chosen one extreme and it is impossible to make any kind of compromise. These arguments are completely reasonable and I must agree.

Examples from the past couple of years are given to prove the disharmony within Congress. Some of the main issues have had to do with issues of public health and safety. People continuously have been getting sick from contaminated food. In July of 2009, the House voted to give the Food and Drug Administration more funding but it was stalled because of one Senator. This is a solid example and supports the argument made. This issue is extremely important because people died from the diseases that contaminated several different foods, yet Congress is stalling. Another issue that has been neglected is that of safety in the mines. Last April, there was an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that left 29 of the miners dead. One Senator tried to pass legislation to increase safety measures in the mines, but yet again, Congress is stalling any progress. Yet another solid piece of evidence. Since Congress has yet to make any advance in the issue of miner's safety, more could possibly die before the new Congress meets at the beginning on this next year.

Public health and safety sadly are not the only issues that have been left idle, but also immigration and global warming have been pushed aside. The issue of immigration is so controversial that reform may quite possibly be out of reach. In my last post, we saw just how controversial and complicated the immigration issues really are. In the issue of global warming, there has been scientific proof and Senate has yet to pass legislation to slow the effect. This issue has been stalled, but it honestly is not as serious as the other unfinished legislation, yet still more proof of Congress' inability to get their job done.

Taxing has also raised much indecision among Congress. Hard-headed Congressmen allowed the estate tax to expire this year causing the deficit to rise to $15 billion. Also, the remaining 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of this year, and Congress will leave without even addressing the bills. The main tax issue is whether or not to renew the tax cuts for everyone or just the 96% who make less than $200,000 a year. No compromise has been made over any of these taxes and they will have to wait until the new Congress meets in a couple of months. Yet again, a valid and strong support to the argument.

The editorial claims that neither party is very likely of gaining a decent majority anytime soon, so these patterns of stalling and indecision are most likely to continue. In past eras, Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass the legislation necessary to keep the nation afloat. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to achieve these results now. The editorial provided many examples of a Democratic President getting a Republican Congress to pass pieces of legislation and vice versa.

This editorial did a great job of presenting the issue of Congress leaving much unfinished business and providing solid and valid support. Next Congress has their plate full, so they better start making trade-offs or else the already large stack of unfinished legislation and unaddressed issues will continue to grow until our government is in over its head. Then what will happen?