Is the U.S. Congress Now Irrelevant?

The U.S. Congress is composed of 100 members of the US Senate and 435 members of the US House of Representatives, called ‘The People’s House’ (seriously, when was the last time “the people” actually had any voice in THAT House?). For the remainder of this article, and for the sake of clarity, all the members of the Senate and the House will be called “the 535”

When people in positions of trust and authority try to cover their own bad behavior and deliberately ignore the bad behavior of their colleagues, and worse, try to cover them up, you must be aware there is a problem. We have witnessed this in the U.S. Congress for many decades and privately wondered why this is allowed to happen, yet it continues to happen from year to year without being addressed in any way. It is a complete impossibility for those who use their eyes and ears, with their brains hopefully engaged, to deny this is a serious problem in the US.

Based on the constitutional description of their duties, have the 535 now made the entire U.S. Congress irrelevant? You decide.

These 535 people who sit in their padded chairs, who have bloated salaries and budgets and huge numbers of staff to “assist” them (doing what?), who are provided “armed security” (from what?), who fly from coast to coast, indeed around the world on OUR dime, have totally lost touch with, not only their constituents (remember them?), but with reality itself and have separated themselves from the American people in so many ways it’s nearly impossible to enumerate them. But let me give it a shot.

Separation from Constituents (remember them?)

• They are paid $174,000 per year, compared to approximately $54,000 which is the average salary of a working class American, including their constituents (remember them?) in 2022.
• They are provided (I should say they voted themselves) much better ‘benefits’ than the average American, including their constituents (remember them?), both in pensions and insurance, once again from the public treasury.
• They are given exemptions from many of the ‘mandates’ that average Americans are required to accept.
• They are (seemingly) not required to justify, to anyone, why they voted a certain way on any issue in their day to day work as “representatives” of their constituents (once again, remember them?), compared to the average American who must continually explain his actions to his employer when the expectations of his or her job are not met and the end result is usually termination of employment.
• Unlike a majority of their constituents (remember them?), they are not required to go through a yearly “job review” in order to continue with employment, which would almost certainly result in THEIR termination based on poor job performance.
• They introduce bills that may result in additional laws being written and signed into law requiring their constituents (remember them?) to obey these laws, while the 535 seem to be exempt from them most of the time. In addition, their constituents (remember them?) are almost never allowed any input into the bill-introduction process.
• They are privy to “insider information” that allows them to make stock purchases and sales that brings them huge returns on investment, and indeed will render them millionaires during their time as “representatives of their constituents’ (remember them?), while their constituents must rely on the sometimes fake information given to the public and hope and pray they will not lose their life savings to a crooked and corrupt stock market.

Separation From Reality

The 535 placed their hands on The Holy Bible (remember it?) and swore an oath before Almighty God, to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God (Oh, remember him?).

It now appears that their oaths should be amended to say they swear to “support and defend their party agenda”, regardless of whether said agenda violates the Constitution, and will “bear true faith and allegiance to their party agenda”, and that they will discharge the “duties of their office”, which duties seem to have no connection to the Constitution but rather to the enrichment of themselves and their party, along with further consolidating their power over the people.

The 535 now seem to believe that their constituents (remember them?) exist only to pay the taxes levied by the Congress so that the 535 can continue in their lavish lifestyles, eating super-expensive ‘gourmet’ ice cream and jetting around the world, increasing their personal wealth from covert, and likely illegal, deals made with officials from foreign governments and corporations. While the eating and jetting are commencing, their constituents (remember them?) are trying to come up with additional ways, up to and including taking on extra jobs, to keep themselves and their children fed and clothed.

The Bloated US Debt

Setting the spending of the US government, and making sure that the financial security of the United States government is intact, is the duty of the members of the US House of ‘Representatives’ (do we truly still have those?).

It has been said that debt is bondage, and a majority of Americans experience that bondage daily, and while the AVERAGE American and the constituents (remember them?) of the 535 are living week to week, sometimes day to day, and maxing out credit cards to survive, the 535 seem to spend an inordinate amount of THEIR time, funded by the American taxpayers and their constituents (remember them?), eagerly searching for additional ways to borrow and spend even more money on ridiculous and worthless ideas, adding trillions of dollars to our current debt (and, by the way, millions of dollars to their personal wealth).

While most Americans try to live by a balanced budget (an increasingly impossible task), balancing their incomes with their expenditures, the 535 have not submitted to, or received from, a POTUS, a balanced budget since 2001 (seriously?) and the last time the federal government budget displayed a surplus was in the 1920s (again, seriously?).

If true that the last balanced budget was in 2001, could that have necessitated the instigation of a costly (in excess of $2 trillion) and questionable war, lasting more than twenty years, in order to ignore, or better yet, get rid of that pesky ‘budget-balancing’ idea? After all, wars are critical to the sustenance and proliferation of our “American democracy” (what happened to the republic?) and they sometimes demand that  reality be ‘suspended’ so that the war can be fought and won……but wait, we didn’t win THAT war, did we? No, in shame, we left the battlefield to the enemy, along with $85 billion of the latest and greatest US military hardware, paid for by the constituents (remember them) of the 535.

Could this be an indication that, while everyday American citizens wish they had enough income to simply match their necessary expenditures, reality has fled from the 535 who agree to send hundreds of billions of OUR dollars overseas, ostensibly to ‘rebuild’ the very countries they spent hundreds of billions of OUR dollars to ‘destroy’?

Has reality fled from the 535 when they think it is their “duty” to require the lives of thousands of their constituents (remember them?) who have been sent to, and shed their blood in, places that their constituents have no interest in and likely could not locate on a world globe?

Has reality fled from the 535 who daily entertain an army of lobbyists who job it is to present new spending projects to the 535 and get them approved, by any means necessary? Could it be that these lobbyists, who have extremely large amounts of money to use for wining and dining the intended recipients, offering the contents of their bulging pockets, actually enrich the 535 in order to get their pet projects approved?

If so, would that not be an unethical, immoral and likely illegal action of the 535 in receiving such funds?

Even though the 535 (sometimes) make contact with their constituents (remember them?) when their campaigns for reelection are beginning and they feel the need to get their faces in front of them so the voters will be able to place that face with a name on the ballot, those constituents would prefer that the 535 ASK them what they would like to see happen in OUR Congress, while they are being required to pay their bloated salaries, but the 535 mostly seem to be way too busy to spare any time to actually get to know them, and get a feeling for what their concerns are. And that is a real shame because they would get quite an education that, if they were honest enough to admit it, would likely change, at least some of THEIR actions in OUR Congress. (Hint: They are NOT that honest).

Could it be that the 535 don’t really WANT to know the thoughts and needs of their constituents?

BINGO!

The Real Reality, An Eventual Accounting

Has reality fled from the 535 when they believe there will not be an eventual accounting required of them for their unethical, immoral and likely illegal actions?

These 535 might want to take a closer look at those oaths they spoke. They swore, not so much to their constituents (remember them?), but to an eternal and all-powerful God who is also JUST in all His ways. But, they might say, “I really do not believe in God, so I’m not really worried about retribution from any God for violating the oath”. And based on their actions, this would likely be the one time they’re actually speaking the truth),

All well and good, no one is forcing them to believe in God, but their constituents (remember them?) are likely people who DO believe in God and take all oaths sworn before Him much more seriously than the privileged 535. They are also likely to be true patriotic Americans who understand the importance of OUR Constitution and want to see it supported and defended, especially by those 535 for whom they voted.

Conclusion

If any of this makes sense to you, it MUST be considered that the US Congress has indeed become irrelevant. Usually, when important events are occurring, anything deemed to be irrelevant is simply ignored, not considered during discussions or even thought about. But when an entity such as the US Congress, has become irrelevant, yet is responsible for raping the American taxpayers, their constituents (remember them?), an accounting must happen, whether at the hands of their constituents (remember them?) or an angry and powerful God.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews said. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31 KJV).

The current sentiment of the average American voter, with polling recently showing that the approval rating for Congress is under 20%, when considering whether the US Congress is still relevant,  the question could be asked whether it might be a more fearful thing to be required to answer, completely and HONESTLY, to their American CONSTITUENTS, either through the ballot box  or the jury box.

As for the ballot box, it has been said that votes and voters do NOT decide elections, MONEY decides elections.

I personally believe that the current political system is SO corrupt and so beyond repair, that the ballot box will not suffice to correct any problems with the US Congress. The powers that be, the ones who truly make the decisions that are ‘mouthed’ by Congress, have enough money to buy any person or party and any number of votes.

The demonic persons just mentioned seem to be very ‘relevant’, but beyond the reach of the average person, leaving the 535 alone to be held responsible, via the jury box, for their actions that affect 330 million Americans.

Blessings!

budaroo@twc.com

©Bud Hancock. All rights reserved.

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