by Amy Rebeiro

Created on: June 13, 2010   Last Updated: December 25, 2011

Congress, the ultimate dysfucntional American institution.  When President Obama become President the Democrats had a majority in both the House and the Senate.  Now, as we all know, the Republicans hold power in the House, while Democrates still seemed to be controlling the Senate, to some extent.  It would appear that the more Americans struggle, the more Congress as a whole struggles as well.

We've known for a long time that elected officials take a lot of money from special interest groups during election years in orde to fund their reelection compaigns.  They take from lobby groups and private companies.  It seems that even though we elect them into office, the vast majority of these Senators and Congressman have been in office for years, without really doing anything for the greater good. The focus these legislators take while in office is that of their financial backers. Yes, there are no term limits in the US Legislature! Not only do they not retire, there is no regulation specifying when or if they need to retire.

The reality is, these Representatives and Senators don't need that money to get re-elected since so many of them win by vast majorities based on the fact that they've been doing this for so long.  The Representative in Santa Cruz, CA has won by mass majorities of over 70%.  A predominately Republican District, this super progressive Democrat never needs to worry about losing his seat.  While I do like my Representative, there are a lot of people who could take his place and bring something new and different to the House of Representatives.  None of those people will run because of the respect they have for the current Congressman.

By the same token, it is time that Representative stop being controlled by organizations that don't represent their district and aren't from their district.

Another thing that is perplexing to me is that the Republicans in Congress are still pushing the same anti reform jargon they were spewing before the Healthcare Reform debate started!  And they are accusing President Obama of being racist!  Why don't the Republicans just admit that they oppose the democratic agenda because the special interest groups that keep money in their pockets would stop funding them for re-election!  Stop the bavajadas that the Public Option would run private health insurance companies out of business!  It’s completely ridiculous.  Stanford University is in no way at risk of being closed because UC Berkeley exists.  The reality there are several private and public services available to consumers and they aren't running each other out of business. For those that are so afraid of government intervention in their health care plan, let remember who runs our education system. 

I definitely see where Chris Rock was coming from in one of his skits about Insurance:

“Since it's insurance and I don't get sick, shouldn't I get my money back?

 You know what's worse than taxes?

What's worse than tax is insurance.

 You got to have some insurance.

 They shouldn't even call it insurance.

They just should call it ''in case s*t.''

 l give a company some money

in case s*t happens.

Now, if s* t don't happen,

shouldn't I get my money back?”

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