A Peek Behind the Curtain at Our Incompetent Congress

Apart, that is, from exploiting its special privileges in order to enrich the members of that most exculsive club.

Fun fact: insider trading is illegal for you and me, but not for our self-perpetuating “public servants.”

Another fun fact: during the reign of King Obama, the House voted to repeal ObamaCare more than 50 times. In January 2016, Congress sent a bill to repeal that hideous piece of legislation, “setting up,” as The Washington Post put it, “certain veto.”

Why would they do that? To “make good on a central campaign promise,” as the WaPo put it?

Or was it merely a hypocritical charade, a pretense at keeping a promise that they undertook only because they knew Obama would veto the bill?

This datum can help you answer the question: Congress has sent no such bill to Donald Trump.  Why? Because they know he would sign it.

The last time I checked, Congress had an approval rating of about 20 percent. It had been as low as 14 percent, but got a big bump (to 28 percent) just after Donald Trump was inaugurated because people thought that a Republican-controlled Congress would get behind Donald Trump and help him realize his agenda of paring back regulation, reducing taxes, repealing ObamaCare, and everything else involved in “Making America Great Again.”

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Way back in 2008, I suggested that some enterprising chap create an organization whose central purpose is contained in its name, ThrowtheBumsOut.org. Back then one of the critical issues was the wildly irresponsible activity of Barney Frank and others in Congress to force banks to make risky loans in the name of universal home ownership. Result of their meddling? The great economic collapse of 2008-2009.

I opined back then that there was  a “burgeoning democratic anger preparing to expel the smirking, incompetent toadies who orchestrated and presided over this catastrophe.” In a way, I suppose that the election of Donald Trump was a fulfillment of that prediction.  But though a majority of representatives and senators now have Rs next to their names, the incompetent toady factor remains high, very high. Which is why this cartoon, now making the rounds, is as horrifying as it is funny.