Washington is content to do nothing in 2014

[Jazzy]

Washington is coasting. For the past several years, chroniclers of the relationship between the president and Republicans in Congress have searched in vain for new ways to describe chaos. When chaos wasn't on order, the task was to find new ways to connote stasis--the lack of progress that filled the exhausted interregnum between periods of chaos.

Now the job has changed a bit. Crisis budgeting that led to tense moments is largely gone, mostly because House Republicans have decided not to stage confrontations. That is healthy, but there seems to have been a collective decision that like the convalescent, no politician is going to risk tearing the stitches by doing much more than padding around the ward. No one is going to do anything big or risky. The pace of action is neither chaotic nor energetic but just shy of slipping on a Snuggie and settling in for a Lord of the Rings marathon.

This is, of course, pathetic. Republicans and Democrats are both so frightened about creating fights within their own parties during an election year that they are leaving the big questions unanswered. Wednesday, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp put forward a set of fundamental tax reform proposals. It was the product of years of work between Camp, a Republican, and his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Max Baucus. The two traveled across the country holding hearings, taking in mountains of input, and engaging in all the other kinds of activity that most people like to think of when they think of elected representatives doing their jobs.

All that work is going nowhere. No one in either party wants to risk taking on the complicated and tricky issue that might offend big contributors or stir up voters in the wrong way. There will continue to be talk on both sides, but no one is going to get anything done.

Trade and immigration are two other items that have gone from the back burner to the freezer. House Speaker John Boehner won't start a fight in his party by bringing up immigration reform, and President Obama won't force his party to take up trade legislation that the president says will help the economy.

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Your opinion?

 

[DrLeftover]

"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."
- Gideon J. Tucker (1826 - 1899)


Gridlock in DC is the next best thing.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."
- Gideon J. Tucker (1826 - 1899)


Gridlock in DC is the next best thing.

Or a huge honking sink hole that takes all of D.C. and the politicians with it to never ever be seen again. Having the states all decide there own fate would be the best thing for everyone.