A Time To Make Your Voice Heard Loudly

John Adams must have had the last Congress in mind when he said "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."

The above graph shows that 83% of Americans disapprove of the way the last Congress did its job & it is safe to say we know who this 83% is but the larger question for me is who are the 13% that still think this Congress did a good job? The 83% disapproval rating is the worst Gallup has measured in 36 years of tracking congressional job performance.

The only group conceivable that could make up the 13% are people who actually work for Congress or the government & their relatives & some lobbyists who did just fine in 2010. Due to the tax deal that BO negotiated with establishment Republicans many Democrats are now included in the 83% disapproval column even though they still approve of BO's job in the 80% range - a problem for 2012.

But Democrat politicians themselves certainly are satisfied with their destructive work like enacting healthcare reform. Although Pelosi will no longer be Speaker she was voted back by her peers as the Democrat House Leader & Ringside Reid was so pleased with his work that he issued a press release that highlighted congressional accomplishments most of which took place in the Lame Duck session after the November election. The U.S. Constitution requires Congress to "assemble @ least once every year" & Carol pointed out to me that the Lame Duck Congress shows that they really don't have to meet any more often than this.

With the 112th Congress ready to convene on Wednesday I know they are not looking @ the ratings of the last Congress as a standard to be judged by. With new senators like Marco Rubio (Mike Huckabee's Co-Chairman in Florida in 2008), Mike Lee - UT, Ron Johnson - WI, Rand Paul - KY, & Pat Toomey - PA we have a fine nucleus to join Jim DeMint & Tom Coburn in a new caucus. New Congressmen like Allen West of FL - a frequent subject of this blog - add to our encouragement.

We will know very shortly if the newly elected Republicans plan to tinker around the edges pretending to do something or whether they are for real. Key issues to watch are how they approach the repeal of Obamacare in the House or if they @ least don't fund it thereby undermining its implementation, how the Continuing Resolution passed just over two weeks ago that allows continued government operations until March 4 is approached, & whether or not they honor their pledge & vote against any increase to the debt ceiling that is projected to be reached again very shortly. All of these are spending issues that the Tea Party will watch very closely.

A stalling on any one of these issues means our nation is heading for trouble & unfortunately we are running out of time & high quality candidates who will make the difference for America like former Senate candidate Joe Miller in Alaska. The biggest disappointment in the last election was Mr. Miller losing to incumbent Lisa Murkowski when Alaskans decided that the pork-barrel money Murkowski had consistently brought home to Alaska over the years was more important to them than Miller representing them following the U.S. Constitution, limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.

Douglas Johnson writes "that the liberal label has an appeal to only 20% of the electorate is nothing to celebrate because ...even with it dwindling numbers liberalism will nearly always win on policy." Senate candidate Miller is the best (worse) example of this in supposedly conservative Alaska.

Any real effort by the new Congress to return America to the principles of her founding excellence should be applauded by all concerned citizens. This would be a time to make your voice heard loudly encouraging the Members who are making the difference.