At a Time of Crisis, Congress Ran like Rabbits. Now They’re Back and We’re No Longer Safe.

Rather than face the uproar over Trump's Jeffrey Epstein crisis, the Speaker of the House adjourned Congress early for their annual August break. We citizens have always been safest when Congress is in recess but, like roaches under the sink, they are back again to scuttle across the floor of the House and Senate when the lights are out.

Mark Twain, who said just about everything an educated person needs to know about American culture, opined that "I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman." Not satisfied with the subject, he followed up with, "It is the foreign element that commits our crimes. There is no native criminal class except Congress."

That was 152 years ago, and little has changed since to modify that opinion.

Republicans, god bless 'em, have controlled both houses of congress for some time now, and yet we have a Republican president who finds them so undependable that he legislates by Executive Order. It's extraordinary what a man who cares not a whit for law can achieve when unconfronted. We claim to be a nation of law, not men, but it is a man who put the lie to that aggrandizement.

And so, the Congress solved nothing by running and hiding. They are back to deal (or not deal) with a Supreme Court in tatters, a president destroying the very institutions of republican democracy, as well as promoting wars of words and wars of tariffs among our international allies.

But they're back in town, these political miscreants, with a to-do list needing attention and having found none.

The government's fiscal year ends 27 days from now, requiring Congress to pass appropriations bills to avoid a government shutdown. Lawmakers must also address the debt ceiling, which was reinstated in early 2025, reigniting partisan debates over federal spending. The immediate problems, looming prior to recess, are all but insurmountable today. To say that our political processes are broken beyond repair is to abdicate the definition of both 'processes' and 'repair.'

An item in today's paper tells me "Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy"

If only the same could be said of the United States Congress.