Since we have had a Congress with a Republican majority, the accomplishments of the 105th Congress (according to ABC News) have been to rename the CIA headquarters at Langly the H.W. Bush Center for Central Intelligence, to rename the Washington National Airport the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and to verbally, but not legislatively, dump on the IRS.
Both Senator Trent Lott and Bob Dole were on the news stating basically that inactivity of Congress was good while justifying the lack of major accomplishments by the Congress.
Now, I ask you, whether you be Republican, Democrat, Independent, or a member one of
the other half-dozen parties, is that what we have a Congress for - inactivity?
If we ever wish to have a government uncorrupted by major political contributors and their
buying of votes, be the politician being purchased a Republican or Democrat (I don’t think
major contributors fool much with the other parties), we must have campaign funding
reform.
But, do our politicians want that? Of course not. It would cut their purse strings. Instead
of dealing with the matter properly, Republican leaders, including Gingrich and Lott along
with others, killed the bill and ended reform for the foreseeable future.
The tobacco bill, introduced and sponsored by John McCain (AZ, R), was also killed by
his own party. As quoted from the Associated Press: "McCain's bill
would charge tobacco companies $516 billion over 25 years, raise
cigarette taxes by $1.10 a pack and severely restrict the industry's ability to advertise. The
money would help states defer expenses of treating smoking-related diseases, finance
disease research and pay for a nationwide campaign to discourage teen smoking."
These aren’t the only basis for the demise of the bill. There was also several other
Republican amendments, including an amendment to McCain’s bill limiting the fees
attorneys
make in their work against the tobacco industry.
"Senators voted 49-48 for a proposal by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., to
establish a sliding
scale of fee caps - up to $4,000 an hour for older cases - designed to give more
compensation to lawyers who had invested their own assets in protracted legal battles.
That political victory came after the Senate adopted an amendment by Sen. Phil Gramm,
R-Texas, to amend the bill to end the so-called marriage penalty for many couples, a pet
GOP campaign promise that some Republicans hoped would offset the damage inflicted on
their credibility by the cigarette price increase.” (Associated
Press)
As for the IRS and getting down to the nitty-gritty of tax reform - well, I guess they just
don’t want to work on it.
There we are, Folks, just as predicted, the 105th Do-Little Congress. Unless you consider
allowing attorneys to charge up to $4,000 per hour an accomplishment.
