Congress Still Isn’t Doing Its Job

When former House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling introduced his legislation to gut Dodd-Frank, Democrats denounced it as anti-consumer and said it had no chance of passing the Senate.

So, you would think that when the Democrats took over the House, they might concentrate on legislative efforts that have a chance of becoming law.

Not a chance.

In the coming weeks, the House may consider H.R. 1500, new Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters’ legislation to undo virtually everything that former Republican Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney did at the bureau.

Mulvaney, of course, never acted like he was “acting,” as he began overhauling the bureau based on his own vision of an agency that has few regulatory powers.

But Waters’ legislation is laden with rhetoric that no Republican will accept. And indeed, no Republican voted for the measure when it was considered by the Financial Services Committee.

Even before you get to the actual provisions of the legislation, Waters’ bill includes a laundry list of findings.

For example, this: “The statute establishing the Consumer Bureau has been grossly misinterpreted under Mr. Mulvaney’s leadership, in a manner that is inconsistent with the agency’s statutory purpose, objectives and functions.”

When the committee considered the bill, Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) referred to the findings concerning Mulvaney, a former House Republican.

He said the legislation “slanders one of my good friends.”

Granted, this is an election year. And just as Hensarling’s legislation was intended to throw raw meat to the Red States, Waters’ legislation does the same for the Blue States.

Last month, Gallup, which reports on congressional approval ratings, found only 20% of those polled approved of the job Congress was doing.

Yes, that was an improvement over November 2017, when only 13% of those polled approved of the job Congress was doing.

In December, the Gallup Poll asked people for their evaluation of the trust and ethics found in several occupations.

Only 8% of those polled said members of Congress had very high or high ethical standards.

That’s lower than funeral directors, telemarketers and yes, journalists.

So, the public trusts some guy trying to sell you a time share, magazine subscription or rug cleaning service over the phone more than they do members of Congress.

Now call me naïve or even stupid (lots of people have), but you would hope that at some point, members of Congress would come together and reach the compromises needed to enact meaningful legislation.

OK, maybe not.

Words Have Meaning

When you’re a parent, you often tell an upset child to “use your words.”

And when you’re an adult, you sometimes learn the hard way that “words have meaning.”

What you say and how you say it is important.

I recall getting on an elevator with a House Republican staffer sometime after the Republicans took control of the House in the 1994 election. The staffer told me that something scary had just occurred.

He said something to effect of, “We said something, and it moved the markets.”

The Republicans had been in the minority and nothing they said ever moved the financial markets. Well now, what they said mattered – and it moved the markets.

Unfortunately, some people never learn that lesson.

This is not a partisan issue, although the president of the United States has made it into a new art form.

Shortly after taking office, Rep. Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, learned the hard way.

Referring to U.S. politicians’ support for Israel, Omar tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”

To some Jews, including Jewish members of Congress, that seemed anti-Semitic, and to her credit, Omar apologized.

The same could not be said for the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. He doesn’t seem to apologize for anything he says.

President Trump has said thousands of things that the so-called liberal media has interpreted as false.

But he has also said some things that are downright scary.

Take a recent interview Fox News’ Sean Hannity had with Trump after the release of the Mueller Report.

Here’s what Trump had to say: “This was a coup. This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government.”

Come on, man!!

Here’s the definition of coup, according to the Oxford Living Dictionary: “A sudden, violent and illegal seizure of power from a government.”

Now say what you want about the Mueller Report, but it was not an attempted coup.

After all, Robert Mueller was appointed by Trump Administration officials. And he is not violent.

But beyond the factual error, once again Trump appeared to be attacking the pillars of our democracy.

In this age, the president should not say anything that the nuts who seem to be coming out of the woodwork could interpret as a reason to take up arms against the United States government.

We live in scary times.

Hmmm …

The folks at “Teagan Goddard’s Political Wire” unearthed a quote from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) that somehow seems relevant.

Here’s what Graham had to say: “He encouraged people to lie for him. He lied. I think he obstructed justice. I think there’s a compelling case that he has, in fact, engaged in conduct that would be better for him to leave office than to stay in office.”

To some, that might appear to be a perfect summation of the Mueller report.

The only problem is Graham was in the House at the time, the quote is from 1999, and he was referring to the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton.

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at dbaumann@cutimes.com.