Written by Frank Li
The 114th United States Congress is now in session. Is the new Congress better than the last one? Perhaps! Will America be better off because of the new Congress? No!
The new Congress may be better, because Republicans will control not only the House, as they did last term, but also the Senate, which was not the case last time. Admittedly, as an independent, I do have a Republican-leaning voting record.
Unfortunately, America will certainly be worse off over the lifespan of this Congress for three main reasons:
Much of the anti-economic-growth legislation is already in place. Businesses and individuals will continue to be stifled by out-of-control regulations and taxes.
Without the American Presidency, a Republicans-controlled Congress may pass all the anti-Obama bills, without any of them becoming law, thanks to the promised veto pen at the White House! As a result, America will continue to decline, at a slower pace than before, hopefully.
The same political system that has corrupted many politicians so far will continue to corrupt more, especially for the new and young recruits!
1. Corruption in Washington
How has our political system been corrupting politicians most effectively? Simply by turning them into career politicians! Moreover, the younger they start on that path, the easier it is to get them hooked and the longer they last!
Unfortunately for America, the new Congress is much younger …
Are career politicians really so bad for America? Yes! Any doubt? Just look at the image below. All 16 of them started young decades ago, but America has been getting worse and worse on their watch. For more, read: Diagnosis II for America: Cancer!
2. Misguided optimism
Here is an excerpt from a recent news story (Crop of Young Outsiders Remakes Face of Congress):
They tend to be younger and have less legislative experience. The Senate’s 13 new members will join 33 others who have served less than one six-year term, the highest total since 1981. In the House, roughly half of all lawmakers will have been in office only since the 2008 election, meaning that their main political experience is the politics of polarization.
“The era of the résumé candidate is pretty much over,” said Paul Light, a public-policy professor at New York University who spent time as a congressional scholar. “The voter isn’t saying my goodness—this candidate didn’t go to law school,” he said, adding that “something bigger is going on underneath the surface, and we’ll wake up 10 years from now and say, wow, a lot of things have really changed.”
What kind of misguided optimism is this? The author has no basic understanding of the essence of the American political system, whatsoever!
Clearly, the electorate is completely dissatisfied with Congress, as proven by its recent approval rating of 11% and only 7% among likely voters! The voters are choosing younger, newer faces with the hope of effective change instead of the “more of the same”. However, no matter who is elected, the voters will be sorely disappointed, yet again. Why? America: It’s The Political System, Stupid!
More pointedly, the new recruits will not change Washington, but Washington will change them, for the worse. In other words, they will simply continue the Washington tradition of “getting re-elected ad nauseam,” even if it means continuing to destroy America by emptying her public treasury!
3. The American Presidency
Americans must understand that America was forever changed over the past decade, thanks to demographics and decades of limitless Democratic Socialism (Civil Rights Act: 50 Years Later), on top of Democratic Imperialism. Republicans may still win many local and state-level elections, as they did in 2014, but not the national election for the American Presidency. No, the 2014 elections did not alter the “directional change” at the national level in any way, shape, or form!
Most, if not all, Democratic Presidents in recent history have been very bad for America. In contrast, two recent Republican Presidents were very good for America: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. For more, read: Correctly Assessing Chinese Leaders and American Presidents.
America has been in a steep decline. With a Republican-controlled Congress, the decline may slow down. To reverse the decline, America must have a transformational President, who can only come from the Republican Party!
The image below illustrates my qualitative view of American voters’ ideology spectrum, which can be highlighted with two points as follows:
America, generally speaking, has been moving left, with more and more Democrats than Republicans over time! We have lived through the transition from a center-right country to a decidedly left one, exactly as Karl Marx predicted more than 150 years ago: “Democracy is the road to socialism … Socialism leads to communism.”
There are simply not enough Republicans in America anymore! Too many Americans are dependent on the government (e.g. for jobs or handouts), and they keep wanting more by voting for Democrats, who keep promising and handing out more (e.g. food stamps). However, Republicans can still win the American Presidency in 2016. How? By having some big ideas to capture the majority of the swing voters in the middle (i.e. the independents and even some moderate Democrats)!
So it’s the ideas, stupid! For some real ideas, read my book: “The GOP Bible for 2016”!
It must be emphasized that 2016 may be the last time for the GOP to have any chance at the American Presidency. If the GOP cannot win the American Presidency in 2016, nothing matters anymore, not even ideas, because America will become decidedly Democratic, without even enough swing voters left for the GOP! America will slide all the way to hell: communism!
4. The new Congress
Unfortunately for America, the new Congress has already shown some bad signs, alienating itself from the swing voters in middle! Two examples:
House Republicans drop controversial abortion bill ahead of Roe vs. Wade anniversary. Lucky for the GOP that common sense has finally prevailed in this case! However, the religious right will certainly keep pushing Congress to the far right!
At Boehner’s Invite, Netanyahu Coming to Congress. Going alone on this without the White House? Pat Buchanan was right in saying “Capitol Hill is Israeli occupied territory” (Pat Buchanan: In His Own Words)!
On a positive note, the new Congress will surely be against big social spending. Because of that, most, if not all, of President Obama’s big spending ideas, as spelled out in President Obama’s State of the Union Speech, will not pass Congress.
5. America in two years
America will definitely be worse off in two years at the end of this Congress. Three examples:
Our national debt will reach $20 trillion (vs. $18 trillion today)!
The student loan bubble, currently at $1.2 trillion (How the college debt is crippling students, parents, and the economy), will continue to grow, eventually bigger than the housing bubble that burst in 2008.
Congress will have declared war against ISIS for 18 months.
Worse yet, many, if not all, of the new 2015 members of Congress will have been two years into their tenure as career politicians …
Worst of all, while America continues to deteriorate, China will continue to zoom ahead!
6. Closing
America: It’s The Political System, Stupid! Reform our political system or continue to decline! For more, read my book: “The GOP Bible for 2016”!
