CNN

There is not a veto proof majority of democrats in congress (both houses). That is the reason nothing is getting done. All the republicans have to do is threaten a filibuster and that prevents anything from getting to a vote. This is a little nugget the media does not tell you when discussing why congress can't seem to get anything done.

How about the dems tell the president that any discussion of war funding will be put off until he signs the SCHIP bill? All this talk about war funding is supporting the troops is BS. The best support the troops can get now is to fund them coming home.

This country's statis in the world is quickly sliding down hill along with the economy, thanks to the president and a congress that puts its pettiness ahead of the country's best interests.

The reason we American people feel such contempt for Congress and the Government as a whole is simple. They simply do not embrace many of the issues which affect our lives positively. Constant pandering to PACs and Lobbyists, too much concern over the welfare of foreign countries, too little responsiveness to the dialog of their constituents. I write my representative and Senators often. When I do get a response, it comes back as either a boast that he / she has worked so so hard to carry my position forward,,, or,, a thinly veiled offer to shut up and let him take care of what's best for me. What am I supposed to find so endearing about this cadre of out of touch autocrats?

There is a way to show these officials that we, as Americans, are fed up with the scandals, attacks on our constitution and lackluster performance of our leaders. Vote Independent, vote libertarian, vote for a candidate that you believe in with your heart, not what your neighbor or media suggest. Stand up and be counted, (except in Florida). Write letters, make phone calls, don't be afraid to voice your opinion to every sitting politician no matter what state they represent. Let them know we are here and we are not going away, nor are we going to be quiet. The media cannot ignore the sheer volume of our collective voices. I personally write at least three emails a week to ALL of our elected officials. I blog, I scream, I believe.

For Congress to function and do the job that they have to do as outlined the Constitution, they much have bipartisan conversations. It is extremely unfortunate that some members on Congress profess greater loyalty to their party than they do their nation.

Congress is not subservient to the executive branch of government. They are not required to do what the President tells them to do, he is head of the executive branch of government not the legislative.

Congress's failures are based upon a few individuals that think if they keep Congress tied up with the Democrates in simple majority the American voters will place them back in power.

We need a Congress that is willing to talk to each other, we need a President who is willing to work with a receptive Congress. But most important we need a Congress that will do their job and correct the President when he forgets who put him in office and that he is not an absolute ruler that can dictate to the Congress of the United States what they are going to do.

To ask the question bespeaks the answer.

Why is the right wing gloating about how bad Congress is? It's not like the answer is to vote Repubilcans back in power so they can squander our borrowed tax dollars even more, and allow corruption to go ignored and unchecked, like they did from 2000-2006.

this is simple; the american expects his or her elected official to fight on his or her behalf to fight for them not fight against them on the behalf of others for some purpose having nothing to do with the people that a certain elected official is to serve thus congress is offal.

Things will never change unless people wake up to the idea that there is nothing bipartisan about the system. Both groups have members wich are affiliated with the Bilderberg Group, the CFR and the Trilateral Commision. All of which are private think tanks for the Corporate Elites and Banking Cabal. Their only concern is spreading their wonderful feudal system through their Corporate Fascist model.

I hold congress in disregard because the Republicans are Hypocritical,corrupt and warmongering, while the Democrats are lack Spine and are shirkers. Neither listens to it's citizens and both are violating our Constitution. What we need are alternatives. I want more political parties to exist.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson:
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." – Thomas Jefferson

Congress is held in low marks because they have done very little. Many of us realize that while the Democrates have the majority it's not veto proof, therefore we will give them a veto proof majority in 2008 when Hillary is ellected President.

It is pointless to debate about which party is good and which is bad. The are both good and bad. Each party owes its success to several constituencies. Republicans have become the prisoners of fundamentalists, corporations, Libertarians (all five of them), the defense industry, and agriculture. Democrats are held captive by minorities, labor, educators, gays and lesbians, and Liberals (there are a few of us left). Independents have no party and no one is interested in them, except for their votes.

Each group can veto anything its party wants to do. No group can force anything into law, but each group can prevent any single bill from becoming law.

Our Congress has no real interest in what becomes law, any more than the hardware store manager cares whether you buy a hammer or a saw as long as you give him some money for something. They want to keep their cool jobs where they have great salaries, great benefits, great perks, endless applause, and unlimited social status.

As a result, the goal of Congress has become not to offend a constituent by doing something for another constituent.

For me personally I feel duped and let down by this Congress. I was so excited when Democrats won control. I believed their promises of "change". There has been no change. They have done nothing but inspire me to vote for neither party this coming election.

Congress most of the time is dysfunctional, but with those two liberal loonie majority leaders getting all that television face time, all of America can now see the problem that the democrats created..

"Americans needs to brush up on their Locke, Jefferson, and Madison." – Sam, Barrington RI

While Jefferson and Madison were certainly clever fellows, they never anticipated global corporations, computers, instantaneous global communications, weapons of mass destruction, drive-by shootings, industrial pollution, global warming, etc.

The Constitution was the beginning of the United States, but our generation is not the prisoner of generations now dead. Supreme Courts have had to expand interpretations of the Constitution to accomodate events and institutions that the founding fathers never anticipated. Their fear was the establishment of an American monarchy, as dictatorships were then called, and they structured the Federal government with its balance of powers to prevent the coronation of an American king.

My fear now is not an American Napoleon or Hitler; my fear is the Corporate State in which corporations will be the only citizens and human beings will be their chattel. The Federal Government is the only institution powerful enough to protect us from such a horrible world. No militia with muskets would be capable of saving us.

The Federalist Papers can enlighten us, but what they wrote then does not limit us now. We are living way beyond their vision. They did not question slavery. They did not imagine equality of the races. They assumed that women would always be owned by their husbands. The could not imagine our world.

So, we must stay true to the principle of government of, by, and for the people but the federal government imagined by Jefferson could not govern today.

Also, while everyone knows exactly what the Constitution says, but we cannot agree on what it says. We are of conflicting opinions about what those paragraphs mean, and each of us is certain that our opinion is correct. For example, the second amendment obviously means that states and municipalities can maintain their own militias, and that the weaponry needed for those militias cannot be confiscated. It does not mean that it is the sacred right of every American to own AK47s, grenade launchers, or mustard gas canisters. However, many good people believe that I am wrong (though I am not).

A fundamentalist once told me that the Bible means what it literally says, and that the sooner we all accepted the truth of the Bible, the happier we would be. I replied, "So, when Jesus said we must be born again, that was an obvious reference to reincarnation, right?"

The obstructionist Repubs are the road block to productivity in Congress.

If you want to get productive in Congress, throw the radical right wing Repubs out on their ears.

Representing the people should be our representatives primary role. Instead they seem to be panderers to big oil and other billion/trillion dollar corporations with no regard for the average citizen.

Penning good legislation and being reactive to the will of the people, that should be their jobs.

Make your vote a referendum on your legislators job performance.

The Democrats have my vote, at least the next one.

Once again stupid people display their complete lack of reasoning skills by saying this is the Democrats fault entirely. No furhter explanation needed because you can't reason with thick-headed morons.
Congress is at an all time low because of both parties and their stubborn refusal to work together. If you can't see that, then you have no reason participating in political discussions because you're a partisan dope (most people here).

There are several members of congress who have done more for other countries such as Israel then for their own district. Sad

Some of the comments here are hilarious.

The Democrats couldn't get anything done before because they were in the minority...now, they can't get it done because they're in the majority. Which is it?

"Sam in RI" is right. We don't want more laws, we just want to be left alone. If Democrats take over the White House, sen. and House, they'll soon take over what we drive, eat, how we live, consume energy... and taxes? well, you may as well sign over your next four years of paychecks.

Why would anyone think Congress is incompetent in the face of all their bipartisanship accomplishments??

In fact, Congressional Democrats are now debating whether to approve $50 billion to $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of the Pentagon’s $196 billion request, just enough to keep the wars afloat for several more months.. Such a move would satisfy the few moderate Democrats who want to spare the Pentagon from a painful budget dance to support the troops until Congress’ next foliful step on Iraq. But it will also irritate those Democrats who want to pay only to bring troops home and say their leadership is not doing enough to end the war.

Bush has already said "I will veto such a three-bill pileup. Cramming in added measures, for politically motivated reasons, at the expense of delaying funding and equipment for troops in Iraq to protect them, is not an option.” — a "bloated" bill.

Of course, we already know what this pitiful partisan Congress is going to do for us, nothing. And that is why they are ranked lower than Bush..

The new fiscal year began Oct. 1, Congress passed a stop-gap measure that keeps levels the same as they were the previous year. Last years budget, just think how much we could save!! Bush needs to veto everything that doesn't get 2/3 of Congress' support. Keeping things at last year's levels seems pretty good to me..

How can Congress get anything done when everything they send to Bush gets vetoed. If Bush stops with the vetos, Congress can make the changes they promised. - Rodney Dallas TX

Bush has only used his veto pen twice this year. Mainly do to Congress' inability to get anything to him..

As Mr Dobbs of CNN pointed out several months ago in an opion piece, there are over 200 caucuses in Congress, each a special interest. There is no "american public" caucus. Both houses of Congress are more interested in special interests, earmarks and petty bickering than they are in doing what is right for the American people and the nation as a whole.

Answer? Trash the seniority system or term limits.

The dems couldn't end the war, so they turned to children's health. But why couldn't they get that passed, something, anything passed? Because the out-of-control far left was running attack ads in Republican districts at the exact same time Harry and Nancy were trying to work out a deal. The partisans got the satisfaction of seeing the nasty TV ads but nothing was done for kids' health care. Smart move??

The far left hates Harry and Nancy too. And since they can't control their wild-eyed liberal kool-aiders, the far-left anarchists rule by screwing things up at key moments. Harry and Nancy are prisoners of the far, far left, and since they cannot escape, they cannot lead.

The emperors cloths are full of gremlins..

Because Nancy Pelosi has been outfoxed by Republicans. She can accomplish nothing without bipartisan support but her confrontational stances in the house give the GOP team no reason to help her out, even with issues where they agree.

Welcome to partisan h@ll, it's the Harry and Nancy show..

CNN, what happened to my comment? Earlier, I claimed that Crowley is the most conservatively biased reporter at CNN, and the comment was posted. Now, it has been removed. I didn't personally attack Crowley, I critiqued the way in which the title of her segment is implies the Democratically controlled Congress as at odds with "America." I've never seen her title a segment "Bush v. America."
Why did this observation get removed? I thought that news networks are supposed to welcome debate and further discourse, not silence any criticism lodged against the all-knowing, all-powerful media elite.

Post a picture of Pelosi, Reid, and Schumer(sp) and Murtha and you will have the answer. They are so ridiculous in caricature and the puppet strings are so obvious overhead that one is quite sure that they are watching a puppet show as opposed to Congress. It is hilarious at times but should a Democrat become President it will be devastating for America and become a horror show instead. At that time, Congress will sink to even further low numbers. So low that a negative scale will have to be used. Watch out America. Please wake up before it is too late.

We actually aren't supposed to like our elected officials, people. When CNN hypes the public's disatisfaction with their elected representatives, it means that everything is going fine. This isn't sarcasm. Our founding fathers were well aware of man's faults. That's why they designed the American alternative system of government so that it would incorporate man's ambition and use it to protect us. We want wealthy, famous, ambitious, greedy people as our representatives so that they work to gain power in their positions, which in turn will make other representatives compete against them, which in turn will pit the government against itself (and not us), and create gridlock, which will prevent laws from being passed, so that there are less laws restricting us and that we ultimately have more freedoms. Energetic but ineffective government is exactly what the goal of our system is. Americans needs to brush up on their Locke, Jefferson, and Madison.

If anyone is really interested..
Congress is a self serving entity. Instead of public servants they have become our royalty. No one can approach them except lobbyist holding bags of cash. They receive the finest services, health care, 100% retirement after only 1 term, a private subway, gym, $3 steak and lobster dinners and anything else they can think of.
They are catered to like spoiled royalty.
If they accomplish anything for the country it is purely accidental.
Any wonder why no one has any respect for them?
The best law would be to ban lawyers from serving in Local, State, and Federal government.

because we see congress as a bunch of power hungry sellouts who will say what ever to get elected but never follow through on said promises. they are very petty, they have a scape goat for every little problem. they try to sneek legislation through even though the majority of people are against it, and when people bobard their offices with calls to complain, they bi%ch about all the calls. I could go on forever about why Americans are against congress, but I have to go back to work now.

Because all the democrats ran on a platform of hating Bush and monday morning quaterbacking. None of them actually had any better ideas. So when they're in charge they accomplish nothing. Because they have no ideas.

It's not rocket science, c'mon.

1. The Congress, along with the president, has trampled on the Constitution and violated our civil rights for a long time.
2. It has done nothing to alleviate our staggering national debt and other detrimental financial commitments.
3. It, along with the president, has lied us into the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan.

And many more.

Why is this question even being asked?
Congress has done nothing with Nancy at the helm. They got control and have done nothing but implode.

What would be a better question is why does CNN hire news reporters who are biased and don't report the news without putting their own views in the story line? Who cares what you think report the news as it happens and let us decide what impact it has. Sheesh, we're not all a bunch of Democrats out here, we are able to form opinions without you forcing your agenda day in and day out. ~clicking heels~ there's no place like home.

Most citizens are tired of a congress, with either party in a leadership role, that ignores the will of the people and starts running for re-election the minute after they are sworn into office.

Their pork-barrel projects really incense those of us working to make ends meet and trying to get ahead a little.

And when will the congress have the conviction and courage to restore all of the Constitutional rights of American Citizenship back to those of us among the great unwashed?

Maybe it's because:

A) They're spending our money at record rates, giving themselves pay raises, and doing nothing but passing laws that degrade the liberty of the American people?

B) Have yet to end an unconstitutional War which happened to be the very purpose that the American people put them in power for.

C)Take time to waste valuable dollars fighting a losing Drug War, legislating violent video games, inflating our currency through wasteful spending, taking bribes from lobbyists.

D) All of the above.

Please... congress, if you're listening out there, just stop. Please stop.
Can't we have a few years where you don't do anything, and leave us American people and our money alone??

What has our pitiful 110th liberal Congress accomplished besides an extreme show of partisanship?? The answer is that simple Candy..

Congress is filled with Republican toadies who hop when their party tells 'em to, so that they can keep pocketing my tax dollars. And the Democrats are a bunch of weak-kneed Nancies who can't get organized enough to confront the Idiot in the White House. Congress is bad, but Bush is worse....

That's an easy question to answer. #1: The democrats are scared to take on the republicans. #2: The republicans just block anything that the democrats try to do.
The time has come for both parties to stop thinking about their party affiliation and start thinking about what is best for this country.

Enough already. A good example is watching those smirking republicans behind Bush when he rattles on about the SCHIP. EVERYONE knows that it has nothing to do with children in poverty. It is there for working families whose wages are too high for Medicaid and to low for them to afford health insurance. Stop hiding behind lies and do something to help the middle class.

And Democrats .. stop wasting valuable time worrying about moveon.org and Rush Limbaugh. Fight for the country. If you want people to understand the situation in Iraq put Jim Webb on center stage.

How can Congress get anything done when everything they send to Bush gets vetoed. If Bush stops with the vetos, Congress can make the changes they promised. There are not enough Democrats in office yet to override the Vetos. Get the Republicans out of office and things will get done.

It is very simple nobody trusts the libs like Pelosi and Reid. There agenda is not Americas agenda. Watch the House fall in this upcoming election.

I think there is something wrong with my telephone line.

I have checked everything and can not find anything wrong with your system.

What makes you think there is something wrong?

I gave my telephone to three smoking hot ladies last night and not one call.

Well; ask your states congressman to help; or maybe all of Congress can help!

They do not know what is going on; how can they help?

OK; what do you think are the chances they will help?

Maybe one out of one-hundred billon chances. Oh! So you are saying there is a chance!

Than!

Americans hold congress collectively in low regard; the problem is that Americans also tend to re-elect the same idiots to represent their districts every two years. Shouldn't we as voters be holding ourselves in low regard?

Why do the vast majority of Americans hold Congress in so little regard? It is because they do next to nothing for this country except bicker and raise taxes. Shameful! Where are term limits when you need them!