When Congress adjourned for a five-week break, I voted against it. I opposed August adjournment because there is so much that remains unaddressed, and it’s going to be impossible to get it done responsibly during the upcoming two-week September session.
Here are just a few examples of what remains on Congress’ plate:
A bill revamping our nation’s farm programs, which would finally move away from subsidies for major agribusinesses and focus more on farmers such as those in Maine, was left withering on the vine.
There has been no progress whatsoever on moving a comprehensive jobs bill or addressing the “fiscal cliff” facing our county in January if a deal isn’t struck on debt reduction.
Not a single appropriation bill has been passed into law either. Instead, the United States has operated under so-called “continuing resolutions” that simply keep government operations and programs flat funded with little to no change, despite revamps that are desperately needed to save taxpayers money or shift priorities.
An agreement on how to renew tax cuts has met a similar fate. Knowing that the prevailing bills in each chamber were going nowhere, speeches were made and condemnations flew, but no resolution was reached. Extending tax cuts for the middle class is something Democrats and Republicans agree should be passed. Why couldn’t we move that forward while making sure taxes on higher earners don’t adversely affect small businesses? Election year politics seems to be the only answer.
And that’s the real problem. Congressional leaders in Washington are almost solely focused on playing politics, gaining the upper hand, and making the other side look bad. What they should be doing is solving problems and delivering results that actually improve the economy and matter to the American people. It’s no wonder opinion polls have congressional approval ratings at record lows.
Reasonable people can disagree, but they should also be able to work out solutions at least some of the time. Compromise should not be a dirty word.
Thankfully, not all Congress does is as bad as the bomb throwers on cable news would have you believe. While the majority leaders and minority leaders talk past all of us, I’m pleased to report that there have been a few glimmers of hope in this dysfunctional Congress.
Democrats and Republicans in both chambers are coming together to fight for fairer trade agreements. Just last month I was joined by members of both political parties from both chambers to press for policies that will protect domestic shoemaking jobs in a new free trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As a result, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk accepted my invitation to visit Maine to see firsthand the good work being done here. That’s good news for local jobs, including hundreds of New Balance employees in Norway, Norridgewock and Skowhegan.
I’m also pleased to report that a bill I wrote is going to be signed into law by President Obama on Monday. In the final week of session, the House passed a package of veterans bills that included one I have been pushing for years to ensure severely disabled and elderly Maine veterans get the care they need at our state veterans homes. This new law will benefit state veterans homes in Augusta, Bangor, Caribou, Scarborough, South Paris, and Machias by helping ensure they get properly reimbursed for the cost of the care they provide to our veterans.
And each week more members of Congress are cosponsoring a bill I’m pushing to ensure Congress doesn’t get paid unless they pass appropriations and budget bills on time each year. While this is just one reform to Congress that is needed, it might be the wakeup call lawmakers need to break the cycle of dysfunction that has plagued Washington lately.
American families and businesses want political standoffs ended. Though it may seem frustratingly difficult, I’m hopeful Washington can get beyond the failures of the past few months and finally legislate with the priorities of our country in mind, not political bases or special interests.
U.S. Representative Mike Michaud is a Democrat who represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
No Mike…what we want to see addressed is corruption in congress. I dare you to discuss the perks….both legal and illegal, one may expect upon being elected to even the least significant office. I’ve been there and the average voter has no idea the “offers” one receives as an elected official, and how many are accepted by those elected officials and appointed bureaucrats. I personally could neither stop it nor stomach it and resigned. Are you just campaigning here, to protect your “perks”, or do you really do you really want to take on the establishment? So far you have not shown any inclination to tackle the biggest reason for voter dissatisfaction. Now might be a great time!!
Perks… like a $795 per month leased vehicle for use in the district?
Leased from a campaign contributor no less.
Thank you Mike for your hard and earnest work.
Rep Michaud,
One of the most important things you could do for your district and Maine is to vote against extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind power. Billions of taxpayer dollars have already been wasted on subsidies for a very expensive, intermittent, ineffective and unreliable power source.
Maine’s quality of place is being sacrificed so that Angus king and other wind developers can fill their pockets with our green.
Write him a letter with your concerns. He will write back and actually address your concerns. You may not have the whole picture on wind.
Thank goodness Mike! At least some in Congress are finally getting the message and compromise is the only solution to our nations problems as long as they are accompanied by principle. We need less regulation on business to get our economy moving again and we need less government and less federal intrusion into state’s matters. Small government, no debt and representatives that actually represent the people, as you do.
You are so correct in your assessment. I write a letter to Mike and I get a letter back that is written to address my concerns. I write a letter to Susan or Olympia and I get a form letter back that often is not even in the ballpark of my concerns.
We only hear from Mike in an election year and he is always fed up with the dysfunctional Congress that he is part of. Never does he stand up and try to change that.
I think he just suggested that some are trying to do just that. And, he indicated he is ready to see more happen. Those that do are fighting powerful forces that would kill any effort to shift the direction of the self-serving. They deserve to be praised for their efforts, even the small ones.
Mike Michaud addressing “Dysfunction” !!!!
New Satire columnist BDN?
I’m curious and have a question. Is there anyone out there who still believes we have a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”?
I think what that means has changed. I can tell you the current meaning “of the people, by the people, and for the people” put forth by some of the statists that post here has no resemblance to what Lincoln spoke of at Gettysburg.
You mean this “of the people, by the people, and for the people”? “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” So I guess it depends on what freedoms and what kind of equality you hold dear.
Never the less, I think the statists here have no idea what it means.
The CEO’s, Corporations and Billionaires Own and Run Congress.
The only hope is that ALL the Tea Party Republicans be voted out of office and crushed in a landslide against them. Some Polls have Cantor’s and Boener’s Tea House of Representatives at 7 % approval.
To eliminate “dysfunction” in Congress is to clean out the whole thing. In addition to that prevent ex-congressmen, senators, members of the executive and their staffs from lobbying after they leave working in the public sphere. A public servant is just that, a servant of the public with the interests of the public only in mind. They should serve their time in office or as a staff member and return to their original jobs.
After having been a stalwart defender of American jobs, your about face on the Trans Pacific Partnership is astounding and very disappointing. This is the most devastatingly corporatist pact ever conceived. Do you really want more jobs at home that pay third world wages?
You are losing me Congressman. I dont recognize you anymore. Maybe time to shake up CD2.
No, no more of that. Is that what Mike wants? Have you asked him? I sure hope you are wrong.