Why would Congress take a five-week vacation with all the problems facing the country?

August 6th, 2012
03:59 PM ET



By CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Congress is on a five-week vacation. They work so hard. The fact is Congress has accomplished next to nothing, but they think they deserve a five-week break.

Millions of Americans are unemployed, and the average American worker only gets 13 paid days off the whole year. But these clowns think they deserve yet another vacation. It's disgraceful.

Meanwhile, the country's problems, which they left behind in Washington, are serious and many:

• Our runaway national debt is nearing $16 trillion.
• They've done nothing about the automatic spending cuts, including hundreds of billions of dollars to the Defense Department, set to kick in early next year.
• The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. The payroll tax cut is set to expire, and estate taxes will rise dramatically as will capital gains taxes.

It's called the "fiscal cliff" for a reason. Unaddressed, these changes will be painful and dramatic. Congress has done nothing. This list still goes on:

• They've also failed to address the issues of food stamps and farm subsidies as American farmers grapple with the worst drought in decades.
• Also still on the table are must-pass spending bills to keep the government running, a cybersecurity bill and the post office bill, as the U.S. Postal Service faces default.

This Congress is one of the least productive in recent history - and you can thank a toxic, hyperpartisan atmosphere plus election year politicking

It's unlikely any of these things will be addressed until after the election is over. The American people deserve better than this, but we won't get it if we keep vote these same people into office.

On November 6, think "out-cumbent."

Here’s my question to you: Why would Congress take a five-week vacation with all the problems facing the country?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Bonnie in New Jersey:
What difference does it make? They're on vacation when they are at work. Can we do like the sports team owners and do a "lockout" when they come back?

Laura:
Because we as Americans let them, by voting them back in over and over and over again.

Susan in Ohio:
Maybe they just need a break from their gruesome 3-day work week - the pressures of the job and all. What a joke they are. But the polls show not too many of us are laughing.

Kevin in California:
Because they are back meeting their constituents and updating them on all the things Congress has accomplished ... yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.

Debbie on Facebook:
We need to fire them all. Who else gets to go on vacation with work left incomplete? The rest of us would be fired on the spot.

David in Springfield, Missouri:
Because the Congress could care less about the American people. It’s all about “me, me, me” and using the hard-working people's money to fund the good ole' boy system in waste beyond human imagination. How do you think a person making $169,000 a year becomes a multi multi millionaire X 10?

Ron in Palm Beach, Florida:
They read the schedule, they haven't been worried about the country in three in a half years.

Bob in Ohio:
They deserve a vacation. It’s got to be exhausting work naming post offices session after session with no end in sight.
 

Posted by CNN's Jack Cafferty

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