The 112th Congress

With the kickoff of the 112th Congress today and the election of John Boehner as the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans have a big job ahead of them. America is struggling economically and has been for a number of years. The American public totally rejected the overreaching of the previous Congress. They did not approve of the healthcare bill passed last year nor did they support the stimulus or TARP legislation. They were frustrated that it seemed that Washington refused to listen to them and their opinion as to the direction of the country. They did not appreciate being talked down to as if their opinions didn’t matter and were irrelevant. They couldn’t believe that an official that they elected basically stated that they were too stupid to understand what the Congress was doing, and only after passing a piece of legislation would the members even bother to read it.

The new Congress has a big job in front of it. Not only does it need to try and implement legislation to get the economy moving forward, but it needs to regain the trust of the American public. Some of the new rules proposed by the Republicans likely will go a long way to improving the relationship with the American public. For example, the Republicans have determined to reduce the size of the budgets of Congressional leadership and committees by five percent. This small reduction shows that Congress at least understands that it can not continue to spend money with no thought to budgets or the impact on the deficit. Republicans have also promised to post proposed legislation online for five days before voting on the legislation so that not only will members have an adequate amount of time to read the proposed legislation but the American public will also have a chance to read the legislation and let their representatives know their opinion. The Democrats and President Obama offered similar rules but decided to ignore this idea when the American public stated their opposition to proposed legislation like health care reform.

There is a lot of work to be done by the 112th Congress. The American public didn’t necessarily vote for Republicans this past election as vote against Democrats. Republicans must remember this as they move their agenda forward and try to improve America. If they ignore the opinion of the American public, the American public will throw them out of office just like they did with the Democrats. Let’s hope that Speaker Boehner and the rest of the new Republican majority puts aside simple partisanship and works to put America first.