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This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ineffective Congress Wants an Early Break?



          After months of flailing around with hot potato issues, members of Congress are packing their bags for an early vacation or to their home states for a round of campaigning.
        Left to gather dust is a budget plan for 2011, extension of unemployment benefits and action on the Bush-era tax cuts, among several missions not accomplished.
        It's fair to ask just what taxpayers are paying them for. Not only is this an abdication of duty, it is irresponsible and cowardly.
        Doesn't the public deserve to know how the people they have elected to represent them — and who wish to be returned to office — would actually vote on these issues?
        Further — no matter which party winds up on top after November's election — should action on such important issues be left to a lame-duck Congress?
        The federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and undone is action on several spending bills to keep government going. Congress is expected to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down. This is hardly the first time inaction forces such a vote, but that doesn't make it better.
        Meanwhile, unemployment benefits for some will expire on Nov. 30. Early adjournment will make it virtually impossible to act on a possible extension until after Congress returns in mid-November.
        And how much easier it will be to face voters without having actually taken a stand on whether to extend the tax cuts — all of them — which expire Dec. 31.
        Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who lobbied for action on the tax cuts before the election, expressed frustration Friday, saying Democrats lost an opportunity to tell voters where they stand on the issue.
        So with all that work and more left undone, it is unconscionable that this ineffective Congress puts campaigning at the top of its to-do list.
       

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