Since the election, pundits have been talking about our lame duck president and our lame duck Congress. In truth, we have had a lame duck government in place for at least the last four years. It is hard for a lame duck to get anything done and this description certainly fits our last two sessions of Congress which have been among the least productive in American history.
The term lame duck was apparently first used in American politics in the late 19th century. Currently, it refers to a session of Congress or president who will be leaving office within a short period and cannot or has not been re-elected. Thus, lame duck presidents or Congresses are believed to have less power and less ability to get things done. But can this Congress or president be lamer now than they have been previously, or perhaps they have been lame ducks all along.
Congress presently will be a lame duck until its new members are installed in the New Year. President Obama is considered a lame duck for the remaining two years of his term, until a new president is inaugurated in 2017. Does this indicate that less will be accomplished by this Congress in its final month or by Obama in his last two years?
Looking back on Congress’s accomplishments, it is astonishing how little important legislation they have enacted. Immigration reform, which the majority of the nation would like to see, has been languishing in the Senate after having been passed in a bipartisan fashion by that august body. Its demise, however, is virtually certain since Republican Speaker John Boehner has not had the courage to bring the bill to the floor where he knows it will become law with Democratic support. (He has supposedly invoked the “Hastert rule” in which a bill will not be brought to the floor without a majority in the Republican caucus, even if it is likely to pass. Does Boehner meet the definition of a lame duck?) Boehner has been unwilling to stand up to the conservatives in the GOP caucus to do what is right.
Likewise, the Import-Export Bank has been in limbo, temporarily extended by the House through June 2015, even though American businesses need it in order to be competitive with the financial terms offered by other nations like China. The bank has been supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers who say it helps American manufacturing and employment. But some conservatives and conservative think tanks see it as “corporate welfare” and have been opposed to it.
Even though conservatives in Congress are opposed to corporate welfare, they were willing to allow a farm bill to pass whose major benefits go to corporate farmers, whether or not they produce any crops or not. However, fortunately, conservatives were able to slash food stamp benefits as part of this bill. (Since corporations can be considered as people, perhaps people can be considered as corporations and the conservatives were cutting corporate welfare.)
Tax reform has not been addressed by this Congress, though bipartisan support has been there for action. Similarly, funding for infrastructure repair and expansion has gone nowhere, though the need is urgent throughout the country, with roads crumbling and bridges falling down. In addition to lowering unemployment with good construction jobs, infrastructure expansion has been shown to permanently boost the economy. (But why do it when interest rates are low and labor costs are cheap?)
President Obama has been in a different situation, waiting for Congress to act on legislation that he deems important. However, Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said in 2012 that their main job was not to cooperate with Obama, to prevent him from claiming any victories. Likewise, Boehner has not been willing to act on any legislation Obama favors. Thus, Obama’s executive order on immigration can be seen not as a squawking by a lame duck president, but as an imperfect action on a problem that Congress has failed to address for years. It has not solved the problem but perhaps is a start that may get Congress off its ass.
Obama and the EPA have also approached the problem of global warming that Congress has ignored for years. The agreement with China, the biggest emitter of CO2 with the United States, may get other nations to realize that this is indeed a pressing issue. Many Republicans in Congress still refuse to accept the scientific evidence that global warming is real and see Obama’s moves as a “war on coal” that will hurt our economy (politics uber alles).
Not-withstanding the results of the midterm elections, perhaps Obama will take a more aggressive stance on critical issues, with executive orders wherever possible to get things done. The new Congress on the other hand, may remain in a lame duck mode and pass little legislation that will escape a presidential veto. Will the Republican majorities in the House and Senate decide to work with Obama for the good of the nation ? Don’t bet on it.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020