Tag: Worst Congress Ever
Freshman Lawmaker Calls Out Showboating Colleagues
“I’ve been in Congress 100 days. Most of the really angry voices here are faking it.”
— Freshman Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC), on Twitter.
Congress has Paid $17 Million in Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination Settlements
$17 million
Congress has paid out more than $17.2 million over the last 20 years to cover 268 settlements on Capitol Hill, according to the Office of Compliance, which was set up in 1995 under the Congressional Accountability Act. In 2002 and 2007 those tallies topped several million dollars, Axios reports.
Boehner: Congress Is a “Slice of America”
“We’ve got some of the smartest people in America who serve in the Congress, and we’ve got some of the dumbest. We have some of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet, and some that are Nazis. Congress is nothing more than a slice of America.”
— Former Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), quoted by Politico.
White House Pharmacist Knows Scary Details About Congressional Leaders
“At first it’s cool, and then you realize, I’m filling some drugs that are for some pretty serious health problems as well. And these are the people that are running the country,” Kim said, listing treatments for conditions like diabetes and Alzheimer’s. “It makes you kind of sit back and say, ‘Wow, they’re making the highest laws of the land and they might not even remember what happened yesterday.’”
— Mike Kim, who runs the pharmacy that most members of Congress use, told Stat that he knows the most sensitive details about some of the most powerful people in Washington.
Most Americans See Congress as a Failure
68%
A new CNN poll finds 68% of Americans judge the Republican Congress a failure so far after last month’s Obamacare repeal and replace plan died in the Senate. Approval of the current Republican leaders in Congress has dropped from 39% in January to just 24% now.
Congress Ranks Lowest for Honesty and Ethics Among Nation’s Professions
22nd
The U.S. Congress’ ranking out of a broad range of 22 professions, when it comes to bedrock values of honesty and ethics, says a Gallup poll released Monday. Only 8 percent of the respondents gave members of Congress a positive rating for honesty and ethical standards. Senators did a little better, managing to garner 12 percent, while state governors reached 18 percent. Amazingly, oft-vilified journalists got 23 percent — still earning the approval of less than a quarter of the respondents. Nurses topped the list with 84 percent, with pharmacists in a somewhat distant second place with 67 percent and doctors at 65 percent.
Ginsburg: Congress Not Equipped to Do Anything
The current Congress is not equipped really to do anything. The kind of result that we got in the Ledbetter case is not easily achieved today. Someday, we will go back to having the kind of legislature that we should, where members, whatever party they belong to, want to make the thing work and cooperate with each other to see that that will happen.
— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in an interview on MSNBC.
Congress’ Inaction on VA Reform ‘Embarrassing’
It’s embarrassing.
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview with the Huffington Post, on the inability of Congress do even the bare minimum to address VA hospital reform.
The Overbearing Underachievers
No one said that being a U.S. senator was all games and fun,
There are important political battles to be fought and won.
But the Senate’s leadership
Fell prey to partisanship,
And now we can’t recall the last time senators got anything done.
