Congress: Wasting Taxpayer Time - Put Them on Unemployment

When employees waste time on the job, the result shows up in performance reviews, presuming the boss keeps them on long enough to evaluate their productivity.  The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is the job performance review of our US Congress. It seems the public is totally fed up with Congress in the poll results, where only 12 percent approve of their performance.

NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released in July 2013, finds that Americans' disapproval of Congress has reached unprecedented low levels.  According to the survey, 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing in Washington, an all-time high (or low) in the poll. Just 12 percent approve of Congress' job, while 57 percent say they would replace every member of Congress, if they could.

So let me get this straight.  Taxpayers are paying for unsatisfactory performance!  While we express disapproval for Congress, we're continuing to pay them.

It's irresponsible for Americans to continue paying big bucks for dismal representation in Washington DC.  Surely, it's time to give Congress a collective pink termination slip.   

Cause for termination include the following:

1.  Lack of team building - obstructionism rather than cooperation, collaboration and collegiality in support of public policy to improve the human condition.

2.  Inability to prioritize -  instead of a focus on what's important to Americans, the Congress continues to inappropriately obsess on the repeal of Obamacare and refuses to support reasonable Second Amendment regulations to reduce preventable deaths by gun violence.  Yet, Congress won't vote to remove the stupid budget sequester whereby hundreds of programs have received unnecessary cuts and employees have experienced cruel furloughs.

3.  Attendance on the job -  Congress is never there!  They take long session breaks and are hardly ever seen working in their Congressional chamber.  When constituents ask to personally meet with them, they often send their staffs to do interviews.  

4.  They ignore their job description - they pledge allegiance to protect the US Constitution while many who are among the Republicans take an oath to an un-elected political right wing extremist (IE, Grover Norquist) not to raise taxes, even when roads, bridges, education and the needs of the poor are at risk.

5.  Don't support the boss-  While the President of the United States was elected by a clear majority of voters, the Congress balks at supporting his nominees to administrative and court positions, thereby putting public policy initiatives in limbo and causing wasteful backlogs in our justice system.  

Some corporations would fire employees who negatively cross the performance line on any one of the above five criteria. Yet, our US Congress has clearly failed on all of the above.

It's time Congress receives a pink slip; but the new hires, presuming we taxpayers hire qualified candidates, will have to remember why their predecessors were fired and do something productive (and quickly) to earn their salaries and America's trust.