Reviewing 2021 in Congress

I hate it for different reasons. We shouldn’t be spending money we don’t have just like Obama care. Democrats just want to give it away. Sad ! Very sad !

In my view I believe all of Congress should take a civics test and if you fail, well your out of a job! I truly believe that “Most” of our representatives do not understand the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights or what our Founding Fathers created regarding the Constitution of the United States of America. Please remember the Constitution is about “We the people” not about past Presidents or elected officials. If you would like to do something in bringing this country together…create a bill against “Lying”!!!

Term limits for Congress. They are more concerned with playing political games than with actually representing citizens that voted for them.

Democrats must be thinking positively this year. We have to get things done now!!

This congress doesn't care about America.

It’s time for us to live on into a new year And begin to heal our nation, not carry it out into the new year. The bitterness and ugliness and unAmerican agenda from the left is disgusting. Their hatred needs to stop and they need to step back. We have so much more pressing issues to address i.e. inflation, closing the border, addressing relocation of immigrants (without proper health assessments), creating a ‘solid’ plan for converting to green initiatives vs putting the cart before the horse, etc. This administration has failed and is failing the American people because of their greed. Time to put them out to pasture !!

JimK, sorry I missed your shout out to me at Xmas! Just saw it today. Thank you so much for thinking of me. I still look forward to meeting one day, too! You are still my favorite here and always will be! ❤️😊❤️😊❤️😊 Life has been crazy here. The dissolution papers have been filed. I will be free to go anywhere and do anything I like as of January 18! Scary and exhilarating at the same time. Such is life these days. Still so busy with packing it all up and giving things away. Covid has me wondering when it will be safe to leave here. Hopefully, by Spring! If I do not expressly give you kudos, just know I still am thinking them. Besides, you have so many on here that adore you, my comments to you seem unnecessary. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Xmas. I wish you and your family a wonderful and safe new year. Here’s to hoping that Donny Dumpster-Fire finds himself in jail, along with his cohorts, and SOON. May truth and common sense guide us in this new year, my friend. P.S. ( Still looking forward to meeting for coffee or a cocktail. I won’t forget!)

Dear Senators Bennet and Hichenlooper and Rep Neguse: As we look to 2022. Let’s get the Secure Act 2.0 which should pass easily with bipartisan support . This will help protect Colorado seniors from some of the present inflation. That momentum should help pass a trimmed down Voter Bill which must include voter I.D. The trimmed down bill would include a mechanism to clean out the voter rolls tying official death records to voter rolls. A task force to “ID” voters and get them actively on mail in ballots once IDed. A Florida style election “untouchables” team to investigate election integrity. For example agents could inspect and certify voting machines “updated”, “backed up”. Visit county recorders offices to ensure driving records, cross check current addresses prior to Election Day are current. Certify absentee and mail in ballots can be verified as in state. A trimmed down bill with ID and quality “resident” audits would pass the Senate without departing the 60 vote process. I had no problem reading the Texas and Georgia voter bills in their entirety, I could not even digest the first 1000 pages of H.R.1. Finally both house of congress should quickly pass a “Blind Trust” run on congressional members trading. Ms. Pelosi want to participate in a free market capitalist society a blind trust S&P500 fund would be an excellent way to do that. The parameters outlined for the Fed members will be an excellent starting point . Finally let spend some infrastructure funds on burying power lines. While climate change is real people change is also real. Returning to Colorado after 30 years and seeing what were grazing and farmland converted to subdivisions, knowing hurricane force wind are part of the Colorado climate it seem logical to protect new structures with underground utilities not to mention at a local level either restrict fencing that is combustible period. Let’s get it done! J.J. Birmingham Independent Boulder CO

Congress has lost touch with reality. Need term limits

I'm honestly more annoyed with the Democratic stalemate than with any Republican obstructionism. But I'm optimistic. More good things can still happen.

Weak partisan Dimocrat leadership. Hopefully, they'll be run out on the rails in about 11 months so the lies and transfer of blame will cease.

Since only a portion of Congress is actually doing their job, and the Republicans are simply a club, Congress as a whole needs to realize their job is for the Country not your party

Pathetic. Democrats squandered their chance to do anything for the people, choosing to instead bow to their corporate masters, while Republicans went even further into fascism, and also serve those same masters. opensecrets.org will show you who funds who. Both parties are corporate owned. Capitalism is not ''working'' when we produce more then we need, and all the wealth flows to monopolies. inequality continues to grow, our planet dies and government does nothing.

congress and the senate are the worst in history; very few of them are doing anything other than complaining about the other party . was in '92 when the rant was "vote em all out" and i say that is what we need to do now.no one wants to work together for the people, so they don't deserve to be in DC, tho i should say in office, for they are in DC less than they are elsewhere. they make too much for the lil they do. send them all packing

Kathleen: Thanks. I agree with you and have long felt that too many people find comfort in compact advertising slogans or snippets from a cursory internet search and they never look deeper or challenge the validity of what they are being told. Hence, political cultism where leaders are chosen as a matter of emotional appeal and unfounded ‘faith’ instead of facts and a view of the bigger picture. Stepping back and trying to view the bigger picture seems to be quite difficult for some people who would rather rely on slogans that feed their inherent biases. To quote he who should not be named, “SAD”.

2021 was a wasted opportunity by Congressional leadership. They were locked into bitter partisanship battles. Dems assumed a mandate that was not extended. Long drawn out Impeachment against an evenly divided Senate (where is the judgement). The January 6th Commission was established in a partisan political way by Speaker Pelosi, lost opportunity again. All of these and a host of other failures including inflation and surrendering the Southern Border all fall on the Pelosi-Schumer leadership team, time to replace both for failure.

What A _Really_ Dumb Question! It's like asking what do you think of the neighbors? One family is nice, kind, and considerate. One family never says hello but doesn't bother you. One family litters, plays blaring music at all hours and you can hear them scream and curse and fight. You needed to call the police several times. Do you give a grade to this as a totality? Of course not! The question is simply inappropriate. The better question would be what are the voting records of my Representatives and two Senators: A-, A-, B+ Biggest problem being the $768 Billion Giveaway to the Military. I cannot and will not blame my reps for the problems caused by others. By the way, I'd give Biden a B. (Like many I gave Trump an F- four years in a ago. Which is why he was kicked out.)

I love your post jimK! The problem is that too many people missed History class or political history wasn't taught correctly or at all, and or people rather wear blinders and be close minded. Either way, this is all true. I don't want to hear otherwise. ... ... ... Congress started breaking when Gingrich regimented Republicans to block vote and he in effect declared war on their arch enemy, the Democratic Party. This was the beginning of the Republican Party transitioning into a political faction acting for it’s own interest instead of the country’s - and began the process of justified political dirty tricks and back-stabbing because after all, they were at war and winning the war became more important than playing fair. The Democratic Party regimented as well to compete, but not to the depth of the Republicans as they still generally put the interests of the people first. The entrenched positions of the two party system limited debate and we now accept bi-partisan legislation and rarely see the word non-partisan, as all legislation ultimately should be. … … … McConnell accelerated the breaking of Congress by spearheading Citizen’s United which opened the flood gates to big money interests who found grater return on their investments by essentially buying political favor from congress-people anxious to sell the political influence that was granted to them by the the people. Both parties are guilty of accepting these funds, but the regimented Republican Faction used big donor money to control their members and influence Stare legislatures as well - with dedicated groups to prepare common talking points for their members, funds to punish those who did not toe the party line, commissioned big-donor supported studies with ways to better gerrymander voting districts, influence the judiciary, find loop holes in laws that they can politically exploit, and forming ‘partnerships’ with the for-profit right wing propaganda entertainment media. … … … McConnell also exploited the fact that most of the Institutions of our democracy are bound by trust and established norms instead of hard law - and he was known to brag about how he could bend those norms to new extremes by denying the people’s legislation from ever being seen by the ‘greatest deliberative body of earth’ let stone even be debated. He helped develop the (and arguably unconstitutional) filibuster ‘rule’ so that any Senator can call for a super-majority vote to block even debating legislation let alone possibly voting on it. This allows the will of the majority of the people to be disregarded by a minority of the Senate with no individual accountability to the electorate. The Republican Faction thereby became a Cult, not only interested in protecting it’s political future by any means, willing to disregard the will of the people but to also able to use dark money funds to hire others to cook the books in their favor. … … … The trump, a master con-man found it easy to get the control he craved by giving the Republican Cult what they wanted in return for not holding him to account to the many self-serving abuses of the Office. Hell, they did not even bother with a political platform or any statement of what they stood for - only existing to obstruct and keep their enemy from succeeding, actively spreading or through silence condoning willful, harmful disinformation because it supports their main agenda of winning unearned and profitable political influence. … … … Congress is broken. I think that all three branches of our government are directly and indirectly unduly influenced by special interests and dark money funds - and all three are broken or breaking. … … … I think it is time to critically look at all three branches of our government in terms of fundamental first principles to assess what they should ideally be and how different that they actually are. And then, Why? What needs to be fixed and how should we go about repairing the Congressional, the Judiciary and the Executive branches of our government to better align with the framer’s ideals, the needs of the modern world and maintaining the integrity of the core Institutions that democracies depend upon? … … … There are some things that seem obvious to me but there are certainly some less visible subtle but significant factors as well - some that may require the Branches of government to function in ways that may not fit the ideal but are more practicable in supporting democracy.

Causes asks: "How do you feel about Congress's 2021" ME: Ambivalent to angry over-all; however, I must give smiley face credit to the Democrats for at least attempting to pass legislation -- from police reform to BBB -- that probably didn't stand a chance given a 50/50 senate and adamant GOP opposition (angry face) to anything proposed by Democrats come hell or high water no matter what.

My feelings don’t change much from year to year. Our government is cumbersome and inefficient, with priorities that seldom seem to align with the country’s needs. It is bogged down by mountains of rules and procedural shackles. It’s comprised of two groups of people. Those who truly want to be of benefit to their fellow woman and man and the world at large, and those who truly only want to benefit themselves and are drunk on power. At this point I can only strive to be a good neighbor and loving son, brother and uncle.