A Conservative congress. Progress on legislation?

Speaker Boehner & Majority Leader McConnell

The 114th Congress has already begun, just yesterday Congressman John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, was reelected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Speaker Boehner needed 205 votes to win the speakership and won with 216 votes. For the past years Speaker Boehner has had to hold a possible revolt from the more Conservative elements of the GOP, namely the Tea Party. This year only twenty-four conservative Republican representatives went against the party line and voted not to elect Congressman Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Luckily for Speaker Boehner, the Republican Party, and the rest of the country Tea Party influence has been waning the past few years. The Republican National Committee during the 2014 midterm election cycle heavily vetted its congressional candidates and poured massive amounts of money into congressional primary campaigns to squash Tea Party backed upstarts whom threaten to taint the Republican Party with insensitive, ridiculous rhetoric and policy.

With that said I fear that this division within the Republican caucus right at the beginning of the 114th Congress may be, as it has been in past years, a preview of things to come. The Republican mainstream has had to take a decidedly right turn as ultra conservatives have routinely attacked any GOP members (including the congressional Republican leadership) whom sought compromise with the Democrats and to a greater extent President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Although the fire of the Tea Party may be dying down, grassroots conservative groups are still a forced to be reckoned with for the GOP. Speaker Boehner, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, may reject compromise in order to whip up conservative support for Republican’s in 2016 and retain the loyalty of rank and file members.

Speaker Boehner

With the Republican’s controlling the House and the Senate by good majorities the burden of legislating now fall upon the shoulders of Republican representatives. There still exists ultra conservatives in both the House and the Senate whom will force party leaders such as Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell to reject common sense legislation proposed by Democrats in order to whip up their conservative base. Though the threat of a loss to Democrats in the 2016 Presidential elections looms I fear that again the 114th Congress will be a do nothing Congress and that the Republican Party will remain the obstructionist party.

Whom to Represent and Whom not to Represent?

The United States prides itself on local representatives, that is members US House of Representatives, colloquially known as congressmen ( and congresswomen), whom prioritize there local interests once elected into Washington DC.

There exists a tension between local representative and constituents in the United States; should Congressmen and Congresswomen prioritize their congressional districts even if that means harming the greater national interests?

Many of my fellow Americans, perhaps, do not phrase that question in such a way. I find that the question congressmen and congresswomen must ask is; what gets me reelected? Unfortunately for our political process and us, the citizens of this nation, congresswomen and congressmen must overwhelming side with local interest instead of the national good. We get the representation we deserve, we deserve whomever we vote for and whatever polices we vote for.

Why bring this up now? Well that’s simple, I have for several years read about the problem of the quantity of tanks in the United States Army. O but don’t mistake me, the problem isn’t that the US Army is undersupplied with tanks, in fact it is quite the opposite. Congress, in their annual approval of the national budget (with this year’s budget being no exception) consistently approves the manufacturing of new tanks. The reason tanks are continuously approved for manufacturing, though the US Army no longer needs them, is related to the issues I outlined above.

While the US Army no longer needs tanks, it just so happens that a certain congressmen with a tank producing factory in his district has a strong incentive to keep said factories open. And so to get the federal budget passed funding for said tank manufacturing plant is written into the federal budget every year. At a hundred or so million dollars the American taxpayer buys the US Army tanks it no longer need.

The problem is that the American people expect their representatives to put their interests above all, even above the national interest. The tale of the unneeded tanks is just one example of where congressmen and congresswomen must cave to local interests and demand.

Such behavior harkens back to out split with Great Britain in favor of local representation. With that said I do believe that the balancing act that Congress performs all to often lean heavily for local interest while collectively harming the national one. Such practices create a bloated, nationally unnecessary, budget all to often bills filed with obscure statues to help one congresspersons district, such is the evils of pork barreled spending.

Developing a conscience while in elected office is difficult especially when the American people expect congressmen and congresswomen to vote the way they would vote. However developing ones own conscience is necessary to effectively bring our nation into the future and restore the integrity of the political process. If we are not unified in mind, purpose or law ; how can we expect to endure in these troubled time?