Washington Hates Washington
This week, U.S. Representative Ted Poe said in anger, “Washington’s not listening!” Of course, he was standing on the floor of the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill, right in the center of Washington D.C. when he made that statement. Congressman Poe was engaging in a favorite tactic used by members of Congress: Talking about how terrible “Washington” is, while conveniently overlooking the fact that they’re working as a part of Washington.
Vern Buchanan likes to write a column every month entitled “Why Washington Is Broken”. It doesn’t how the facts change from month to month. Congressman Buchanan has predetermined that Washington will be broken.
“12 million illegal immigrants are in this country and Washington is not doing enough about it.” – Brian Bilbray
“Washington is finding itself very much out of touch.” – Bill Posey
“Washington is not exercising the same kind of common sense as people throughout our Commonwealth.” – Geoff Davis
“The recent debate on the federal budget should remind all Americans that Washington is not working for them.” – John Kerry
“Washington is embracing selfish, short-sighted solutions.” – Bob Corker
“Washington is not the answer.” – Orrin Hatch
“Washington is stuck.” – John Kline
“Washington is broken.” – John Boehner
“Washington is spiraling out of control.” – John Ensign
My favorite comes from Sam Graves, who has complained that “No one in Washington is talking about fiscal responsibility.” No one? That would include you, Congressman Graves.
Do all these senators and representatives expect us to believe that they’re genuinely standing on the outside, deploring what Washington is doing? They’re part of Washington! If all the members of Congress who say that they hate what Washington is doing would join together, they’d easily make up a huge majority in both houses.
They’ve not been elected to Congress to complain about Washington. They’ve been elected to Congress to be part of Washington, and make it better. If Washington is stuck, broken, not doing enough, and not working for Americans, then it’s their fault.
