Why Does Congress Have No Respect for the Law and Normal Citizens?

Why does the congress have so little respect for the Constitution and the law? Because they only see laws as something they sell to the highest bidder. They don’t pass a law unless someone is going to pay them. They’re pissed that they had to defeat comprehensive immigration reform just to not lose their seats. They’re really pissed because the voters have done them out of some money that they feel they are entitled to. They see laws as their commodity. K street is their customer and they sell them laws. Their attitude toward the law is some what like the attitude of a manager in a factory that manufactures paper clips. It pays the mortgage but they could just as well make rain gutters. And he’d be pissed if some normal citizen told him he couldn’t sell paper clips to people who employ illegal aliens. I see congress and laws as flowing out of the great tradition of Hammurabi, Justinian, Magna Carta, John Locke and Tom Paine. But congress can’t see any difference between laws and paper clips and they see me as their enemy since I might sometimes ask them to pass a law just because it is what the country needs.
I first posted this Friday, December 14, 2007. I made a couple of changes but this is essentially what I wrote back in 2007.

Why Does Congress Have No Respect for the Law and Normal Citizens?

Most Americans feel that people should obey the law.  I feel that it only breeds disorder and anarchy to pass laws and then tell police to not enforce them.  Congress has passed some immigration laws in the past few years but they will do nothing to see that these laws are enforced.  I have frequently written to my two senators (Feinstein and Boxer) to ask for an explanation of why these laws are not enforced.  At first they would not even reply to my questions.  But more recently they have begun to send replies (nothing like an election to get a senator's attention).  But they never send answers to my question.  They just send a generic immigration answer.    
This convinced me that that they don't ever read their mail from the likes of me.       
Why does the congress have so little respect for the law? Because they only see laws as something they sell to the highest bidder. They don’t pass a law unless someone is going to pay them. They’re pissed that they had to defeat comprehensive immigration reform just to not lose their seats. They’re really pissed because the voters have done them out of some money that they feel they are entitled to. They see laws as their commodity. K street is their customer and they sell them laws. Their attitude toward the law is some what like the attitude of a manager in a factory that manufactures paper clips. It pays the mortgage but they could just as well make rain gutters. And he’d be pissed if some normal citizen told him he couldn’t sell paper clips to people who employ illegal aliens. I see congress and laws as flowing out of the great tradition of the Magna Carta, John Locke and Tom Paine. But congress can’t see any difference between laws and paper clips and they see me as their enemy since I might sometimes ask them to pass a law just because it is what the country needs.
 

Stare Decisis When Convenient

Supreme court nominees have started to pledge to apply stare decisis to Roe v. Wade. (I'm waiting to see a senator give up that much of their constitutional power to another branch of government.) But if this stare decisis stuff is so great, let's really put it to use. How about the right to bear arms? There is a much, much, much longer history of citizens being allowed to own guns than there is of the 'right' to abortion. Why, oh why doesn't stare decisis apply here? Could it be that the senate judiciary committee thinks there has been a 220 year long misapplication of the constitution in the case of the second amendment? But I think that if guns could be used to perform abortions the second amendment would be safer. Of course, you'd have a hard time convincing me that any member of congress gives a fat f**k about my constitutional rights. I think they only feel they need to answer to K Street.

What are the Chances Health Care Will Be Reformed

There is about zero chance the next president will reform health care. When I hear this much talk about health care reform I know it's election time. The democrats all have a 'plan.' But the amount of money they take from insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies make their words ring hallow.When Bill Clinton ran the first time he talked endlessly about reforming health care. When he was elected he turned the whole thing over to Hillary. She formed a task force and then refused to allow the public any knowledge of or input into their deliberations. (I suppose this authoritarian style is what we can expect from a Hillary presidency.) Her final plan was too complex to be understood. And congress didn't even seriously consider it. If she had not wanted reform, one of the most certain roads to that outcome would have been exactly what she had done. The Clintons never again mentioned health care reform. And the failure to achieve reform did not seem to have ever caused any sadness to anyone in that administration. And why would they care since they all had good health insurance (I got to pay for it). The Clintons campaigning on health care reform was just a cold, calculated come on to get votes. They got the votes, put on a little act and then returned to their normal lives. As long as K Street finances our elections there will be no meaningful health care reform. But politicians will continue to make empty promises.