Congress needs some fire underneath its seats

In a perfect world, every argument would end with the opponent cowering in fear of your flawless rhetoric. In reality, both sides must compromise and be willing to yield to solve the problem at hand for the betterment and progress of all involved. Unfortunately, Congress is still stuck in dream land.

On Nov. 21, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called “Super Committee,” announced it had failed to agree to a compromise to reduce the national debt. Now Democrats and Republicans alike are pointing fingers at the other side. The constant bickering and lack of compromise demonstrates that the current legislative body is due for a complete sweep of all incumbents, regardless of party affiliation.

The Super Committee was formed in August as part of the Budget Control Act, which increased the debt ceiling by $400 billion. The committee had six Democrats and six Republicans and was tasked to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions by Thanksgiving, supposedly through a mix of revenue increases and spending cuts.

As stated by the Budget Control Act, the failure of the Super Committee invokes $1.2 trillion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts over 10 years, half of which is to come from the defense and the rest from domestic programs like education. This was intended to be a fail-safe, last-resort option should the Super Committee fail in its mission.

Currently, Congress still stands at a stalemate, playing the blame game for the failure of the Super Committee and refusing to agree on how the cuts will be divided up.

Some politicians have already begun to lobby to reverse the automatic cuts. Republicans have already voiced a strong opinion in reversing the cut to the defense budget, to which Obama responded that he would veto any bill that reduces the automatic cuts.

The clear lack of willingness to compromise is one of the many factors in Congress’s dismally low approval rating of only 9 percent nationwide.

In comparison, British Petroleum (BP) held a 16 percent approval rating during the BP oil spill last year and the IRS currently has a 36 percent approval rating. Only 10 years ago, Congress had a 65 percent rating.

Clearly, the public is disgruntled at its lawmakers and are demanding a solution to the debt ceiling; after this year’s earlier near-miss when a similar partisan stalemate threatened to cause the entire nation to default on its loans, it appears Congress still has not learned its lesson.

The amount of debt the United States holds is unsustainable, and without significant action now, either staggering debts will be passed on to us, the next generation, or austerity measures will obliterate our current social safety net, both of which would be crippling.

Since both sides refuse to budge from their demands, all incumbent politicians in Congress should be threatened with removal from office in order to motivate them to effectively work together.

Congress needs something personal at risk to get them to realize that they cannot keep stalling at the expense of the American public.

They have already tried to pass the buck to a committee to solve the debt crisis, which failed. The buck has moved back to Congress and should remain there with the threat of removal from office to get them moving.

So far, Congress has not taken any significant action other than to declare pizza sauce a vegetable. The consequences for inaction are dire, and it’s time for the American people to hold their leaders accountable.