Speaker of the House John Boehner is second in line, behind the Vice President, to be President of the United States. So it should come as a great surprise that in Speaker Boehner’s first month, according to The Huffington Post, the House has been in session only half the amount of time as his predecessor’s, Nancy Pelosi, and has passed only four bills, compared to Nancy Pelosi’s first month, in which the House passed nineteen historic bills.
“Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner?” is a retort often heard in America. Given how much time this House gavels in, it’s fair to say John Boehner’s part time — not full time — job is running the House. (We already know some say John Boehner “is not a hard worker.”)
Read: “64% Say Unemployment, Economy Greatest Problem, So GOP Focus On Abortion“
“Gaveled in on Jan. 5, 2011, Boehner presided over the passage of four bills during his first month as speaker, with a total of just 25 votes. The most notable of those was a repeal the president’s signature health care law — a move that was viewed as a strictly symbolic gesture, as it is not expected to pass or even get a vote in the Senate.
“By contrast, Pelosi, gaveled in on Jan. 4, 2007, led the Democratic Congress in passing 19 bills during her first month as speaker, including all six of the bills targeted in her “First 100 Hours” agenda.
“Why the discrepancy? Well, part of it is that Democratic Congress of 2007 spent more of its first month in session: As of Feb. 1, 2007, Congress had been in session for 16 days, 134 hours, and 50 minutes, according to the Congressional Record.
“By contrast, this year Republican leadership determined the House would be in session for only 11 days, 62 hours, and 5 minutes of its first month, according to the Congressional Record. Some of that time was spent reading the U.S. Constitution on the House floor; original parts of the Constitution that were later amended, including sections referencing slavery, were omitted.”
Yes, that’s right, John Boehner’s House was open for business for 62 hours in his first month, compared to Nancy Pelosi’s House, which was open for 134 hours.
But maybe this is by design?
Last year, possible presidential candidate and Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said, “We used to pay farmers not to grow crops. Let’s pay congressmen to stay out of Washington, D.C.”
But it goes further than that. In 1994, the Heritage Foundation published a piece advocating a part time Congress. And supposedly, the founding fathers saw serving in Congress as a part time job.
And they didn’t envision one political representative “speaking for hundreds of thousands of citizens.” Even some conservatives think we need a bigger House, presumably one that would not be a part time job, and one that would “make late-night C-SPAN so much more entertaining.” Not to mention, productive.
But it’s time to get real. The founding fathers didn’t envision an America with over 310 million people, the Internet, nuclear bombs, climate change, 9/11, marriage equality, stem cell research, or trips to outer space. And yet, that is who were are today.
Today’s America is vastly different from the America of our founding fathers who wrote our Constitution almost 225 years ago, just as the world today is different from when the Bible or the Qur’an, or the Torah were written. Folks trying to navigate the world solely with strict interpretation of any of these documents as their guide are ill-served and destined to make poor and wrong choices for the rest of us.
Congress is not a part time job. Americans need jobs. America needs ENDA to be passed. America needs DOMA to be repealed. (Think they can’t happen? Keep them invisible and they won’t.) Americans need their Congressmen and Congresswomen to get to work. It is the twenty-first century, after all.