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The
Daily Signal
The People You
Vote Out of Office Tuesday Will Still Have Two Months in Power. What
Will They Do?
by Genevieve Wood
November 03, 2014
In most of America, when someone gets fired for poor performance, they
are not allowed to stay on the job another two months. But Washington
isn’t like the rest of America, and being a member of Congress isn’t
like most other jobs.
On Tuesday, Americans will elect people to represent them in
Washington. In the process, they will also un-elect some current
members of Congress in whom, for whatever reason, they’ve lost
confidence. Some others have already announced their retirement and do
not even appear on a ballot.
Yet all of them—including those who are canned at the polls—will still
return to Washington before year’s end and exercise their legislative
powers just as though they still represent the people who have rejected
them. Welcome to the “lame duck” session—where all bets are off.
Losing (or retiring) can, unfortunately, be liberating. Congressional
“lame ducks” know they will not face another election, which means they
are no longer accountable to the voters back home. Is that really who
we want overseeing the country’s business – people who aren’t
accountable?
Of course, the world doesn’t stop spinning because America is “in
between” Congresses. The ones elected this week won’t take office until
January, and some truly urgent issues can’t wait. Ensuring that our
military has what it needs to beat ISIS and that appropriate steps are
taken to control the Ebola threat are the types of issues that Congress
must address — even if a lame duck Congress is all that’s available.
But plenty more issues can and should wait. Politicians who couldn’t
find the time to deal with various pieces of legislation before the
election, for fear their votes might hurt their re-election chances,
shouldn’t be taking up that legislation after the election.
Consider, for example, the shenanigans surrounding Internet taxation.
In the late ’90s, a few states decided it would be a great way to
increase their revenues, but Congress stepped in to stop it. They’ve
done so several times since then, but the current ban on Internet
taxation will expire in December. If Congress doesn’t pass the Internet
Tax Freedom Act before then, states and localities will be free to tax
your emailing and web-surfing.
For the rest of this article and more, go to The Daily Signal
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