Monday, April 29, 2013

Why Congress Gets No Respect


Poster-Clown For Why Congress Gets No Respect



Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) was previously best known for his performance during a defense budget hearing in 2010. During that meeting Johnson opined that the island of Guam, because of its relatively small size, would tip over and capsize due to overpopulation. No, he wasn’t joking.

If this blinding display of genius isn’t enough for you, you are in luck. Johnson is not through making your day. On April 25th, Johnson spoke up again, once again taking the House floor. Was he redeeming himself by tackling critical fiscal concerns? Focusing, perhaps, on attacks against Constitutional freedoms? No. According to National Review Online, Hank Johnson “stood up for some of the most important victims of congressional gridlock: children’s birthday parties and comedians trying to make their voices high-pitched.”

He was, in short, discussing a bill to continue the federal government’s sales from the National Helium Reserve. You read that correctly — helium. In an America currently besieged on all sides, the Honorable Hank Johnson addressed Congress by stating: “Imagine, Mr. Speaker, a world without balloons.” A world without balloons.

One supposes that some credit is due him. It took him a full three years to prove, once again, that he is a Democrat jackass . . . figuratively and literally. You may want to remember that the next time some Democrat says Conservatives are stupid.

It is irrelevant that Johnson supposed he was being clever during his speech. It was “weighed down” with puns, referring to helium’s lighter-than-air properties. It is irrelevant whether he was serious about his subject or not. What is relevant is that a duly elected Congressman from Georgia wasn’t just making a fool of himself, he was making idiots of us all.
 
Democrat Hank Johnson has nothing better to do than prove just how ignorant he is at the expense of the American people.

Johnson was first elected to Congress in 2006. He has been reelected three times. According to OpenSecrets.org, Johnson sponsored 12 bills as of 2012, ten of which originated in 2011. Of such importance was H.R. 34, “Expressing condolences to and solidarity with the people of the Commonwealth of Australia as they struggle against deadly floods that began on December 24, 2010” and H.R. 528, “Neglected Infections of Impoverished Americans Act.”

He cosponsored an additional 365 bills, 269 of which were put forth during 2011. Bills like H.R. 831, “honoring and recognizing David ‘Dave’ Warren Brubeck for his contributions in musical composition, jazz, and to the international community (he liked Lena Horne, too)” and H.R. 785, “condemning the discrimination, hate crimes, racism, bigotry, bullying and brutal violence perpetrated against Sikh-Americans, and all acts of vandalism against Sikh Gurdwaras in the United States.”

These bills were chosen at random to illustrate the difference Johnson has made in his elected capacity to the welfare of his state and our nation.

Johnson is just one case of Congressional buffoonery (Sheila Jackson Lee also springs to mind). The fact that there are no intelligence requirements for elected office is unconscionable. Worse still, such individuals keep getting reelected by an equally dim and uncaring electorate. And elected officials like Johnson will keep cluttering up Congress as long as their constituents are no better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's simple; they don't deserve any!