With much left to do, Congress takes 5 weeks off
WASHINGTON — After a final day of partisan battles over drought relief and cybersecurity, members of Congress streamed out of the Capitol looking forward to five weeks of vacation and a fall fraught with decisions on the political and economic future of the country.
Most lawmakers were headed home to make their party's case for who should be entitled to tax cuts, how the government should avoid automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs and who should be the next president. Many will drop by the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions in Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., respectively.
The last day, Thursday, saw lawmakers fall short in finding agreement on two pressing problems: how to help livestock producers suffering from the widespread drought and how to protect critical industries from cyberattacks launched by terrorists or other enemies.
The GOP-led House narrowly approved a bill that would revive expired disaster relief programs for cattle and sheep farmers who have seen the price of feed soar because of drought damage to corn and other crops. But the Senate, controlled by Democrats, sidestepped action on the bill, saying that it was insufficient and that the House should instead consider a comprehensive five-year farm policy bill that the Senate passed in June.
The Senate also reached an impasse on legislation to bring the government and businesses together to protect the nation's infrastructure from cyberattacks. The main stumbling block was the role the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies should play in protecting U.S. businesses.
Republicans blocked further consideration of the Senate bill, supported by the White House, saying it would lead to Washington imposing a heavy hand on the private sector without substantially reducing risks. Both parties said they were committed to approving a final bill when they return in September, although bridging differences in their approaches will not be easy.
Congress also highlighted differences on taxes that will dominate the congressional scene this fall. The Senate Finance Committee, on a bipartisan vote, approved a $200 billion-plus package to renew dozens of tax breaks for businesses such as biodiesel and wind energy producers. On the other side of the Capitol, the House voted mainly along party lines to pass legislation putting the House on record in support of tax reform that would lower the top income tax rate to 25 percent and end some of the types of special interest tax breaks included in the Senate measure.
Senate Finance Committee members defended their actions, saying they had succeeded in eliminating almost 20 existing tax breaks. Among those being allowed to expire was a tax credit for ethanol producers. The annual package of special interest tax credits had grown from 42 items in 1998 to 154 last year.
Taxes will take center stage this fall when Congress must decide how to handle the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. The Senate has joined President Barack Obama in calling for the termination of those tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.
The House on Wednesday voted to fully renew the expiring tax cuts.
Also on the agenda is what to do about $110 billion in automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs that will occur in January, the result of the failure of the congressional supercommittee commissioned last year to come up with a deficit-reduction plan. Economists worry that the inability of Congress to find common ground on the tax cuts and the automatic spending cuts could force the nation over a "fiscal cliff," driving the economy back into recession.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, approved a $604 billion defense spending plan for next year that is $29 billion less than current spending but reverses proposed Pentagon cuts in Air Force personnel and equipment. The committee rejected a Republican proposal that would have required defense contractors to send out notices of possible job layoffs related to the automatic cuts just before the November presidential election.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were able to put off one impending disaster when they reached an agreement last week on extending federal programs for six months, averting a possible government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., issued a statement that, if the Senate was willing to go along, the House was prepared to bring up legislation in September to approve permanent normal trade relations with Russia. Russia is set to join the World Trade Organization on Aug. 22 and unless Congress removes current trade restrictions, U.S. businesses will not be able to take advantage of lowered trade barriers that will accompany Russia's entrance into the WTO.
The House also began its day Thursday on a united if somber note, voting by voice to reprimand one of its own, California Democrat Laura Richardson, for forcing her congressional staff to do campaign work and violating codes of conduct for government service.
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WritePath: "Congress is responsible for it's own inactions, I don't care who's in the White House".
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Thinkbeforeyouwrite: "Voo: Yes, the GOP has really done a good job of standing in the way of any solution to our problems. Yes, 'they will never get anything done' because many of them [are] ideologues and are truly together the 'monkey wrench tossed in the machinery' of a democracy. The only real jackasses are Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell. The gridlock is not due to Obama but most of the GOP and their quest for the return of the power. They will do anything for it even if it hurts our country".
Yes, typical fox/rush republican blaming the President for the shortcomings and gridlock of Congress. Maybe you haven't noticed the RECORD FILIBUSTERS by the Senate GOP since 2006, or only the social conservative legislation being passed in boehner's House.
Why did the anti-American republicans in the Senate filibuster Senate Bill 3364 in July, that would have rewarded companies for "Bringing Jobs Home" from overseas while taking away tax credits for those offshoring more jobs?
Fact is, the GOP has been the obstruction for our economy for years!
-- Members of Congress are much richer than you and me.
With a median net worth of $878,500, Democratic lawmakers were actually worth more than nine times the typical American household in 2010. Not bad for the party that positions itself as the defender of the middle class.
And 21 congressional Democrats have average assets of more than $10 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzed politicians' financial disclosure forms.
Obama's average net worth of $7.3 million isn't too shabby either, especially when compared to the median household net worth in America, which was $96,000 in 2009.
Republicans still have the upper hand in terms of wealth, but not by much. Their median net worth was $957,500, and 35 of them have assets totaling more than $10 million.
Regardless of party, Congress members' $174,000 salary blows away the median household income of $49,445 for 2010. And their net worth has been on the rise since 2004, unlike ordinary Americans, who have seen their wealth slip.
What's more, the center doesn't even include a primary home when calculating net worth for politicians. But the Census, which calculates net worth for average Americans, includes all real estate assets.
Election 2012: How rich are these guys?
Members of Congress have long come from the upper echelon of American society. A Rockefeller still roams the halls of Capitol Hill ... Jay of West Virginia with an average net worth of $99 million.
He's not the only lawmaker with big money.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is the richest Democrat, worth an average of $232 million. His wealth is boosted by his wife, who is an heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune.
Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat worth $193 million, made his money in celluar phones, co-founding the company that became Nextel.
California Representative Darrell Issa's fortune is built on vehicle anti-theft devices. The Republican is the richest Congress member by far, with an average net worth of $448 million.
His House colleague, Michael McCaul of Texas, is worth $380 million thanks to his wife, whose family runs Clear Channel Communications.
"It's very hard for someone of median wealth to serve in Congress, even if they could raise the money to get elected," said Nolan McCarty, a politics professor at Princeton University.
Less than 2% of Congress come from the working class, a figure that's stayed constant for the last century, said Nick Carnes, assistant public policy professor at Duke University.
Congress is mostly made up of lawyers and business professionals, Carnes said. And as income inequality grows in America, the gap between lawmakers and their constituents widens as well.