Under this heading, there will be a series of reports pertaining the current dysfunctional state of the United States government. a considerable portion of our writings, assumptions and conclusions are borne from from the writings of Thomas E Mann and Norman J Ornstein. They are the authors of the best-selling book, “It’s even worse than it looks.” Additionally, we searched the Internet to obtain other relevant data regarding the dysfunctionality of the government.We encourage you to purchase the book and to make comments. If you are interested in having an article on this or any other subject published on the site, please feel free to contact us.

If you have ever read the work of Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, you most likely understand they are two of the best nonpartisan political writers of our day. Dan Rather noted the following in a recent article published by the Huffington Post; “Both Ornstein and Mann, self-described independents, are well respected in their field and frequently sought out for their observations on politics and Congress. In their four decades watch-dogging D.C. politics, they’ve been critical to both sides of the political aisle, yet they have never been accused of being unfair.” Dan Rather

The Senate voted on a resolution to create an eighteen-member deficit reduction task force on January 26, 2010. Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota and Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire co-authored the resolution. John McCain cosponsored the bill and Mitch McConnell supported the resolution, making the following public statement a few months earlier.

We must address the issue of entitlement spending now before it is too late. As I have said many times before, the best way to address the crisis is the Conrad-Gregg proposal, which would provide an expedited pathway for fixing these profound long-term challenges. This plan would force us to get debt and spending under control. The administration has expressed a desire to take up entitlement reform, and given the debt that it’s budget would run up, the need to reform has never been greater. So I urge the administration to support the Conrad-Gregg proposal. This proposal is our best hope for addressing the out-of-control spending and debt levels that are threatening our nation’s fiscal future.

Then President Obama came out in support of the resolution. Although 53 senators supported the resolution, it died with a Republican filibuster. And you probably guessed it by now. The Republicans did not want to give the president any political notoriety and as a result, John McCain, and six other Republican cosponsors voted against the resolution. That’s correct, they killed the resolution that many Republicans cosponsored. Mann and Orenstein note that the bill was killed, “because  President  Barack Obama was for it.” (1)

More to come

1.Thomas E Mann and Norman J Ornstein; “It’s even worse than it looks.”