FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2012
Contact: Tom Guild, Democratic Nominee for Congress in Oklahoma’s Fifth District
Phone: 405-921-3811 or Email: TomGuild@sbcglobal.net
The Obstructionist Do Nothing Ineffective Congress Goes on Vacation (Again)!
As Mark Twain quipped, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” The Do Nothing House Republicans are apparently going to punt their budget work, including all appropriations bills, until next year. It seems that they are too busy taking vacations, recesses, and campaigning for re-election. The House is currently on a five-week August recess. When they return in September, according to the official House website, they are scheduled to work only eight days in the entire month of September. From January 2 through the end of September, the House has been or will be in session a mere 56.9% of the available legislative days, Monday through Friday, in 2012. They are not earning their $174,000 pay. Last year Congress got zero extremely important appropriations (or spending) bills done by the September 30 deadline, and it looks like the House will match that miserable record again in 2012!
The post office is in serious trouble, in part because of legal restrictions placed on the USPS by Congress. Americans don’t know whether or not the Bush income tax cuts will be extended for the middle class beyond December 31, 2012. The Republican House approved a law last year that requires in just a few short months, severe automatic cuts or a sequester in domestic and defense spending, a law that Rep. Lankford voted to enact. The sequester could cost Oklahoma alone the loss of 16,000 jobs, and could throw the American economy back into recession. All of these and other serious problems need to be addressed, but instead Congress goes on vacation, and is scheduled to be in session for only eight days in September, when they go back to work.
We pay these ineffective obstructionists $174,000 in hard earned taxpayers’ money as a base salary and that does not include generous benefits. Who says the government doesn’t create jobs? 535 members of Congress have lucrative and high paying government-created jobs. The voters are not getting their money’s worth! It is no wonder that the 112th Congress, has racked up the three lowest approval ratings in the history of the country. They are currently at 10% approval, which matches their record historic low approval rating in February 2012. They were ranked favorably by 11% of Americans in December 2011. Those are the three worst approval ratings ever.
“Rep. Lankford campaigns nearly as much as he is in session. Our tax money is helping to pay his salary while he campaigns for re-election to Congress. He campaigns and vacations nearly half of the time instead of earning his pay. He should be removed from office on November 6, along with the other House Republicans, who have enacted fewer laws than any House since 1947. The House majority not only has a soft work ethic, but they are ineffective (i.e. voting 33 times to repeals the Affordable Care Act) and get very little done even when in session. It is no wonder that they have been labeled the ‘worst Congress’ since 1947,” said Tom Guild, the Democratic Nominee in Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District.
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