Is Congress still relevant?

A dozen years ago the question was posed - "Is the President still relevant?" Bubba, the Pres, had to make a public White House statement to remind America that he still resided there.

Now fast forward twelve years --- the Congress declines to throw billions of bail out dollars at the auto companies. So, do they get forced into Chapter 11 reorganization? Not on you Daddy's mule they don't --- the sitting President "W", unilaterally grabs $17.400,000,000 (billion) from the specifically identified mortgage bail out kitty --- tosses it at GM and Chrysler and says: "Take, go and sin no more" or some such.

George Will addressed it well today:

The Final Blow Against Congress
George Will
Sunday, December 21, 2008


WASHINGTON -- A new Capitol Visitor Center recently opened, just in time for the transformation of the Capitol building into a tomb for the antiquated idea that the legislative branch matters. The center is supposed to enhance the experience of visitors to Congress, although why there are visitors is a mystery.

Congress' marginalization was brutally underscored when, after Congress did not authorize $14 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, the executive branch said, in effect: Congress' opinions are mildly interesting, so we will listen very nicely -- then go out and do precisely what we want.

Friday the president gave the two automakers access to money Congress explicitly did not authorize. More money -- up to $17.4 billion -- than had been debated, thereby calling to mind Winston Churchill on naval appropriations: "The Admiralty had demanded six ships: the economists offered four: and we finally compromised on eight."

The president is dispensing money from the $700 billion Congress provided for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The unfounded assertion of a right to do this is notably brazen, given the indisputable fact that if Congress had known that TARP -- supposedly a measure for scouring "toxic"

assets from financial institutions -- was to become an instrument for unconstrained industrial policy, it would not have been passed.

If TARP funds can be put to any use the executive branch fancies because TARP actually is a blank check for that branch, then the only reason no rules are being broken is that there are no rules. This lawlessness tarted up as law explains the charade of Vice President Dick Cheney warning Republican senators that if they did not authorize the $14 billion, the GOP would again be regarded as the party of Herbert Hoover. [.......]

So we have a shrill, power mad Speaker of the House, a whiny, pencil necked Senate Majority Leader..... and they have both been upstaged by the President without protest!

What's next Pilgrims? These are strange times............