Spring Break Blues

As the hoopla from both same sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court dies down, we're already sure of a handful of things, months before the Court announces its official decisions in either case.

We're fairly sure that - as Ed Kilgore of Washington Monthly said of the two SCOTUS cases - they'll end up being a KO and TKO for the pro-equality side. That doesn't mean we're willing to bet large sums of money on the outcomes of either case, but we can read the judicial tea leaves as well as or better than most.

After all, Lyle Dennison of SCOTUSblog tweeted on Wednesday, "Final update: #scotus 80% likely to strike down #doma." We're sure you can trust Lyle's take on the Supreme Court - especially since SCOTUSblog just won a Peabody award, a first for a blog of any kind.

We're also fairly sure Americans are tired of the distractions media events continue to provide. According to the most recent CBS News poll, 80% of Americans are unhappy with Washington. That doesn't surprise us.

Our politicians at most levels - including on the national level - seem to only care about issues that affect them directly, while they ignore even massive issues that are chomping at the heels of Americans, and would make America better for all. In fact, our Federal politicians won't even stick around to face those issues. This week and next week are perfect examples.

In case you missed our obvious stick in the eye towards Congress in Wednesday's extended edition, both houses of Congress are on vacation again, for two weeks. This time it's their annual Passover/Easter/Spring Break recess, though frankly, we're not really sure we care what the reason is that they claim anymore.

There are, after all, so many problems it seems our Congress just can't be bothered to face.

Americans are still radically overcharged in our private healthcare system, and while the growth of costs has slowed considerably (thanks in part to the Affordable Care Act), Americans are all still paying far more than we should have to for health care.

We know Americans are also paying far too much to big oil and big coal in subsidies. Even the IMF says the best way to fix the problem is to stop subsidizing energy companies with $1.9 trillion annually. Congress won't address the issue anytime soon, though, because they're not at work.

Syria's conflict is getting worse and affecting neighboring nations, America still isn't out of Afghanistan, Americans are still struggling to get back on their feet in New Jersey in the wreckage of Superstorm Sandy - and Congress is on vacation.

An overwhelming number of Americans want universal background checks, at the very least, yet many people are pessimistic about any gun safety legislation passing at all, whenever Congress finally gets around to it, after their vacation.

Can you sense a pattern here?

It's not that we don't see the value in experienced public servants taking a break every once in a while. We do.

We're just extremely tired of waiting for Congress to address issues that that they have put off until the third Tuesday of never because they are too cowardly to take a stand, too afraid to be voted out of their cushy jobs and their web of lobbying connections. Even when someone with money supports a good cause, we have a hard time saying it's good for America.

We think it's high time for all recesses, vacations and breaks to be stopped, until Congress gets some serious work done!


Good joke, right?

When you're done laughing, please remember to pick yourself up off the floor and get back to work.

After all, someone has to keep America - and the rest of the world - moving forward, and not just out of fear either.