Get Them Out Before They Do More Damage

As both the House and Senate begin to wrap up their latest embarrassing display of gutlessness and cowardice, we can't help but be glad to see them get the hell of out of town.

After passing a budget bill that's draconian and regressive, the House slammed through a temporary stopgap Farm Bill. They also jammed through a $632.8 billion defense bill that will keep in place billions of dollars of Pentagon boondoggles.

House Republicans also insisted on stuffing deficit reduction into the budget they rapidly pushed through at the last minute. Unsurprisingly, it didn't seem to matter to Republicans that the federal budget deficit already is continuing to narrow rapidly, even without any further assistance from Congress. The safety of America's kids also didn't seem to matter to Congress, since one year after the horrible carnage at the school in Sandy Hook, Congress has still only passed one gun safety bill.

After that kind of half-assed governing, we don't frankly care how Congress gets out of town. We just want them gone before they do any more legislative damage. If Jeff Bezos over at the Washington Post wants to lend us some drones, we'll happily hook up a few members of Congress to his flying robots - from either side of the aisle - if it'll get them out of our sight any faster.

Sadly, due to a temper tantrum continuing to be thrown by the ever-childish Republicans in the Senate, members of the upper chamber will have to stick around - and actually remain in session - into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Thanks to Senate rules, after 30 hours of Republicans like Ted Cruz pointlessly stamping their little feet in "debate", Senate Democrats will approve a few more presidential nominees over the weekend. Then, finally, the Senators will join their spineless colleagues from the House in the trek home for the holidays, where they'll try and convince the voters that they're doing a swell job representing the voter's interests.

We're fairly certain no matter how those members of Congress travel home, they'll end up getting a meal on the way. After all, lobbyists throw fundraisers just about anywhere these days.

However, as Greg Sargent pointed out Thursday afternoon, about 1.3 million Americans had better enjoy the meals they're having now - because just a few days after Christmas, all those Americans will be losing their long-term unemployment benefits.

We're not talking about Americans who are lazy, and just got thrown off their jobs. As Ed Kilgore pointed out in the Washington Monthly this week, short-term unemployment is now lower than it was in 2007, before the Great Bush Recession. No, we're talking about the long-term unemployed that - as Ed also notes - Congress treated as disposable in the budget bill now before the Senate.

Unfortunately, long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high - and there are still about three Americans searching for every one available job. That's a far cry from when President Obama took over nearly five years ago at the nadir of the Great Recession, when there were seven Americans searching for every single available job. Those statistics, thankfully, are significantly improved. That said,  great numbers on a chart still won't feed the million-plus of our fellow citizens who've been perpetually left without a seat at the jobs table by this do-nothing Congress - and who got left out again in the current horrible budget deal.

'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy Holidays' from your U.S. Congress, everyone.

Wishes And Hopes

While it may not seem like it, it's reached that time of the year when everyone's beginning to rush.

While packages and letters are flooding the postal system, some organizations are ringing the bells and looking at their coffers with concern, while others are making last-minute substitutions. Some are even beginning to lose their patience, as they desperately search for that last minute item they desperately need for the 2014 election cycle.

What - Did you think we were talking about holiday shopping?

If you did, we understand your confusion. Our own staff members are also rushing around the office, attempting to get everything ready for the holidays and the new year - including a new addition to our "Staff Children" roster, expected in early 2014.

With all the tasks we're each trying to accomplish, before we take a break for the holidays, the fact that 2014 is an election year occasionally drifts out of our primary field of focus. Not surprisingly, the 2014 election seems to be the only thing politicians in DC and around the country can think of, even now.

Before anyone in Congress gets too far ahead of themselves, they might want to think about the proposed Ryan-Murray Budget, and how easily it could fail.

After all, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has already come out against the bill. Tea Party senators Rand Paul & Mike Crapo have also said they'll vote against the budget deal. More than a few Democrats, most noting the lack of extension for unemployment benefits, have also quietly acknowledged they're holding back support from the budget proposal.

Of course, if the proposed budget bill is voted down, the probablilty that the government will shut down again just a couple of weeks into the new year is high. That's a "gift" no politician really wants to open at the start of an election year.

For what it's worth, neither major party looks fantastic going into the 2014 election race.

The GOP is in open civil war, with the extremists on the far, far right giving hell to those that are just on the far right. Congressional job approval is at another all-time low, even as President Obama's numbers have begun to recover, thanks to the growing success of Obamacare. Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans are also looking more petty than usual, even as the House GOP continues to look ridiculous.

All that confusion and incompetence from Republicans might make you think Democrats have the 2014 elections in the bag. Yet, in a very blue, Democratic-leaning metro area like Omaha, Nebraska, Democrats can't even find - or retain - a single candidate to run against a completely incompetent, long-term back-bencher like Rep. Lee Terry.

If there was one thing we could ask Santa to deliver this holiday season, it would be a large dose of sanity back into our political system in America on all levels, and in all political parties.

Somehow, no matter how magical he is, we don't think even Santa can pull that one off.

Taking Off Again

Even though the the temps are freezing, and the snow is blowing in much of America, if you've begun to notice a certain type of thaw happening, you're not alone. Indeed, as Steve Benen noted yesterday, a remarkable thing has begun to happen in the Senate since Democrats used the so-called 'nuclear option' in late November to warm things up a bit, politically.

Tuesday in the Senate, the nomination of Patricia Millett to become a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court came up for a vote, and with a simple majority, it passed. Likewise, Rep. Mel Watt's nomination to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency came before the Senate, and was also passed by a majority vote.

There was even an announcement by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan that a federal budget deal has finally been reached. The details of the deal that have been released are admittedly a mixed bag. There's no extension of unemployment insurance, which is a major problem for many Democrats. The Sequestration cuts are also being partially removed, which is a major problem for Republicans who supported the cuts. In short, the deal is far from perfect - and it's a long way from passage. There are still quite a few things that could derail the budget from passing, and very few Congressional work days between now and January 15th - the next potential government shutdown date.

Still, in keeping with our thawing theme and the positive vibe of the holiday season, we're trying to be optimistic. After all, private insurance enrollment through Obamacare is now surging in states like New York and Kentucky. Even the monsters of Wall Street may have been tamed a bit, with the enactment of the Volcker Rule.

Even if you consider all of the above good news, we have to admit - we're still not sure the skies will be all that friendly for travelers this holiday season, now that fewer carriers are holding all the cards again.

In case you missed it, on Monday, American Airlines officially emerged from bankruptcy, closing their deal with US Airways to become the world's largest airline. As Steve Perlstein noted in the Washington Post earlier this year, the Department of Justice initially blocked the merger because of the airline monopolies in the United States that have already caused issues of pricing collusion and route limitation.

Still, in late November the DOJ waved the merger through, effectively saying that allowing the merger to continue would be less costly to taxpayers than forcing American Airlines to stay in bankruptcy. The deal even had the blessings of the multiple workers' unions - a rarity in airline mergers.

Experts say there will be changes this next year, though thankfully very few changes should be expected during the holiday season for either American Airlines or US Airways passengers and crew. Ticket prices should even stay relatively stable for now, though no one knows where things will stand when the merger is finished at the end of 2015.

The key factor to note in all of the events we've mentioned today - whether you're focused specifically on the Senate, whether you're watching Congress as a whole, or whether you have your eye to the skies - is that things appear to be moving in both business and politics once again.

All that movement has only begun to happen since the Democrats in the Senate stood up for themselves, and nuked the perpetually frozen ideology of the tea party bullies.

If we're all lucky, maybe both business and politics really can take off again, for the better, in 2014.