Progress from 115th Congress, or drain the swamp

Let the swamp draining commence. The 115th Congress has now been sworn in. What can we expect with this new Congress? from the 114th Congress, which some label the worst ever, we got little action but plenty of bluster. Sure they named a few post offices, and managed to pass some spending bills to keep the government operating. But they again failed to pass a budget. They have yet to tackle immigration. They still need to fix health care and provide tax reform. A number of other issues await congressional action, including criminal justice reform and addressing the nation’s mental health issues. They haven’t even taken care of poor Flint and it’s water, or even tried to vote on a Supreme Court nominee. Can the 115th Congress do better? As the election of Donald Trump shows us, people want their leaders in Washington to actually get things done. Big things. Things that put the people first. Instead, the first order of business for this new Congress was an attempt to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, which holds badly-behaving politicians accountable. That is hardly putting the people first. If this Congress can’t actually get things done, rather than simply be obstructionist, I think we may have found the swamp that needs to be drained.