Write to your members of Congress

Submitted by Collin Berglund on June 9, 2012
Tags: 
No Budget No Pay
John Avlon
Connecticut
Mark McKinnon
Hyper-Partisanship
WRITE: Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) is a recent co-sponsor of the No Budget, No Pay Act. But we need to get the rest of the Montana delegation on board. That's why Larry Dreyer asks fellow residents to contact Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Max Baucus (D-MT). Members listen to their constituents: Larry Dreyer for The Billings Gazette: No pay for Congress till it finishes annual budget job
 
PARTISAN DIFFERENCES OUTWEIGH ALL ELSE: "Welcome to the new bigotry, where a person's partisan identification is a source of prejudice, seen as a reflection of fundamentally different values, representative of an alien America." But there are signs of hope, No Labels Co-Founder John Avlon notes in his latest piece for CNN. For one, most Americans are actually non-ideological problem-solvers: John Avlon for CNN: Hyper-partisanship dragging down nation
 
MESSAGES, NOT SOLUTIONS: House Republicans and Senate Democrats play the same games with bills: "Political-message bills have sprouted like weeds in the last few years, the product of extreme polarization and stalemate. Elected officials have to show that they’re doing something, so they propose bills designed only to create a talking point against the other side." The American people are sending Congress a message too: They want problems solved, not messages passed: Editorial for The New York Times: The Bills to Nowhere
 

WHAT WASHINGTON DOES: Congress didn't always have such problems passing the basics. It might sound like a fairy tale now, but once upon a time in Washington, certain essential bills passed easily. "But in this Congressional climate, it seems unlikely that all or even any of these stalled measures will be enacted before the July 4th recess — an ominous sign for the much harder work of preventing an entire fiscal unraveling at the end of the year. Crisis looms, because crisis is all Washington can do these days." Jennifer Steinhauer for The New York Times: As Recess Nears, Little Hope for Breaking Partisan Impasse

STAT OF THE DAY: A total of $522 million in funding for Connecticut highway projects and more than 1,000 construction jobs in Connecticut are reliant upon Congress passing some form of the highway bill by the end of the month. Connecticut, like most states, relies upon federal funding for about 80-90 percent of its transportation projects: Luther Turmelle for The Middletown Press: Blumenthal, Malloy chastise Congress over highway funding delay
 

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Written & edited by Collin Berglund, Joe Mansour, Lauren Gilbert and Jack McCullough

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