Yesterday (Nov 2, 2011), the nation’s political establishment (i.e., the members of the House) decided that it is high time the national priorities be rearranged and everyone be reminded that our national motto is “In God We Trust” and not “E Pluribus Unum”.  

This comes at a time when the nation is reeling from one of the worst political/economic times it has endured, EVER. Our economy is grinding itself to a halt; folks are battling for jobs; protests are raging from coast to coast; and those who are lucky to have a job are pondering how to manage the looming financial uncertainty that is only growing larger by the day. The past couple of years (since 2008) has been tumultuous, to put it lightly,  and we have endured crisis after crisis, erupting in every part of the globe (Euro-Zone crisis triggered by the Greeks, volatile trade relationships, wars in two continents, etc). Amidst all this, the congress still decided that it is time for reaffirming our faith in god. 

In addition, we have an aging infrastructure that needs to be urgently repaired/upgraded and the funding vehicle get this issue addressed – the surface transportation bill – is yet to see the light of day in Washington. It has been over two years – 763 days, 19 hrs, 27 mins, to be precise – since the last transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU expired on Sept 30, 2009; ).  And we all know that putting folks to build our roads, bridges and railways is one good way to address the infrastructure crisis as well as the unemployment crisis. But hey, that’s what a rational thinker would do, right? The congress leadership does not seem to be in a hurry at this juncture to get anything done to improve our transportation infrastructure. 

What’s even  even worse is the state of a similar funding bill for FAA. According to TheHill.com, the House’s version of the long-term authorization bill, which would be the first for the FAA since 2004, would provide the agency with $59 billion over the next four years. The agency has been operating on a series of 22 short-term extensions of that last authorization since it expired in 2007.

And guess what? It is not like this is the first time it happened.  “In God We Trust” had already been reaffirmed once before as the national motto, by another act of Congress in 2002. The President must be one hell of an angry man at this stage watching what’s happening in the House. 

So, like any red blooded individual he got hot under his collar and let it rip. As seen in the video below (via Huffington Post), he went after the House leadership.  This afternoon, in a speech from beneath the D.C. area’s Key Bridge, Obama told spectators that Congress had time to bring up votes on aspects of the American Jobs Act, but were instead dealing with more frivolous legislation.

This political move may be well received in the Bible belt, but the rest of the country is not reacting nicely to this style of politicking.  If you don’t believe me, here is a sample of how the citizenry is reacting (on Twitter) to this style of law-making at Capitol Hill. 

Finally, today ( on November 3, 2011), the politicians some how suddenly realized that people have sent them to Washington to focus on important things and decided to get their act together and arrived at the congress to work on the Infrastructure bill.  Right off the bat everyone, including the general public and the press, knew nothing will get accomplished, given the ideological stands each party has taken on this bill.  But that did not stop the theatrics from happening – they still debated and voted on the proposed Infrastructure bill. CBS’s Mark Knoller live tweeted the events as they unfurled and the outcome of this voting was there for all of us to see.  

Our beloved Transportation writer, Larry Ehl (www. transportationissuesdaily.com) wrote a detailed piece on this legislative agenda.  According to Larry, the Democratic version of the infrastructure funding bill will fail because Republicans oppose the financing mechanism of surcharge on millionaire’s income. The Republican version (a two-year extension of SAFETEA-LU, with regulatory reforms added in) will fail in part because Democrats will oppose many of the proposed policy and regulatory changes (click here to read Larry’s post)

And for the ones like myself sitting outside and wondering what is happening in the congress, the Journal of Commerce offered the perspectives of House T & I Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) and why he favors a long term bill compared to the Democrats’ proposal: “…Mica defended his six-year transportation plan from () accusations that the bill wouldn’t maintain current funding levels as he claimed. “My floor is the current level … and I’m hoping we can find even more money and increase on a cost-of-living or some other incremental basis the funding for a six-year authorization,” said the Florida Republican.

As much as I disagree with Mica, this is one case where I agree with him wholeheartedly. We need to provide a sustainable long term solution, not the short term extensions, and expedite the approval process for major projects.  That said, I disagree vehemently with Mica’s proposed $286 billion bill because it represents a 16 percent cut to the current spending level.  This is a non-starter, because the funding for transportation sector has been steadily declining over the decades and has reached a very a low-level already (as percentage of %GDP, shown below is a sample of how bad it has gotten). Cutting it further is a a remarkably dull move and would only hamper our economic progress and not help in resuscitating the ailing economy.

So where do we go from here? A very important question but the answer for that is yet to be determined.  But whatever we do as a nation, It is high time we refocus on our priorities and engage in sensible governance and not indulge in things to sway the country’s progress for a few political points in the 2012 election. Failure to do some course correction at this stage, the Speaker and his party men will be handed a real bad outcome in the 2012 elections. Whoever gets to the White House or Congress after the elections in 2012, he/she will be inheriting an economic mess and an infrastructure network that degrades by the day because of sheer neglect/lack of resources and our abject failure to legislate properly.  I sincerely hope House Speaker and his party men realize that posturing and politicking is doing more harm to the country than they intend to do. Let’s sincerely hope it does not get to that point where the Americans look like Greeks, rioting in the streets. Oh wait, we are already half-way there with the Occupy Wall Street Protests and it won’t be too long before these peaceful protesters, many of whom are unemployed, lose their patience and turn this into something really ugly!