To the myriad indignities suffered by Congress, including stagnant legislation, partisan warfare and popularity on a par with petty criminals, add this: the Capitol’s roof is leaking, and there is no money to fix it…
The dome has 1,300 known cracks and breaks. Water that has seeped in over the years has caused rusting on the ornamentation and staining on the interior of the Rotunda, just feet below the fresco “The Apotheosis of Washington,” which is painted on the Rotunda’s canopy.
Like most of what the federal government is on the hook to fix — highways, bridges and airports — the dome is imperiled both by tough economic times and by a politically polarized Congress. While Senate appropriators have voted to repair the dome, which has not undergone major renovations for 50 years, their House counterparts say there is not money right now. In that way, the dome is a metaphor for the nation’s decaying infrastructure.
“The dome needs comprehensive rehabilitation,” said Stephen T. Ayers, the architect of the Capitol, whose office oversees the building’s physical state. “It’s a public safety issue.”
The skirt of the dome — the section around the base of the original sandstone foundation — was fixed up recently at a cost of about $20 million, but an additional $61 million is needed to repair and restore the rest of the structure’s exterior…
“This is not a ‘bridge to nowhere’ we’re talking about here,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the leader of the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees the architect’s office. “This is basic upkeep to the United States Capitol building. There is a time and place to debate spending levels and the proper role of the federal government, but when your house has a leaky roof, you pay to fix the roof.”
It’s easiest for everyone to malign Congress as a whole. But, everyone knows who is responsible for getting absolutely nothing accomplished since the 2010 elections. The pantywaist populists and Republican Party honchos who think they’re being the best beancounters in the world by putting a halt to any task Congress may attempt – rely on blaming everyone but the people who say “NO” to everything.
Including fixing the roof.
It’s time for a dictatorship, this government is fucking broken.
Agree.
Democracy was not really intended to scale to populations above 100,000.
We’re at 320,000,000
But fewer than 100,000 of those count.
Democracy, like anything is, is about meeting the needs of the people paying you
Sorry, we don’t have a democracy Dallas. It’s a Represenative Republic. Democracy only works in small, real small groups like you said, but Democracy would have destroyed this Country long ago.
There are four forms of government:
• Anarchy (rule by no one,) (Examples of this are called Failed States)
• Dictatorship or Monarchy (rule by one person,)
• Oligarchy (rule by a few persons, like we currently have here,) We call it a Republic, a Constitutional Monarchy, a Confederation or a Federation.
• Democracy (rule by the majority, aka “tyranny of the masses”) We call this doing things by Plebiscite. It quickly becomes unwieldy unless you have an intelligent and educated populace (not on this planet.)
None of these require that the system actually work.
Getting a dictator is no guarantee that the system will suddenly magically improve.
I have a modest proposal which would get rid of the curent bi-cameral partisanship that has resulted in the current governmental gridlock.
Get rid of parties and elections altogether and appoint citizens to four year terms by selection instead of picking from a self-selected pool of millionaires.
Lord knows, we couldn’t get stupider less-informed ones than Akin.
They’re i>all like this. They don’t understand that there is no effect without a cause and a mechanism for the expression of the cause.
Women supposedly magically having volitional control over their biology is called wishful thinking and belies the millions of years of evolution and billions of individuals cumbering this planet.
“Lord knows, we couldn’t get stupider less-informed ones than Akin” Care to make a bet? There are those who agree with Akin. No matter how idiot proof you make something, a better idiot always evolves.
Precisely why I say lets get rid of the small inbred bunch of morons who feel entitled to rule.
If we randomize the structure of our existing democratic republic we’d get rid of a lot of the current problems.
I mean, c’mon, we have two ex-embers of the Pennsylvania government, one a democrap and one a repube, sharing a cell right now in a penitentiary. You can’t get any dumber or more corrupt that we already are.
Toss out the parties for at least a century, and always hold the threat of dissolution over their heads, and pick from the broader pool of morons out there.
So you end up picking random idiots to run the country. Take a look at the results of term limits in Missouri to see why that doesn’t work.
Thank God those Solyndra investors (Obama donors) got their money before those nasty Republicans won. It is also surprising to see how the troubles with the capitol dome did not exist back in 2009 when the Democrats controlled everything and every Democrat in congress got to empty out their wish-list drawer into the “stimulus” bill. If only the capitol building belonged to a big Democrat donor.
With Obama in charge, the spending would go way over budget. Better to wait till a proper manager is in charge, who doesn’t require donations to Democrats before you get a contract.
http://bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/obama-may-require-government-contractors-to-disclose-political-donations.html
Better yet, get rid of the dome, and put in a tarp for when it rains, like at Wimbledon.
The Capitol building belongs to the legislative branch of the government. The executive branch, of which Obama belongs to, has no say it its repair or management. Congress’ neglect of the building is not new. The west facade was reinforced by wooden posts for over a decade while congress debated other issues. During inaugural events they hung flag bunting between the columns to hide the posts. They paid to have the posts painted white so as to blend in with the rest of the building when the bunting was gone. At least, they’re fixed now.
“To the myriad indignities suffered by Congress…” /// Incorrect phrasing given that Congress acts on its own about as much as any entity does. More than the President does, less than the Supreme Court.
Whatever Congress is experiencing, they do it to themselves.
Good review of how the two parties have reached the stalemate they have in the last week:
1. Actually starts with gerrymandering the districts to “make them safe” from the opposition party. The unintended consequence immediately flows: you get pushed towards the more activist elements of the party faithfull–the single issue voters of your own party.
2. The Southern Strategy of the minority Republican Party of the 1960’s to appeal to the White Racist Southern Democrats. They were brought into the Puke Party and have now captured it.
All you have to do is …… look!
61 million. 1 million to actually fix it, and 60 to pay off the crooks.
The Chinese would be happy to fix a leaking roof for 1/10th the going price.
China owns a huge chunk of our debt anyway.
I think the job should be outsourced to the Chinese.
Then we should outsource the Presidency to the Chinese Communist Party and save a bundle of money and end up with the same results.
Outsourcing works.
What an embarassment.
Just get a bi-partisan group of workmen (half union and half non-union), divide the work (left side/right side) and fix it!
Question is, when the work is done, what side would you stand under in a rainstorm?
I would stand under the side repaired by a trained journeyman, that would be the union side.
Better pack an umbrella.
I hope it collapses on their heads….the sooner the better.
It strikes me that none of the posters here have a clue as to what’s really wrong, so you’re just wondering about what color to paint the shit house.
Nothing will change as long as you’re box bound.
Democracy and the republican system of governance is not broken… It just has to be applied. You don’t need a two party system.
You don’t need any party at all.
Even Ron Paul would have to agree.
There was a fully functioning democratic republic of the United States of America long before the parties were created.
Why don’t they do what us farmers have been doing for decades with our old outdated barns.
1.wait for the roof to cave in. (if we’re lucky congress will be in session)
2.bulldoze the mess into a hole in the ground.
3.build a pole shed in it’s place. much cheaper than maintenance on a 19th century building.
Hear, hear. We don’t even need #3. Use Skype, Google Chat or some governmental network to get everybody together without needing a building
Washington DC can become like Colonial Williamsburg.
The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in more than 3 years, but somehow this is all the Republicans’ fault.
That aside, even if it is the Republicans’ fault, so what? It is Congress’s building, and if they want to meet in a building with a leaky roof, who cares?
You know, Disney could create a 7/8 scale theme park of DC in Vegas and probably make it pay.
Come one, come all … to the horror show… the freak show… where glauman geeks luck around every faux-marble column and in every congressmen’s bathroom.
More Democrats in Congress voted for the Ryan plan than voted for the President’s budget plan.
the sky is falling again?
Proposal for a Clean Government Act
Most Americans believe that congress is a corrupt body. Is there any member of congress with enough integrity to sponsor a clean-up bill, even ONE? I doubt it. Members of the House and Senate value the benefits of corruption more than the credibility of the institution. Here is a list of only the most obvious reforms that are needed. The more experienced congressmen have found more subtle ways of lining their pockets at our expense.
What congress needs to do (but won’t): create a Clean Government Act.
1. Limit political contributions from any source (individuals, PACS, businesses unions, lobbyists, etc.) to $1,000.
2. Prohibit contributions from outside the state for local and state offices. It was money from outside the state that financed Al Franken’s senate win.
3. Prohibit lobbyist organizations from contributing to any organization in which any member of congress has any affiliation. Lobbyists now contribute to charities that pay congressmen to sit on their boards, a back door form of bribery.
4. Prohibit anyone who has organized or participated in fund raising activity from holding any government appointed position. Obama has appointed 24 fund raisers as foreign ambassadors.
5. Prohibit payment of travel, speaking fees, or any other expense for congressmen or their families by any organization.
6. Prohibit and define as bribery any agreement between members of congress that influences how any member votes on any issue. Exchanging a vote for anything of value, whether s special committee assignment or for a vote on another issue is, in fact, bribery. The Reid/Nelson affair is an example.
7. Limit senators to 2 terms and house members to 4 terms. With less time in office, they have less time to evolve the situations that lead to ethics issues.
8. Prohibit acceptance of foreign contributions to elected officials after they leave office. Bill Clinton reaped millions from foreign sources after he left office…. delayed bribe payments?
9. Require disclosure of all sources of income while in office. How is it that people of modest means when elected seem to be multi-millionaires when the leave office?
10. Pass legislation to limit or eliminate earmarks in spending bills. This is the most used payback method for the system of legalized bribes that exists in congress.
11. Disallow close relatives of House and Senate from serving as lobbyists (as do relatives of almost half the senate).
12. Authorize the line item veto.
13. Make all congressional members abide by all laws and benefits that are enacted for other federal employees and the general populace.
14. Salaries of members of Congress shall be voted on by the public, including any raises to such, which should be done in general election years, no special elections.
15. Congress shall be limited as to the amount of aides and office staff to no more than 5 or 6 per office. That should be enough to deal with constituents, handle appearance or public requests or send out notices.
16. Any law that comes before Congress shall be read by each member of Congress directly, no more having aides read it. They should have to sign a form stating that they read and understood each proposal before voting for it and should be able to explain it to their constituents in plain language.
17. All votes should be posted on a website when they are up for re-election. No flip-flopping on what they did or did not support in the past, as the populace generally forgets. Have it out in the open.
18. No amendments shall be allowed to any bill, ever! The bill should be voted up or down on it’s merits…and if amendments need to be made, a new bill should be crafted and brought forward for a vote.
The headline is wrong. The dome of our nation’s capitol is the top of the Washington Monument.
Actually, I don’t see a problem. As long as Congress is in session, the pressurized hot air coming from the Senate and House of Representatives should be sufficient to hold up the dome and reverse any leaks.
A lot of Americans would think it was a good thing if the dome fell in while Congress was in session.
The House keeps sending Reid budgets and he keeps blocking votes. He also tried to block a vote on Obama’s last budget most likely because he knew nobody would vote for it again. Nobody has voted for an Obama budget in the last two years.
I’m not sure why because Obama is a tax and spend ultra liberal like nearly all the Democrats in Congress but it appears that all the Democrats in Congress think Obama is dumber than a box full of dead hamsters when it comes to creating a budget.
It’s enough to make me wonder why they want him back or even if they all do want him back.
Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security and divert those funds to fixing the infrastructure of the nation.
Close several dozen military bases around the world and divert those funds to repairs.
Two ideas in ten seconds.