Insist Congress Solve the Big Problems

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” – Albert Einstein

Don’t Let the Sun Set on America

Introduction

This Substack began in early May and listed the two topics on which it would focus:

• The unstainable federal fiscal policies, and

• Congress’s shunning solving our big problems

Please use this link to see the fiscal policies posts: https://tommast.substack.com/publish/posts/published

The U.S. federal debt is just one of the unsolved big problems; now we will be digging deeply into how and why Congress has not done a good job of problem solving. This will be a series of indefinite length, generally having two Substack posts per month.

The name of this non-partisan Substack is Congress is Vital. While it seems obvious that this is a true statement, it does not mean that Congress could not and should not do a much better job executing its vital tasks. Only 6% of those polled have great confidence in Congress, and 44% have hardly any. The time is nigh!

Problem

Congress is not doing a good job of solving our country’s big problems.

Objective of these Posts

To increase public conviction that there will not be a proficient problem-solving Congress until electoral methods that shield our two parties are improved to permit fair competition.

Examples of Big Neglected Problems

Federal Debt (The One Big Beautiful Bill Act - OBBBA)

• OBBBA is estimated to add $4.1 trillion additional deficits over ten years at a time when prudence calls for promptly reducing the current deficits of around $2 trillion per year to $1 trillion.

• OBBBA creation was extremely partisan

• Packaged a huge variety of topics into “One Big…” bill with the result that members generally were not familiar with the details nor in agreement with many of them when they voted

• Employed a number of tactics designed to camouflage the net costs

• Used tactics in scheduling tax, spending, and savings to affect upcoming elections

• Employed reconciliation, filibuster rules, and other parliamentary tools resulting in very narrow margins in both houses

• Popularity per Newsweek July 7, 2025, of the OBBBA bill 6 weeks after it become law was 35% in favor and 53% opposed, indicating that citizens may well know and care about their needs and desires better than members of Congress

• Allowed the President to dictate the size, timing, and content of the bill, diminishing the constitutional powers of Congress to make all laws, lay and collect taxes and tariffs, borrow money, and pay debts

Budgeting and other financial management practices

• Since 1977, passing all appropriations bills on schedule only 4 times

• Often not passing a complete budget by the first of the upcoming fiscal year

• Lumping appropriations into huge and complex “omnibus” bills rather than passing 12 separate appropriation bills

• Causing shutdowns by inaction

• Continually supporting deficits and creating more debt, i.e. Congress’s being virtually deaf as to whether or not the country can afford a particular legislation

• Ignoring sound rules and practices when the party in power deems that doing so is useful to win

Party Loyalty and Power

• Gaining or retaining power often receives higher priority than solving the country’s big problems

• Block voting by party – symptomatic of scorning members’ constituents and members’ personal views

• Use of unbridled party powers to discipline members who disagree

• Avoidance of Regular Order by the party in power

• Creation and protecting of laws and rules at both the federal and state levels that essentially lock out competition to other than the two present parties

Others

• Immigration policies

• Retirement security including the Solvency of Social Security

• Medical costs including the Solvency of Medicare and other medical programs

• Global Warming

• Naval and other military policy

• And more

Collaboration and Hostility

Citizens are very aware of the hostility between the two parties and especially the way it plays out in Congress. Hostility per Merriam-Webster is deep-seated usually mutual ill will. It has not always been so pronounced but has grown over the past 2-3 decades to the point of producing severe congressional dysfunction and harm to our country. In addition, this bitterness has spilled over into the public.

What drives our two parties and many of their members to have such animosity – being so aggressive and dogmatic toward one another? Is it that they have passionate opinions about the size of government, foreign policy, fiscal matters, immigration, racial issues, liberal Vs conservative viewpoints, Medicare, Social Security, federal Vs state powers, abortion, or many other issues? I don’t think so. It is very unlikely that the members of Congress agree with the opinions of others in their party on many of the topics.

No, it is much more likely that members of the two parties usually vote solidly together to 1) remain the party in power or overthrow the other party, or 2) get reelected, called careerism, or 3) both reasons.

The bar chart below shows how likely it is that a member of the House running for election will be reelected. The rates of return for senators are a few percentage points lower, but otherwise similar.

Remember the Einstein quotation: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Source: Open Secrets

One or the other of these two parties dominate most state legislatures where the bulk of rules regarding elections are made. These rules have intentionally made it extremely difficult for anyone not a member of one of the two parties to get elected to Congress. The chart below shows how unusual this is among important countries. The authors of the book cited defined effective as having a minimum of 5% of the seats in an organization, enough to have influence.