When doing nothing is better
DENNIS JETT
Miami Herald
Sep 29, 2006
There is a lot to be said for a do-nothing Congress. When politicians don't take any action, at least they don't waste money or damage national security or civil liberties. That is just what they appear determined to do before they adjourn.
Some complain that Congress is in session only 70 or 80 days a year and note that is half what Congress worked a decade or two ago. There are benefits to a work week that begins Tuesday afternoon and ends Thursday morning, however. Running for office is expensive. Running home on their five-day weekends allows senators and representatives to sell out to any number of special interest groups -- one of them could be yours. If not, then you probably don't care about being represented in Washington anyway.
When Congress actually tries to accomplish something is when the real damage can be done. Take the legislation being rushed to completion this week that deals with immigration, wiretapping and the treatment of prisoners. In all three cases, the congressional majority is trying to push through bills that are somewhere between wasteful and unnecessary to counterproductive.
• On immigration, Congress proposes to build a 700-mile wall along our 2,100-mile border with Mexico. You do the math. It leaves only two-thirds of the border without a barrier and could cost up to $7 billion. But if Halliburton or Bechtel get the contract, then they can recycle some of the proceeds as campaign contributions. Besides, the wall is not really supposed to stop illegal immigration. We are too addicted to cheap labor for that, and the business lobby would not like it. If we were serious about stopping illegal immigration, we would jail the employers.
• On wiretapping, the legislation is designed to give the president the authority to allow the National Security Agency to continue to engage in warrantless fishing expeditions. The administration argues that the procedures set up by the existing law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are just too much of a bother to comply with. But what are a few civil liberties, when there are terrorists chatting on every other cell phone.
• On treatment of prisoners. Republican Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner defied the president on this issue. They then reached a compromise on a bill supposedly designed to spell out what was acceptable, but was little more than a head fake in the direction of standing on principle. No less than Colin Powell and other assorted retired generals have pointed out that rewriting the Geneva Convention is not a swell idea because ``the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.''
The counterargument is that such tactics are essential in the war on terror. The only people who believe that torturing terrorists is a reliable way to get information are Hollywood script writers and White House aides. But the purpose of extracting so much bogus information is to keep fear fresh in the mind of the voters. And each wild goose chase allows our protectors to assert they are on the offensive. By the way, you can now take your toothpaste on an airplane again, but only a small tube.
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