It says something about the dysfunction in Washington, DC (largely the fault of the Republicans, in my opinion, but I digress) that it's actual headline news when they manage to pass a budget to keep the government from shutting down.
(It also says something when news that federal funding to fight the Zika virus has been secured isn't presented as a "Hey, look, we're fighting back against this scourge" as much as "Hey, look, Congress finally got around to doing something about it.")
Congress passes bill to avoid government shutdown
Congress cleared a bill Wednesday to fund the government and the federal response to Zika, avoiding a potentially embarrassing government shutdown just weeks before the election.
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I'm impressed these days when either this party or that party doesn't run away to a country retreat to avoid voting on something they don't want to vote on.
+Marty S. Apparently a combination of wanting to get done and go home to campaign, and nobody wanting to take credit right now for shutting down the government, actually got something done. I'm trying to figure out how to use those incentives on a regular basis.
+Dave Hill Do you really want an election every 6 months?
+Gary Roth God, no.
Hmmm. Though …
… what if House members still served 2-year terms, but it was staggered, with 18-19 seats (randomly spread across the country) facing election each month?
There would always be a sizeable contingent concerned over how actions were going to impact them. There wouldn't need to be overly-long campaigning seasons every other year. Changes in the opinions and mood of the overall electorate would be reflected more subtly but more quickly. There would be no radical shifts of "the New Freshman Class of Young Turks."
(Similarly, re-elect 4 Senate seats each month.)
There would be some disadvantages, too — potentially more frequent shifts in control and overhead cost of spreading out the churn of employees. But I can see it as an idea, when I found my next country.
+Dave Hill I like that idea a lot. And in some ways, it's better than something like lowering the recall thresholds.