I don’t like name-calling.  It’s not a good way to encourage debate or discussion.  And let’s face it – it’s kind of childish.  But for every rule there are exceptions, which is why I’m making one for Congress.  With their votes on the Reducing Flight Delays Act last week most of the members of both houses have earned the title of Douchebag.  

There it is.  I’ve said it.  I’d like to say it’s only the Republicans – who can arguably be considered much bigger douchebags for their crowing about this as a triumph, but I can’t.  The Dems not only didn’t block the legislation in the Senate, loads of them went along in the House, too.  At best we can call them douchebags by association.

It amazes me that even in 2013, when a person can hardly spit without the entire world having full video and commentary in an instant, politicians have no qualms about making such blatant and self-serving moves as this.  I watched Sen. John McCain of Arizona talk about the importance of addressing these “unacceptable inconveniences” and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine pat all of Congress on the back for their quick bipartisan work to relieve the horrible burden of travelers who have to spend extra time in transit.

And it was fully bipartisan.  The final “yea” tally in the House was 202 Republicans and 159 Democrats after it had passed in the Senate – where it couldn’t have even come up for a vote without the consent of the Democratic leadership, much less passed.  So much for the Dems being the party of the people.

Whatever justifications any of the members of Congress can come up with, this was a cave to the elites and a catering to their own interests.  They authorized reallocating $253 million not to save lives or to help people in crisis – say in the aftermath of a hurricane.  They moved a quarter of a billion dollars to over an “inconvenience.”

I’ve been the victim of flight delays and I’ll be the first to admit that they’re a pain in the neck.    But I’m absolutely certain that no trauma I could go through on a business trip to Dubuque would measure up to that of a senior who’d had funding for her main source of food cut off or to a cancer patient whose treatment had been discontinued for lack of funds or to a family who was tossed out on the street because their housing subsidy had dried up.  Sure, eating stale food out of a vending machine at LAX or not being able to get home after a marathon two-day work week in the House or the Senate is difficult and yet they don’t quite have the same order of magnitude.

Why? Because they’re inconveniences!  By definition, they’re nuisances, not crises, not trials, not tragedies.  Worse yet, we all know that Congress created the problem in the first place.  They screwed around and screwed around and now they’re all shocked, shocked they’ll tell you, to find that there is sequester going on in this country.  Who knew that inaction after inaction followed by a law to require blanket spending cuts would have consequences as dire as widespread laptop and smartphone battery deaths in airports all across the country?  Oh, the humanity!

Ironically, while they’ve all be congratulating themselves on a job well done, no one in either house seems to realize that passing the Reducing Flight Delays Act in record time and with bipartisan support doesn’t so much prove that they can work together as it points out that most of the time they simply won’t.  Now that they’ve show us that they still can make things happen, we ought to hold them to that standard.

I’ve heard no word that President Obama is planning on vetoing the FAA bill, but I desperately hope he does- both because someone needs to give the kids in Congress good smack down and because I will hate to see the President become a major-league douchebag enabler.