Maybe congress should work for free?

Gas is almost $4 per gallon and a huge drag on the economy. We have lots of oil locked up in the outer continental shelf and ANWR. The president has called for Congress to remove the drilling restrictions and what is Congress debating Thursday, paid family leave for government employees. Is that the most important thing on the agenda today?
If so, I say Congress should adjourn, go home, get out of the way and let those of us who know what to do, do it. We, the people, can fix this if Congress removes barriers that impede us from doing our jobs. I can already hear some of you: We need to get off of oil. Fine, we have to replace the energy with something or we have to severely curtail our lifestyles. To replace the energy we have to develop it or use an alternative, such as nuclear energy. The problem again is Congress. They won’t approve a nuclear facility, new refinery, wind farm or solar farm because we might kill a bird or bother a polar bear.
The other problem I have with Congress is corruption. Remember the 2006 election? Nancy Pelosi said she would put a stop to the “culture of corruption.” It turns out the head of the banking committee; Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Donna Shalala, Clinton’s public housing secretary and Richard Holbrooke, Clinton’s ambassador to the UN, were given preferential loans by Countrywide while they were telling the public how they would stick it to the predatory lenders such as Countrywide. Is it just the Democrats? Doubtful, I’m sure the Republicans had their share of sweetheart deals. That’s the problem. We elect these guys, they get to Washington and lose their minds.
We need to get back to the days when you didn’t get paid for your service in Congress except for expenses and if caught making shady deals you were run out of town or worse (trees, ropes, and bullets come to mind). We need people who will go up there, take care of business that the Constitution spells out and come home and go back to work. The whole thing should take less than about four weeks at the beginning of the year. If they aren’t there passing stupid laws, they can’t hurt us.
Bryan Newell
Shawnee