Who's the boss? Put the blame in Washington where it belongs

I hear a lot about the low approval rating for the U.S. Congress, which is under split-party control only since the beginning of 2011, and was single-party control for the four years prior to that.

There is also plenty in the news about what the House and Senate didn’t do. They didn’t give Solyndra $535 million 14 months before the company filed for bankruptcy, the U.S. Department of Energy did. They didn’t give filing-for-bankruptcy Beacon Power $39 million, again, the DOE did.

It isn’t the House and Senate that is working to prevent Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina from enforcing immigration laws, it’s the U.S. Department of Justice. It isn’t the House or the Senate that provided thousands of automatic weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels (Fast and Furious), resulting in the death of U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry and hundreds if not thousands of Mexicans, it was the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, part of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Who’s allowing people to board planes with weapons and prohibited items in test after test of the airport screening systems? It’s the US Transportation Security Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

This list isn’t intended to depress you, and if you look, there are lots of other examples of incompetence and worse. Ask yourself, who do all these people report to? What boss? Who’s appointed the bosses? Where does the buck stop?

Arthur J. Godfrey
Ypsilanti