A recent poll shows that only 22% of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing. Similar polls show Obama with the lowest approval rating of any president in memory at this point in a first term. Clearly, the electorate is dissatisfied and a reading of headlines for the last year makes it clear where Congress and the President are failing: the economy, job creation, health care reform, cap and trade, card check, TARP, bailouts, nationalization of private industry, cash for clunkers, Afghanistan, and more.

The level of public cynicism toward congress reached a new zenith this week as noted in a Zogby Poll commissioned by Let Freedom Ring, Inc., a grassroots public policy organization that promotes constitutional government and economic freedom. The poll found that more than 80 percent of Americans believe Congress drafts lengthy, complex bills for the purpose of 1) hiding spending on special interests and 2) to prevent the public from understanding the legislation before congress votes on it.

When broken down by party, political persuasion, race, religion, gender – you name it – the vast of majority of Americans believe Congress intentionally tries to confuse and mislead the public. What is worse is that members of Congress don’t even draft or read the legislation. In most cases our elected representatives outsource the drafting of legislation to aids, lobbyists and special interest groups. Then, citing the length and the obtuseness of the legislation, elected members of Congress don’t even read it before voting. We’ve seen this time and again this year, most recently with the health care reform bills in both the House and the Senate.

President Obama pledged transparency and committed to making legislation available to the public before voting. Ninety-one percent of Americans (that is a huge majority by any anyone’s measure) want all nonemergency legislation posted on the Internet for 72 hours before a congressional vote. There is a bipartisan bill in the House known as the “Read the Bill” resolution that would amend the rules of House of Representatives to require such a posting. Despite 91% of America being strongly in favor of this kind of change, Speaker Pelosi is working to kill the bill in committee and will likely succeed.

The events of this year have shown that congress is pulling out all the stops to reward their friends and supporters and is working hard to secure their power regardless of the job performance. They consistently and willfully thwart the will of those who elected them as representatives. I have to ask myself after a year of hope and change, “Can Congress really be so thick that they think they can get away with ignoring the will of the people?”

Whether they are that thick or not, let us all rise up en masse and make our voices heard so loudly and so clearly on every issue that Congress’ position on these issues stands in stark, painful contrast to the position of the electorate. Then, next November, let us again unite our voices, regardless of political stripe, and eliminate every representative who refuses to represent us, replacing them with committed protectors of liberty and transparency in government. Actually more than vote, let us each campaign actively for such candidates.

Congress has made it clear that our government is up for grabs. Let us take it back before it goes to the highest bidder!

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