The 113th U.S. Congress expires soon; may it rest in peace. Members can enjoy their retirement, as they did little, and what they did do will vex the public for some time. I remember the Tennessee Ernie Ford song: “You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.”

Without any heavy lifting, the present Congress — including Maine’s august enablers Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, Congresspersons Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud (who is exiting, stage left) — managed to put the nation $483 billion further in debt in fiscal year 2014.

One of the big issues of the year was President Obama’s deferral of deportation for up to 5 million illegal aliens.

Speaker of the House Boehner said they would fight it “tooth and nail,” with some members wanting to cut off all funds to the Department of Homeland Security to prevent it from happening; they ended up passing a budget that includes funding for DHS through February 2015, giving the administration valuable time to put its plan into action, surely a victory for “Toothless” John Boehner.

In response to President Obama’s amnesty decree, 24 states (including Maine) have filed a lawsuit that “asks the court to require Obama to go through Congress before enforcing laws (Fox News).”

There are other issues, such as Common Core, where the states are wrenching back their prerogatives from the federal government. That might be the only way the republic will survive.

Robert Casimiro, Bridgton


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