Budget standoff not Congress' finest hour

I don't have strong enough words, without using profanity, to describe how disgusting the actions of Congress are and have been for some time now. The latest action was the near-shutdown. Congress is too involved with mudslinging, one party against the other, ignoring the real people out there who would have been seriously impacted by a shutdown.

For Congress to play games and threaten to shut down the government, but still expect essential employees to come to work is ludicrous. Federal law enforcement, soldiers, TSA employees, and others would have been forced to come to work and carry out their duties, but not get paid for it until the government started back up. The thought of that is insane. After all this threatening and grandstanding, Congress finally compromised by cutting $38 billion from the budget. Wow! That is a whopping 1 percent of Spending. So Congress saved a penny on the dollar. What heroic work.

My other complaint is where is my representation? According to the news reports, it seems that the House speaker, Senate majority leader, and the president negotiated the compromise. Where was the Maryland delegation? Party leaders make all the decisions, and the remaining puppets in Congress vote as they are told. Again, absolutely sickening.

Both sides will now tout their "hard work" in keeping the government running. They will announce "historic" budget cuts instead of admitting it was only a penny on the dollar that was cut. Absolutely sickening.

Finally, I guess I should not be mad. After all, Congress has a 13 percent approval rating. I really don't know why I should expect more.

John Wilhelm, Bel Air