October 12, 2013

Half of Congress drunk during Shutdown Vote

October 12, 2013. Washington. (ONN) While services that protect taxpayers have been frozen, the elite and expensive Congressional sauna, fitness center, pool, alcohol and escorts were deemed ‘too essential’ to shut down. Now we learn that the partying by members of Congress has been so out of control, an estimated half of them were reported by numerous witnesses to be drunk during the floor vote to shut down the government two weeks ago.

The latest poll shows that Americans have a dismal 5% approval rating of Congress. So, what do you do when you find out nobody loves you, you just broke the biggest economy in the world, you got 800,000 people temporarily laid off from their job and your hundreds or thousands of miles away from your unsuspecting spouse? If you’re a member of Congress, apparently you get drunk, pick up an inappropriately younger member of the opposite sex and show up for work completely wasted.

If this author or anybody reading this ever did that, we’d lose our job and possibly our marriage. But thanks to America’s corporate-owned media and an unfair election system, members of Congress have a higher re-election rate than members of the Soviet Politburo at the peak of the Soviet Union when it was illegal for anyone to run against them.

Day of the Shutdown

Carefully kept from the average public, numerous stories have emerged of out-of-control Congressmen drinking all day and night on the day of the Shutdown vote. When members were called to the Congressional floor to cast their vote on whether or not to shut down the government, the Twitter universe exploded with alerts from regular workers, staffers and aides that half of Congress reeked like liquor and were drunk as they cast their respective votes.

An account from Infowars quotes a number of Capitol Hill bartenders and private bar owners who all agreed that their establishments were packed all day with Congressmen, their staff, lobbyists and members of the media. “There was a private party upstairs with a few Congress people and Senators here that night,” a bartender from Hawk and Dove bar on Pennsylvania Avenue near Capitol Hill told local media.

House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was even caught by cameramen from local news outlets at one club drinking with actress Salma Hayek on his arm. They stood for pictures as if it were the red carpet at the Oscars.

On the day of the Shutdown vote, one bar manager told reporters, “There were Congressmen. There were lobbyists and staffers. We stayed pretty busy. They were definitely eating and passing the time before the vote.” When the Congressmen were eventually called back to the Capitol to vote a few hours later, many House and Senate employees took to social media to alert the world that Congress was drunk.

Witnesses speak out

The Infowars account and a separate report from Huffington Post include a handful of Twitter screenshots of Tweets from Congressional employees on the House floor. One tweeted, “I’m not over exaggerating when I say I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor.” Another posted, “About every other House lawmaker I just talked to smelled like booze. It’s only 9pm. Wheeee!”

Yet another Tweeted, “confirmed. also, it’s a bipartisan affair. About every other House lawmaker I just talked to smelled like booze. It’s only 9pm.” And another posted, “Charlie Sheen could keep partying and run the congress better than these nut jobs!”

Huffington Post was one outlet not afraid to shine a spotlight on the behavior of Congress while taxpayers go without food inspectors, toxic spill clean-up crews and hundreds of other seldom thought of services. In their report titled, ‘Congressmen still Boozing as Government shuts down’, the publication writes, ‘But Capitol Hill boozing is becoming a trend. Reporters shared stories of seeing and smelling alcohol-fueled lawmakers Saturday night.’

With mounting frustration and an avalanche of angry phone calls from constituents and donors, both Congress and the President have indicated they will compromise and not only keep from defaulting on the nation’s debts next week, but also end the shutdown. With the government partially closed down, 800,000 government employees – mostly Democrats – are sitting at home afraid for their job. But if the country defaults, the nation’s largest corporations and political donors – mostly Republicans – stand to lose billions upon billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded corporate welfare.

And while that’s going on, a just-released Gallup poll shows that Americans’ faith in the two major parties has dropped to its lowest level since the poll began – 26%. At the same time, the highest percentage of respondents in the poll question’s history indicated that a third national party was needed – 60%.

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