Congress is not what you think

We hear a lot of anger directed at the President — but many of the laws people are frustrated about don’t actually start there.

In this episode, we take a closer look at how Congress shapes major policies, why lawmakers play a bigger role in creating laws than most people realize, and how understanding that structure can change the way you look at current political debates.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:21

What's an incoming Margie Average where we consider life how to get through it happily?

unknown: 0:28

It was built to be rough, but that's what makes a personality.

SPEAKER_01: 0:30

So here we are back at 2025, nearing the end of 2025. And I'm back. And this time I'm really going to try to stay committed to doing these more regularly. So what I'm starting with today's topic, what's been in the headlines lately? The only thing that's been in the headlines is politics, immigration, what a terrible president Donald Trump is. Let's touch on some of these.

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

Today, I'm only going to handle one.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02

I want people to kind of see what's behind the curtain, okay? All we talk about is the president. Every president that comes into office, we make a complaint about how he, you know, doesn't keep the policies, doesn't do what the voters wanted, etc., etc. But you know what is interesting? It keeps everybody from talking about a little thing called Congress. Yes, let's talk about the men and women in Congress. First of all, let's go way back to when the country was first designed. The primary thing in the Founding Fathers' mind was they did not want a king. Yes, they were saying no kings back then. They based it on the parliamentary system that existed in England at the time, the 1700s. But here's the deal: the parliamentary system in England at that time, and I'm no world history scholar, but just a basic Google search will tell you this, it was monopolized by gentrified families that their posts in Parliament were basically handed down to generations like an inherited item. So I don't know why, knowing that Congress didn't foresee a problem, but what they've essentially done with the way they set this up, limiting the president to two terms, but not limiting the vice president and not limiting Congress, created the problem that Congress has now become the king we worried so much about. They never anticipated career politicians. They really thought that this was going to be made up of like your local government, people who get a stipend to be on committees or get a stipend to be on city councils or be a mayor in a smaller, smaller town I'm talking about. Not talking about New York City here. Anyway, so they thought that it would naturally rejuvenate itself, that people would come on, want to do their civic duty, serve their time, and then be done and move on. Another little interesting fact is that to change that, which if you're to believe the polls, the majority of Americans would like to see term limits, and I've heard this talked about most of my life. But that can only be instituted if Congress votes it in. Well, it's a self-defeating problem because the people who benefit benefit from it are never going to vote to do away with it. So there is a way actually that exists. I think it's called a convention of states, where states can actually come together and they can vote to have the amendment put in place and put it to a vote. But apparently this is very hard to organize, and it's not an insurrection. This exists in the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers did see a need for this based on something happening like we have right now in our country. But now that we know a little bit of the history, and it's a very little bit, but it's enough to get us going here, what we have is a situation where Congress keeps the public distracted with what the president is doing or not doing. But they don't want to talk about the fact that they come in there and serve multiple terms, get paid way more than a stipend, and ultimately they are the ones that vote. It cracks me up every time I see a member of Congress going crazy about immigration.

SPEAKER_00: 4:42

Okay, then why don't you introduce a bill and make a law that takes care of the whole problem?

SPEAKER_01: 4:51

Nope, they haven't done that. I remember this all the way back to George W. Bush. Actually, before that, well, when Clinton was in office. This has been an ongoing topic. And all of these ex-presidents now that stand up here and, you know, go, boo, Trump, he's doing these terrible things that I never did. Yes, you did, and I'm sorry, it was a hot mic when you said it. You all made comments about the need for immigration reform. But they blame the president. And it's not the president, it is Congress that can fix the whole problem. Now, the second problem is when you come to any country, okay, any country in the world, I don't know of any country in the world where I can just set foot on their soil, not have proper documentation, and carry on my business, and it's going to be fine. This is not unique to the United States. This is any functioning country. I imagine there are some really poorly functioning ones that a lot of people do land on their soil and just do whatever they want to do. But any functioning country is not going to allow this. Another thing, if you come there and you are not a natural-born citizen, and the only thing you've contributed is a trail of chaos and lawbreaking, they're not going to let you stay. They will send you back to wherever you came from. So when people say these things, they're not being anti-immigrant. I am not anti-immigrant. I am pro-immigration. I'm not a Native American. So somebody immigrated here that got me here, some against their will. But the fact is, you cannot just do whatever you please and say, in a country, you're supposed to be a contributing member of society. We even expect that of the people born here. And the ones that don't do that, many end up in prisons. So what I'm saying, and what I think a lot of people are trying to say, and this is beginning to be an issue in many countries around the world, as quiet as it's kept in the media in the United States. Expand your search, start looking at foreign publications, start looking at what's going on in Germany, in France, in Poland, in the United Kingdom. And I don't mean Instagram, start really digging into the news files, and you will find what I'm talking about. It makes no sense. If I'm sitting in a country, I'm I'm born there and I think it's so terrible. I want out of here. So I'm going to go to this new country. When I get to the new country, I'm going to begin complaining about anything and everything that's in that country. Okay, well, leave.

SPEAKER_00: 7:49

If it's that bad. Just leave.

SPEAKER_01: 7:54

I'm not going to become a burden on that society. And then the secondary problem that comes along with this, again, you came to this country, presumably because there's something you like about it. There's something that you want this for your new life for you or you and your family. Can you please tell me why you now want this country to do everything to accommodate you? I moved to an English-speaking country, but now I want that country to become a bilingual country to accommodate me. I'm going to tell you what, if I left my Spanish-speaking country because it was so bad and so unsafe that I needed to seek asylum in another country, that country's language now becomes my new language. Me, my family, anyone that came with me, we are going to learn that language. And that is what we speak from now on. Because again, I'm not leaving the country that I was born in unless I want nothing more to do with it. So, you know, I'm going to have to be one of those people. How am I being a bad person? I was born in an English-speaking country. English is my native language, but I'm supposed to cast that to the side to accommodate you who just came here. I call a company and I have to press one to hear my own native language in my country. When did we get that dumb? And I imagine, you know, anyone from any country, it doesn't have to be the United States, it could be, it could be Germany, it could be Poland, it could be France. Because if I decide that I hate the United States so much that I am leaving, I'm going to go live in France, guess what? My new language is French. I'm not good with languages, so they would have to bear with me for a while. But that's my new language. Or people who come here and, you know, they're, I don't know, adopted, let's say. And I I'm gonna a story that is coming to mind, and I'm not gonna name names because that would be unfair. Maybe you recognize the story, maybe you don't. But there's a very prominent Hollywood actress who famously adopted a number of children, the first of whom she said she found in the streets of, I believe it was Cambodia. And then when that child grew up and became old enough to go to college, that child decided that they wanted to go back to, again, I believe it was Cambodia, for conversation's sake, let's say it was Cambodia, to be a part of their culture and know about their country. I'm sorry, you left me in the streets and thank God I hit the adoption lottery and an amazing person found me and took me in. Her country is now my country. I what home country? I don't want anything to do with that country. And how your country. Oh, I see. So the country that took you in, you lived a lavish lifestyle, and they've treated you well, is not your country. I mean, think about this, people. Just really apply some thought to it. It doesn't make any sense. And it's not unreasonable to ask these questions. This is a legitimate question. And I'm tired of our press making it uniquely an American thing. It's not. The religion thing. Okay, you know what? You can come here, you can practice any religion you want. It's the foundation of our country. We didn't want to only have to be with the Church of England. Okay, but you can't do it in a way that impedes someone else's right to practice their religion.

SPEAKER_00: 11:53

That's just the bottom line.

SPEAKER_01: 11:56

You know, in Dearborn, Michigan, which I'm very familiar with. I lived in East Dearborn back in the 1980s. And they're sounding whatever, the alarms, the bells, whatever they sound, for a call to prayer. Well, let me tell you, if I'm that devout, I don't need you to ring a bell to remind me that it's time to pray. I know, instinctively. So why am I doing something that disturbs everyone that lives in that city unnecessarily, just to be provocative? Because there's neighborhoods just like that that have said church bells can't ring anymore because Christian church bells, because it disturbs people. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 12:40

But that's imposing your belief on other people. And you don't need to do that.

SPEAKER_01: 12:49

You know, it's like if you're a guest in someone else's house and they serve a food that you don't like, maybe you're a vegetarian. You don't have to jump up on the table and give a speech about how you're a vegetarian and all these other things. You don't need to impose your thing on them. Find something you can eat. Maybe don't eat. Grab something to eat on the way home. Same thing. I respect your religion. I have no problem with your religion. Please don't have a problem with mine. You cannot, in the name of, and I think it's all smoke and mirror, say, I have a right and you should respect that right to do this thing. But I can denigrate your thing. It's prejudice all the same. And the real prejudice is coming from that other side. And believe me, I know about prejudice. So I'm just saying you're acting like a child. It's really a child's maneuver. When you're trying to get your way about something and you're a kid, you put up these big, boisterous arguments, and you get everybody so turned around that they don't know which end is up anymore. And I feel like that's what's happening with people right now, especially in the United States. I mean, I am not taking away someone's right to be a Muslim, to be a Jew, to be a Christian, but I should not have to be ashamed of my Christianity. We all have to say happy holidays. I'm sorry, it's my holiday. It's a Christian holiday. It is celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. So if I say happy Kwanzaa to you, Happy Hanukkah, whatever it may be, can't you just say Merry Christmas to me? If you were Jewish and you mistook me for Jewish and said happy Hanukkah, I'm not going to be offended by that. I'm going to say happy Hanukkah back. It did not hurt me. But any time one group of people start imposing their thinking on another group of people and everybody has to fall in line and comply, that is when you have become the oppressor. You are the one that is being racist. People don't have to be ashamed of who they are and what they believe in in order to honor yours. What seems like disconnected topics here. We've talked about immigration, we've talked about how Congress somehow can just be voted in until they die. And in some ways, sometimes their seat can be inherited by someone else. We've talked about freedom and rights. And if we go all the way back to the beginning of Congress, they are the people that pass the laws. The president who's in there for four years or eight years honestly has very little impact and very limited impact because the next person that comes in can change it all. Congress can change it all. So we as people, as we're down here on the ground arguing about these topics that I've just given my opinion on, we need to remember don't complain so hard about the president. Look at whoever your senators and your representatives are. And start pressuring them. Start talking about them. Because there's a lot to look at there. You know, every now and then when these news articles pop up that talk about so-and-so came in with a net worth of, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand dollars, because you know, there's all these disclosure laws, and now they're worth tens of millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_00: 17:06

Ask how did that happen? The other thing, keep in mind, all of these Congress men and women sit on committees.

SPEAKER_01: 17:19

And I'm just gonna get right to it. They have insider information, and yet they are still allowed to buy and sell stocks. Now, I realize, again, there's oversight, there's disclosures, but I'm gonna say, just with common sense, that those things aren't doing a very good job of prohibiting them because how else are they getting that wealthy when their yearly salary is, I believe, under 200,000?

SPEAKER_00: 17:47

So then we round out here to that whole equality thing.

SPEAKER_01: 17:51

You and I are not allowed to take information that we may be privy to uh while we're in the course of doing our jobs for a company, if we uh sit on a committee for a local municipality. How come they are? And I know the answer is going to be well, they're not. Well, technically, legally, they're not. But you better ignore that president for one minute and take a look at whoever your senator and your representatives are and ask, how are they increasing their wealth 100fold? And that brings us around to what I think resolves a lot of these problems. There need to be term limits, there needs to be a 100% cease on any corporate donations to campaigns.

SPEAKER_00: 18:42

Done. No more. You get elected the old-fashioned way.

SPEAKER_01: 18:50

And we as voters need to start paying attention, looking where we really should be looking, which is at Congress. They're the real power in this country. And they do everything they can to dissuade you from looking at that. Okay, you have these immigration issues. You know who has the power to do something about it? They do. And when the president steps up and starts doing something because of their lack of action, they point to him and say, Oh, he's a bad guy.

SPEAKER_00: 19:27

Look at what he's doing.

SPEAKER_01: 19:30

What he is doing is enforcing laws that already exist that Congress put in place.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

And if they don't like that law, they can change it. So think about these things.

SPEAKER_01: 19:48

Don't let the pathetic press that's out there, that nobody's even spell checking these articles. That are all These media outlets are owned by a handful of billionaires that, by the way, are the main contributors to that Congress that I'm talking about. They have an agenda.

SPEAKER_00: 20:11

Don't fall into the agenda. Think about these things.

SPEAKER_01: 20:16

And when you hear these stories of this poor person has been here for 20 years and now they're going to send them back to a country they never knew. Well, let me tell you what, if you have been here 20 years and you know that's not easy. You have figured out how to rent an apartment, buy a house, get a job, finance a car. I'm not going to say that it could have happened boom overnight, but surely in 20 years, you could have found some way to be on the road to getting legitimate citizenship. Okay? You knew when they instituted, what was it, the the DACA, okay? Then you knew that you were here illegally. You are you have been considered illegal and we're giving you kind of a stay of execution. Well, if you can find all these lawyers now to get you out of an ice holding cell, why couldn't you find a lawyer in 20 years to help you get your paperwork straight? And the answer is you could have. But Congress gave you no incentive to do so. Anyway, these are my thoughts. You don't have to agree with me. All I'm encouraging you to do is do your own independent thinking. Don't parrot. Don't have knowledge that's an inch deep and a mile wide. And whatever your opinion is, you have a right to that opinion. But try to have it based in some kind of fact and think these topics through before you jump on a soapbox about it. Anyway, thank you for listening to Incoming Smargie Avery. And I will join you guys next week.

unknown: 22:03

Thoughts build quick, causing different possibilities.

SPEAKER_02: 22:05

Negative thoughts will cause different disabilities. So do better. Work hard under pressure. If you got no time, work smarter than never. Don't ever let them tell you that you can never say never, and turn your mind into the truest to go get us.