Remember the Democrats’ promise that they were going to clean up Congress? One of the major changes was going to be the return to the five-day work week. Let’s take a look at how well that’s going…

First week in session: Congress convenes on Thursday, but the Senate takes Friday off.

Second week in session: The Congress does not meet on Monday so that your elected representatives can watch the NCAA football championship.

Third week in session: The Congress does not meet on Monday in observance of MLK Day.

Fourth week in session: The House will not meet on Thursday or Friday because of a yearly Republican retreat.

Fifth week in session: The House will not meet on Thursday or Friday because of a yearly Democrat retreat.

It will be interesting to see what excuses they come up with in February. Groundhog Day? Lincoln’s birthday? Valentine’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Washington’s birthday? Forget holidays, maybe there will be another big sports event they need to take off work for (remember, we still pay them the same amount if they go to work or not).

So maybe the five-day work week thing didn’t go as well as they thought it might. We’ve still got other promises, right? Remember the promises to fix the skyrocketing price of a college education? Read the legislation they came up with for that – lowering the interest rate of only unsubsidized loans (by charging banks higher fees and transferring more risk to them). Someone needs to explain to me how this helps… at all. The Democrats championed their cause as a fight for the middle class, but many middle class families are not eligible for unsubsidized loans. Keep in mind that during the 100-hours campaign last year they didn’t specify that only subsidized loan rates would be reduced. Additionally, increasing the risk to lenders is only going to make them less willing to lend to students – they’ll just shift their business to another market like home or car loans. Ultimately this does nothing to address the high cost of higher education; it just invites people to throw more money into an already bloated system. $40,000 in debt is still $40,000 in debt. The interest rate doesn’t matter much when you still have to be up to your ears in debt when you’re 22. I can’t say I’m surprised – Nancy Pelosi says the House gavel is “in the hands of America’s children.” She clearly has no problem with future generations being in perpetual debt – which would explain the Democrats’ proposed 1+ trillion dollar health care plan back in 2003.

But perhaps I’m being too critical. I’m sure the House could have come up with much better solutions; they probably just needed a little more time. I guess it will just have to wait for a week when they don’t need to forgo work to watch a football game.