It's time to turn out our failing Congress

The current approval rating of Congress is 12 percent. Any school I went to, below 75 percent was failing.

In school, if you failed you had to repeat the grade. I think we expect more of Congress and we would have to be total fools to want Congress to repeat what we have experienced over the past two years.

When the Democrats gained control of Congress two years ago, when the economy was growing, they declared the voters had given them a mandate and promised all they were going to do.

I challenge anyone to find any of the promises made by Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid that were kept.

While virtually accomplishing nothing positive, they have managed to take partisan politics to an unacceptable level, failed to address energy issues that have led to record gasoline prices and now an economic crisis.

Why anyone would want to re-elect these people is a mystery to me.

It is particularly unsettling that members of Congress who were supposed to have oversight of the banking and finance industries were negligent in their duties but were also accepting significant campaign donations from these industries.

It is encouraging that Rep. Henry Waxman is investigating executives of Wall Street companies that have been "bailed out" by the government and whether their comments misled everyone to bonuses and golden parachutes for them.

The same should apply to governmental agencies and Congress that were derelict in their responsibilities.

We need a full investigation of all who were involved and prosecution where it is merited.

The SEC, Chris Dodd and Barney Franks should be at the top of the list.

And in this year when "change" and "more of the same" seem to be campaign slogans, do we really want more of same that the current failing Congress has brought us? I don't think so.

Daryl Pratt

Arlington Heights