Everyone Wants This. It Costs Nothing. Congress Won't Do It.

Do you like losing an hour of sleep every spring when we turn the clocks ahead? Neither do I. Nor do an unusually large percentage of Americans: about two-thirds of us want to keep the time we use in the summer all year round, while only about one-eighth of us want to use winter's schedule (which makes me wonder if they understood the question).

The easiest legislation ever to pass would be the bill the senate unanimously approved already, keeping permanent Daylight Saving Time (the one where we get up earlier, so we have more light later in the day). But Nancy Pelosi--who says she favors it--won't put it on the agenda for a vote. More precisely, it's stalled in Frank Pallone's Energy Committee. He says there is "no consensus" on it.

That's nuts.

The consensus is in the people, even if it isn't in Pallone's committee. And the senate passed it 100%! (It is worth noting that a couple of senators voted in favor, along with a lot of other stuff, because it was on the "consent agenda," which skips floor debate and, apparently, also skips the senators knowing what they're voting on.)

It's pretty rare that anything is all of : 1) Highly popular with the people; 2) Within the power of congress to deliver; and 3) Free. But they're not delivering it.

There are a lot of reasons people say they disapprove of congress and how it does its job. But if you would prefer to rely on a single example, I'd say this is the one to use. And they wonder why we don't think more highly of them all.