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As the Democratic Senate and House of Representative will start off in January, I have a couple of wish list for them. I will post my wish list in a serious of blog articles. One criticism I have against the outgoing Congress is the lack of working hours per year. Congressional procedures take a lot of time, and there are a lot of needs from the country that Congress must address to. If we are to tackle problems, such as poverty and public education, we need to force Congress to spend more time on these issues. In recent months before the election, conservative Republican congressmen wasted American time by concentrating in partisan issues, such as a Constitutional Amendment against burning of the flag and gay marriage. They might claim that these issues are important for America, but not Americans would agree.

Fine, let me concede for the sake of argument that we will assume that controversial issues, such as gay marriage, is important for America. Then what about other critical issues that are not partisan but near immediate? America still suffers from poverty, and college students are looking forward to graduate with a huge debt in their back. These issues are also critical (or if not more critical than most or all of the partisan issues) and need attention from Congress. How can Congress comprehend tackling all of these issues? It's simple. Make them work longer.

The 109th Congress would have worked 109 days alone this year. How would anyone expect Congress to do everything in that amount of short of the time? Democrats have proposed for a 5 working day week for the 110th Congress. This proposal is a bit embarrassing, because it would be a shock to a normal American that the legislative branch of the Federal Government does not work full time during the weekdays. At least one of my wish is almost guaranteed to be granted next year. It is still funny how some Republicans responded to this proposal. Representative Jack Kingston said the proposal would "Keeping us up here eats away at families," and that their "Marriages [would] suffer. The Democrats could care less about families." Well, that's one sacrifice you need to face when you are a politician in the United States of America.