Walking while chewing gum....

"Stay tuned folks. I have heard the Speaker say many times that Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. Well Mr. Speaker - now it the time to prove it."

Here it is, a drop dead gorgeous afternoon right before the start of another beautiful Minnesota autumn. That new season starts on Friday. Did I mention the fact that the world was suppose to end on Saturday? Never mind - already covered that. What I did want to talk about was not the end of the world, but the end of the year - the government fiscal year. Don't worry - we have plenty of time. Like a bit over a week.

Coming back from an ill advised five week vacation, Congress had a HUGE to do list. Even with working 24 hours a day, and if all the stars were lined up, getting everything done by the end of September would be daunting. But hold on. Right before the boys and girls of summer got back to work, we had an unannounced visit from a storm named Harvey. And did Harvey ever do a job on Houston! Not only Houston itself, but also our biggest gasoline refinery. What a mess!

Just as money and relief supplies were pouring into Houston, another small storm was spinning up off the coast of Africa. Soon, it got big enough for the weather folks to gave it a name - Irma. And Irma was growing into a monster storm. 

By the time it got to St. Martin, Irma was a strong Cat 5 hurricane with winds hitting 185 mph. It about wiped St. Martin off the map, and then hit St. Thomas with similar results. Still strong after St. Thomas, it then hit the north shore of Cuba and did a whole lot of damage. From Cuba, Irma set its sites on Florida. Even though the trip by Cuba caused Irma to lose part of its punch, it was still strong enough, and wide enough, to affect the entire Florida peninsula.

Shortly thereafter, a major earthquake hit Mexico City, and Hurricane Maria all but ruined Puerto Rico. Meanwhile back in Washington, Congress has still not finished the GFY 18 budget (due October 1st), settled the ObamaCare mess, nor the long awaited tax reform. Can Congress be a friend to all these places which just had natural disasters and still get their job done at home? In other words, can they still walk and chew gum at the same time? I will bet they wished they had those summer vacation days back. 

Stay tuned folks. I have heard the Speaker say many times that Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. Well Mr. Speaker - now it the time to prove it. The President has told all who were impacted by these disasters that "we are with them, 100% of the way". Time to spit the gum out Mr. Speaker - time to get to work.