Congressman Rick Nolan believes Congress hasn’t been in session enough or worked hard enough to address sequestration. In fact, during a Thursday teleconference, the Minnesota Democrat expressed frustration about how much the body has changed since he served from 1975-1981.

“Quite frankly, we’ve abdicated our responsibility in regards to sequestration. We should have had all the committees, all the members and the entire Congress involved in this,” he said. Instead, Nolan complained, members voted to take a 10-days recess before the matter was resolved. “Many of us voted against the adjournment because we felt it was irresponsible. At the end of the day, we’re elected to be here and govern.”

Thirty-two years ago, he said “We used to work four and five days a week, and now the Congress only works a few says each week. We worked 48 out of 52 weeks and now we only work like 32 weeks out of 52 weeks, and there’s barely ever a four-day work week.”

Congressional leaders should have been spearheading the debate, but they have failed, Nolan lamented.

House Speaker “John Boehner has pointed out that he wants to see leadership from the president, and that’s fine. Everybody and anybody is welcome to propose and to advocate, and of course we want leadership from the president. But I reminded the speaker in a respectful way that it is the Congress of the United States that controls the purse strings. At the end of the day, it’s the House of Representatives and the Senate that are responsible for appropriating money for the budget and the various programs we chose to fund here in this country,” Nolan said.

He suggested “there are plenty of areas we can cut spending. We should be examining each and every one of those. As opposed to the meat axe approach, we should be using a scalpel to eliminate waste where it exists.”

Conversely, he added “As a businessman, I can tell you we should never be afraid to invest money where you can get a good return on your dollar. It’s no secret we should spend more money on transportation infrastructure, basic research and basic education of our children.”

He predicted a ripple effect will emerge from sequestration, forcing Congress to address spending and tax issues. Nolan believes Congress should go through budgets for agriculture, defense, housing, health, education and “see what’s working, and fund it, and see what’s not working and stop spending money on it.”

“I’m quite frankly in a semi-state of disbelief that (sequestration) would occur…without our consideration,” he said. Constituents , he added, thought “Congress would do the smart, the right and the proper thing. It’s not only our moral responsibility, it’s our Constitutional responsibility. It’s just a total abdication of our responsibility.”

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