Your Bitemaster is usually skeptical about claims that Congress is in the pocket of big-money interests. But reporter Ryan Grim has laid out the opposite argument: since there are no deep-pocketed lobbyists looking to lavish campaign cash on members of the Veterans Affairs committees, the committees have become the dumping ground for the youngest and least-effective members of Congress.
Grim’s article, replete with facts and figures, proves:
- no one wants to get on the VA committees
- those that get stuck there have little incentive to do any work
- those few members of the committees who might care to get something done are too junior or marginal to have any clout.