According to Bootie Cosgrove-Mather of CBS News, the purpose of government is to “improve the lives of citizens.”

This means that the job of all the elected officials in our government is to make quality of life better for every American regardless of their party affiliation.

Unfortunately, it would be lying to say that the quality of life for the average citizen is being improved as millions are still jobless and without healthcare. And it would also be untrue to say that the Republicans in the Congress of the United States are working to fix the economy, as they have stated a different mission.

According to Senate Republican Minority leader Mitch McConnell, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” In their effort to ensure that President Obama is not re-elected, the Republicans in Congress have signed on to a mission called OFO (Operation Fail Obama- Edgeri Hudlin patent). But wait, if Barack Obama, President of the United States fails, then America fails as well! A senior Republican aide also said “Obama is on the ropes; why do we appear ready to hand him a win?”

Yep, that makes sense. Your guy is losing, so why not finish him off with a knockout punch.

A poll by “Talking Points” showed that in Congress during the budget compromise battle, 68 percent of Democrats wanted to compromise and avoid a government shutdown, along with 60 percent of independents. However, 51 percent of the Republicans said that they would be satisfied with a shut down if their desires weren’t met. Another poll by “Talking Point” showed that 58 percent of citizens did not want a shut down at all. But that seemed to be unimportant to the Republicans because if shutting down the government would make Obama fail, then they were all for it, blatantly disregarding the voices of the American people who hired them to “improve their life.”

What do we call leaders who try to destabilize their own country simply because of personal ideology?

We elect men and women to the United States Congress not just to do a job but also to do it well. It is shameful that the Republican leadership in Congress has set failure as their goal, and we should reject that as a student body and as a nation because for us, failure is not an option. Not in our homes, not in our classrooms, and certainly not in our country.