CongressNov. 21, 20120

19%

— The share of the Congress taking office in January with military service. That’s down from the outgoing Congress’s 22% vet share – and less than a quarter of its modern-era 1977 peak, when 80% of the nation's 535 lawmakers were veterans. “Congress cuts the military slack because of their lack of experience,” military historian Richard Kohn told Time last year. “They don’t have a sense of the institutions and the culture, so they’re less likely to exercise insightful or determined oversight.”

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smedleybutlersociety

“They don’t have a sense of the institutions and the culture, so they’re less likely to exercise insightful or determined oversight.”

That's an unsubstantiated opinion. Here's another: "They lack a pro-military bias, so they’re more likely to exercise insightful or determined oversight.”

pcandreva

Fewer are doctors, yet they pass health care legislation. Fewer still are farmers yet they pass a farm bill every year. Precious few are truckers or pilots and they oversee transportation. One does not have to have experienced something to understand it or oversee it.