Oil is reaching $75 a barrel (up from $21.50 at the end of 2000, just before Bush took office, by the way), and Iran is threatening to devastate the U.S. economy with massive oil price increases if we do not stop interfering with their nuclear program. Peak oil further threatens our energy security, and energy companies are running off unchecked with tens of billions of dollars in usurious profits. The situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, now with reports of American troops killing civilians destabilizing the local landscape even further, and giving America a dark and sickening image in Iraq and worldwide, as sectarian violence continues to escalate, with Iraqis killing Iraqis as well as our troops, the last two months being much bloodier than average in the continuing conflict. Meanwhile, the national budget continues with huge debt, deficits, and massive porkbarrel overspending as more and more widespread corruption among congressional Republicans is revealed and more tax breaks for millionaires flow from Washington. Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans, especially children, don’t have health insurance, American jobs are getting crappier, the minimum wage festers as more and more Americans drop into poverty after it declined under Clinton.

So with all this crisis, with so much threatening the well-being of our nation, what are Bush and congressional Republicans–who control the course of debate and voting in the nation’s capital–deciding to spend time on?

A constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.