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Wednesday, January 05, 2011

JANUARY 5TH, 2011: A NEW CONGRESS: IT'S GOOD TO BE AN AMERICAN

Steve Cole writes:

Today, one of the great miracles of human history was repeated. Power transferred peacefully from leaders of one political faction to another in the US House of Representatives. In most countries of the world, a change of power like that happens at the point of a gun, after a lot of blood is shed and a lot of property is destroyed. It's good to be an American, a citizen of one of the "western democracies" that created peaceful power transfers.

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At the time the gavel changed hands, I imagined a Roman slave, standing behind the podium, telling the outgoing and incoming Speakers both a solemn message: "In this, all victory is temporary. Sooner or later, the gavel will pass back. Play nice, children. Do unto others as you would have them do, not as they spent the last two years doing." I'd like to see both parties working together on issues. For the last two years, one party has been frozen out of the process and not allowed to include any of their ideas in the resulting legislation. That needs to stop. Compromise isn't always possible. If one side wants something and the other side doesn't, somebody is going to be unhappy. Even there, it's possible to either accomplish the valid purposes another way, or to build safeguards and better ideas into the way that is chosen.

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A good first step, even an inspiring one, was to read the US Constitution aloud in the chamber. I wonder if some of those present had ever heard it before. Much of what Congress has done in the last 100 years has been extra-constitutional.

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Ok, so we have to go through the political theater of voting to cancel the President's greatest victory. It won't be canceled, in the end, but lines will be drawn in the sand and the next election may be decided by that vote. Once that theater is over with, could we consider doing some things that would actually improve health care? Simply pass the kind of tort reform that a very few states have, and the rest see their costs drop 10%. Allow inter-state purchase of health insurance, and some people will see their rates cut in half. More importantly, if you allow that, no one will voluntarily be without insurance. Get rid of the silly stuff like 1099 rules and control over student loans that had nothing to do with health insurance. If you want a public option, allow people to pay premiums for NON-subsidized Medicaid.

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And ok, so we're going to have to go through more political theater to hold hearings and show that the Administration did some things they should not have done, and legally or constitutionally could not do. I get that. Both parties have done it when they got power back. The truth has to be brought out, I get that, but why do any of you guys things that it's going to make any difference? If one party did what they wanted to do, that party's voters aren't going to be impressed by hearings that make a case that their party couldn't do what they already did. Just don't let these things divert Congress from the real job.

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Guys, here's what I sent you to Washington to do: cut spending and balance the budget. I know you cannot do that in two years, but you can make a serious start. I am going to be VERY disappointed if the Tea Party gets overwhelmed by the Establishment Republicans and they both turn into Big Spending Government. That's doomed. It needs to be the other way; Establishment Republicans need the Tea Party spirit. The Tea Party is not the extreme right; it's the center. The Tea Party wants spending cut and government power limited, something neither party has been interested in.

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The debt is too big and needs to be stopped from getting any worse (i.e., a balanced budget), then needs to be paid off (i.e., new revenue from a booming economy paid on the debt, not on new programs). I know it's going to hurt. I know that some of my favorite programs are going to be cut or canceled, along with some truly silly nonsense that should never have been voted on. I'm ok with that. Cut spending and balance the budget. Everything else is rubbish.