Wake Up America

January 5, 2010 — I just don't get it. The leaders in the Congress and the Obama administration are taking advantage of us because of their power and we are letting them get away with it. This story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34692080/ns/health-health_care/ indicates that the Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress intend to prevent any Republicans from being on a committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of health care legislation. The article states, "Democratic aides said the final compromise talks would essentially be a three-way negotiation involving top Democrats in the House and Senate and the White House, a structure that gives unusual latitude to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Navada and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California." Now that is a narrow minded bunch that will resolve reportedly hundreds of differences between the two pieces of legislation. Apparently the purpose of this is so that a reform bill can be signed by the President before his State of the Union address in early February. Oh ya, let's just keep rushing through what is probably the most significant piece of legislation since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I am not arguing here the good and the bad of this reform. There is good and bad in both the House and the Senate legislation. The final outcome will undoubtedly hurt some and benefit others. My hope is that the hurt does not come upon the children and the elderly in this country.

What I am arguing about is the lack of cooperation in both political parties and the lack of transparency in how all of this is being handled. The article reports this, "...officials said there are no plans to appoint a formal House-Senate conference committee, the method Congress most often uses to reconcile differing bills. Under that customary format, a committee chairman is appointed to preside, and other senior lawmakers from both parties and houses participate in typically perfunctory public meetings while the meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors."

"In this case, the plan is to skip the formal meetings, reach an agreement, then have the two houses vote as quickly as possible. A 60-vote Senate majority would be required in advance of final passage."

What's wrong with that picture you might ask? Well, several things: (1) it is totally partisan politics with little care shown for the all of the citizens of this country, and (2) the way negotiations will be conducted, i.e., behind closed doors! I'm not at all sure that anything would be different even if Republicans were included as the article states that such a committee would conduct "typically perfunctory public meetings" while the real stuff is done behind closed doors. In case you are wondering, and I mean no insult here to anyone's intelligence, one definition of perfunctory means "lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic." And we let them get away with this sort of stuff. Shame on us!

It's time we wake up in America, take our government and our democracy back and again make it one that our founding fathers intended it to be and one so clearly articulated by Abraham Lincoln..."Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." It's what really matters!