All over the news this morning were stories about Representative Anh Cao, the lone Republican who voted for the Healthcare Bill in the House. His reason for voting in favor of the bill was that a large percentage of his constituency in New Orleans, LA are without health insurance and he felt this is what the voters wanted. Imagine that! It's become so rare that a Representative actually tries to represent what the voters in his congressional district want, that it's big news.
With all the political posturing, back-room strategising, kowtowing to special interests, and trying to embarrass the President, one Republican actually listened to the people who voted for him to represent them in Washington and voted accordingly. I don't actually know the motivations of the other reps. in their voting, but I do know that there has been damn little talk over the last few months about what the voters really want.
Any more that seems to be business as usual in Washington DC. During the campaign season the politicians all pay lip service to the needs of the voters, but once they're back in Congress all they care about is increasing their political power, raising more money, and trying to get reelected. They frequently have an open door to lobbyists or persons with a fist full of money, while voters from their district are lucky to get face time with one of their aides.
Maybe your rep. voted the way you wanted on healthcare, and if you are typical of most of the people in your area, that's great. Still, it's always good to remember that members of the House of Representatives are supposed to represent what their constituents want, not what their party leaders want, not what big corporate donors want, not even what they personally want. So, we all need to keep tally of the way our congress-persons vote and, when possible, note their motivations and if they don't seem to be doing the job we hired them to do, it might be a good idea to remind them that they are never more than two years from the next election are we're all paying close attention. If we all keep track, and use the power of the vote to keep these folks working for us, then a rep. voting for what the constituents want might be business as usual rather than front page news.
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Death of Hope
The one thing that everyone agreed should be the very first thing that the new govt. in Washington D.C. accomplish; implement a financial stimulus package and, I (and I think most Americans) hoped both parties could join together to make it happen. A package was put together and presented to the House and was widely criticized by the Republicans, but passed without a single Republican voting for it. The stimulus package then went to the Senate where the Republican senators held it up and demanded that a lot of cuts which they’re still arguing about. So much for bipartisan compromise.
It seems the Republicans in congress have decided that they are the fiscal watchdogs, protecting the American people from large govt. debt. That’s great if the public has the memory span of a gold fish. The very same Repubs for eight years voted on things that took us from the largest budget surplus to the largest budget deficit in history. Furthermore, everyone agrees we need a stimulus package, even if we’re not sure what it should contain. Up until a few weeks ago the fiscal watchdogs were spending the money on a made-up war where subcontractors were hired to do the same thing at the same time as the US military except they get paid ten times as much and where billions of dollars just disappeared, and they found lots of other places to spend money too, on things that were nowhere as important as a stimulus package, plus they cut taxes for the biggest taxpayers; until they got to a trillion dollars of debt.
So what kind of wasteful spending are the newly minted fiscal watchdogs interested in cutting? Well here’s a hint; it’s not the law that the Dems slipped in that allows congress to decide if you don’t need the expensive things your doctor prescribes. They want to cut all the science support, since new technology, alternative energy sources, and applied science can’t stimulate the economy. They want to cut money going to education, because making taxpayers pay more to keep their children’s schools open doesn’t have anything to do with the economy. Also, they want to cut bailout money to the states so you can have higher state taxes to offset any tax cut you get from the feds
Meanwhile, the GOP congresspersons still vote in lockstep, but give it a different label so business as usual sounds like new and improved, and the latest polls suggest that most people view them as obstructionists rather that defenders. So help for the economy gets delayed and the Republicans may be insuring that even fewer voters support them in the next election.
It seems the Republicans in congress have decided that they are the fiscal watchdogs, protecting the American people from large govt. debt. That’s great if the public has the memory span of a gold fish. The very same Repubs for eight years voted on things that took us from the largest budget surplus to the largest budget deficit in history. Furthermore, everyone agrees we need a stimulus package, even if we’re not sure what it should contain. Up until a few weeks ago the fiscal watchdogs were spending the money on a made-up war where subcontractors were hired to do the same thing at the same time as the US military except they get paid ten times as much and where billions of dollars just disappeared, and they found lots of other places to spend money too, on things that were nowhere as important as a stimulus package, plus they cut taxes for the biggest taxpayers; until they got to a trillion dollars of debt.
So what kind of wasteful spending are the newly minted fiscal watchdogs interested in cutting? Well here’s a hint; it’s not the law that the Dems slipped in that allows congress to decide if you don’t need the expensive things your doctor prescribes. They want to cut all the science support, since new technology, alternative energy sources, and applied science can’t stimulate the economy. They want to cut money going to education, because making taxpayers pay more to keep their children’s schools open doesn’t have anything to do with the economy. Also, they want to cut bailout money to the states so you can have higher state taxes to offset any tax cut you get from the feds
Meanwhile, the GOP congresspersons still vote in lockstep, but give it a different label so business as usual sounds like new and improved, and the latest polls suggest that most people view them as obstructionists rather that defenders. So help for the economy gets delayed and the Republicans may be insuring that even fewer voters support them in the next election.
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