And the very existence of the TEA Party tells you that some people know better--that is, that the Republicans are perfectly capable of craven pandering.
The House version of the Medicare prescription drug bill contained a provision backed by conservatives like former Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Pat Toomey – who is now the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania — that would have encouraged price competition between the traditional Medicare program and private plans starting in 2010.
But Republican leaders backed away from the House provision in order to win AARP’s backing and outmaneuver Democrats in the 2004 elections.
According to a March 2008 Congressional Research Service report, the 2003 Medicare reform hastened Medicare’s projected insolvency by making it happen in 2019 rather than 2026 under the then-current projections.
Yesterday I had a conversation with ANOTHER small business-owner who voiced the opinion that in the upcoming election we should schmeiss ALL the members of Congress.
Every. Single. One.
No surprise to me.
2 comments:
I despair of our political system. Politicians see their elections as ‘jobs for life’ and their primary concern is to ensure that happens. The two-party system has a lot to answer for also.
So a good guy gets elected (Ron Johnson, for example), what can he achieve? Once in Congress he is a prisoner of the party system. Toe the party line or you won’t get any influential appointments. Without influential appointments you can’t effect meaningful change. Earmarks? You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours - otherwise forget about getting anything for your state. Lobbyists? Special Interests? Deep pockets? All part and parcel of the current system.
So even someone going into politics with high ideals and a down to earth attitude will soon be subsumed by the party system and when ideals clash with political reality, reality usually wins. So, what to do – throw the bums out? Yes, so long as we don’t replace them with another flavor of bum. And how do we avoid that? Term limits might be a solution. If politics is not seen as a lifetime career, and people have to actually go back home and work for a living, perhaps they will have more perspective. And cut back on the perks of public life. They’re supposed to serve – not be served.
But as the system is currently constituted I see little hope for optimism – whether Republicans or Democrats are in power.
You don't like Republicans, Dad29? Care to share with us your votes in the last twenty year Presidents, Congresscritters or Senators? Republican or Democrat?Or another party?
Post a Comment