I'd like to share a quote from a well know and influential political thinker that speaks to the current state of politics in Washington.
Next, the majority should be constrained by an exacting press core. Over the past week it has become clear that the White House wants a press core that it can control as evidenced by its attempts to delegitamize Fox News.
How about that last part? The idea that if what Washington is really doing is largely unseen then it becomes politics as usual? Right now hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare savings have been promised, but we are told these savings cannot occur unless congress approves a total overhaul of the health care system. Hundreds of billions more have been hidden by a budget gimmick to make the bill seem cheaper than it really is so it fits the President’s promise to remain deficit neutral. Common sense measures proposed by the opposition, like medical malpractice reform, have been given short shrift. To add insult to injury Democrats in Congress are refusing to allow the bill to be posted online 72 hours prior to a vote so the public can seen exactly what it is being voting on.
Want the ultimate punchline? The above quote comes from Obama's best seller The Audacity of Hope page 131.
Genuine bipartisanship, though, assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is measured by how well it serves some agreed-upon goal, whether better schools or lower deficits. This in turn assumes that the majority will be constrained - by an exacting press corps and ultimately an informed electorate - to negotiate in good faith. If these conditions do not hold - if nobody outside Washington is really paying attention to the substance of the bill, if the true costs of the tax cut are buried in phony accounting and understated by a trillion dollars or so - the majority party can begin every negotiation by asking for 100 percent of what it wants, go on to concede 10 percent, and then accuse any member of the minority party who fails to support this "compromise" of being "obstructionist."Lets take the above statement step by step and see how it compares to what we see in Washington today. First, there should be an "honest give and take." It has been repeated reported that Republicans have been shut out of the negotiating process, now even conservative Democrats are being pressured to simply get in line.
Next, the majority should be constrained by an exacting press core. Over the past week it has become clear that the White House wants a press core that it can control as evidenced by its attempts to delegitamize Fox News.
How about that last part? The idea that if what Washington is really doing is largely unseen then it becomes politics as usual? Right now hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare savings have been promised, but we are told these savings cannot occur unless congress approves a total overhaul of the health care system. Hundreds of billions more have been hidden by a budget gimmick to make the bill seem cheaper than it really is so it fits the President’s promise to remain deficit neutral. Common sense measures proposed by the opposition, like medical malpractice reform, have been given short shrift. To add insult to injury Democrats in Congress are refusing to allow the bill to be posted online 72 hours prior to a vote so the public can seen exactly what it is being voting on.
Want the ultimate punchline? The above quote comes from Obama's best seller The Audacity of Hope page 131.
1 comments:
I guess Obama's promise for change referred to himself!
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