“NO” IS NOT A PROCESS
“NO” IS NOT A PROCESS
The dust has yet to settle from last weeks debacle in the Massachusetts Senate election. I have been listening to the pundits who have incessantly harped on and dissected what they thought the election of Scott Brown actually meant for the rest of the country, and for Democrats in particular. The clamoring and jaw-jerking by these same pundits was relentless. They were way too eager, often tripping over themselves to get air time to declare an apocalypse for the Obama administration. Their summations declared Brown’s win as a complete repudiation of the administrations policies and thus, the direction in which these policies were leading the country. Others thought that Brown’s verbal opposition to the current national health reform legislation was the most important factor that led to his upset victory. To be fair, this last interpretation does carry with it a partial truth.
Just for the record, an exit poll conducted by a GOP pollster, Tony Fabrizio, showed that only 38% of the eight hundred participants said they were motivated by opposition to the President’s policies. On the other hand, 32% indicated that they were motivated by support for his policies and 27% indicated that Obama’s policies were not a factor in their voting at all. This means that 59% of the voters polled were either for or indifferent to the President’s policies when they cast their ballot. Furthermore, 53% of independents either supported or were indifferent to the President’s policies.
My take on the results of this Massachusetts election is that a message was indeed sent on that Tuesday night. All of the pundits seem to think that this message is targeted only towards Democrats That message is that people are frustrated, infuriated and exasperated. Why? Because Congress is Not doing its job, plain and simple. A recent CBS poll shows that the approval rating for Congress currently stands at 23% while that for the President remains at 55%. Neither of these numbers however should make anyone comfortable. As such, I believe that Republicans should be just as concerned about November as the Democrats. There is a whole lot of frustration out there and it is highly probable that it will be an equal opportunity un-employer come November.
Reforming health care goes hand in hand with getting the economy back on track. I would like to think of Congress as an institution that is honorable and works for the good of all the people. There is absolutely no reason why health reform should not have been passed to date. There have been all kinds of excuses, lies, obstructions and mis-representations at every turn of the process during this last year.
On the one hand, every Democrat wants to have everything under the sun incorporated into the final bill that the President will eventually sign. This includes the progressive members of the party who often do not or will not see from side to side because of blinders that only allow them to see the tip of their noses. Pay attention progressives….you cannot and will not get everything incorporated into a single package by days end! There will be no “all encompassing” health reform product…this is a project that will have to be massaged for many years to come. This project requires negotiation and cooperation. If you let this opportunity slip away, there will be no second chances. Reasonable people do not use an axe to remove a fly from their forehead. Do not become an instrument for those who say “NO”.
On the other hand, there are my Republican friends who want to say “NO” to anything and everything. First we have those who are livid about the “costs” of any reform package, never mind that this was never a consideration during the previous administration. If it had been, we wouldn’t be in the current mess we are in today. Remember the prescription drug program? If for some reason health reform is not passed this time around and you are worried about what it costs now, what do you think the costs will be when it finally gets back on the radar screen down the road…. and I’m talking somewhere around 2059.
Then there are those who are baffled and dismayed by how the Democrats handled the “process”. They rise to their pontifical perches to berate the Democrats for excluding them from the discussions and debates. They tell anyone who will listen that they have been shut out of the process and that there has been no transparency in any of the multiple committees, no bipartisanship, no good faith, none whatsoever. They were not allowed to offer any amendments to any of the bills at any stage of the “process” and that they were placed under unreasonable “time lines” for completion of a final bill.
As far as I have been able to ascertain, Republicans should be the last to complain about process, bipartisanship, transparency, and good faith. I did a little checking on Republican participation in the various committees leading up to the final passage of the Senate and House health reform bills. On the Senate side, the HELP committee adopted 159 amendments offered by Republicans. On the House side, 16 Republican amendments were adopted during procedures of the Energy and Commerce Committee. In the Education and Labor Committee, 6 of the 17 Republican amendments were adopted by the committee. Finally in the Ways and Means Committee markup, 38 of the Republican sponsored amendments were rejected by the committee.
I think that it is worth noting that during the 111th Congress, Republicans have attempted to filibuster a minimum of 30 times. This has been a part of the “strategy”, a strategy straight from the “obstructionist playbook” offered to Republican colleagues by Sen Judd Gregg in a memo on parliamentary strategy that republicans could use to offer amendments and extend debate on particular resolutions. In efforts to thwart the process, Republicans often offered “technical amendments”, knowing firsthand that they were not significant or relevant to the issues at hand. They were offered only for “strategic” purposes. As expected, these nuisance and frivolous amendments were rejected. Yet these same senators want us to think that they were victimized and that the “process” wasn’t fair or bipartisan….that these amendments were being offered in good faith. Give me a fricking break! By design, you corrupted the process and got what you wanted…an opportunity to cry foul and afford yourselves with another easy distraction to take the focus away from the issues.
It seems to me that the Republican idea of bipartisanship is absolute concession to their ideology, no more, no less. Everything outside the reaches of this ideology falls into the category of “no”. There is no real intention to participate, only to be in a position to say no after no after no. If you continue to chose this route, I remind you that “NO” is not a process. There are consequences for “no”.
With the prevailing winds now blowing within the Washington beltway, it is no wonder that there is so much frustration outside the beltway. Congress, do your job! If you continue your childish games, come November, there will be many “Scott Brown’s” on both sides of the aisle.
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