Escorting Grandsons Around a Once-Again-Functioning Washington DC
My wife and I plan to take our twin 12-year-old grandsons to Washington DC and have scheduled visits to Capitol Hill and the White House.
We want them to respect the balance of powers embedded in our constitution. Our first visit is to Capitol Hill, where Congressional performance is rated unfavorable by 64 percent of the people (Rasmussen Reports). But building grandson respect should be easier after Congress passed healthcare reform.
Before passage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the highest unfavorable rating at 64 percent. Yet as healthcare passage appeared hopeless in January she wrote Obama, “We’ll never have a better majority in your presidency in numbers than we’ve got right now. We can make this work.”
She publicly promised, “If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get healthcare reform passed.”
She secured 217 votes to pass it despite distrust between Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, all of who were disappointed in Obama’s vague guidelines on healthcare. Senate Democrats’ special healthcare deals disgusted Americans. Pelosi pushed the Senate to vote on rescinding those deals this week.
We’ll tell our grandsons that Congress should take primary responsibility for crafting the legislation. The president can be voted out of office every four years and must leave after eight, while Congressional majorities last for years and judges last for lifetimes, or infinity whichever comes first.
We’ll visit the White House where Obama’s administration pledged to win passage. He won over skeptical progressives who insisted jobs and immigration reform were more important than healthcare. Obama said, “If we fail at this, it’s going to be harder for us to pull the line on this other stuff.”
The judicial balance of power became involved the same day Obama signed the bill when attorney generals in about a dozen states including Washington and Virginia filed lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. Questioned on Fox news, Virginia's attorney general admitted victory for either side is uncertain.
The bill’s opponents reacted with typical political pomposity. “The most radical social experiment...” “The will of the people has been spat upon.” Polls do show that a steady 54 percent of Americans don’t approve of the healthcare plan, leading to statements like, “Democrats have committed political suicide” for the November elections. Obama and Democrats believe healthcare will be supported when people understand what actually passed instead of the misinformation from opponents. We’ll tell our grandsons we should have election issues based on Congressional action rather than inaction.
Or healthcare may not be the big issue. Polls show healthcare is fifth on people’s priority. The economy, political corruption, the war on terror and taxes all have higher priority. Wall Street yawned and bumped stocks less than half-of-one percent.
On the Wenatchee World’s website only seven people commented on healthcare with comments that wandered away from substance to personal attacks. And on the New York Times most-read health list, the raging debate on fallout from the bill ranked seventh. It trailed articles on “baby fat” and “picking a nursing home,” and just ahead of a recipe for “roasted red pepper, tuna, steamed quinoa, white bean salad and pan fried squash.”
We’ll be proud to tell our grandsons that our constitution’s balance of powers has framed significant social reform on issues from secession to slavery to social security for over 200 years, and has done it again. It deserves their highest respect.
We want them to respect the balance of powers embedded in our constitution. Our first visit is to Capitol Hill, where Congressional performance is rated unfavorable by 64 percent of the people (Rasmussen Reports). But building grandson respect should be easier after Congress passed healthcare reform.
Before passage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the highest unfavorable rating at 64 percent. Yet as healthcare passage appeared hopeless in January she wrote Obama, “We’ll never have a better majority in your presidency in numbers than we’ve got right now. We can make this work.”
She publicly promised, “If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get healthcare reform passed.”
She secured 217 votes to pass it despite distrust between Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, all of who were disappointed in Obama’s vague guidelines on healthcare. Senate Democrats’ special healthcare deals disgusted Americans. Pelosi pushed the Senate to vote on rescinding those deals this week.
We’ll tell our grandsons that Congress should take primary responsibility for crafting the legislation. The president can be voted out of office every four years and must leave after eight, while Congressional majorities last for years and judges last for lifetimes, or infinity whichever comes first.
We’ll visit the White House where Obama’s administration pledged to win passage. He won over skeptical progressives who insisted jobs and immigration reform were more important than healthcare. Obama said, “If we fail at this, it’s going to be harder for us to pull the line on this other stuff.”
The judicial balance of power became involved the same day Obama signed the bill when attorney generals in about a dozen states including Washington and Virginia filed lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. Questioned on Fox news, Virginia's attorney general admitted victory for either side is uncertain.
The bill’s opponents reacted with typical political pomposity. “The most radical social experiment...” “The will of the people has been spat upon.” Polls do show that a steady 54 percent of Americans don’t approve of the healthcare plan, leading to statements like, “Democrats have committed political suicide” for the November elections. Obama and Democrats believe healthcare will be supported when people understand what actually passed instead of the misinformation from opponents. We’ll tell our grandsons we should have election issues based on Congressional action rather than inaction.
Or healthcare may not be the big issue. Polls show healthcare is fifth on people’s priority. The economy, political corruption, the war on terror and taxes all have higher priority. Wall Street yawned and bumped stocks less than half-of-one percent.
On the Wenatchee World’s website only seven people commented on healthcare with comments that wandered away from substance to personal attacks. And on the New York Times most-read health list, the raging debate on fallout from the bill ranked seventh. It trailed articles on “baby fat” and “picking a nursing home,” and just ahead of a recipe for “roasted red pepper, tuna, steamed quinoa, white bean salad and pan fried squash.”
We’ll be proud to tell our grandsons that our constitution’s balance of powers has framed significant social reform on issues from secession to slavery to social security for over 200 years, and has done it again. It deserves their highest respect.
Posted by JSR at 3/25/2010 1:59 AM 
Categories: Politics, Community Building
Tags: HealthCare reform Pelosi consitution balanceofpowers Deficit Spending Obama Congress
Categories: Politics, Community Building
Tags: HealthCare reform Pelosi consitution balanceofpowers Deficit Spending Obama Congress
Twelve years olds are a curious lot and you better do your homework well before you take them out to Washington DC to Capitol Hill and the White House!! It is good that they get exposed to the political matters and it will give them a general idea how things are handled in the government! I sure there will be both positives and negatives for them but the all “high” is that we now have, for the first time ever a Black as our President which is a significant social reform that we have achieved!
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