I was enthusiastic about the change in Congressional Leadership. Then…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s minimum wage bill apparently has an exemption for a company Headquartered in her district that operates in American Samoa. But the ban on House debate thwarts making this more public.
Senator Harry Reid proposes earmark reform but tries to restrict the changes to a relatively small number leaving the overwhelming majority of earmarks unreformed. The GOP catches this and proposes a more aggressive reform along with a minority of Democratic Senators.
Rep. Dingell of Michigan is against increasing the Vehicle mileage standards.
The GOP passes the Medicare Plan D law but includes a number of anticompetitive features to protect the profits of the Drug industry. The proposed Democratic fix to this law does not include removing all of the anti-competitive features.
We can go on making a list like this for most Representatives and both parties.
It is no surprise that National Policy is pretty much for sale to the highest bidders. The art of Political leadership is to appear sympathetic to the middle class while redistributing their money to donors.
This is why I hope the GOP gets its act together to mount a strong congressional campaign in 2008 with moderate candidates who can court the independent voters. Our power as voters is to make it so that our representatives can not take our vote and contributions for granted.
Update:
The Hill has an article about the minimum wage bill: Dems feel heat on wage bill, but GOP gripes are misleading.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.