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11/24/2005:

"Try Bringing Democracy to Folks on Capitol Hill"

Perhaps we should redeploy the democracy experts we have sent to the Middle East and ask them to work on our Congress. The last few days have confirmed that our national government is dysfunctional.

It wasn't just the nasty Friday evening "debate" over Iraq policy in the House, set up by Republican leaders to score political points after Rep. John Murtha's call for immediate withdrawal received so much attention. And it wasn't just Rep. Jean Schmidt, an Ohio Republican, deciding to send a constituent's "message" to Murtha -- a Marine combat veteran with 37 years of active and reserve service -- to the effect that "cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

What happened hours earlier, at 1:45 a.m., symbolized all that is wrong with Washington. After immense pressure from Republican leaders, the House passed $50 billion in budget cuts -- including reductions in Medicaid, food stamps and child support enforcement -- on a 217-215 vote. Republicans who pride themselves in being moderate had their arms twisted into backing the bill, partly on the basis of promises that many of the cuts it contained wouldn't survive in House-Senate negotiations.

..."Mr. Speaker, in south Mississippi tonight, the people who have electricity, who might be at a VFW hall or a parish church hall, who are living in two- and three-man igloo tents waiting for Congress to do something, have absolutely got to think this place has lost their minds. The same Congress that voted to give the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans tax breaks every time ... suddenly after taking care of those who had the most, we have got to hurt the least. ... Folks, this is insane. ... This is the cruelest lie of all, that the only way you can help the people who have lost everything is by hurting somebody else."
commondreams.org