Dave Mesker should be commended for his excellent letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Las Vegas Sun. I agree with all his points, particularly on the lack of leadership in Washington and that the aging Congress is more concerned with itself than about what is beneficial to the average American.
More points can be added:
The system in Washington is corrupt. Elected officials may go there with good intentions but are quickly absorbed into a maelstrom of “quid pro quo” or the “scratch my back” syndrome.
Members of Congress almost always vote blindly along party lines without regard to their own conscience or what is right for the country. A case in point is current health care legislation — not one of our elected officials clearly understands what is entailed in the plan but will vote for it on the basis of party lines. Their lack of understanding of the plan became evident during the summer town-hall meetings.
Those in the House and Senate are more concerned about being reelected than doing what is right. They need the support of their respective parties for reelection and are leery of going against party lines. It takes insane amounts of money to get elected and a major portion of this money comes from special interest groups and lobbyists. How can they not be subservient to these groups after the elections?
Just like the president, all our other elected officials should be subject to term limits. This way we will get new perspectives every few years and remove the unproductive influence the older entrenched members have on the newer ones.
"A case in point is current health care legislation -- not one of our elected officials clearly understands what is entailed in the plan but will vote for it on the basis of party lines."
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And you oppose it because you understand it? And you learned all about it from ... Rush Limbaugh, perhaps?
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You decry an "aging congress", yet you voted for McCain over Obama for president? That's consistent.
The fact js that the Health Insurance bill will be done in secret and the Democrats will continue to spin that the unwashed peasants have no right to view the Health Insurance bill because they are illiterates with "phony claims" and are unable to understand what is good for them.
Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are tone deaf. They do not respond to our phone calls, e-mails, townhalls, or rallies. They refuse to listen to us because we are lairs to them, but mostly because they know we do not believe them or trust them. Harry called us evilmonger and Nancy called us un-American.
Why is it that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) does not apply to Congress. They wrote the law to exclude themselves.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that the protesters, part of the "tea party" movement, do not represent the views of the public when it comes to health care reform. Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "You know, My message to them is, they're wrong."
At a campaign rally on 9-12-2009, in Minnesota Obama said "They can't stop us!" John Podesta said, In the coming weeks, the president and the extensive resources he commands will be used to lavish attention on two groups: Democratic lawmakers and middle-class Americans who are anxious about how the cost of extending coverage to tens of millions of the uninsured will affect their own health insurance and finances. "You have assets you can deploy to make the case and bump up individual members" of Congress, said Podesta. Mean while ACORN, SEIU, Community for Change, and Organizing for America are also using taxpayer money and selling Obamacare.
Why can the government spend moneny on a PR campaign against our wishs on a bill
Lets put the bill to the litmus test - if a congress person votes to support and pass this legislation, they must enroll in the public option and give up their current government coverage. Then lets see how many get in line and play follow the leader behind Nancy. If its good for us, it should be good for them and I bet not one of them is willing to do that. That being the case, the bill is garbage and taking us down the path of socialism.
Eradicate all WASP-only welfare programs (subsidies). Start with healthcare insurers, farming, dairy, ranching, mineral extractors, and the LDS-FLDS welfare cash-cow.
"Members of Congress almost always vote blindly along party lines without regard to their own conscience or what is right for the country."
Dhodapkar -- you're wrong here. Our elected representatives represent their constituents and should vote in their best interests. Otherwise they're betraying those who actually voted them into office.
"Those in the House and Senate are more concerned about being reelected than doing what is right."
The problem is who decides "what is right"? Anyone you talk to will have a different version.
"Just like the president, all our other elected officials should be subject to term limits."
Term limits betray their constituents. Some short-sighted do-gooders passing stupid laws like this ignore the basic relationship between the electors and the electees. If I like the job my elected rep is doing in Congress, it should be up to me and my fellow voters to decide that, not some one-size-fits all law.
StanG who lives on the far left just loves to bring hate into any discussion.
Bitter they are... Don't say anything that will get them made. They will name call and label people as being no good. Nice guys, these people out there on the far left...
We have 535 princes and a king. That is the inevitable result of a democracy which is unable to check the power of its government. We've had a nice 200 year run, but the power continues to concentrate in Washington.
Term Limits: We already have term limits at every general election one has the choice to vote for one of two candidates. With term limits your elected representative will always be a freshman at the low end of the decision ladder and with no power. Health Care: Just Google same for the facts. Election contributions: Encourage your Representative and Senator to vote themselves a pay raise and tell the lobbyists to go to Hades. Then we will get true representation and there will not be the polarization between the parties.
If you don't want lobbyists buying off politicians then don't let politicians have much power to begin with. Then there is nothing to fight over.
There's nothing wrong with term limits. Of course, that's only part of the equation. The other part is better control of the lobbyists who simply buy the votes of our elected Congressmen.
Throw in campaign finance reform and suddenly the government has been given back to the people.....as Lincoln said, "that government of the people, by the people, for the people."
I'm amazed that some people see nothing wrong with Congressmen being on the "take." Others see nothing wrong with lobbyists running amok in Washington.
The whole problem with Washington is that our elected representatives spend way too much time trying to keep their job and way too little time doing their job!
Only the right-wing thinks there's lack of
leadership because they lost their power.
The majority is still happy with the leaders
they voted for.
WE LOVE BARACK OBAMA AND HARRY REID.