The Hill posted an article today on the Congressional Agenda of the Democrats. Their plans for the summer were healthcare reform, cap and trade, immigration reform, and confirming Judge Sotomayer. All three items have run into some roadblocks.
According to the article:
“Reid, for one, is quite pessimistic about Republican cooperation in the coming months on healthcare and climate change.
“No one claims the answer is obvious, but everyone knows we must work toward one,” he said on the Senate floor. “Yet if Republicans refuse to find common ground on the easy things, how will we do so on the hard ones?”
Members of the Senate Finance Committee say they will begin marking up healthcare reform after the July 4 recess, at the earliest. Meanwhile, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee plan to extend the markup of their own healthcare proposal into July.
Democrats had hoped that both committees would finish their work by the end of June.
Preoccupation over healthcare has steered senators away from climate change.”
Healthcare reform, cap and trade, and immigration reform as proposed by the Democrats in the house are not good for the country. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives is currently not allowing alternative bills on these issues to be heard.
According to Monday’s Washington Times:
“Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said in an interview on The Washington Times’ morning radio show “America’s Morning News” that Mrs. Pelosi and the Democratic majority had recently authorized an unprecedented change in House rules to curb the right of the minority to offer amendments to appropriations spending bills.”
We have come to a place where one party is running our government. We as Americans need to make sure there are some checks and balances on their power. Good legislation is the product of debate, and right now there is no serious debate in Congress on any of the issues listed above. The bills introduced in the House of Representatives will be a minimum of 800 pages long and will be voted on before anyone has a chance to read them. This is not a successful way to govern. We need to find a way to slow things down so that we are not stuck with huge federal deficits far into the future and a drag on our economy that we will never be able to overcome. I am hoping none of this suggested legislation is passed until Congress and the American people have a chance to examine and evaluate it and decide if it is the correct solution to the problems we now face.