Washington’s Election Year Politics
Hadiza
Wada, DBA
…Dec. 17, 2011
We live in truly unusual times. By
that we mean the politicians that are literally the elected representatives of
the people, do not seem to be acting in tandem with the wishes of the
overwhelming majority of their electorate.
It has never been a prefect representation anyway, and no one is deluding
himself of such perfection. But in a
significant number of categories, the polling numbers have been at a record low.
According to the Pew Research report, two-thirds (67 percent) of registered
voters nationwide say "most members of Congress" should be voted out of office
in 2012, while only 20 percent want most members reelected. “This desire to fire
all incumbents marks a record level of discontent since the Pew Center started
asking the question 18 years ago, far exceeding previous highs of 57 percent in
2010 and 56 percent in 1994.” [Huffington Post, Dec. 15, 2011].
The term do-nothing-congress has now become a household name in political
circles, as the general public continues to express outrage at the pace of
change in Washington. The country faces
a lot of domestic challenges, ranging from health, employment, social security,
monetary policy etc. These issues have remained virtually unaddressed. The major reason cited is not an
enigma. The House of Representatives
is controlled by the Republican Party [opposition], while the Democratic Party
controls the White House [Executive].
But that scenario is common in U S Politics, but it is not common for it
to cause such intense gridlock and display of what the electorate feel as an
almost total disconnect from the critical issues that plague them.
The Occupy Wall Street Movement that has spread to about twenty five major U S
cities has tried for the past few months to capture the attention of their local
legislators, and most especially the politicians in Washington. Their message could be summed up as,
“trying to get the politicians in Washington to focus on the issues of the
majority [99%] instead of caring about the top richest 1% of the population.”
While this movement cuts across all races of Americans, a significant percentage
age group however is reported to be young, usually in their twenties. Another significant statistical
identifier of the group is the unemployed and underemployed. The campers defy the weather and
other inconveniences of living on the street to pitch tents on open public areas
of such cities just to hold rallies, holding up placards that portray their
concerns.
The National Action Network NAN is a non-profit organization that propagates
civil rights concern, most especially those of African Americans. It recently organized a rally in in
many cities concurrently last week seeking to awaken the nation to the economic
woes and accompanying disparities. In relation to the expression of discontent
by the general public towards Washington politics NAN writes “In recent years,
too many American families have lost economic ground. Over the decade, ending in
2009, median family income fell by $3,800. And the gap between the wealthiest
Americans and those with the least is growing every day, making it tougher to
enter into the middle class. With African American unemployment at an
unacceptable 15%, this is a clear sign that we need action-inaction is not an
option.”
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized the House GOP [an acronym of Grand Old
Party, meaning the Republican Party] at a news conference yesterday for “not
focusing on jobs and for ginning up crises that nearly shut down the federal
government and caused a national default.” While Minority Whip Steny Hoyer
argued with a chart showing “House Republicans passed fewer bills and worked for
less time than Democrats did in 2007 when they took over the House with a
president of the opposing party” reports the publication
The Hill.
By the way, Representative Steny Hoyer is not the lone analyst in comparing
similar situation between a Democratic House majority with a Republican
occupying the White House. The
Washington Post also made similar analysis, which literally assigned the
Republicans a lower performance rating, in an article titled “In 2011, fewer
bills, fewer laws and plenty of blame” published December 5, 2011. In addition, the present era of
Republican Majority is the worse seen in two decades. The last similar scenario we had was
with the Clinton White House, but even Clinton received a higher number of
signed bills [88], compared to 62 for President Obama through November 30, 2011.
The raw data exemplifying such inaction and the failure to address real issues
the majority of Americans face was charted recently by Thom Hartman of RT.com
just this past week. Three recent bills important to the issues the occupy
movement care about received a 100% reject vote by the Republicans on the Hill. They included the “American Jobs Act”
voted on October 11, 2011, and November 3, 2011, and the October 20 “Teachers
and First Responders Back to Work Act,” which was enacted to create about
400,000 jobs. The Middle Class tax
cut Act [Payroll tax cut for working Americans] was also voted down twice by the
House Republicans, with a 98% membership rejection each time.
As elections draw near, it is glaringly clear that the Republican Party, true to
the words of their Senatorial Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell at their House
majority announcement after the by-elections a year ago, are gunning for the
White House at whatever cost. But
does the end justify the means. Many
analysts have pointed to the middle class as a group which continues to shrink
as days go by, as people by their thousands continue to join the ranks of the
poor, recipients of welfare, and unemployment, while others continue to lag
between the cracks, qualifying for neither healthcare, welfare, nor
unemployment.
Some conservative news sources however argue that less bills to pass does not
necessarily translate into non-performance.
They argue that the party has tabled many alternative bills to what the
Democrats have presented, but were blocked by the Democrats. However, what those sources usually
leave out is that, in the final analysis, most of those bills carry the same
problem; an attempt to shield the top 10% or less of the population from paying
back to the coffers of government a fair share of tax.
The undeniable reality is that the ordinary American middle class worker pays
higher tax per dollar than his rich corporate owner counterpart. That is the reason why the term “fair
share’ keeps coming up in House floor arguments.
The bottom line is, the economic situation that created most of these problems
was not a natural disaster of some sort, but a result of some bad economic
policies of the eight-year long Republican Administration that left the stage
January 2009. The same bad policies
that gives unhindered regulatory control to financial institutions, allowed
gaping loopholes in the tax code to be exploited by corporation, as well as
financed two wars, that ultimately became significantly unpopular, cited as the
main causes - appear to be still popular with the Republican Party to date.
There is yet another group of voters also, who do not seem to favor any of the
parties. They usually accuse some
Democratic Party members of either not trying hard enough for the right causes,
or else falling into the same corporate control issues, the causes of which they
see as a consequence of the downside of campaign financing. An issue of ‘whoever pays the piper…’ However, this “neutral” group
continues to shrink as the polling numbers above indicate. That may be a consequence of many
factors including the manner of the voting pattern of the Republican Party most
especially.
By the end of the week however, the two parties this time under the Democrats
controlled Senate were able, after another tough session, to pass a bill that
will extend government spending for the next two months.
(c) The Optimist Voice. All Rights Reserved.
..
