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I read an article online today about a request that C-SPAN has made that Congress “open all important negotiations…to electronic media coverage.” The CEO of the station is hoping that the public will be allowed to see, with transparency, what is being discussed for the transformation of the health care system. C-SPAN even offered to commit all the necessary resources to covering all such sessions live and in their entirety. Many have predicted that the leaders of Congress WILL NOT open up these discussions for public scrutiny.
There are two things that are curious to me about this. First, why would Congressional leaders not want to give access to the public? And second, why would President Obama not apply pressure by publicly calling for them to do so after saying the following in a January 31, 2008 debate with Hillary Clinton:
The answers to these two questions evidence the issue at hand – the need for character in our leadership. First, all the members of Congress are supposed to be servants of the people. It takes the utmost of character to make decisions on behalf of others, when in a position such as theirs, that may not be in their own best interest. Second, when a leader makes a statement, as President Obama did committing to an action, that leader should be faithful to fulfill that commitment. I believe my parents would have called that being a “man of your word”. It is exceedingly important to measure our words carefully and do what we say we will do.
It is my intense desire to be a man of character, and I realize that each and every day I make decisions that will impact who I am. The little decisions reveal my heart’s condition, and my words establish the commitments to which I must be true. I strive to be a courageous man who will stand for what is right and true regardless of its impact upon me. This is not always easy, but I want to be a leader with character!
Will you stand with me?
There are two things that are curious to me about this. First, why would Congressional leaders not want to give access to the public? And second, why would President Obama not apply pressure by publicly calling for them to do so after saying the following in a January 31, 2008 debate with Hillary Clinton:
“…part of the reason, I think, that they (Congress) have failed is we have not been able to bring Democrats, Republicans together to get it (universal health care) done. That's what I did in Illinois, to provide insurance for people who did not have it. That's what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are.” LINK TO TRANSCRIPTMy concern is that the leaders of Congress and the President want to keep the public in the dark about health care reform because they have something to hide. Keeping negotiations in secret appears to be their standard operating procedure. President Obama’s commitment, if you will, at the debate was to NOT negotiate behind closed doors and to broadcast the negotiations on C-SPAN (the very network that has made the request!!!) “so that the American people can see what the choices are.” It remains to be seen whether President Obama will stand by this commitment.
The answers to these two questions evidence the issue at hand – the need for character in our leadership. First, all the members of Congress are supposed to be servants of the people. It takes the utmost of character to make decisions on behalf of others, when in a position such as theirs, that may not be in their own best interest. Second, when a leader makes a statement, as President Obama did committing to an action, that leader should be faithful to fulfill that commitment. I believe my parents would have called that being a “man of your word”. It is exceedingly important to measure our words carefully and do what we say we will do.
It is my intense desire to be a man of character, and I realize that each and every day I make decisions that will impact who I am. The little decisions reveal my heart’s condition, and my words establish the commitments to which I must be true. I strive to be a courageous man who will stand for what is right and true regardless of its impact upon me. This is not always easy, but I want to be a leader with character!
Will you stand with me?
Well said.
ReplyDeleteI agree- very well said!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. I find myself asking the question.. if this new health care plan of Obama's is so awesome - why isn't he and ALL members of Congress and the the "Hill folks" going to be on it?
ReplyDeleteThis whole post is great if it existed in a world that was devoid of all other items actually going on in DC. If deeper analysis was actually made it makes the whole issue more understandable instead of your typical talking point.
ReplyDeleteLet's break down everything that was happening. CSPAN over the last few months have aired hours and hours of coverage about this bill and showed gavel-to-gavel footage but I guess you knew that right? Then we have Jim DeMint who promised to object to the motions necessary to create a conference committee (something that I've never heard of anyone doing plus remember the GOP saying that they wanted to hand this to Obama as his “waterloo” which shows their less than honest effort in trying to help out). This would force the Senate to go through three more cloture votes and three votes to pass the motions, and eat up a full week or more of Senate time. It's blatant obstructionism and stalling. So Democrats just said, ok, you want to play that way, we just won't have a formal committee. It's because if they held a formal conference, they hand the GOP a whole bunch of procedural steps to delay the bill some more and try to kill it some more. So essentially the closed doors are coming about because the maturity and the tactics of the GOP have become one of "do everything we can to derail this even if it means acting childish" instead of trying to work toward an honest conclusion. And not to pile on but you are always aware that in 1787 the Constitutional Convention entered closed door sessions and closed all the windows and drew the drapes so they could expedite the issues and find answers to the tough questions.
And if you reviewed some of the transcripts and youtube videos of how the GOP conducted them in previous coverage of the bill they have less than stellar leadership qualities. But I am sure you were up in knowledge on all of this and your current political posturing had nothing to do with excessive Fox and Friends viewing or over listening of GOP websites. Though I do agree with your main point in that I think DC and the politicians do need to have more of an open presence with their meetings but it won't happen to many people from BOTH sides of the political isle have too much to loose. Plus procedures like this, especially closed door never happen simply because a lot of it is just sitting around making calls and side deals a lot of times so all you would see is a room of people walking around so really not much to watch.
Let me guess a few years ago you forgot to "strive to be a courageous man" when Cheney held secret energy talks with some of the most powerful corporations in the world and refused to release any information or the slew of other closed door session that the GOP and Bush held from the public. You see it's easy to be a parrot and point fingers because it takes no thinking and anybody can do it. You just hear, remember, then repeat over and over till either someone confronts you on it or until you learn for yourself how wrong it was. cont...
So what does this all mean? That I agree with the gist of your argument but you are being disingenuous by not being a true leader and showing all sides of a discussion and why someone might be doing what they are doing. If you want to be a true, "leader with character," you will have enough character and genuine curiosity to ask the questions so you can learn all sides, present those, then show your rational arguments so people can understand what you are trying to fight for. Right now that's not happening and you are lying to yourself and your own personal God if you believe you are doing that. In fact if you actually sat down and analyzed how you are living your life and how you are taking in these talking points or the messages from all of these so called Christian gurus or news men you would see that in the end you are doing the exact polar opposite of what the good book says. I won’t go into each and every little detail but honestly sit down, draw the lines and connect the dots you will come to a stark revelation that you have been led a stray and it will let you get back to a greater relationship with God. Back to the point though if you want to see all of this on CSPAN then you ask your congressman on all sides to drop the childish acts and to true stewards of the people.
ReplyDeletehere is the cliff notes version for those who don't want to read it all above...
ReplyDeleteThe plan was indeed to do this in the open but the day after it passed the Senate a Republican senator registered an objection to the formation of a conference committee. That makes it procedurally impossible now to use the standard, transparent process of a conference committee to create a combination bill.
The only option now is for those interested in getting a bill passed (only Democrats at this point) have to meet "off-book", write up a bill that they all informally agree on, then re-introduce that to the full Congress for a vote.
Since the procedure has been forced out of the public eye by Republicans, this is now an extra-governmental process where the Democrats can decide how much transparency to allow (which is why C-SPAN has to ask to be let in). On one hand, they give warm fuzzies and make people feel involved by letting the cameras in. On the other, keeping the details away from the Fox spin-machine, gives the right less time to attack the bill before the vote.
I'd opt for transparency myself, but who knows what they'll do on either side. The real shame is the Republican's destroying the committee process before it even began. If we had stuck to that formal process, every second of the debate would be televised.
I certainly generated some response with this post. Thanks Amy & DrPetSavr for your kind words. I appreciate you taking a moment to respond.
ReplyDeleteI am not really attempting to bash any one particular party. I am unsatisfied with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. It seems like very few of them make many stands on their principles. The main point of my post is that I desire to be a leader and have impeccable character...something that, too often, seems to be mutually exclusive.