Partisanship stalling progress

Steve Woodhouse

I’m no political pundit, nor do I claim to be. This is merely about paying attention to things and deducing a possible conclusion.

Much like I predicted long ago that the Iowa Legislature’s ridiculous spending would lead to financial problems, so it came to fruition. I’m not bragging about it or saying, “I told you so” (which I did) because the bottom line is that it is fellow Iowans who will be hurt by recent budget cuts. My frustration with it is that it could have been avoided.

Those in power knew very well they could not increase spending by $1 billion over three years, let alone the fact this was on the cusp of a global economic meltdown, but they did it anyway. Why? Political posturing.

I have long since come to the conclusion that the Democrat and Republican parties care nothing about their constituents. We are merely pawns in their board game. Except in this case, there are no metal game pieces, these are people’s real lives. People dependent upon their government to do the right thing to help ensure the safety and future of their families.

It’s kind of like a bad sitcom, one in which a child or a third friend is caught in the middle of a feud between the two principal characters. While they are busy trying to get the upper hand on each other, they use the third character in their game. By the end of the episode, the third character gets hurt or left behind in some way. The people of Iowa are the third character in this case, but there is nothing funny about this.

The partisan divide is not only evident in Iowa, but in Washington, too. Think about it. What was the underlying reason for the financial crisis? I believe it was the housing market crisis. What caused the crisis? Bad legislation, poor regulation and oversight, for starters.

Have any of these been addressed in the year since the economic decline? Not that I’m aware of.

The Washington politicians can’t do that. They would have to admit they were wrong. That could bring shame to their party and open themselves, and the party, to criticism by the other side of the aisle. Meanwhile, nothing is getting solved and more problems are on the horizon.

Washington is focused on health care insurance reform. While the health care system is not perfect, it is not the biggest problem facing this country right now. Nevertheless, it is one that people have strong opinions about, for or against.

The debate is giving both parties the opportunity to grandstand and garner support in 2010. Meanwhile, the debt clock on this country is nearly $12 trillion. Did you know, in addition to communist China being our biggest foreign lender, that the fifth largest is a group of oil exporting countries? Included in the oil exporters are the not-so-friendly nations of Iran and Venezuela.

That’s not the worst of it. Washington seems to be ignoring the fact that there is $105 trillion in unfunded liabilities this country has in front of it (www.usdebtclock.org). This includes Medicare and Social Security funding that we simply do not have. If anything, the “work” Congress is doing on health care reform now will probably make this problem even worse.

The politicians don’t want to address these real problems because then they might upset someone and lose a vote or two. They never think that by taking a stand and doing the right thing may gain them even more votes. Chances are, they don’t do this because the party does not want them to.

As citizens, we all need to have a better understanding of our government and pay more attention. This makes it more difficult for the parties to manipulate the population.

There are time, but not often, when we need to be more polite to our politicians. When we fly off the handle, it could discourage them from showing integrity when it is really needed.

I believe there are still people with integrity in Des Moines and Washington. Unfortunately, they cower in the dark shadows of the too-powerful political parties. They just need to realize they are beacons of hope and democracy, which can outshine any such darkness if they stand tall.

Take care of yourself and thank you for reading.

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