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If we don't trust Congress, why are we handing over the keys?
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By JON M. HUNTER, Publisher
| 11/10/2009 |
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The two most recent job approval rating surveys for Congress (CNN and Ipsos/McClatchy) show that we Americans don't think Congress is doing a good job. Only 29 percent of those surveyed approved, while 69 percent disapproved.
So doesn't it seem strange that we're willingly turning over our lives to them?
Under the guise of the word "reform," we're quickly converting different parts of our economy to government control. Most Americans think the word "reform" means "fix." Congress has decided that it really means "government control."
Health care "reform" clearly means government control. The services offered, the prices paid and the free services required will all be decided by the government. That isn't a scare tactic, it's the truth and it will happen.
Bank "reform" clearly means government control. The government sets interest rates, dictates what employees get paid and decides who gets loans and who doesn't. Remember the discussion about how certain poor people didn't have "access" to credit? Banks weren't making loans to people who couldn't pay them back, but the government stepped in.
Energy "reform" clearly means government control. Cap-and-trade legislation would allow government officials to decide which industries to punish through financial penalties and which ones to reward.
The $800 billion stimulus package was all about government control. A blizzard of spending on projects all over the country allowed governments to hire more government workers, while jobs were lost in the private sector.
The fact is that the private sector -- individuals and businesses -- pay for government. Shrinking the private sector and growing government just doesn't work.
Congress isn't hiding its desire to control America. Rep. Barney Frank said in late October that the Democrats of the White House and Congress "are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area."
So let's address this paradox that we don't think Congress is doing a good job, but we're allowing it to overtly control our lives.
The Constitution still allows us to vote members out and elect people we believe can do a good job. Believe it or not, 88 percent of the seats in Congress are up for election in 2010 (all 435 House seats, 34 regular Senate seats, and special elections for the vacated Senate seats of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton).
Americans can "reform" Congress by electing new members, and we should do it next year.
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©Madison Daily Leader 2010
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