The Democrats' Reforms

The pathetic reforms enacted by the new Democratic Congress are so disappointing and inadequate that Democrats like me have settled into a state of despondent gloom. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid should hang their heads in shame. Perhaps we should have been more cynical, but there is a Pollyanna streak in most liberals that causes us to assume that election of Democrats will result in genuine change.

Congress does not have unlimited power, but George W. Bush cannot veto changes in the rules of ethics for the House and Senate. Nevertheless, Nancy, Harry, and their party members failed to do anything significant about Congressional ethics and failed even to address other pressing problems.

The new rules forbid legislators from accepting free meals, trips, and other gifts from lobbyists. However, as reported in the New York Times on February 11th, lobbyists have merely changed such gift-giving into fundraising outings. The Democrats have not only failed to reform the outrageous influence of lobbyists, they have perpetuated the process. Any person with a conscience knows that lobbyists should never, ever, ever, ever be allowed to give money to congressmen or senators either in the form of gifts, donations to campaigns, or fundraisers.

Congress has failed to do anything real about the scandal that allows congressmen and congressional aids leaving Congress to fatten their wallets by becoming lobbyists. The only thing the Democrats could think of to deal with this abuse was to extend from one to two years the period during which congressmen, senators, and aids are forbidden to become lobbyists after leaving office. Wow! Now there’s something! The new rule should be that congressmen, senators, and aids can never, never, ever become lobbyists, period.

The Republicans found a way during their reign in Congress to fatten their friends and constituents with huge amounts of pork in the form of “earmarks.” Earmarks were often inserted into appropriation bills in backroom deals at the last minute. There were no committee hearings on the projects, no debate, no discussion, no committee votes, and no publicity. The earmarks added many billions of dollars to appropriations bills. What have the Democrats done to correct this theft of taxpayers’ money? They have simply required that the names of the legislators who sponsored the earmarks be attached to them. Big deal! I have studied earmarks and it is easy to find out who sponsored them. Senators and Congressmen loudly brag about the earmarks they have gotten for their constituants. The Democrats should have abolished earmarks completely and made all such local pork legislation subject to hearings, debate, publicity, and committee votes.

The 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit was one of the most repugnant pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. It was dictated to Congress by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Under it, seniors got a small drug benefit while pharmaceutical and insurance companies reaped unconscionable windfall profits. When they were elected to take-over Congress, the best thing the Democrats could think of to do was to insist that the government be allowed to negotiate drug prices. They did nothing to take the benefit out of the hands of the private insurance and drug companies which are ripping-off taxpayers for billions of dollars. Every true Democrat knows that the 2003 law should be completely scrapped and that all seniors’ medications should be paid as an added benefit of Medicare. Such a change would actually save the government many billions of dollars.

Finally, the Democrats have not made any effort to get health insurance for all Americans. It is as if the idea of switching to a single-payer system is too radical for our dear Democratic representatives. Isn’t it about time that Democrats stopped being intimidated by Republicans and started standing up for something?