A Representative Government
In early June 2007 we started hearing, seeing and reading stories about how the Democrats were breaking their pre-election promise to be more open about pork-barrel spending. With 32,000 earmark (pork) requests currently before the House Appropriations Committee, the Democrats tried to handle the situation by abandoning their own rules and pre-election promises. They tried to change the rules so that dollars for those pork projects wouldn’t be inserted into new legislation until it’s too late for their fellow-Congressmen to remove the wasteful spending from the bills.
When House Appropriations Chairman David Obey was grilled about this by the Washington Post, he said “I don’t give a damn if people criticize me!” Mr. Obey has put forth, for all to see, the incredible arrogance and hypocrisy of the current Congress. Fortunately, Republicans cried foul about the Democrats’ attempt to hide the pork, the (right-wing) media picked-up on it, and the Democrats were forced to retreat with their tales between their legs.
That same arrogance, by Congress and President Bush, is evident today as the Senate pushes an immigration bill that most Americans vehemently oppose. Despite that opposition, the Senate, pressured by President Bush, is pressing on with a bill that gives amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who’ve entered this country illegally.
I want to see our current laws enforced with regard to foreigners living and/or working illegally in the U.S. I want to see our current laws enforced to keep people from crossing our borders to enter our country illegally. Period. We don’t need new laws to deal with illegal aliens. And we certainly don’t need Congress, “bought” by President Bush, to create new legislation to deal with this. But try to tell that to members of Congress, who will see this new legislation as yet another opportunity to sneak billions of our tax dollars into the bill for completely unrelated projects that smell like pigs. (I wonder what Bush is giving members of Congress to switch their votes. Hmmm...)
Any “immigration solution” that Bush and Congress come up with that does not apply EXISTING penalties to illegal aliens who've broken EXISTING laws is nothing short of amnesty!
Our elected “leaders” have forgotten that we have a representative form of government. They don’t proactively (before they vote) do a thing to tell us where they stand on proposed legislation, and why their positions are good for us. Nor do they proactively come to us to find out where we, the very people they represent, stand on the issues. How can they look themselves in the mirror and say that they represent their constituents back home when they’ve done nothing to find out where their constituents stand???
Americans have made it clear that they’re sick and tired of the pork, they don’t support the current immigration reform efforts, and they don’t trust a Congress that doesn’t represent the will of the people. If we don’t speak out and speak out loudly, both now and next November, we will continue to get the “representation” that we deserve, and we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves.
When House Appropriations Chairman David Obey was grilled about this by the Washington Post, he said “I don’t give a damn if people criticize me!” Mr. Obey has put forth, for all to see, the incredible arrogance and hypocrisy of the current Congress. Fortunately, Republicans cried foul about the Democrats’ attempt to hide the pork, the (right-wing) media picked-up on it, and the Democrats were forced to retreat with their tales between their legs.
That same arrogance, by Congress and President Bush, is evident today as the Senate pushes an immigration bill that most Americans vehemently oppose. Despite that opposition, the Senate, pressured by President Bush, is pressing on with a bill that gives amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who’ve entered this country illegally.
I want to see our current laws enforced with regard to foreigners living and/or working illegally in the U.S. I want to see our current laws enforced to keep people from crossing our borders to enter our country illegally. Period. We don’t need new laws to deal with illegal aliens. And we certainly don’t need Congress, “bought” by President Bush, to create new legislation to deal with this. But try to tell that to members of Congress, who will see this new legislation as yet another opportunity to sneak billions of our tax dollars into the bill for completely unrelated projects that smell like pigs. (I wonder what Bush is giving members of Congress to switch their votes. Hmmm...)
Any “immigration solution” that Bush and Congress come up with that does not apply EXISTING penalties to illegal aliens who've broken EXISTING laws is nothing short of amnesty!
Our elected “leaders” have forgotten that we have a representative form of government. They don’t proactively (before they vote) do a thing to tell us where they stand on proposed legislation, and why their positions are good for us. Nor do they proactively come to us to find out where we, the very people they represent, stand on the issues. How can they look themselves in the mirror and say that they represent their constituents back home when they’ve done nothing to find out where their constituents stand???
Americans have made it clear that they’re sick and tired of the pork, they don’t support the current immigration reform efforts, and they don’t trust a Congress that doesn’t represent the will of the people. If we don’t speak out and speak out loudly, both now and next November, we will continue to get the “representation” that we deserve, and we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves.
posted by Mark @ 7:56 PM
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