Why Government is Broken

All the rage on today's Sundays Talk Shows dealt with the public's perception of why Washington is broken. Republican representatives argue that it is the Democrats tactics via the administration and Congressional leadership as the main reason why Washington's is failing, while the Democrats argue it is the inflexibility of the Republicans that do not allow the movement of governmental policy. To their credit, they are both right and because they are both right we as a nation lose.


With the Republican blaming the Democrats for the failings and the sluggishness of Washington politics argue that the Democrats have full control of both branches of Congress and do not care about Republican ideas or amendments. Granted, this is true that Democrats do not need the Republicans blessing to pass many forms of legislation. The problem that the Republicans have is not that they disagree with the Obama administration's view on items, but actually put out legislation that is successful make a good counter argument. Example in November, the House Republicans put out a health care bill on their ideas of healthcare reform. When the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill, it said that it would only cover 3 million Americans instead of 36 million that the Democrats proposed.

That leaves Republicans with their favorite tactic deny that the Democrats have done anything and call them names. If this is not true an examples of Republicans failings of actually debating policy is when they tell the public about "death panels" and "killing grandma". Both of these items are not true, but they can stir emotions of people that do not have favorable views of Democrats and cause them to protest. Another example is claiming the stimulus package did not work, but request funds for their home state. Granted, the argument that if the money is being spent that all states should have a piece is valid. In reality though, they get to position themselves in a politically favorable view and get to receive funding at the same time.

Now the Democrats blame the Republicans as the Party of "No". This is evident by their non willingness to go along with any of the Democrat's major bills such as Healthcare and the Stimulus. The Democrats had an interesting position by having filibuster proof houses of Congress. By having this it allowed them the option to pass anything, but infighting and a strong Republican resistance caused the biggest problems. To help the Democrats out would be a branch of bipartisanship to the Republicans, but the problem with that is that the Republicans do not want to do anything that might help a Democratic agenda.

The problem going with bipartisanship is that people are not going to like the change. Liberal Democrats do not like the catering to the Republicans and Republicans do not like the catering to the Liberal Democrats. This leaves a problem with the Democrats in control of the Congress. If they lean too far toward the Republicans, their base is angry, and if they stay with their base the Republicans argue that they are too partisan. The best measure for the Democrats would be to go with what they can get for the American public.

The gridlock will continue if the political policies are still enacted. We have lost our political middle. The need to have moderates that are willing to work across the aisle is the only solution. For both parties if moderates are willing to broker a deal between both sides comprehensive legislation can be accomplished. Unfortunately, we as a nation have become polarized in our views of political policy and by our actions have helped caused this gridlock. The answer though does not come from the Tea Party or T.V. Pundits, but from the Youth of the United States. We as youth are able to move with our ideas and bring unity to this country for the common civic good. Instead of yelling at your opponent, have a good conversation and agree to disagree at least.

Bayh Favors Sallie Mae Over College Students

Evan Bayh this week announced his retirement. All the major media outlets were shocked and awed by his comments that there was too much partisanship in the Senate. Politically leaves Indiana seat open and leaves another open chair by a retiring Democrat. Bayh is entitled to his retirement and there is no problem there, but Evan Bayh is showing what side he wants to be on discussions.


According to Ben Smith's Blog from Politico, "....expressing reservations about the plan for the government to eliminate private-sector middlemen and make student loans directly." As previously mentioned in a blog post on the 9th of February, Archie Duncan wanted to cut out the middlemen in student loans and use the 85 billion dollars for direct payment. Well now, liberated Senator Bayh believes this is a bad idea because it will hurt student loan corporation Sallie Mae in his state.

Granted it can be argued that looking out for business interests in your state is a required job for a senator, but when their decision could hurt 40,151 college students alone and about 18.3 million college students in the U.S. Now what is more important the 18.3 million college students or Sallie Mae who was bailed out by the federal government in 2008?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Wants to Save 85 Billion Dollars Over Ten Years by Cutting the Middle Man

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with the Obama administration wants to change how financial aid is distributed to students. The new idea was formulated in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House of Representatives. The Department of Education would dole out the funds for student loans. The amount that they give the banks is 88 percent of what is loaned out to prospective students. Under the current system about 85 billion dollars, which comes to 88 percent, is given to the banks to give student loans. That money the banks collect the interest and make a nice profit. The system is safe to the banks because the government provides the capital.


Now about hearing, the possible news that this lucrative deal might be lost Sallie Mae has been lobbying Congress for this bill to be defeated. In a New York Times article they figured that Sallie Mae's amount of 4 million dollars averaged to 25,000 dollars a day for when Congress is in Session. For most kids that is a year’s worth of tuition to a private school or a full four years to a state college. Arne Duncan is upset that the banks are using funds government funds to fun the lobbying. In the Huffington Post Duncan was quoted,

I think banks have had a sweet deal. They're a powerful lobbying force, and working-class families don't have lobbyists working for them. They're just trying to make ends meet and pay to go to college. And so you have strong, entrenched interests that have lobbied and continue to lobby to this day, and they're running ads in states. And you have, on the flip side, millions of working-class families trying to do the right thing and go to school.

The reason why this has not been put into law is that like the many other laws that the House of Representatives have passed they are stalled in the Senate. Lobbying efforts by the banks have been more successful because of the worries that this measure will cut jobs in the financial services industry and leave the United States with more debt from students that do not payoff their loans.


For something like this to pass the Senate, it is needed that people call their Senator to tell them that we want Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. This law is in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It is in every student’s best interest to call or write their Senator to pass this bill.

In a Daily Kos Poll Republicans Help Enforce Sterotypes

Four days ago The Daily Kos did a poll on how Republicans see themselves and the President. It was shocking the results that their survey. Many of the stereotypes that the poll covered were on Barrack Obama's birth, should Obama be impeached, is Obama a socialist, and does Obama want the terrorists to win. The poll surveyed 2,000 self described Republicans with a 2 percent margin of error.

On the first question should Obama be impeached, 39 percent responded that he should be impeached. The funny thing of this is that there has not been any proof of this statement at all. In the second question is Obama a socialist, 63 percent responded that Obama was a socialist. A false belief by Republicans during town halls and was rapidly flamed during the healthcare debate. Bernie Sanders from Vermont is the only person that calls himself a socialist and the correct term is Democratic Socialist. On the question of Obama's birth in this country, 36 percent responded that he was not born in the U.S. Many programs and fact checkers have shown the birth certificate and the birth announcement in the paper. To deny this as truth is another way to deny the legitimacy of this President. The final question that I will look at is does Obama want the terrorists to win, 24 percent responded in favor of that question. I would hope as American citizens we would be in favor of defeating our enemies and that would be a common goal.

A final note on the survey, it worries me that the South as a demographic lead on all these categories. The sad thing is that an argument could be made that a majority of these beliefs could be based more on racism then actual policy. If we as Americans cannot get away from our fears our country will not grow. To become better citizens we need to move on and learn to accept our neighbors as friends and not enemies. If we do not do this personal growth, we will lose our unity as one people and be demolished by other interests.

Top Military Official for the "Removal of Don't Ask Don't Tell" and Republicans are Upset with the Answer

Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen came before the Senate Arm Services Committee and passionately stated the need to remove "Don't Ask Don't Tell" from American law. In Adm. Mullen's testimony according to the New York Times he said, “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." This statement caught everyone off guard, but a bigger bombshell dropped by Mullen really angered some Republican Senators. Mullen continued, "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”


Many Republicans led by Committee Chairman John McCain do not want to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" They believe that the system is effective. According to the USA Today, Senator McCain argued, "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy." Other fears by Republican lawmakers are the possible expansion of these terms including transgender and hermaphrodites.

The view that everyone should be treated equally should go for everything. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" should be repealed. This law is doing two things that hurt America. First, it does not allow every able body person to serve his or her country. In a time of war, our armed services need as many people as we can get. By limiting, this number because some people do want gays and lesbians in the military hurts our armed forces. Second, it discriminates against a person's sexual orientation. We are a country that has fought against discrimination on all levels and for all ideas, but when it comes to equal rights for all sexual orientations, we have fallen behind other industrialized countries.

From AOL News in an article titled, "In Israeli Army, Gays Are 'No Big Deal'" the author Linda Gradstein shows in her article that being Gay in the Israeli Army is not a big deal and it is accepted. She also says that, "The right to be openly gay has been acknowledged in the Israeli military since 1993, and there is little evidence that policy has caused any problems." AOL also ran a story on the British system. In Theunis Bates story, "British Army Actively Recruits Gay Soldiers," that the British Government is recruiting openly gay men for military service. Theunis writes about how fears were not realized,

In fact, the biggest news about the change was that it resulted in no news. Academic studies published in peer-reviewed journals found that allowing openly gay troops to serve in the U.K. had no negative impact on cohesion, readiness, recruiting, morale, retention or any other measure of effectiveness.

Here are two well trained armies with independent studies that show that openly gay members of the armed forces do not pose a threat to the cohesion, readiness, recruiting, moral, retention or effectiveness. Britain and Israel are known for their tough militaries and take pride in their accomplishments. Anything to lessen their effectiveness would be changed.

O'Keefe is Not Bringing New and Radical Approach to Journalism, but Airing Out Nixon's Dirty Tricks

This week James O'Keefe (the lying pimp from ACORN videos) and three other cohorts were caught in impersonating phone repairmen and recording it in Senator Mary Landrieu office in New Orleans. According to the New York Times O'Keefe's argument for doing this was that rumors were floating around that her office was not answering their phones to hear complaints about healthcare legislation. Landrieu's office reported that many people called in in waves and left voice messages for the Senator due to the fact her staff did not have the capacity to answer all the phone calls. O'Keefe's idea was that they would record the telephone men and record a tape of them unable to reach Landrieu's office. They were caught and arrested. All men in the group face a 250,000 dollar fine and up to 10 years in Prison.


Tampering with phone lines is not a new tactic, Nixon had men in July of 1972 to bug Democrat Headquarters. They were caught and it was called Watergate and led to the fall of Nixon. Those men’s' actions were perceived by the public as criminal actions. O'Keefe and his men followed in the spirit of Nixon's men and not in investigative journalism.

As American citizens, we need to call out the injustices perpetrated by people like O'Keefe.

Historian Howard Zinn dies at the Age of 87

Today historian Howard Zinn died from a heart attack at the age of 87. Zinn, known as a professor, author, and activist brought the plight of lower class Americans to the forefront. His crowning achievement was The People's History of the United States, a book that looked at the history of the United States through the eyes of women, minorities and lower classes.


Zinn has been an ally to the lower classes in civil rights movements and in anti-war movements. Zinn understood the horrors of war being a bomber pilot over Europe during World War II. In 2006, Zinn wrote in the Progressive anti-war articles showing his disagreement with the Bush administration and previous administrations with their use of killing civilians in the name of world peace. Reuters obituary for Zinn sums up this argument, "Once we decided, at the start, that our side was the good side and the other side was evil ... we did not have to think any more. Then we could commit unspeakable acts and it was all right."

Zinn also had some critical words to President Obama published in The Nation on January 13, 2010. He was not hopeful that President Obama would change the current system. Zinn is quite skeptical of any meaningful reform. Zinn said, "I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

Zinn's life goals were to raise the middle and lower classes of all backgrounds to have a voice and not be exploited by wealthy and the powerful. The empowerment that Zinn tried to provide citizens needs to be picked up by younger generations and carried into the next decades. Items like caring for all our neighbors around the world, fighting against true tyranny, working for a better standard of living for all world citizens, and not forget to condemn the exploitive deeds that have been done for human advancement. As a world community, we need to accomplish these goals for the betterment of the world society.