Gridlock on Capital Street

Charles Klein

There comes a point in one's political life that he becomes just completely and utterly irritated with the legislative process. Do not let the Schoolhouse Rock video fool you! There is nothing fun nor exciting for that matter about the process. Moreover, if the video was done in scale to the amount of time it takes for a bill to become a law, it would be longer than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Titanic combined.

During the year 2008 many promises were made to us by politicians seeking election. One of which was a guarantee made by Barack Obama to introduce health care reform that would solve the problems with Medicare and Medicaid and get our budgets back on track. While Obama has kept his promise by placing health care on the top of his to do list in 2009, the representatives that we believed would help bring such reforms to bear have failed.

The reason that this particular issue is important to me is because my family, like many others in this country, is struggling to meet the financial burdens of having two children in college. I know that I am going to the most expensive school in the nation (as is my sister) and I am truly thankful for the opportunity that has been offered to me by George Washington University. My father just recently spent five and a half weeks in the hospital due to issues concerning his kidneys and blood pressure. The reason that he fell into such a state of disrepair that he required a hospital stay is because he could no longer afford the prescriptions that he needed to take in order to keep his blood pressure under control. He did not qualify for any disabilities nor is he currently eligible for Medicare, and without a job he has no health insurance.

Watching how the country has taken to the idea of a public option has sickened me. I know that there was a healthy minority of folks that did not like Obama nor did they support his domestic agenda. What surprises me so much is that the Democrats/people who did vote for Obama now seem to be hypercritical of the policies they voted him and their representatives to enact in office. The fact that the Democrats reaching a broad agreement on health care reform is newsworthy illustrates exactly what I am talking about.

Aside from the effectiveness of state run media in Europe, there yet more things that Americans may learn from our comrades across the Atlantic. John Oliver, while speaking at the Economist event that was held at the Jack Morton Auditorium last weekend, referred to Britain's National Health Service as their "n" word. He remarked that they get to use it, but its a dirty phrase for any American politician to say. An idea that ought to be more morally repugnant is how in the wealthiest and best country on Earth so many of its citizens cannot get the health care they need in order to survive.

Such a moral imperative for action has yet to result in much of anything in the gridlock that has become our legislature. Even with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a sweeping majority in the House, those who free rode on the promise of change we can believe in have failed to deliver one of their major campaign promises. I remember thinking on November 5, 2009, now I will be able to be proud of the things the government I elected into office will do for me. Instead now a year later I could not feel much more pessimistic about the process.

I certainly hope that health care reform gets passed and every citizen of our great nation will be able to get the care they need. For now I will have to accept the small gains of having a leader who does not say things like, "Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning."