The healthcare debate: What does it portend for future legislation?

David Brooks wrote an interesting column in which he pointed out that members of Congress, and especially the Senate, are not able to connect personally to write legislation and solve America’s pressing problems. He attributes this to being confined to warring camps, little interaction to resolve issues in the Senate “club” and a change in the dynamic.

Many have griped for a while about the lack of comity, the decrease in a “family-friendly” Congress, the increased propensity of members to campaign not just vigorously, but negatively, against one another. They have become less colleagues and more competitors, less policymakers and more gladiator politicians.

When I worked in the Senate for Idaho’s Frank Church, it was a very different place. There were still very strongly held opinions on both sides, but there was a sense of camaraderie and fairness. There was, most importantly, a driving desire to get things done, to solve the critical problems the nation faced. That often meant real coalitions and real compromise in order to pass legislation, not just score political points.
 
What bothers me about what we have experienced this past year is that the future could get worse. Approval of Congress is below 20 percent — AIG probably does better than that! So few people have confidence that Washington can solve the big problems, they have almost given up. And so have many in Congress.
 
Think about it. How will we solve the problem of our budget deficits when we won’t attack entitlements? Or won’t reform the tax system? We know where Social Security is headed. And Medicare. We know pension and retirement savings are terribly underfunded. We know our education system is slipping badly. We know our states are going broke and cuts are on the way for essential services — firing teachers, shutting down schools, laying off police and firefighters. We have put off infrastructure changes, such as the building of high-speed rail, for decades.
 
Can Washington tackle these problems head on, or will it kick the can down the road, play politics, watch the pendulum swing back and forth so fast it can’t help but create voter whiplash? Will we actually fan voter anger in this town because we fail to confront these tough problems? The public is asking the very simple question: “Why did we elect you in the first place if you aren’t going to deal with energy and the environment, entitlements and deficits, Social Security and Medicare, education and infrastructure, Wall Street and the economy?”
 
Sure, the problems are not easy, but they are going to get a heck of a lot harder as each year passes and Washington is paralyzed. We better find the key to the gridlock. Voters have had it, and it isn’t about Democrats or Republicans, it is about the system not working.