Opening Remarks:
Hi, I’m Gina Cooper, the Political Outsider. Today I’m talking about the governing philosophies of incrementalism and do-nothing-ism, and how those methods are inadequate for addressing today’s big challenges.
“Health Premiums up 131% in Last 10 Years.” That’s what the San Francisco Chronicle headline read last September
when the average family premium for employer based health insurance officially crossed the $13,000 mark. 5 months later, Anthem Blue Cross announced that they would be raising their premiums, as much as 39% in California, even though it’s parent company, Wellstone, reported a profit of $2.7B last year.
It doesn’t take an expert in Health Care Policy to figure out that the American public is being fleeced, that these costs are unsustainable, and that citizens need something bigger than themselves to fight back.
The day before he would give the Republican’s opening remarks at the President’s Health Care Summit, Senator Lamar Alexander noted in “Roll Call” the DC newspaper that tracks legislative news and other happenings on Capitol Hill, that, quote, “The Senate doesn’t do comprehensive well.” The former Tennessee Governor repeated his assertion the next day in front of the cameras, arguing for incremental health care reform and to “start over”
I heard Senator Alexander repeat these short-comings of the Senate for a third time last Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week:” He said, “I've watched the comprehensive immigration bill, I've watched the comprehensive economy-wide cap and trade, I've watched the comprehensive health care bill,
they fall of their own weight, because we're biting off more than we can chew in a country this big and complex and complicated.”
Senator Lamar Alexander is known as one of the most bipartisan members of the Republican Caucus. For example, last summer he broke with his own party and announced his support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Washingtonians on both sides of the aisle respect him for his sincerity, and while he was Governor of my home state of Tennessee, he was a good, honest governor.
Governor Alexander came into office during a period of scandal--he was actually sworn into the governorship early because his lame duck predecessor
had to resign. He was all about integrity and effective government. Seen as a moderate by Tennessee Republican standards, his governorship was strongly opposed by the more conservative members of his own party.
As Governor, Lamar Alexander was not a man afraid of new ideas. He challenged the status quo. But his main idea today
seems to be that government always tries to do too much. This is an old idea, one that was the guiding principle of the last decade and a governing philosophy that got us absolutely nowhere. We've tried not doing anything comprehensive. We’ve tried piecemeal reform. It hasn't worked, and the public has rejected it.
If the problems are as complex as Senator Alexander says, and I believe he is right about that, then addressing the individual pieces effects the big picture. And that cannot be ignored. Big problems require big solutions. And by big I mean creative, not bureaucratic. Lawmakers of all stripes must have the intellectual fortitude to question old assumptions and think anew.
Switching gears, currently there are nearly 300 Bills that have passed the House of Representatives and are waiting for up or down votes from the Senate. Most of these bills are non-controversial. They range from minor but important legislation, such as the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal for the 100th Infantry Battalion in World War II, to more pressing concerns such as the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act and, the latest, the Health Insurance Industry
Fair Competition Act, which would repeal the anti-trust exemption enjoyed by the folks bringing us 39% rate hikes while making billions in profits.
Many of these bills awaiting a Senate vote passed the House with broad bipartisan support. For example, The Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act that I just mentioned passed the house a whopping 406 to 19 votes. So why are those bills just sitting there in the Senate, leaving government in suspended animation?
On the opposite end of the Republican spectrum, opposite Lamar Alexander’s philosophy of incrementalism, is his Republican colleague, Senator Jim Bunning. Bunning’s philosophy can be boiled down to two words - “do nothing.”
Senator Bunning has been making the news lately by blocking bipartisan legislation that would extend needed benefits to individuals and small businesses.
So lets take a comprehensive look
at the consequences of blocking an up or down vote on this legislation.
First, at a time when unemployment is skyrocketing, and for the first time in 20 years, construction for highway projects has been halted.
Also, while vehicle safety problems seem to be higher than ever before, 2,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Transportation are being furloughed.
As states struggle to make ends meet, federal reimbursements are not being delivered to state treasuries.
And small businesses are going without loans they need to run their businesses
while workers who lose their jobs are being denied unemployment benefits, and subsidies to help them keep their health insurance.
As you can see, not addressing one problem feeds into others.
When confronted by his colleagues who overwhelmingly support this legislation,
Senator Bunning replied, “Tough S dash dash T.” When an ABC reporter asked Bunning why he is blocking the legislation, the Kentucky Senator flipped him the bird, suggesting the message he wants to send has less to do with deficits and more to do with his own indifference to reason.
Americans know we are at a point of crisis. What they want from their government is decisive action that will stabilize the institutions they depend on and assist individuals in the interim. What they don’t want is a government that fails to rise to the challenge, one that lacks the courage and creativity to make tough decisions,
saying “slow down” or “start over”
while each passing day adds both to our national level of anxiety, and to the further entrenchment of the problems that threaten to cripple us.
What they also don’t want is a government that belligerently gives America the finger, denying responsibility for doing anything at all.
Solving today’s problems depends on our lawmakers ability to abandon old discredited arguments, reject the philosophy of obstructionism and do-nothing-ism, and muster all the creativity and intellectual capital they possess.
As a nation we must be bold and think anew about how we can meet 21st century challenges, because the old ways are not working.
I'm Gina Cooper, the Political Outsider. You can check out my work at MiddleCoastLLC.com
and my thoughts as a regular citizen turned political strategist at ginacooper.com.
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