Ping Pong

by Thomas Paine

Well, if you haven’t heard (and you should have), Congress has passed bills on health care reform.

This is not, however, the end of the road on this legislation. What happens next is that the bill is pushed back and forth between the houses to be edited, amended, approved, and argued over. Typically, these negotiations would be formal processes, taking place on the Senate and House floors and being debated publicly. However, last time the Democratic majority allowed this bill to be openly debated on the floor, the Republican minority threw considerable wrenches in the works, stalling passage of the legislation for as long as possible.

So what’s the solution? Perform all these talks informally. This would not only allow the Dems to block out the Republicans and any pesky Independents, but keep the American public out of the proceedings!

That’s right. Remember C-SPAN, the station that covers every move within the houses as deliberations occur? Apparently, the station is being blocked from covering health care debates! We American voters are obviously too stupid and too disinterested to need cameras on our legislators.

C-SPAN went (and rightfully so) up in arms on the issue, sending this letter to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell (the Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, and Minority Leaders, respectively) requesting access to the deliberations.

Let us hope that increasing media pressure and hopefully pressure from the public - their constituents - will force the Congress to broadcast on the debates and deliberations that will so strongly affect our futures.