Before I jump into this post I want to let everyone out there know that while I am a Democrat and consider myself to be a progressive liberal (both dirty words to the Right, gasp!) I am not one of those people who thinks that my side is right regardless of anything and everything... just most of the time.
That being said, let's talk about a few issues facing our country today which are taking the center stage here in Washington. Studies show, without debate, that jobs and the economy are what people are most worried about. So... what do both sides propose??
The Democrats: Most people who believe the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) was a good idea now believe that it wasn't quite large enough. I know that's shocking to fiscal conservatives given that the amount of spending was absolutely massive and honestly incomprehensible to most of us laypeople. That's why we're seeing Obama pushing for another $50 billion bill that will create jobs in the infrastructure. Don't think of it as a new bill, think of it as the booster shot for the stimulus. Who knows, if the ARRA had an additional $50 billion when it was first passed it may have made all the different and we could be seeing GDP growth of 6% or 7%. Those numbers, by the way, are taken from Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican Member of the House Budget Committee. What that means is that if the Republicans take the House in November, he'll become the chair. He got those numbers from past occasions when our country was coming out of recessions and the Great Depression.
Let's talk tax cuts. So there are these things known as the Bush Tax Cuts. There are some that don't like people to refer to them as the "Bush" tax cuts but I can't think of what else you could call them. They were started 7 years ago under the Bush administration... hmm, we can't call them "The tax cuts that happened to be strongly promoted by the Bush white house and passed through Congress while Bush was in office." It just takes too long to say that. So anyway, we've established that they're the Bush Tax Cuts. The issue is that they're up for renewal right now. If they run out without being renewed then everyone's taxes are going to go up significantly. Obviously this would be bad for the economy, we're not arguing about that. You need people spending people in the markets to keep the economy moving forward and, hopefully in this case, growing. So clearly Congress, with its approval rating of 23%, isn't going to do anything to create extreme anger and take money out of the economy so... what to do??
The Democrats, at this point, are suggesting that we should return taxes to what they were pre-Bush for families making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000. It's the middle class that is really taking this recession hard. The suggestion of the Democrats is to return taxes for wealthy families to what they were before the Bush Tax Cuts and renew the middle class tax cuts.
Here's the math... in ten years, using the plan just discussed, we save $700 billion. Extend tax cuts for everyone, we're in debt another $700 billion.
Now it's time to give the Republicans their due, and I promise I will be as fair as I can. Today my class visited the Cannon House Office Building which is the second nicest building behind Rayburn which is where the most senior members' offices are. We were there to speak with Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, and the man who will chair the House Budget Committee should Republicans take the house in November. (Fun Fact: You don't capitalize house when you're just saying house. If you're saying the United States House of Representatives, then you capitalize it as I've just done. Same thing for the senate, and congress. You might see me mess that up, don't take it personally. ; )
Ok, so back to business. The plan that he put forth to us today, and what he says is the Republicans' main platform for the next two years consists of these two things: fiscal responsibility (ie. reining in the debt, balancing the budget) and economic growth (ie. job creation, moving us away from, what he believes, is a welfare state). When asked how he would balance the budget he said that cutting programs was at the top of the list. When asked what he would cut, he said "everything." Of course, as a Democrat, when he said "everything" what I heard was - "fire, schools, police, the arts, welfare, social security, college funding." Again, I'm a Democrat so that's what I hear and as I said this was going to be a partisan article, I'm going to give you your first assignment. I'm not going to tell you what a Republican would have heard, I'm going to have you look it up!
Here's an aside: something that I've learned about D.C. You tell people what you want them to hear, and that's it. Really though, that's it! Some of you might think that's pessimistic but I promise you, I'm one of the most optimistic people you'll ever meet and I think it's great! One reason is because as you amass all of these different points of view you'll 1) develop your own and 2) learn how to filter out what's true and what's just fluff and number 2 is a great skill to have for the real world.
People here aren't afraid to tell you who they are and what they believe. As you walk the streets you see hundreds of people who are passionate, well read, involved, dedicated, informed and they all have a different opinion!
In sum, the best part of D.C. is what's hidden in the fact that it takes forever to get anything done in our democracy. Working as a legislator is truly an honorable charge. These men and women need to:
-Maintain two homes, one in their district and one in D.C.
-Travel between the two every couple weeks
-Take care of a family
-Campaign
-Write legislation
-Sit on multiple committees
-Keep their constituents happy so they can get reelected
-Do what they believe is right
-Bring money home to their districts through earmarks and pork barreling
-Stay loyal to the party
We honestly do not give them enough credit! Going back to why legislation takes so long: these Representatives are doing everything above and still believe in government and the partisan clashes that develop arise from the fact that we have two schools of thought (there are really a lot more if you break down the parties themselves) which both believe they know what the best direction for the country is and neither side wants to slack in doing their duty to serve us; thus, compromise it a long and tiring process! They work 90 hour weeks and sleep on the couches in their offices, and they do this for us! They do it because they believe that their presence in government is the best thing they can do to serve us. So, I'll finish this blog post by saying thank you to all of our Representatives and below featuring the pictures of the two gentlemen my class met and spoke with over the last two days!
I'll see you next time!
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