28
Thu, Mar

Bipartisan, Bipolar Congress

ARCHIVE

ALPERN ON POLITICS-Believe it or not, and either because of or despite an American electorate sick to death of partisan politics trumping good policymaking, the legislative branch of Washington (and, to a lesser degree, of Sacramento) are actually getting things done. 

In the new, out with the old, but at least we have a Congress that (despite being more Republican than many Americans want) have leaders who work together when the time is right, as Lisa Mascaro of the Times reports. 

After over a decade of kicking the Medicare funding can down the road, House Leaders Boehner and Pelosi came up with a plan to fix a devastating round of Medicare payments cuts to physicians. 

It will cost $200 billion to reform the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Medicare funding plan that has been in place for many years (in name only, and with almost annual "fixes").  Those questioning how to pay for it, and those concerned about the deficit, and those concerned about how it will affect health care reform, are spot-on in their complaints...but this appears to be part of the answer, and is the result of weeks of Boener/Pelosi negotiations. 

Yet the greater question of health care reform is both bipartisan and bipolar--as is the greater question of Congressional relations.  Like it or not, Americans of all political stripes have problems with both Pelosi and Reid, who were Exhibits #A and #B as to why the American electorate voted en masses to either vote or not vote in a manner which established Congress as a GOP-led institution for the time being. 

Not that the nation loves Boehner and McConnell, but the anger in America appears to have dropped a notch or two--at least from the moderate center (those at each end of the political spectrum, not unexpectedly, are still rife with unhappiness and discontent). 

It's anyone's guess as to how long Pelosi will remain House Minority Leader--she's smarter than she looks, runs her troops with an iron (if not manicured) fist, but is as unpopular as she is lousy with respect to optics.  As for Reid, his description of the GOP contenders as a "bunch of losers" is a sad followup to a November 2014 election which was in large part America's statement to "throw the bums out". 

The head bum, of course, being Harry Reid.  He's wisely opted to not run for re-election, and equally wisely recommended Chuck Schumer as his replacement (many Republicans hate Chuck Schumer, but at this point his track record of working with his GOP Senate colleagues is by far better than that of Reid). 

Bipartisanship works both ways, and House Majority Leader John Boehner (to either his credit or to his discredit, depending on who you talk to), has turned his back on shut-downs and been willing to get budgetary votes passed with the Democratic minority even if it infuriates the GOP base. 

And ditto with the Homeland Security bill, which did NOT result in a government shutdown and which left the immigration issue in the hands of the courts while Congress (led by GOP leaders Boehner and McConnell) passed a funding bill that left the conservative portion of the GOP seething while also keeping our military and domestic security forces intact. 

(And how many of us are left to wonder why or how the GOP House membership allows Boehner to be in charge, unless there is one heckuva LOT of quiet voting by the GOP against the Speaker's budget bills, knowing the Democratic votes would get the job done--but allowing the Tea Party types to save political face while avoiding a blowback-causing government shutdown?) 

There are other issues that the GOP-led Congress must face, such as: 

1) The unusually-long delayed Senate confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch. After passing the House-led SGR fix, the Senate GOP members are torn between ending the era of Eric Holder (who they despise, along with many Americans) and allowing a new Attorney General with an otherwise-good tax record but who favors the presidential quasi-amnesty of illegal immigrants (which the Senate GOP members, along with many Americans, equally despises). 

2) A bipartisan Senate bill wanting more say in any Iran nuclear deal.  The same Democratic Senators who support the Constitutional right of the President to make treaties also support the constitutional right of Congress to confirm those treaties...and wonder if the President and his foreign policy team have lost their mind with respect to trusting Iran. 

3) A highway/transportation fund that is fast running out of money and risks stopping road and other transportation projects throughout the nation.  Gone is the era where GOP leaders are trying to reduce the funding, but also gone is the era where Democratic leaders are ignoring that a source for this funding must be found. 

4) Then there's the biggie:  Obamacare.  GOP leaders have moved from campaign mode to pragmatic mode, and probably the same can be said for Democratic politicians (at least those who want to move away from the Pelosi/Reid era), in that fixing Obamacare and/or creating alternatives to Obamacare, is what the American electorate wants.  Obamacare is horribly flawed, but the do-nothing era that preceded it was arguably worse. 

Other cultural and foreign policy issues remain contentious and partisan:   

1) American military morale is at an amazing, if not woefully-underreported, low.  Like it or not, American forces have been misrepresented and feel unsupported in their efforts. 

2) The question of whether it's fundamentally American to decry the nation's history and present policies, versus supporting our troops and ideals and fundamentals--including the flag--continues to tear this nation apart. 

3) There's no question that race relations have gotten worse in our nation during the era of Barack Obama and Eric Holder, who clearly wanted a monologue rather than a true dialogue on the subject.  There's also no question that many black Americans wanted a step forward beyond the divisive and self-serving Sharpton-Jackson era of civil rights, so it's likely that many will question whether President Obama ended, prolonged, or even exacerbated that era. 

4) The devastating foreign policy failures in Libya, Yemen, Syria and other nations have called into question whether this president is any better (or even worse) than the last president when it came to alienating our allies and emboldening our enemies. 

So Congress is bipartisan when it needs to be, rather than when it wants to be.  Perhaps the same can be said for the American People. 

(And a quick shoutout to Governor Brown--he's got "Democrat" written all over him, but he's made no bones of working with Republicans when he needs to, and is arguably an example of how President Obama or any other leader, be it Democratic or Republican, should be to his/her political opposition.) 

But while the Bush-Obama era of red/blue division has been miserable and problematic for this nation, there is a "Golden Hope": 

The Golden Hope that a pragmatic rejection of such division will be a theme and operating principle for the nation's next generation of political leaders...and for the next generation of Americans.

 

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the  nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]  He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

 

 

 

Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays