Back to Work After the Freeze

A few weeks ago in his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to put aside the partisanship that has more or less divided the government for nearly a decade and strive to work together for the good of the nation, not themselves. For me it was the first time that I can recall a President has openly acknowledged that there is partisan politicking going on and that it is disrupting the efforts (by both parties) to affect any change in the current state of the country. It's a shame that the statement seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

While driving to the office this morning, I heard a reporter on the radio remark that although the federal government was back to work (on time) for the first time in a long time (well... at least since the last two snowstorms hit the city) the reporter wondered whether it would have made any difference had the government remained open and Congress had remained in session I agree that most of what is shown on television with regard to Congressional snippets in the news, it is basically paring down what is said to soundbites but even those soundbites can be telling if it essentially amounts to the fact that liberal congressman X is upset that conservative congressman Y (or vice versa) didn't agree to back a particular bill and how it has managed to screw things up for the country.

That's great but then rather than launching into what eventually regresses into a "they said we said" type of discussion why don't they work to come to a solution? Has the political spectrum shifted so drastically that it is impossible for congressional leaders to work together or even come to a compromise? The middle ground seems to have evaporated over the years and it seems that most congressional leaders take the George W. Bush approach that you're either with us or you're against us. While that's great for showing your loyalty to your particular party, that doesn't do anything for Joe the Plumber or anyone else for that matter.

I don't blame Joe the Plumber for being upset and feeling used because that's exactly what was done to him. He was used as a political pawn in the last Presidential election and once it was done then he was forgotten just like all the talk that was given about working with the President (whoever it is) to come to a solution to return our country to a path of success. While the words are great to hear and probably do well as soundbites, I'd like to see Congress take a little more action. The economy didn't tank at the tail end of Bush's second term; it was on the decline well before then so to say that this is a new problems is a fallacy. Now over a year into a new administration, with efforts underway to stabilize and jumpstart the economy, do we really need to regress to the political name-calling and posturing that got us into this position in the first place?

Both sides need to compromise and both sides need to work together to find a solution. I certainly hope that while our congressional leaders sat at home during the recent snowstorms they paused to look outside at the workers digging out their driveways. I doubt that there was a single Congressional leader who actually took shovel to hand for anything other than a photo opportunity. I hope that they did look out there to see the people who do the hard work and who are really strapped by the current state of the nation and I hope it inspires them to take a fresh look at how they can improve the situation. We need more action and less talk. With the amount of hot air most of our Congressional leaders tend to put out, I'm surprised it snowed as much as it did in Washington.