Friday, September 23, 2011

Lamar Alexander: Thank You

I hardly ever agree with Republicans. I can't stand their position on healthcare, abortion, environmental regulations, rights for homosexuals and the role of government. Recently, I have pushed myself farther left in reaction to the polarizing right shift that Congress and the administration has taken in the last year. Everything from rolling back public health regulations to focusing a debt debate on an imbalanced package of cuts without entitlement reform or a long term source of revenues have shown me that Congress is too dysfunctional to create progress and pass legislation to help those who are most in need.

The focus in Washington has been to create an environment where "job creators" can find enough "certainty" to start hiring workers. Well, that's what Republicans have been saying. In a recent interview with NPR, Finance Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that short term incentives like payroll taxes and a "second stimulus" don't give "job creators" enough support to start hiring. He used this point to justify a rollback in regulation and a massive tax cut for the wealthiest (IE, the "job creators").

As for those who were affected the most by the recession and the state and national service cuts, he said that his policies will "widen the pie" so more people have opportunities to return to work. The problem with this approach is that it is a long term fix at a time when a short term solution is necessary. For the poor and middle class, infrastructure jobs and incentives like the payroll tax cut will allow for short term job growth while leadership in Congress can deal with long term fiscal health, like deficit reduction, regulation reform and changes to the tax code.

This blog is related to the partisan rancor that has enveloped Congress, pushing it's approaval rating to the low teens and spotlighting polarizing figures like Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) while completely ignoring statesman like John Kerry (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ) and the subject of this blog: Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

Lamar Alexander is a Republican Senator from Tennessee. The 71 year old has recently announced that he will be stepping down from his position as the 3rd most powerful Republican in the Senate to "get the best results on the issues [he] care[s] about" which means that "you have to get some people from the other party to agree with you or you don't get 60 votes."

Thank you.

No truer words have ever (well, maybe not in the last year) been spoken. Here is a Senator (a Republican, no less) who is known for bucking his own party in the face of stern opposition (and cowardly name calling). He worked across the aisle on the failed energy and climate bill, he voted for the START arms reduction treaty, he worked on the "Gang of Six" deficit panel, worked to find suitable areas for nuclear storage with Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and even mentioned that he was open to supporting "increased revenues" as a part of a deficit reduction plan.

There are many areas I disagree with Alexander on. But, at a time when the debate has become so toxic that bills to fund disaster relief are being held up by fiscal orthodoxies and presidential candidates are calling the Federal Reserve treasonous, it is always nice to hear that some Senators want to get something done.

Here's the video from the Senate Floor:

Friday, September 2, 2011

Political Center: Where Hast Thou Gone?

Barack Obama was elected on a wave of optimism. Starting from his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, to his response to President Bush's State of the Union Address in 2006, it looked as if the Democratic Party had found a superstar.

And, they did.

He ran an extremely successful grassroots campaign, raised hundreds of millions of dollars (pre-Citizen's United) and energized young voters. I was one of those voters.

But, the hazy days of malaise are starting to creep in, and I have become disillusioned. Let's take a look at how things have changed:

Obama's post-partisanship rhetoric was something I latched onto when he was elected. To me, this meant that he was going to work across the aisle to create bipartisan legislation that would grow the economy, protect the environment, ensure our national security and get us out of the recession that he had inherited.

He started with the stimulus package, which enjoyed bipartisan support.

Then, he went to universal healthcare, which was a campaign pledge. The debate over the healthcare law was so caustic, that it rendered any Bush era rhetoric almost benign. It passed, barely.

Then he took on energy, stumping for a bill with a cap and trade scheme for pollution reduction. He used stimulus money to encourage the growth of the Renewable Energy and to make Carbon Capture and Sequestration economically viable for coal-fired power plants. It never passed.

Then, he took on financial market reform. The Dodd-Frank Bill and the CARD Act passed, along party lines. The rhetoric and the partisanship was getting to extreme levels at this point.

Still, I blamed the TEA Party and extreme wing of the Republican party for manufacturing apocalyptic scenarios if any of these reforms were passed. I defended Obama as a president who attempted to work across the aisle, but was shut out.

Then came November. Republicans took the House and nearly won the Senate. Obama would try to pull a Clinton. The problem: the economy was faltering, a government shut down was looming and he still had to raise the debt ceiling.

What did he do? He put propositions on the table and compromised every balanced approach to end up with a one-sided, Republican monstrosity:

He kept the Bush tax cuts
He abandoned his "grand bargain" of a balance of taxes and cuts
He opened more lands to offshore and onshore oil drilling
He let the BLM auction off coal mining in the Powder River Basin at the "competitive" rate of 0.90/ton (sales rate is around $12-13/ton)
And recently...he told the EPA to withdraw smog and ozone standards. Ozone and smog formation is very dangerous for public health.

The president I elected in 2008, defended in November, 2010 and tolerated in most of 2011 has finally forced me to think outside of the two-party norm for 2012. I really don't want to be in the position, but his appeasement and acceptance of non-centrist Republican ideals has forced me into this state. I can no longer defend him without sacrificing my own principles.

No matter what he does, he will always be criticized by Republicans. There is always an election to win and a party platform to shore up. If he opens up lands for drilling, they will say he hasn't done enough. If he allows for increased coal mining, they will say he is waging a "war" on coal. If he withdraws important, life-saving standards under the guise of "regulatory burden," they will say he is killing business. There is compromise, there is centrist and then there is Obama. Republican? Democrat? Who knows....