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Trick or treat?
By Seymour Klierly Public opinion polls usually don't mean much, unless it suits your purpose or you are the one who paid to have the poll taken. For this column, recent polling data supports my purpose so I'll use it. According to a CBS News poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans believe Congress has accomplished less in its first six months than usual. Furthermore, a Washington Post-ABC News poll reports only 39 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. That is pretty low considering the electorate voted for new Congressional leadership just eight months ago. Maybe the reason for this lack of support and trust is the result of years and years of leadership relying on tricks and stunts to push agendas. For examples of this, all one had to do this week was turn on CSPAN-2 this past Wednesday morning around 3 a.m. Minority Leader Harry Reid kept the Senate in session all night to debate the Iraq war and more specifically an amendment that would require our troops to withdraw. Again, the substance of the debate is not in question, but the motives are fair game. What some fail to mention is that coincidently, at the same time the Senate convened an all-nighter, a left-leaning political interest group held a nationwide lobbying campaign. Hundreds of their members had traveled to D.C. to protest the war. How lucky for them that the Democrat leadership in the Senate planned an all night Iraq debate. The real question for Senator Reid is, would this all night debate have taken place if this interest group had not been in town and coordinated their events? If you look at the record, the votes taken throughout the night were merely procedural, not substantive. So what was the point of keeping the Senate in session? Perhaps it was merely a publicity stunt intended to paint senators as working hard to find solutions to difficult situations instead of actually working together to find solutions. "Tricks" like these are not limited to the Senate or to national defense policy. Over on the House side, Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson pulled a few "tricks" out from his sleeves as well. This week the full House Ag Committee started their mark up of the farm bill. The first day was limited to opening statements of the 46 committee members. During his statement, Republican ag leader Bob Goodlatte criticized the chairman for moving to a mark up without extra money for the bill. Miraculously, later in the day, Chairman Peterson announced that Speaker Pelosi and the House Ways and Means Committee had "found" $6.5 billion for additional nutrition and renewable energy spending in the farm bill. The $2.5 billion is to be spent on renewable fuels and would come from increased taxes on oil companies. Another $4 billion of the new money is targeted for nutrition programs, however; the Ways and Means Committee isn't clear about what accounts would decrease or whose taxes would increase to supply this infusion of funds. Again, a nice "budget trick." The impression that is given is that this money was "found" and now can be used to pass a farm bill. Anyone who has been reading this column and others can tell you the need for additional money for the farm bill is not a new development. Leadership has had months (five to be exact since CBO released the funding baseline) to find money or raise money. Now, on the day the House committee in charge of the bill begins voting, Democrat leaders announce new funds. Again, how convenient... When will congressional leadership understand that the electorate sees through their attempts to tout disingenuous "tricks" as "treats" to the American people? Date: 7/18/07
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