It amazes me that the congress does not appear to have what it takes to institute genuine and far reaching reform in the face of repeated scandals and revelations from pure bribery to the veiled version in the form of campaign donations for favorable legislation.
One Senator, David Dreier, the mouthpiece of what looks to be a weak effort, claims the Republicans are the party of reform now that it is in vogue. My question is, where have they been and what have they done over the past six years of the Republican Congress? Federal spending has increased more under George Bush than under any recent president. Does K Street run the country? The party of limited government and Ronald Reagan is now the party of huge new government programs and gifts to big business.
Only a few brave and forward thinking senators have been pushing reform throughout their time as elected officials. John McCain is looking more and more like the man in the right place at the right time. Rather than being on the outside with an unpopular issue, barely getting an audience with Cheney on campaign finance reform six years ago, he is now in the middle with the issue everyone wants to talk about. Tom Coburn is also now the man on the inside with a hot issue. He has correctly tied the plague of Earmarks as one of the root issues in lobbying reform.
If these two senators and their supporter can push through a package of real reform that breaks the back of the shadow government, a.k.a. Lobbyists, and puts a halt to the latenight insertion of illegal amendments to previously approved bills, then we may see a slowing or even reversal of federal spending.
Until our elected officials quit treating the federal treasury as a grab bag, and learn the meaning of ethics, there will not be any reason for the American people to vote for them or vote at all. Is it any mystery that we have some of the lowest voter turnout in the world because the two parties are simply two sides of the same coin?
Wake up Congress. The time has come to do the right thing and say no to special interests and get back to the ideals of the Republican party of years past.
