Discouraged again

I seem to go through cycles of optimistic belief in Obama's greater wisdom, which then turns to pessimism and utter dismay at the tangled political/governing system that is paralyzing his ambitious plans.

My relief that the senate had finally advanced a better-than-nothing health care reform bill soon faded as I realized that that only got it to floor debate; it was still hostage to the single vote that would deny cloture to move to a vote on the bill.

E. J. Dionne, respected columnist and tv commentator, wrote about this in today's AJC. And he went after both Democrats and Republicans. Here's his main point:

What has evolved into the modern filibuster system -- where they don't actually talk all night to prevent a vote, but go through the ritual of scraping together 60 votes to avoid making the other side actually do that -- is crippling our legislative process. And it was not what the Founding Fathers intended in designing our system. They wanted the Senate to be a more deliberative body and to calm the passions of the House; but they did not mean it to be obstructionist.

Dionne asks: why, with the mandate that Obama received and the majority in both houses of congress, should so little be accomplished of Obama's agenda and so much has to be watered down even to get all Democrats on board?

He points to Republican's effective use of this process to stall and defeat Obama. One example: a simple measure to extend unemployment benefits was stalled by them repeatedly until finally enough Republicans were embarrassed and voted with Democrats for cloture. Then the bill passed by 98-0. That's right. Every one of them voted for the bill they had sought to obstruct.

What madness !!! And he also goes after conservative Democrats who threaten to derail health care reform (and other bills) because they don't want this or that provision. In effect, we're moving toward minority rule.

So, I add to my list of major changes we need to make:

1. Get rid of the influence of money in our governing system.

2. Change the senate rules that de facto require 60 votes to pass any bill the opponents might want to obstruct.

Ralph