ungovernable

Under the title, "It hasn't been pretty" the Economist reviewed the status of the health care reform bill, before the Massachusetts debacle. As everyone knows, the Economist is not exactly a liberal or left wing publication. As a rule it sides with conservatives and although it is not as extreme as the Wall Street Journal, it is usually in the same camp.

Reading the article makes it plain that the US is undemocratic and coming close to being ungovernable. The results in Massachusetts only add more evidence here. One senator will block a bill that was approved -albeit in different incarnations- in both houses. And that senator is part of a very small minority yet he will stop the majority in its tracks. Clearly democracy is dead. If that doesn't worry you, wake up.

The article lists four key issues. First is the undemocratic nature of the US Senate. With two senators representing each state, regardless of population size, the Economist points out that 41(sic) senators from the 21 smallest states, representing 10% of the population could band together and block any bill.

This perverse consequence (sic) of the Senate's make-up may never have been so apparent as now, due to the second issue, extreme partisanship. More than 7 out of 10 votes in the Senate are party-unity votes according to Congressional Quarterly. There are no more compromises being made in the US Senate. That is why we are approaching ungovernability.

The third issue is lobbying. This was also pointed out by others. According to the Centre for Responsive Politics $425 million was spent in the first nine months of 2009 to induce modifications in the bill. Former CMS commissioner Thomas Scully gave a talk recently where he pointed out how the Obama administration had struck deals and paid off hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and the health-insurance industry before the bill even took shape.

What this shows more than anything is who really controls the legislative process in this country. It is not the will of the people, but the interests of multi-billion dollar corporations that comes first. Without such horse-trading the bill would never have made it to the floor.

So whatever you think or learn about Congress making laws, rest assured that these laws have already been vetted and adjusted to make sure that the real powers get what they need. This is de facto a oligarchy of corporate big-wigs making law.

Lastly, not to be forgotten, is pork. Pork is the item that usually gets the most bad press, and it is certainly a nuisance item and something that adds unnecessary cost and complexity to the process. But pork is not a threat to democracy. It is also an order of magnitude less evil the other three issues.

We can be idealist all we want, but we won't create a government without pork. There will always be pork or benefits that representatives bring home to their constituents. One could safely argue that pork is of the essence in democracy.

However you feel about pork, it simply doesn't work to build a government without it. So stop worrying about pork and focus on the real issues that threaten this country.