Commentary: Politics As It Was

by Tom Howarth
Originally published in the Northern Virginia Daily, February 22, 2016.

Takeaways

• The genius of our Constitution is that it provides a framework for organized argument, but to work, we must have a degree of civility. 
• Modern legislative achievements illustrate this point. The battles over air bags and preventing alcohol-related highway deaths brought legislators with strong philosophical differences together in the interest of serving their fellow citizens and their country.
• After Newt Gingrich became House Speaker in 1996, Republicans were told they could not support a bill sponsored by a Democrat. Republicans who crossed party lines were driven out.  
• Compromise has been a dirty word ever since, and that’s why our government is not working.

Government in the United States is an organized argument. The genius of our Constitution is that it provides a framework in which to carry on the argument. However, in order for our government to function, there must be a degree of civility.

The authors of the Federalist Papers knew that farm states would clash with shipping interests and inland states would clash with coastal areas. Through checks and balances the interests of the individual states, clashing with the interests of the others, would produce a resolution that all states could accept at least temporarily.

Times change and the Constitution changes with the times but quite slowly. Our system of government is designed to be slow and stable. Sometimes our system is too slow but that is the price we pay for stability. If our Constitution did not change, women would not be allowed to vote, senators would be elected by state legislatures and blacks would still be enslaved.

Constitutional government assumes that at the end of the day we are countrymen despite our differences.

In the mid-1980s, there was a great debate on putting airbags in American automobiles. Today, airbags are standard equipment in cars but this safety device came after substantial political battles.

Republican Sen. John C. Danforth was a lonely voice in the cause of airbags. In 1982, New Jersey elected Frank R. Lautenberg, a Democrat.

Lautenberg joined Danforth in an uphill fight for airbags. I was Sen. Lautenberg’s legislative assistant with responsibility for highway safety. During a debate on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Danforth declared that on this issue the liberal Democrat from New Jersey was “my strong right arm.”

Senators Lautenberg and Danforth agreed on a few, but only a few, issues. One day they would be fighting together against drunk driving; the next day they would be on opposite sides of a debate on the federal budget. That is how our system works. A friend one day can be an adversary the next.

There are rules of the road. The first rule is: disagree without being disagreeable. Respect your adversary with the assumption that at the end of the day you both love your country and want the best for its citizens. Now we disagree and are disagreeable.

Where did we go off the rails? A deep distrust of government set in after Vietnam and Watergate. Bitter partisanship came to full flower with Newt Gingrich. It was no longer enough to disagree with your opponent, now you had to label liberals as traitors and corrupt. Politics was no longer about demographics but ideology. Republicans who crossed party lines were labelled RINOs, Republicans in name only.

Could a Republican member of Congress survive today if he referred to a Democrat as “my strong right arm?”

I worked for many years with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). MADD could not afford to be a partisan group. In fact, people would marvel that MADD’s support was as likely to come from Joe Biden as Strom Thurmond.

MADD’s cause of setting the definition of intoxication at .08 blood alcohol content (.08 BAC) was sponsored by Sen. Lautenberg in the Senate and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York, in the House. After Gingrich became House Speaker in 1996, MADD sought support for .08 BAC from Republicans who had previously supported the bill but we were told that they would not support a bill sponsored by a Democrat. This experience was new to MADD. It never mattered what party you were from. Drunk drivers did not ask for your party registration. Drunk driving is an equal opportunity killer.

The .08 BAC effort enjoyed broad support in the Senate garnering 65 votes but it was not brought to a vote in the House because of inaction by the Rules Committee under control of Speaker Gingrich. Subsequently, .08 BAC became the law of the land through the efforts of Sen. Lautenberg and former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, who chaired the Appropriations Subcommittees on Transportation in the Senate and House.

The British journalist Alistair Cooke did a documentary called “America.” He concluded by citing what made our country work. He said, “Compromise, compromise, compromise.” Compromise is a dirty word to many of our current members of Congress and that is why our government is not working.

Tom Howarth was a transportation aide to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a lobbyist for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  He is a member of the Warren County Democratic Committee.

Learn more about the Warren County Democratic Committee at www.warrencodems.org

Letter to the Editor: New GOP health plan: Sick need not apply

by Margret Straw
Originally published in the Northern Virginia Daily, April 29, 2017.

Takeaways

• The latest version of Trumpcare includes concessions to appease the Freedom Caucus that make an already bad health plan even worse.
• New reductions in benefits are detrimental, but reductions in protections for pre-existing conditions render Trumpcare either useless or prohibitively expensive.
• Inequity is rampant in Trumpcare, on both individual and state levels.  Older, less-healthy, and poorer individuals have more to lose. On the state level, Medicaid expansion will be phased out and transformed into inadequate block grants, leaving states to pick up the tab without the benefit of health-related taxes.
• It's time to demand more from our representatives.

Editor:

Last month, I wrote that Trumpcare was health insurance for the young and wealthy. I need to update that opinion as the details of possible new amendments to that Republican plan become public. It is now going to be insurance for the healthy, young and wealthy.

In order to appeal to Freedom Caucus members, the latest proposal allows states to both reduce the benefits and to reduce protections for those with pre-existing conditions. In the new plan, someone who has already been diagnosed with a disease can be charged a higher rate for insurance. That’s right: if you have diabetes, hypertension, cancer, arthritis, or any other illness and you buy your insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace, you could be faced with unaffordable insurance under this plan or you could be shuttled into a high-risk insurance pool. Those pools have repeatedly failed in trials across the states, usually because they don’t have enough funding to make good insurance available to people who need it.

Let’s review. The American Health Care Act (Trumpcare) is likely to result in 24 million people losing coverage over the next 10 years, it phases out Medicaid expansion in states that have it now, it turns Medicaid into a block grant program (either per enrollee or a fixed figure for the state), which analysts say will shift huge costs to the states, it will increase the cost of insurance for older people, poorer people, and those living in high cost states, and it cuts various taxes that are actually important to the long-term financial health of Medicare. All that, and now we find out that in states that pursue a waiver, those with pre-existing conditions will have to pay more for insurance.

Trumpcare was a bad deal for America before the latest amendment and it is a worse deal now. There is still time to stop it. People need to call their congressman and call the White House to ask for a better plan.

Margret Straw is a former AARP researcher with a special interest in health and long-term care issues and a member of the Warren County Democratic Committee.

Learn more about the Warren County Democratic Committee at www.warrencodems.org.

Trump fiddles while the planet burns

by Laura Kelly
Originally published in the Northern Virginia Daily, Thursday, April 27, 2017 

Takeaways

• Warren County is home of the Superfund AVTEX site in Front Royal. The Shenandoah still carries elevated mercury levels and air pollution creates haze along the Skyline Drive. 
• Our streams and mountains are at risk under a Trump Administration effort to “defang” the EPA. Manmade climate change is readily visible: increasingly destructive storms, forest fires, dying reefs, and rising sea levels. 
• The EPA is our best option for maintaining existing air and water standards. If we permit the agency’s mission to be curtailed and its ability to craft solutions eliminated, our generation will be infamous for choosing convenience and profits over the right of future generations to live with clean air and clean water. 
• The EPA is considering climate-damaging deregulation now. You have an opportunity to use your voice to oppose these dangerous proposals. Search for “Your voice in federal decision-making” and oppose changing regulations to permit more pollution. Our ability to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and our tourism industry are at risk.

In February of last year, Fox News published an opinion piece titled “It’s time to get rid of the EPA,” in which author Bill Wilson asserted that “false data” and “fuzzy science” were used to justify the Clean Air Act and to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. In the intervening period, it has become abundantly clear which political party has been peddling “false data” and “fuzzy science” to push their profit-driven, anti-environment agenda. Now the Trump administration wants to make that absurd headline a reality. Imagine the GOP’s delight if they are finally able to realize their dream of “de-fanging the EPA,” leaving our rivers, forests, mountains, and the very air that you and I breathe, at the mercy of corporate polluters as a toothless watchdog lies dead at our feet.

A strong Environmental Protection Agency is critical to maintaining existing standards for safeguarding our environment, as well as recognizing new threats and crafting appropriate responses to those threats. In Warren County, home of the Avtex Superfund site, we are already battling problems with pollution-driven haze on Skyline Drive, and mercury in the Shenandoah River. Impeding or halting the EPA’s ability to perform its duties is a gross misuse of the current administration’s power and a disservice to our region, our country and the entire planet.

We can see the grave dangers posed by man-made climate change with our own eyes: increasingly destructive storms, forests burning out of control, dying reefs, rising sea temperatures, suffocating marine life, melting ice caps, rising carbon dioxide levels, and extinctions of species. Climate change deniers whisper soothing “alternative facts” so that we make no objection as they poison our water in order that a handful of CEOs can pocket bigger bonuses with greater ease. They hypnotize us with “fake news” so that we nod compliantly and accept the trillions of dollars in costs our older selves and our children will pay to deal with the consequences of living on an increasingly volatile planet.

Most Americans recognize and acknowledge the impending danger, but those in power today are willfully blind. Future generations will look very unkindly on us if we refuse to take action to minimize climate change when the danger has been so clearly identified by science. Our generation will live in infamy as the most foolish and selfish in the long history of humanity if we choose convenience and profit over a healthy planet for future generations.

Our window of opportunity is closing. We must act quickly and decisively to head off the devastation bearing down on us. The first step in doing better is to restrain those who would cause us to do worse. The EPA is considering major deregulation now, and citizen have the opportunity to submit comments. Do a web search on “your voice in federal decision-making” and tell the Trump administration that the American people insist on preserving and strengthening the EPA. We expect our leaders to demonstrate a genuine commitment to making the Earth a stronger, healthier planet, starting now.


Laura Kelly lives in Warren County, Virginia.
Learn more about the Warren County Democratic Committee at www.warrencodems.org

World worries about fate of science

by Steve Foreman
Originally published in the Northern Virginia Daily, April 26, 2017

Takeaways

• There is widespread concern that our current government is led by lawmakers who disregard facts.
• Scientists are trusted more than politicians.
• A Republican was responsible for many important early environmental initiatives, but our current leadership is engaged in an all-out assault on reason.
• For the sake of greater profits and convenience, corporations and powerful men discard EPA regulations that protect the public.
• American democracy was inspired by the Enlightenment.
• We were once the leader in science and progress, but we are now being cheated by a short-sighted focus.

On Earth Day, thousands felt compelled to take to the streets in support of science. There is widespread concern that our current government is led by lawmakers ignorant of the concepts of reason and objective truth that science brings to the world. They are ruled instead by an overwhelming need for control at any cost and conspicuous disregard for facts. This march was in support of science, reason, scientific research, and their contributions to our modern world.

Scientists are widely trusted, far more than politicians. According to the Pew Research Center: “About three-quarters or more of Americans are confident in the military, medical scientists and scientists in general to act in the best interests of the public. But fewer than half of Americans report similar confidence in the news media, business leaders and elected officials.” Politicians, business leaders and the media are ranked well below.

What concerns brought people to the streets? Surely the contributions of science speak for themselves, are self-evident enough that we need not fear their disregard? For centuries science has lit the way for humanity, leading us out of the darkness, from “a world lit by fire” as author William Manchester described it, to a world where most individuals carry computing power unimaginable decades ago. We see across the universe to the beginning of time, manipulate atomic structures, develop cures for diseases plaguing humanity for centuries. Everything is touched by the explosion of reason and research, by the questioning and objective analysis of the scientific method.

On the first Earth Day in 1970, the environment was just beginning to receive recognition, as part of a widespread people’s movement toward personal freedoms and global awareness. Nixon, a Republican, was responsible for many environmental initiatives, including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and a National Environmental Policy Act requiring environmental impact statements on all regulations. Maybe this was partially a cynical attempt to divert attention from Vietnam, but significant progress resulted. The air and water became cleaner; science became more involved in curbing pollution and solutions to environmental issues. Earth was given some respect.

The current leadership of our republic has caused world citizens to be concerned about the fate of science in America. Obstruction and ignorance have gained precedence in public thinking. The assault against reason is not new with the current leadership, but it has intensified. For years, there has been denial of global warming, alternative theories about evolution, doubts about vaccination, blockage of stem cell research, widespread dismissal of observable facts. Even economic theory is subject to wishful thinking, with dogma replacing verifiable results.  With the Republican monolith fed by years of misinformation, deceit and dark money, they have managed to spread distrust about government, and involved science in conspiracy theories about government. Somehow scientists all over the world have collaborated to create a conspiracy for the sole purpose of siphoning off research money and dragging the American economy down. Worsening droughts, heavier precipitation, extreme storms and a steadily rising global temperature are not proof of serious problems. The fossil record set in stone is open to debate when it comes up against cherished faiths. Stem cell research offended some folk’s sense of propriety despite offering hope and cures to many, so was neglected. Progress has been obstructed by a lack of imagination, adherence to dogma, and resistance to change.

Profits are one reason to deny the science. Businesses and corporations and powerful men, in the guise of creating choice and enhancing freedom, promote the discarding of regulations protecting the public. Dark money is used to spread disinformation about the climate.  Agencies are prevented from fulfilling their assigned duties of serving the common interest.

American democracy and the document that designed it were inspired by the fresh winds of reason and science spurred by the Enlightenment. The Republican Party speaks loudly about loving democracy and the Constitution, but is the greatest offender when it comes to questioning the rule of reason. Challenging science and progress may seem expedient, showing short-term savings. The new budget threatens to under fund the EPA because it inconveniences business interests. Basic science research funding may be cut, educational opportunities reduced, and medical research curtailed.


Note that these powerful people denying environmental protections and progress are more sheltered and least affected by climate catastrophes. America, once the leader in science and progress, is being cheated by a short-sighted focus. Progress is being denied and the future compromised.

Steve Foreman is a writer, an IT specialist and Chairman of the Warren County Democratic Committee

Learn more about the Warren County Democratic Committee at www.warrencodems.org

Don’t buy what GOP is selling

by Margret Straw
Originally published in the Northern Virginia Daily, April 21, 2017 

Takeaways

• The GOP wants to decrease costs for health care by depending on market-driven tools ill-suited to the available methods of purchasing health care.
• Under these circumstances, consumers/patients are not on a level playing field, and will find it difficult to be informed about the costs associated with treatment options.
• The key to bringing down costs is to seek expertise from within the industry, not through political ideology.

You can save a lot of money by shopping around for your new phone or television.  Retailers clearly compete for your dollars.

Can competition in the free market work the same way to bring down health care costs?  Republicans in Congress are banking on it as they promote health savings accounts and suggest that a good way to reduce insurance costs is to have high deductible policies so that consumers spend their health dollars more wisely.  The problem with this approach is that health care purchases are very different from most other consumer choices.  When we decide to make a major purchase, most of us do shop for the best price.  With health care, that is virtually impossible.

 

Costs for the same treatment from the same hospital depend completely on whether you have insurance and what rate the insurer has negotiated.  Costs for the uninsured are usually far higher than those paid by insured consumers.  Costs aren’t made public.  And sometimes, total costs are unknown until after diagnostic work; even then, the first tests may require more tests to figure out what is going on.  So, shopping around for health care is tough at best, especially if you are uninsured.

 

Perhaps the most important distinction from other consumer purchases is that you are probably making the biggest and most important health purchases when you are sick.  The last thing you need to do during a major illness is worry about cost comparisons.  Those of us who have had major illnesses or helped family members through them know that most people are not thinking very clearly when they are seriously ill.  It is hard to simply take in the various treatment recommendations, let alone stop and ask about the costs of each.  When hospitalized, consulting physicians that patients have never seen before come and go throughout the day.  Most patients don’t even know their specialties, let alone whether they are “within plan.”

In other words, the traditional free market model just does not apply. Unfortunately, our congressional leaders are trying to solve the health cost problem by assuming it is just another consumer choice.  We need Congress to rethink this approach.

 

Rather than rushing to make changes to the Affordable Care Act based on a flawed approach, Congress should convene health care experts to review the current system and make recommendations for bringing the cost of care down.  This is a time that politicians should step aside and let those who understand this hugely complicated system come up with a strategy based on what works, not ideology.

Margret Straw makes her home in Warren County.  Prior to retirement, she was a senior research fellow at AARP.  She has been following health and long-term care issues for many years.

Margret Straw is a Warren County resident.  Prior to retirement, she was a senior research fellow at AARP. Margret is also a member of the Warren County Democratic Committee.

Learn more about the Warren County Democratic Committee at www.warrencodems.org