The Republican Congress and its Budget Dance

To nobody's surprise, the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives set about breaking the furniture. After their Constitution-reading stunt to open the new session (to which few of them paid attention), they forged ahead on their great crusade to cut the budget. Grab the green eyeshades and sharpen the red pencils! This government costs too much, they cried. We got trouble right here, with a capital T, and that rhymes with B, and that stands for Budget!

And like Harold Hill, the con man in "The Music Man" who inspired that memorable line, the Republican leadership is selling us vaporware. The Republicans care little about cutting the budget: we know this because they danced happily during the George Bush years piling up staggering deficits. I attended a "town meeting" last fall at which 13th District Representative Judy Biggert appeared. After reciting talking points about the spendthrift habits of the Democratic majority, she was asked where she was when enormous tax cuts were passed for the wealthy while spending increased under Bush. She stammered that there was blame all around, thereby avoiding responsibility, and choosing instead to carp about the cost of road construction signs.

Since Biggert won the election we're unlikely to see her again. She prefers to spend her time among banks and insurance companies, not among annoying people who bother her with stories about losing their jobs, their medical insurance, and their homes. The budget must be cut! The banks have told me so!

The Republicans came up for air this week and announced that they want to cut the federal budget by $61 billion in "discretionary spending". This means that fixed-spending programs like Social Security won't be touched, but agencies that annoy the Republicans' corporate patrons (like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission) will see their budgets slashed.

The timing is no accident. The federal government's budget process requires that a funding act be signed by March 4th. There's not much time to work out a compromise: the Republicans want to play chicken with a government shutdown like they did when Newt Gingrich led them over a cliff.

Meanwhile, China and India are eating our lunch as they build their industry and their infrastructure, and we're wasting time as we watch our industries crumble. "Liberty!" the Republicans cry. Of course, "liberty" to them means the ability to make more money, and if you and your kids get pushed off the road, well, then you got in their way. It could be that when they were robotically reading the Constitution a few weeks ago they skipped over this part:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Maybe Biggert was right. There's nothing in there about road-construction signs.

What Libraries and Health Care Have in Common: Opponents

I have a long commute to work, typically an hour and a half each way. It's been even longer this winter with all the snow. Several years ago a friend suggested that I listen in my car to recorded books. I now go through a book every week or two, and the staff at Bolingbrook's Fountaindale Library treat me like an old friend since they see me so often.

The book I just finished is "Revival" by Richard Wolffe, subtitled "The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House." Though the title sounds like an action movie, it's actually the story of President Obama's steady hand and sense of purpose as events swirl around him. The White House's "revival" was the long-delayed passage of the health-care act in March of last year. In the face of pure obstruction by Republicans, hundreds of millions of dollars spent by anti-healthcare lobbyists, and a shallow, argumentative news media, the president kept a fundamental campaign promise.

President Obama also spent several months after his inauguration in national-security sessions planning a long-term strategy for the Afghanistan war and the removal of combat troops from Iraq. He was criticized for "dithering" on the war by Dick Cheney, which was rich -- Cheney and George Bush dithered for seven years in Afghanistan. As Obama said once in a press conference, "I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." This is unlike George Bush, who didn't care much about his words before he spoke. The result was the tragic war in Iraq that Obama is now cleaning up, fulfilling his other fundamental promise.

This audiobook is one of dozens I've been able to listen to over the last few years. I wanted to go back to the library and pick up some more, but I remembered that Fountaindale Library is closed now for a few weeks to move into its new building. The new building is not just a bigger structure, but a true 21st Century facility that is certified energy-efficient and expandable for generations. It's the very definition of the common good funded by our tax dollars: a facility that expands opportunity for all of us and all of our children to read, learn, and think.

But that didn't matter much to local Republicans a couple of years ago when the library referendum was on the ballot. They argued that the library was too expensive and that the money would be better spent buying Book-Of-The-Month-Club subscriptions. Like their obstructionist cousins in Washington, local Republicans campaigned against expanding the library. But the people spoke and now Bolingbrook is about to open a technological showpiece that is not just a building full of books, but a true learning center holding the printed and electronic word in a structure that also carries a certificate of energy efficiency.

Electoral struggles for the common good, whether for health-care availability, stopping the waste of our precious military, or expanding libraries, are all long slogs. But when I think about President Obama's patience and determination in working for the common good, I don't worry so much about long slogs because I've seen that the time and the struggles are worth it.

Especially when I get to listen to a new book on my own long slog to work.

Top 10 reasons to become a DuPage Township Democratic Organization Member

10. Have fun. (We enjoy our meetings and each other.)
9. Stay informed about and involved in current issues.
8. Have your ideas be given serious consideration to solve problems.
7. Meet people of common beliefs and interests.
6. Be involved in the democratic process at the local, state, and national levels.
5. Help produce an informed electorate.
4. Network with others and perhaps prepare to run for political office yourself one day.
3. Do your part in preserving our democracy for future generations.
2. Be in the political "know."
1. Make a difference...in yourself...in your community...and in your world.