SAME OLD ...SAME OLD - Nothing Really Changes in DC

1/8/2011

SAME OLD .....SAME OLD

This week in Washington, D.C. things changed.  They Did?  During the Italian revolutionary wars of the 1860's a cynical supporter of the Garibaldi forces had a slogan “If things are to remain the same, things must change”.

The President is changing the people around him.  His new chief of staff is the brother of the retiring Mayor of Chicago (that’s the office the old chief of staff is running for) and Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce (big friend of big business) William Daley; his new Director of the National Economic Council will be Eugene Sperling, an aide to Treasury Secretary Geithner (another friend of Wall Street)who held the same job under Clinton. A crew of Wall Street oriented economic advisers.  But things change?

The House of Representatives is now controlled by Republicans - Pelosi is out and John Boehner is in as Speaker.  Things are changing?  The first vote will be a bill to repeal the 3000 page HealthCare reform law, without a hearing and without amendments to reform the law just a repeal (that can’t pass the Senate - so it’s a political show vote.)  Isn’t this the same process we heard the Republicans so loudly blast last year.  It’s getting like a soap opera just regurgitating the old plots.  But things change?  Oh, there will continue to be no public access to committee attendance records (can’t check on whether your representative showed up for work) – no change there.

The Senate which could at least require that a filibuster actually occur rather than just allow Senators to call them in and require the sixty vote cloture - and could at the very least require Senators to publicly bloc nominations or bills (not put an anonymous hold on them so no one knows who’s responsible for the hold) -- is going to negotiate these minor changes among Dems and Reps who won’t agree on any alterations to the current rules. The one change that had some Republican support was held up by one Republican – Alexander of Tennessee.   At least in the Senate, when they are done wasting a month talking to each other privately, - they may admit publicly that things aren’t changing.

So while Americans wait for Change and for Jobs - Obama, Boehner and Reid/McConnell give them more of the Same.   America needs a President like FDR , a Henry Clay type Speaker and a Lyndon Johnson style Senate Leader.  Don’t hold your breath!