The path to enacting significant legislative measures in the Congress has become a war of words.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be honest, the American people are at risk with political logjam.\u00a0 We are facing tough economic times and look to leaders to offer creative and results-oriented ideas to the electorate.\u00a0 We have needed a decisive march to the end goal of making government work for the people through a demonstrative series of compromises.\u00a0 After all, the political system establishes a majority and a minority so that parties will work together.\u00a0 This means that our legislators and the voters must be deeply engaged, responsive and understood.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s health care summit at the Blair House in Washington sought to step aside the war of words, roadblocks and ideally break the barriers that have stalled comprehensive health care reform.\u00a0 We heard a lot from our officials in DC\u2026repeated critical mantras outside the scope of the agenda, budgetary inaccuracies, a sense of urgency and hope, and a repeated attempt to deconstruct criticisms.\u00a0 While I was impressed with the smarts of the President and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), it was clear that Sens. Lamar Alexander\u00a0(R-TN) or Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Barrasso (R-WY), as well as Reps. John Boehner (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) wanted to stage a political theater featuring a \u201cbroken government,\u201d a \u201cfederal takeover\u201d of health care, and ultimately a lack of urgency to reform health care.<\/p>\n

As a former congressional staffer, I spent many late nights drumming up talking points, stump speeches and message pieces.\u00a0 I drafted them to advocate for key ideas and to be a supportive player with like-minded colleagues on the issues.\u00a0 I understood it as a tool to identify a position and stand by it.\u00a0 Now, I see it as a way to engage beyond emphasis, but a tool to propagandize important concepts that stall movement.\u00a0 The President asked for a conversation before the American people and got a lot of red-faced speakers using the technique of argumentum ad nauseam<\/a>. \u00a0With the cameras rolling, the invitees took their sides and used continuous repetition so that media outlets can replay it for the American people to accept as fact.\u00a0 Advocating for legislation has grown from mere emphasis of subtle concepts to flashing headlines, bold bylines, and ultimately a real fear spreading among concerned voters who are not deeply engaged in the dialogue.<\/p>\n

The summit was widely known as a last-ditch effort by the President to place his leadership stamp on health care reform.\u00a0 Reform means change.\u00a0 Voters must understand what stake they have in the process and what is at issue for them.\u00a0 That is why a televised working summit was a smart idea. Let\u2019s see what happened<\/p>\n

The Republicans and the health care industry as a band of bad boy opponents have sought to trap the President in an impasse.\u00a0 In making opening remarks, Senator Alexander likened the health care bill to a \u201ccar that can\u2019t be recalled and fixed and we ought to start over.\u201d\u00a0 Kudos go to the legislative aide from Tennessee for selecting the car analogy.\u00a0 It sounds appropriate given the current problems with Toyota, but it does not add to the discussion one bit.\u00a0 In fact, I find it frustrating and am sure many others do too.\u00a0 The President duly offered that the Senator was entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts.\u00a0 The President was gracious to appreciate the Senator\u2019s time and also smart to isolate the reality that there is really one set of facts regarding the health care issues.\u00a0 By doing so, this should have kept the momentum moving forward.\u00a0 However, more finger pointing opened the door to more criticisms.\u00a0 The President offered the only reasonable response possible that going \u201cthrough a list of things they don\u2019t like\u201d won\u2019t get much done.\u00a0 The notion of hammering the negative only sends a message of animosity and unwillingness to stand for any reform.<\/p>\n

The President defended the transparency of talks by letting Senator John McCain (R-AZ) know that they are no longer campaigning and it\u2019s time to stop stumping a straight talk speech at the summit.\u00a0 As the Republican rival in the 2008 presidential race, McCain told the President that the bill was flawed with \u201cdeal-making,\u201d a stand against special interests.\u00a0 The Senator knows that compromise does not come with the wave of a magical legislative fairy\u2019s wand.\u00a0 It requires sitting down and hashing out important differences and outlining ideas that they can agree on. \u00a0The President let McCain know that \u201cthe election is over.\u201d And McCain said \u201cI\u2019m reminded of that every day.\u201d\u00a0 I wish McCain had articulated a positive proposal, a hint toward reform, or anything other than a total shutdown.\u00a0 McCain could have offered a serious exchange on the legislative ideas. \u00a0Now that is the straight talk I want to hear.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t rehash the whole set of various talking points from the summit for you.\u00a0 You can watch a feed on the White House\u2019s website or even CNN without interruptions.\u00a0 If you have not, I encourage you, and then let me know what dialogue you expect from our leaders.\u00a0 The summit exposed the spectrum of dialogue\u2014impassioned off-key talking points, speeches, and some real exchange of ideas to agree upon in a reform package. \u00a0The President stated his intent to discuss an agenda of reform, to see what officials can agree on and where to move forward on those differing ideas.\u00a0 To me, that is deliberative good work.\u00a0 I learned a lot in the working session about the Congressional Budget Office scoring, proposed cost increases, and Medicare Advantage.\u00a0 I do not support \u201cjamming (the bill) through on..a partisan vote\u201d as Senator Alexander rejected in his opening statement.\u00a0\u00a0 But, there have been many opportunities to make a stand for being a team player and real actor in reforming our flawed system of health care.\u00a0 That is why there will likely be no scrapping the measures backed by the President and the Majority to start over.\u00a0 This move would reward road-blockers, validate the effect of pesky sound bites that scare seniors, and wind the debate in a dead end once again.<\/p>\n

I say it is time to take a giant leap toward the passing the bill in the annual reconciliation measure that requires a simple majority vote.\u00a0 Congress will have some work to secure that vote, but that is why the Majority earned its position and leadership.\u00a0 The President wanted to clarify for the American people what the debate is all about.\u00a0 Negative talking points get in the way.\u00a0 The gaps toward change were exposed to show that talking points for serious election-year politicking does not lead to common ground.\u00a0 An attempt was made to have a discussion actually a discussion and not just trading talking points. Now is the time that the legislators enact health care changes.\u00a0 I am ready to move past words and see some action!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The path to enacting significant legislative measures in the Congress has become a war of words.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be honest, the American people are at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,113],"tags":[698,2485,39],"yoast_head":"\n