Oppenheimer vs. Dent

As government gets closer and closer to the debt ceiling, they are going to have to figure out how to compromise. According to Bruce Oppenheimer, that compromise may fail to be possible in today’s government. He discusses how good energy legislation is almost impossible to pass through Congress because Congress doesn’t care for things that have short-term costs and long term benefits. But another big reason why Congress can’t pass important legislation is because of the effects of the competitive party balance. By this, Oppenheimer meant that because the parties are so polarized and in constant competition with each other, they don’t want anything good to happen for the other party that could hurt their party in the next election. If the minority helps the majority pass really important legislation, it is likely that the majority will get most of the credit and the minority will be the party to suffer. Most members of Congress don’t want to take this risk, so big legislation is rare to pass through Congress.

When I think about Dent as a member of Congress, at first I imagine him to be the solution to the problem. He is a moderate, and sometimes he votes with the Democrats to help them pass legislation. Therefore, my first thoughts would have been that if more Congressmen were like Charlie, Congress wouldn’t have this problem. But when I think back to posts that I have written in the past, I don’t know how truthful those thoughts are. Although Dent is a moderate, like I’ve said many times he votes almost religiously with his party. On big Democratic legislation, he doesn’t support them. Take the Affordable Care Act for example. If Dent were the “solution” to the problem, he would be able to see that even though this health care reform has short-term costs and long-term benefits, that it will be really helpful to the American public. Therefore, he would side with the Democrats even if it meant their party was going to take credit for it. But, he doesn’t support the Affordable Care Act. He voted last week on a bill that clearly had undermining digs at the Affordable Care Act, a bill that allows people to keep whatever health insurance they currently have if they choose to do so.  His distaste for the Affordable Care Act may be for many reasons, but a big one is probably that he knows the Democrats will receive all the credit if this plan works out. And even though Dent is a moderate, he is still a Republican. He still has goals very similar to the majority of the Republican Party, and therefore he is just as much a part of the problem as every other Congressman. He may vote with the Democrats on some legislation, but he still doesn’t want to take any risks that would allow the Democrats to get ahead. Therefore, as moderate as Dent claims to be, he is just as much a part of the Republican Party as all the other members of his party. What we need is not a bunch of Dent’s, but a bunch of Congressmen who can put aside the feuds of the parties and actually pass legislation that is good for the American people. If Congress continues to lose sight of what the American people want, then they are going to lose a lot of their power and become an illegitimate body of government.