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Editorial January 21st 2010 from Editorial Director Betsy Cooke. During the 2008 campaign, President Obama and virtually every Member of Congress pledged far greater civility, transparency and integrity in government. They also promised more prudent spending and an end to anonymous earmarks and favors for special interests. In 2009, we, and others, repeatedly urged Congress to honor those commitments and to understand legislation before voting on it. The response from Democrat Congressional leaders was an insult to all Americans. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer literally laughed at the suggestion that Members should understand legislation before voting on it because they had more important things to do! Speaker Pelosi justified the secret negotiations on the health care bills saying that the many commitments to C-Span transparency were just campaign promises! Instead of eliminating anonymous earmarks, the 111th Congress included huge numbers of them in the 2010 budget. Instead of treating similarly situated Americans in a uniform manner, Congress crafted one special deal after another. In the auto bailouts, the government treated union workers vastly better than non-union workers, bond holders and local dealers. It also treated UAW members vastly better than members of other unions! Mr. Stupak was one of the few Democrats in Congress to mention the disparate treatment of different union workers but he was silent on the other disparities. There are so many outrageous special deals in the health care bills that vast portions of the final law will almost certainly be found unconstitutional. We begin 2010 by again urging all Members of Congress to honor their promises of transparency, civility, fairness and fiscal prudence and to spare us the arrogance of 2009. Tuesday's Massachusetts election results demonstrate that voters are tired of being treated as if they were mushrooms. We repeat our deeply held conviction that voters are not dim-witted. Most voters expect government to treat all Americans even-handedly. Moreover, they recognize the wisdom of Prime Minister Thatcher's 1975 admonition that governments cannot endlessly fund their programs with "other people's money" because those "other people" eventually run out of money.We invite your comments on all of our editorials. Our website, www.kxcountry.net includes the text of this editorial and explains how to submit comments to us by telephone or e-mail. Click on the link below
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