Congress is getting ready to adjourn for its annual August recess. Members will be scattering to the four winds, back to their respective districts or states. Most -- the brave ones, anyway -- will be conducting listening tours, or a series of town-hall style meetings. With that absence, there's good news and there's bad news.
First, the bad news. The halls of Congress will be vacant and eerily quiet. No work will be getting done. No legislation will be passed. Wait a minute – correction - that is the good news. No manufactured, maniacal grin from the Speaker, saying, “We'll have to pass the bill, so we can find out what's in it.” No shady, back-room deals being cut. No special interest groups peddling influence. No union thugs twisting arms and breaking kneecaps. Nothing that will make our lives more complex or costly. The bad news is that the break will last only one month.
Now that August has arrived, for some reason, I've been thinking a lot about my one brief encounter with listening tours. It was the summer of 1991, and my boss conducted just such a tour – 25 counties in as many days. After a few introductory remarks, and a few questions about the current legislation before the Congress, each meeting would inevitably turn to, “What are you going to do for us ________?” You can fill in the blank – it could be teachers, farmers, veterans, doctors, lawyers, Indian Chiefs, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, it didn't matter. The list went on and on.
Our member, being the polite and diplomatic person he was, answered each one of those with grace and tact. All the while, I was screaming in the back of the room – under my breath, of course – something about doing a few things for themselves. That is why I could never be elected to Congress. I would probably start screaming, for real, and show up on some YouTube video gone viral.
Speaking of YouTube videos, I doubt this will ever happen, but here's one I'd love to see. A constituent asks his member of Congress, “What are you going to do for us _________?” To which the member replies, “If you are truly in need and truly unable to help yourself, then I believe it's appropriate for the government to give you a helping hand in every possible way. Otherwise, there really is very little that the government can do, that will truly improve your lives, that you can't do on your own.”
The member would continue, “Our great nation was founded on the principals of self-reliance and a good, healthy reliance on our Creator. Self-reliance fosters self-esteem, while unnecessary, over-reliance on Big-Government is demeaning, degrading and enslaving.
I don't believe it's my job to confiscate your wealth, by way of taxes, only to send it back to the district in the form of entitlements...or for a highway or bridge project that will someday bear my name. I do believe it's my job to represent your interests in Washington. That, to me, means that I will always vote to keep government limited. I will vote to keep taxes at a minimum so you're in charge of your own money. I will vote to keep government off your backs and out of your way, so you can live your lives on your own terms; so that you have the incentive to do whatever it is you do...and do it with the excellence that exemplifies the American spirit.”
If your representative has the courage to say these things, and means them, do three things. First, send him or her back to DC. We need them more than ever. Second, put the video of it up on YouTube. Third, call me, because I really want to see it.
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Congress is getting ready to adjourn for its annual August recess. Members will be scattering to the four winds, back to their respective districts or states. Most -- the brave ones, anyway -- will be conducting listening tours, or a series of town-hall style meetings. With that absence, there's good news and there's bad news.
First, the bad news. The halls of Congress will be vacant and eerily quiet. No work will be getting done. No legislation will be passed. Wait a minute – correction - that is the good news. No manufactured, maniacal grin from the Speaker, saying, “We'll have to pass the bill, so we can find out what's in it.” No shady, back-room deals being cut. No special interest groups peddling influence. No union thugs twisting arms and breaking kneecaps. Nothing that will make our lives more complex or costly. The bad news is that the break will last only one month.
Now that August has arrived, for some reason, I've been thinking a lot about my one brief encounter with listening tours. It was the summer of 1991, and my boss conducted just such a tour – 25 counties in as many days. After a few introductory remarks, and a few questions about the current legislation before the Congress, each meeting would inevitably turn to, “What are you going to do for us ________?” You can fill in the blank – it could be teachers, farmers, veterans, doctors, lawyers, Indian Chiefs, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, it didn't matter. The list went on and on.
Our member, being the polite and diplomatic person he was, answered each one of those with grace and tact. All the while, I was screaming in the back of the room – under my breath, of course – something about doing a few things for themselves. That is why I could never be elected to Congress. I would probably start screaming, for real, and show up on some YouTube video gone viral.
Speaking of YouTube videos, I doubt this will ever happen, but here's one I'd love to see. A constituent asks his member of Congress, “What are you going to do for us _________?” To which the member replies, “If you are truly in need and truly unable to help yourself, then I believe it's appropriate for the government to give you a helping hand in every possible way. Otherwise, there really is very little that the government can do, that will truly improve your lives, that you can't do on your own.”
The member would continue, “Our great nation was founded on the principals of self-reliance and a good, healthy reliance on our Creator. Self-reliance fosters self-esteem, while unnecessary, over-reliance on Big-Government is demeaning, degrading and enslaving.
I don't believe it's my job to confiscate your wealth, by way of taxes, only to send it back to the district in the form of entitlements...or for a highway or bridge project that will someday bear my name. I do believe it's my job to represent your interests in Washington. That, to me, means that I will always vote to keep government limited. I will vote to keep taxes at a minimum so you're in charge of your own money. I will vote to keep government off your backs and out of your way, so you can live your lives on your own terms; so that you have the incentive to do whatever it is you do...and do it with the excellence that exemplifies the American spirit.”
If your representative has the courage to say these things, and means them, do three things. First, send him or her back to DC. We need them more than ever. Second, put the video of it up on YouTube. Third, call me, because I really want to see it.
