Deals Made Behind Closed Doors

Is this how the U.S.Senate writes legislation now? Do we not find it unacceptable that a small group of politicians meet behind closed doors and submit proposals for votes? Whatever happened to transparency and public input into the process?

The debt reduction debates are going the way of the Obamacare debacle. A few people are privy to what is being moved forward and everyone else is left to read the bill when it passes. In this case, a small group already put forward what is needed - Obama's debt reduction commission - yet the House passed their own version Tuesday while the Senate advances the Gang of Six proposals. Or maybe the Reid-McConnell plan.

Or, maybe President Obama will just go with the advice former President Clinton offered recently. Just go ahead on his own and ignore Congress all together.

In an article by leftist writer Joe Conason, Clinton pretends he was all in favor of working within a balanced budget template while conveniently not mentioning that it was the new majority of Republicans in Congress that demanded he do so. It was Clinton's wild adventures into Hillarycare that led to a Republican majority in Congress for the first time in 40 years, after all.

Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation’s debt ceiling “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me” in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline.

Sharply criticizing Congressional Republicans in an exclusive Monday evening interview with The National Memo, Clinton said, “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy.”

Conason touts the brilliance of both Clinton and Obama in matters involving the U.S. Constitution because both taught classes in universities on the subject.

Remember when the Democrats yelled about former President George W. Bush going around Congress at every opportunity, though it wasn't the case? Remember how offended they were that so many Executive Orders were signed and how GWB was making our republic into an imperial presidency?

Loyal Obots over at Politico are voicing concern about the non-transparent process that continues in Congress:

What kind of message does it send to the American public if the Washington political elites in both parties decide to collaborate on slashing popular entitlement programs without a debate? And what kind of message does it send if the public doesn’t get a chance to see specific governing plans before voting?

This debate that the American public is entitled to but being denied highlights the very clear divide between conservative and liberal political philosophies as they relate to our fiscal health as a nation. This is an opportunity being squandered behind closed doors and it is wrong.

We deserve better.