The Powers of Congress

The video drove home the point that a populace needs to be educated about it's government before they care about getting involved. When the character at the post office was just complaining, he wasn't thinking about the broad powers of Congress and how they touch his everyday life. Once he began reading and thinking about it, he realized that those powers are not just words on paper, but they translate into thousands of encounters with our federal government every year. I agree that people who don't know anything about how government works tend not to have a desire to participate in it.

If there was one thing I could change or improve in our legislative branch, it would be a mechanism where federal mandates to the States are not abused. It seem too easy to put on demands under the federal grants programs, but very hard to take them off. For instance, the drinking age used to be set by the States. However, the Federal transportation grants put mandates that all the States now conform to. So now the entire decision or the research or the science behind those laws is discouraged from local review, in practice. The decision is federalized and therefore is out of the hands of States, Municipalities and other local governments who won't even discuss the issue, which mean that the People cannot weigh in with as much direct say into the matter. This is just one example of how the Federal government has become unduly dominant over the States.

The No Child Left Behind mandate is another example, where the Federal government is forcing all the States to rework curriculum and testing but not even given them the resources to do it. Some of these mandates seem like they are just the form of tyranny that the founders tried to protect us from. I would like there to be some sort of accountability for Federal laws, where they have subject to review and where the States can take a firm hand on their own laws whenever possible. If inititives and innovation is encouraged among the States, then maybe some of the lethargy and obstruction to change that is discussed in Chapter 11 could be avoided.

Picking my First Fantasy Congress Team

When I picked my initial team members, I first selected experienced Members who had a strong track record on voting for important human rights issues because that is my top priority. I find that foreign affairs is an area where a person is challenged to be independent, to follow one's heart, and you often have to choose between Bad and Worse, rather than Good or Bad. Issues like human rights and war and foreign aid and helping people around the globe can bring out the best in people, and that was why I went with Joe Biden, John McCain, Tom Lantos. These guys are gutsy leaders who I have learned to respect since I first became familiar with their actions during the violent and tragic breakup of former Yugoslava and the war in Bosnia . Also, I picked people who I consider to be "change agents" such as Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters and my rookie from ILL, Rahm Emanuel. I am going to be curious about is whether the Presidental candidates are too busy campaigning to tend to their Congressional duties!

Healthcare a Pressing Issue

The most pressing topic in American politics today is healthcare. To begin with, we now see that many of our cultural habits are, in fact, unhealthy. Alcohol, fast foods, sugars, fats and chemicals are being consumed at every level of society and we see illnesses ranging from cancer to diabetes to heart failures being attributed, at least partially, to the lifestyle choices of our people. We also have genetically engineering foods that are showing up in the food chain. We see the effects of pollution in respiratory diseases. The aging population is confronting American families with more seriously ill elderly people, many of whom become totally dependent on others for years.

Because the national government has a role in helping maintain the basic health services to the poor and low-income, through Medicare and Medicaid, the funding of national health-related initiatives is critical, and growing. According to Sen. Edwards campaign, over 47 million Americans U.S. are without insurance, and those people tend to use emergency rooms for their care. I think that the government must play a very large roll in making sure that our health care system is robust and effective.America needs to invest in the infrastructure of clinics and hospitals. There should be a national commitment to build thousands of local health clinics that serve smaller populations based around neighborhoods.

We need to help fund the education of health care workers. There is a serious shortage of nurses and the private sector isn't keeping up with the demand. As baby boomers retire, the number of nurses is expected to drop very dramatically, so this is a time when a national initiative to partner with industry to bring in new trained medical workers. Currently, the cost of education is so high and the academic standards are so restrictive, that it's hard to see how the "free market" will bring in the workforce needed. And nurses aren't the only ones in short supply, the number of physicians is dropping as well. Again, the costs of education for doctors is tremendously expensive, and we need a national commitment to bring in lots more people and from many social-economic backgrounds so that they can serve their own communities.

There is a pressing need for health education and the public sector ought to be involved. Unfortunately, the "illness industry" is a lot more lucrative than the "healthy life style" industry, and the government ought to be far more involved in promoting and educating our populace. The concepts of preventative treatments and changing lifestyle issues such as more frequent doctor visits, and making them more affordable, are needed in order to bring the people into the social contract of taking responsibility for their own health. We also need to boost research in alternative medicines and diet and healthy living options and to put this information into the education system, beginning in the earliest grades, so that we raise a more responsible and educated populace. These topics can and should be part of the curriculum of public education, which is another area that the government is involved in.

Just one small example of this would be to examine all the contracts for soda and junk food machines that are on practically every college campus in America. The school boards know that obesity and malnutrition are a problem, but walk into any college bookstore and you are hard pressed to find any "real food" being sold. Because so much public money goes into our public schools and universities, it seems that a national drive to improve the food offered on these sites could be in the public interest.The funding of single-payer insurance, or "universal coverage" and other plans are being debated among the Presidential candidates. One thing is certain, the federal and state and local governments are all going to be pressed to address our national health issues, and it's going to take a lot of resources. But if the national makes this a commitment, we may see how "an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."

My Fantasy Congress Team: "ChangeAgents"

Upper Senators: John McCain (R) and Joseph Biden (D)
Lower Senators: Hillary Clinton (D) and Ken Salazar (D)
Allstars: Tom Lantos (D) and Maxine Waters (D)
Supporting: Barbara Lee (D) and Tom Udall (D)
Rookies: Rahm Emanuel (D) and Carol Shea-Porter (D)

to see my updated listing: http://www.fantasycongress.com/members/team_info?teamID=76708

Intro

I am a return student and have a plan to transfer for a degree in music education. My main goal is to help return arts education back into the public school system. I have a lifelong interest in politics, ecology and the peace movement. My parents came to the U.S. in 1957, with three young children and a desire to leave the scars of WWII far behind. From my dad I picked up an internationalist/humanitarian point of view. From my mom, well -- she was a counterculture beatnik so I picked up a liberal view from her. I am married and my husband and I own a business, our second one in twenty years. My son is a freshman in college, so hopefully we'll get our degrees about the same time!
This summer, I joined a bluegrass band as a guest vocalist and guitar player. It was great fun. We played nine gigs and I learned a lot of beautiful music, some of which was over 100 years old. Bluegrass music often has political overtones, with laments over the Civil War, the Dust Bowl migrations, and the lives, the loves and the religions of common people.

Here we are at the Ananda Ashrama in La Crescenta. The band is called the "Bluegrass Billionaires."