Town Hall Meetings and the Constitution

The Framers wanted the House of Representatives to be just that, a representative body, not a group of near permanent political professionals that except for a brief time in their early years had never held a real job in their lives. So where does this group of mandarins get their wonderful expertise to dictate to the rest of us? Apparently since they have no expertise themselves then it must come either from their advisers or from hubris. Their advisers are themselves professional bureaucrats who circulate around capitol hill floating from one office to another, not even necessarily sharing the political philosophy of the elected officials that they serve yet given a good deal of trust to influence policy. I doubt this is what the framers had in mind.

This morning I attended my congressman's Town Hall meeting. Unlike many it was a civilized affair despite the obvious presence of printed signs and an organized group of pro-government health care advocates. Perhaps being in a clear minority discouraged them from being more disorderly, or perhaps it is just the nature of the Shenandoah Valley people to act respectfully. It didn't hurt that Congressman Goodlatte was respectful to all and heard out even the longest winded and least coherent questioner. One of the things that makes me respect Bob Goodlatte a lot is that ability to empathize with those he does not agree with. He heard everyone out and carefully distinguished things he agreed with from things he didn't and he didn't shut down the dialogue. I think that takes a special kind of temperament. I'm far too combative to do it very well even though I try. I want to jump on the fallacies, question the data and hurry to a judgment that would be better drawn if all was taken more slowly and carefully.

Goodlatte was clear in seeing health care as a real need and supporting diversity in its delivery so that people can have choices. The model he prefers is the one which government workers get, a selection from a large range of private insurance plans. This lets people get what they need as determined by them. A single payer, one plan fits all, government approach will not only be incredibly inefficient, it will deny people the plans that they have that fit their needs. The some 10 million who currently don't have health care insurance coverage and can't get it, would wag the dog and the result would cost more and lead inexorably to poorer health care for all. I hope Goodlatte succeeds, but I think he knows it is an uphill fight.

The Constitution? — Bob supported a bill that would require bills to include an explanation of how they are allowed by the Constitution. That's not much, but maybe it's a start. Currently the entire health care debate is about arguably unconstitutional powers that can be found nowhere in the Constitution. SEE HERE for an interesting article on the constitution. The tenth amendment reserved powers not explicitly delegated to the Federal government to the several states. We've long since betrayed that amendment and it will be at our peril if it continues. That came up at the meeting, but was not explored enough. We need to stop the Federal power grab before our liberty is swallowed up.