Today I read some political news that truly cheered me. No, really. It turns out that public outcry — ordinary citizens calling and writing their elected Congressmen — turned back an egregious attempt by certain Republicans in the House of Representatives to substantially loosen ethics rules:
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said during a break in the meeting that the “indictment rule” was restored in part because of complaints that members had heard back home. “Constituents reacted,” he said. “We’re blessed with a leadership that listens.”
[snip]
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) called the planned ethics changes “a grave mistake.”
“Those of us who were here in 1994 remember we gained our Republican majority in part because we argued that as public servants, we have a responsibility to the American people to maintain the highest standards of conduct,” Shays said.
Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said: “Even for Republicans, this proposed change was unconscionable. The issue simply became too hot for them to handle, so they had to drop it.”
There are other ethics rules changes still under consideration, so if you think Congressmen being held to ethical standards is good — and keep in mind how many of them ran on a platform that stressed “values” — be ready to write some email.
But before you hit send, there are two other issues where your elected officials need to know your opinion. The media says the two big issues for this Congress are Social Security and judicial nominees.
As important as judicial nominees are, it is also important to look at the fellow President Bush has nominated for the other side of the bench, Attorney General Nominee Alberto Gonzales. As you form your opinion about this man, you must remember that he is the fellow who helped write the rules on interrogation techniques that are in use at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo. You also need to know that the White House is trying to gloss over that fact. They wouldn’t hide it if they were proud. Regardless of what you think of the people being held in those facilities, the fact remains that anything we do to them becomes fair for enemies of our nation to do should they capture American soldiers as Prisoners of War. If you need a reason why torture is bad, there you are.
The other thing that your elected officials need your opinion on is Social Security. There is still some hope among moderate Democrats that a truly bipartisan solution to “reform” can be made. I think such appeasement strategies are doomed to failure. Private Retirement Accounts are not going to work. If the goal is to increase the amount of retirement funds Joe and Jane Average has in the stock market, then increase the amount they can contribute to their IRA, but don’t pretend diverted Social Security money won’t be eaten by fees and unpredictable returns. A terrific summary is available from a guy I generally don’t like, Mark Cuban. A choice bit:
[W]hen companies were given the chance to make investments to meet their obligations to their pensioners, they were unable to do so. They had the option of taking on more risk, or playing it safe. They took on the risk and lost…. [W]hen it was all said and done, when corporations took on the job of investing for the financial security their retirees, they were unable to do so. They are now turning to the government funding of The Pensions Benefit Guaranty Corp with the expectation of being bailed out. If the experts that run our pension system had the expectation of financial protection by the government if they failed, do we really think that all of us wont have the same expectation?
The other thing to remember about what we are told is an impending Social Security Crisis is that the nice folks at the Social Security Administration have been aware of the Baby Boomers for quite some time. So they have taken the surplus they have now and put it in nice, safe United States Savings Bonds. This leads economists such as Paul Krugman to say:
The short version is that the bonds in the Social Security trust fund are obligations of the federal government’s general fund, the budget outside Social Security. They have the same status as U.S. bonds owned by Japanese pension funds and the government of China. The general fund is legally obliged to pay the interest and principal on those bonds, and Social Security is legally obliged to pay full benefits as long as there is money in the trust fund.
There are only two things that could endanger Social Security’s ability to pay benefits before the trust fund runs out. One would be a fiscal crisis that led the U.S. to default on all its debts. The other would be legislation specifically repudiating the general fund’s debts to retirees.
That is, we can’t have a Social Security crisis without a general fiscal crisis – unless Congress declares that debts to foreign bondholders must be honored, but that promises to older Americans, who have spent most of their working lives paying extra payroll taxes to build up the trust fund, don’t count.
It is time to make your voice heard. Write your Senator and Representative. After that, if you’d like something literally fluffy to think about, here is a map of library cats around the world.