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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1997)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon. uoregon.edu Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: darkwing uoregon.edu/-ode Perspectives EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Kickler editorial editor Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Doug Irving HI Partisan bickering covers up POLICY FAILURES ^ PER <7/ 4 AN EMERALD EDITORIAL As Congress breaks for the year, a number of incomplete tasks mar its performance What happens when you put several hundred politicians in a pair of small rooms? Do they engage in productive dis course, coming up with well reasoned solutions to the na tion’s myriad problems? Or do they bicker like spoiled children who need their diapers changed? If Congress is any indication, the latter is the answer. The congressional session has ended for the year (politicians get long vacations; they don’t have to return until January), and now is the time for political pundits to weigh in with their views on the whole fiasco. We would hate to be left out of the gathering. Every year, analysts lob the same complaints at our nation’s leaders: They fought too much over issues like the budget and the environment. We certainly agree that Congress has behaved poorly over the past year, but our objection isn’t to their squabbles over important issues like the budget. In fact, we think Congress got along all too well when it came time to reward the rich with capital gains tax cuts and punish the poor with slashed social services. Despite the usual partisan postur ing, Congress agreed on most of the big issues this year. They agreed that continuing corporate welfare is good and that continuing individual wel fare is bad. They agreed that the mili tary, in the midst of an apparently traumatizing peace, needed even more money. Above all else, they agreed that a balanced budget would be a great thing and proceeded to ensure the economy would take care of that on its own (assuming Alan Greenspan doesn’t get his way). If Congress had fought a little more about continuing to hand our country over to corporate interests, we would u U have been hap pier. Instead, members of Congress squabbled over the issues they ought to agree on. Lack of decorum is nothing new for a leading legislative body. Some countries see violent fights break out on the floor; here, the best we man aged was when one representative shoved another. The most obvious failure of the ses sion was the leaders’ inability to put campaign finance to a vote, much less agree on a plan. Instead, the two parties shouted increasingly loud ac cusations of unethical money raising. In particular, Republicans grilled anyone who had ever spoken to Bill Clinton and Al Gore, accusing the ex ecutive branch of the biggest scandal since FDR tried to sell us to the Com munists. If the hearings proved any thing, it’s that taxpayers could think of better things to spend their money on. What the hearings didn’t prove is that Clinton ever broke the law; in stead, they suggested the law itself was broken. Clinton didn’t do any thing the rest of Congress hasn’t aone; he just has the misfortune of having done it on tape and with less class. If Congress was sincerely interest ed in stopping the sort of fund-raising fiascos it’s hounding Clinton for, it would have ended the accusations and started passing real reform, such as a federally funded campaign pro gram. Instead, Congress ensured that it can only snipe at itself, banning privately filed ethics violations. Similarly, Congress failed to pro vide any coherent plan for reforming the Internal Revenue Service, despite the agency's own admission that the IRS needed to be fixed. And Congress didn’t come close to either revising or passing the tobacco settlement even though both state and industry lead ers have agreed on it. To some extent, this can all be uiuuiuu uii jJumibQi fighting. But given that Congress was able to pass a pro-business budget despite bickering, that explanation seems inadequate. Realistically, petty fighting within Congress only serves to distract the media, the public and even members of Congress from the political reality under which our Legislature oper ates. Politicians pretend to disagree about issues like finance reform be cause it looks better than admitting they agree on one fundamental point: None of them want to sacrifice their jobs or bank accounts. So, we are upset that Congress fought so much this term when they could have been passing important reforms. However, we also suspect that if Congress had not been fight ing, we would be rather frightened by the reforms it managed to create. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may besent toode@oregon.uoregon.edu READERS VOICES How would you evaluate the ASUO’s performance this year? r-"zzzmzzsmm ...—^-- - “I think they’ve done a pretty decent job. I feel like the ASUO makes some deci sions that are not nec essarily what the ma jority of the student body wants. On the other hand, I’m not sure the student body makes their voice known to the ASUO, so it's kind of a catch 22 ” Josiah Jones Visual Design “I haven't really been exposed to the deci sions that are being made, and from what I do read in the Emerald, it's usually a lot of opinions about what's right and what's wrong with what the ASUO is doing instead of the facts, and so I’d say from what I do know they’re doing a pretty good job." Emily Meve Environmental studies wmamvmmm ■a-’n “I don’t know what they do because I’m a transfer student and this is my first term." Paul Kulawiak Undeclared “I think they’ve per formed well. I think they’ve performed the duties that were assigned to them by us." Nathan Buehler Business m ms? “I think they’re doing a good job, especial ly with the printing thing.” Soon Qwon Business/Japanese “Actually, I haven’t noticed that much of their presence be sides the printing thing, and I’ve no ticed their voting dri ve. Not that they’re not doing good, I’m just less aware of their actions. They’re not as visible for peo ple who are walking by. “ Kristen Reindel Japanese “I thinkthe ASUO has done just about as good a job as you can expect the stu dent government to do. They haven’t done anything to standout, but they haven’t done any thing really stupid ei ther." Brian Diamond Journalism Quoted “It is a mindless bureaucracy that uses rules instead of brains.’* Oregon State Uni versity Professor John Gardner, who is blind, in re sponse to a U.S. Department of Ed ucation decision to reject his grant ap plication because it wasn't double spaced, in Tues day's Oregonian. “Thecoofcsand custodians in the U.S. Senate cafe teria know Ron Wydenbyname, and he seems to know most of reporter Harry Estew.mamas sive centerpiece story on Page One of the Guard Tues day, theday after terrorists killed 65 peopleatan We are challeng ing old and estab lished businesses like newspapers, travel agencies, automobile deal ers, entertainment guides, travel guides, Yellow Page directories, magazines and over time many other areas, ...We must devise ways of working with them or winning away their cus tomers and rev enue streams, ... We must be ag gressive." From a Microsoft internal memo, quoted in the No vember-December Columbia Journal ism Review,! guess they left out the "we will bury you” line, “People who are good at this busi ness are not sim ply voyeurs. We are people who live the hip life, people who partic ipate as well as ob serve." Trend forecaster HaysunHahn, quoted in the No vember-December Utne Reader. So basically, they like to make fools of themselves, as well as watching othersdothe same.
