I come to you from Oregon with "change we can believe in." Climate change is here. The smell of spring, the smell of freshness, and the smell of hope fulfilled have rainbowed with the many flavors of love over the Beaver State. At last, equality to marry has arrived. Oregon has joined the fast growing league of states to legalize same-sex marriage. In ten years Oregon went from acrimony to matrimony. Unfortunately Congress has gone in the other direction, from matrimony to acrimony.
What once was a fraternal family, functioning as a governing body separated by degrees of ideology, but connected by respect, heated debate, and ability to compromise now mirrors a dysfunctional divorced family. Nowhere is this more evident than in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. There is no love on this committee, especially between Chairman Darryl Issa and the senior minority leader, Elijah Cummings. Desperate to please the Republican Party bosses, media echo chamber and super Pac billionaires to denigrate President Obama, Mr. Issa has resorted to grossly offensive dictatorial methods to suppress challenging debate on his committee while he conducts his "way-oversighted" investigations.
Take a moment to ponder the exact wording of the mission statement of Mr. Issa's committee:
We exist to secure two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent. And second, Americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. Our duty on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to protect these rights. Our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers, because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government. We will work tirelessly, in partnership with citizen-watchdogs, to deliver the facts to the American people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy.
Seems to me that the Oversight Committee under Darryl Issa is doing everything possible to contradict and subvert the very mission that has empowered him. I have no reason to believe that my taxpayer money Washington takes and then budgets for the House Way-Oversighted Committee is doing any thing to result in effective government, or to protect that those monies are well spent, or to bring about reform or change we can believe in. Mr. Issa has turned his committee into a mean-spirited political bully, symptomatic of the larger divide that has paralyzed our government. A resounding rebuke of the Republican Party at the polls in 2014 may embolden what is left of the more moderate wing of the GOP to forsake acrimony in favor of matrimony, and bring the governing family back together. Hopefully, it is not too late for climate change in Washington. After all, there is only limited joy in two parties being able to join forces for a common loving future in marriage, regardless of their orientation, when the two parties of government don't seem able to unite for the common love of America.