Today's Issues: The hottest profession on Capitol Hill

For months now, Congress has devoted an extraordinary amount of attention to the health care reform bill making its way through Congress. The debate over health care appears to have the stamina of the Energizer Bunny. Before health care took center stage on Capitol Hill, climate change legislation, more commonly referred to as cap-and-trade, ate up the most of Congress's time. There is an underlying motive behind the two landmark bills.With all of these hot-button issues on the Democrats' to-do list, is it possible to enact effective legislation? The answer is most certainly not. The easiest way to explain this is to look at the gargantuan health care and climate change bills and at the process of passage they went through. The price tag for this so-called health care reform bill comes in at $1.2 trillion.

First of all, the final bill that was printed and ready for passage was not even released three days prior to Saturday's vote. I seriously doubt that a majority of House members were truly familiar with the inner workings of this complicated legislation. It was even reported that dozens of Democratic members had already released statements pledging their "aye" vote on a bill that had not even been finalized.

Secondly, this health care reform effort displayed a complete rejection of bipartisanship and compromise. Republicans and many Democrats were shut out of the process. The Democratic leadership refused to permit any Republican amendments to the bill and neglected some concerns that their own members had. Just take a look at the effort that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team had put into deal-making and arm-twisting. It was obvious that this health care bill was not attracting many willing votes of support from either party. Despite the legitimate objections raised by hundreds of representatives, the vote proceeded.

Instead of having the patience necessary to write good public policy, Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the rest of the Democrats had somewhat of a "shotgun wedding" while they forced this undesirable vote. Keep in mind that the House Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats were not opposing health care reform because they favored the status quo or out of obstructionist motives. Simply put, they just disagree with the way in which the Pelosi plan tries to fix the American health care system. It is absolutely reasonable for our representatives to ask for more time and more accountability when a huge chunk of the American people will be affected by this bill. But I presume Speaker Pelosi could care less about what the other side has to say, because the vote ended up following a mostly party line vote except for 39 Democrats voting with Republicans, and one Republican voting with the Democrats.

Finally, but most importantly, the voices of the American people were ignored by the Democratic House leaders. Those town hall meetings that gained a great deal of media attention should have been the indicator of dissatisfaction among Americans. If you watched or listened to the town hall meetings that occurred in both Democratic and Republican districts, the proposed health care reform only ignited constituent fury. A few days ago, hundreds of Americans paid a "house call" to their representatives by flocking to Capitol Hill. That means voters are skeptical and want their representatives to be less hasty and more responsive.

The second area of controversy: the cap-and-trade legislation that was crammed through the House over the summer is expected to cost over $160 billion. As with the health care bill, the cap-and-trade bill received little to no input from the Republicans or Democrats opposed to the bill. Since the climate change legislation was expected to affect high energy producing and consuming states in the Midwest, those Democrats became equally opposed to passing the bill as the Republicans did. On the day of the vote, the final bill, along with its amendments, had not been open for review for more than one day.

Actually, a 300-page amendment to the bill was released in the wee hours of the morning. This cap-and-trade legislation was just like the health care bill because it exceeded 1,000 pages and most members had little to no time to read it. Also, the American people voiced an equal amount of concern about the cap-and-trade policy. Again, the Democratic leaders felt it was more productive to hastily bring up a vote and bypass any opposition.

The final votes on passage, for both the health care and climate change bills, were as close as they could get. This is a sign that the members reluctantly passed the two pieces of legislation (including "no" votes from Democrats). Health care reform passed 220-215, and cap-and-trade passed 219-212. Why were Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and the Democratic leaders pushing so hard to have the two bills passed? Their intent was purely political. All they wanted was to have health care and climate change on their legislative record. These two issues will definitely be labeled as "tackled" or "solved" by our Democrat House members. This is part of a "sexy", politically speaking of course, list of accomplishments the Democrats want to run on in 2010.

Both bills add to America's expanding deficit, while members of the House are voting blindly, shutting the minority and any opposition out of the lawmaking process, and covering their ears in response to the voices of their constituents. We need to tell the Democratic majority to stop bullying the minority, listen to the public, and act responsibly. Health care and climate change reform is complex, and the scope of their effects will be far reaching. You and I, our families, and our neighbors will bear the brunt of the selfish, irresponsible actions of the US Congress.