“It’s the president who is threatening to raise taxes on the middle class if he doesn’t stamp his feet and get his way,” Grover Norquist charged on NBC’s Meet the Press. “He should get into a room with C‑SPAN cameras there and negotiate. So instead of hearing rhetoric like this — because that was all show and no economics — let’s have it in front of C‑SPAN cameras. And if the Republicans are being reasonable, we’ll see that. If they’re not, we’ll see that. Got to have cameras in that room.”
Norquist has a great idea. Why allow our so-called leaders do their stuff — their thing, their deliberation and negotiation or what-have-you — behind closed doors? Let’s have it in living color, out in the open, with the audio turned way up, for the American people to witness first-hand.
But, of course, the C‑SPAN idea isn’t really Grover Norquist’s — any more than it is his pledge not to raise taxes. The power of the mass of voters, who truly want to hold down taxes, entices candidates to sign the tax pledge and enforces their compliance.
After all, it was candidate Barack Obama who promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that if he were elected president “we’re going to do all these [healthcare] negotiations on C‑SPAN so that the American people will be able to watch.”
Then, President Obama tossed out that transparency pledge and turned off the public. Just like some want Republican congressman to toss aside their commitment not to raise taxes.
Keep your word. And let us see our government in action. How damning could it be?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Lights, Cameras, Action”
“he said a LOT of things on the campaign trail”. And still managed to fool 51% of the people all of the time.
In Rules for Radicals, Alinski says that when things are going badly, press twice as hard on the accelerator.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Candidate Barack Obama, like many candidates, has been expert at telling people what they want to hear. He went back on his word and they voted for him again. The American people deserve the Clinton tax rates. They think they’ll get the economy of the Clinton years. News flash: the internet bubble burst years ago.