As the Gavel passes...a new beginning in Washington...

Today the fruit of the vine ripened in Washington, DC despite the winter temperatures and the bitterness just below the surface in the new minority in the United States House of Representatives as John A. Boehner of Ohio accepted the Speaker's Gavel from Nancy Pelosi of California. The first thing on the agenda was a sweeping change in House Rules. No longer will American's have to worry that legislation in their Congress will be passed before they have a chance to have a peek at it online. Members of Congress will also have to cite the authority in the US Constitution used as a basis to draft legislation. Further, the centralized power of the Speaker's office will trickle down to the leadership and committee chairman. While these changes may appear to be over-simplification, they represent a serious change in attitude and a move to a truly transparent government. What began with the Contract with America in 1994 which was followed by the squandering of budget dollars and congressional control ending in 2006, may finally find our Congress doing the job they were sent to Washington, DC to do...

I have high hopes for Speaker Boehner and his leadership team. I believe that even though they will be forced to raise the debt ceiling over 14 trillion dollars sometime in the coming months, that real progress will be made in reigning in the sprawling footprint of the US Government and in facing the grim reality of the debt and deficit, and reforming of the entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare. This will not be an easy job and the new Speaker will have to be constantly vigilant to insure his majority stays together and gets the job done.

While going it alone is a distinct possibility as the Democrats learned in the last Congress, Speaker Boehner has already gone the extra mile to include Democrats in the first legislative effort, reforming the House Rules. He will not however receive much support when HR-2 hits the floor of the House, it is the bill to repeal the Health Care legislation passed last Christmas Eve. While House Democrats may bawk and vote NO, a majority of the American people want the whole thing scrapped and want market based reforms to replace the massive nationalization of up to 1/6th of the US economy. It will be a long two years and compromises certainly lay ahead for the House with the US Senate. Hopefully we will all be proud of what happens under the leadership of the new Speaker of the US House of Representatives.