Not How Democracy Works

By Joe Schartz

The following column appeared in the Trojan Tribune in November, 2009:

There is no career on earth more draining than that of the commander-in-chief of the United States of America. The president has to keep the nation content, support his party platform, build a legacy for himself, meet with foreign leaders, fight Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Dick Cheney at the same time, all the while being the face of the free world.
Yes, it’s a demanding job. Just compare a picture of the young, smiling Obama of November of last year that says, “Wow, I can’t wait to get started!”, to a picture of the already graying Obama of today that says, “You know what, forget about the whole Afghanistan thing, just pass me the coffee.” It’s been a mere nine months and the president looks like he’s ready to have baby food spooned to him by a nurse at Leisure Living.
So naturally with all of the dedication the job requires, there has got to be some down time for POTUS. In August President Obama and his family took off for the plush “Martha’s Vineyard” resort in New England, where they spent just seven days at the cost of thousands of dollars (guess who’s footing that bill?).
To pass the days at Martha’s Vineyard, the president brought with him a rather large stack of reading material. Numbering five in all, the books he took along contained around 2,300 pages of brilliant literature. He must have had a lot of time on his hands to read 300 pages a day.
Hmm, that’s funny. The president makes time for his Barnes and Nobles wish list, but hasn’t read the monstrous bills his own party has been ramming through congress? I quote: “…a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you, the public, will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it.” Congress was given less than 24 hours to debate the stimulus bill that was 1,073 pages and contained 9,000 earmarks. The public didn’t read it, congress didn’t read it, and the president didn’t read it. Why, then, does it have the president’s signature on it?
Instead of reading books, which are not relevant to the current economic disaster, he should have been doing the responsible thing, which is reading bills before they are signed into law. What about the 1,201-page cap and trade bill that was nearly rammed down our throats? What about the 1,190 page health care bill democrats are trying to rush to the White House?
Maybe these are some good questions to ask: who is writing these bills, why isn’t congress reading them, and why aren’t we getting a chance to read them? We deserve the right to know what’s in these bills and how our future is being spent.
The next time President Obama goes on vacation, I suggest he bring with him a stack of his own legislation. Another recommendation would be a great book by a guy named Thomas Paine. It’s called Common Sense. Maybe the president will discover that this is not how democracy works.