If ‘Kicking the Can Down the Road’ ever becomes an Olympic sport, the U.S. will win a gold medal for sure.

O’Malley’s  negative  rhetoric
promises more-of-the-same
ill  will  in  national  politics

USE OF ‘ENTITLEMENTS’ TERM
DOES LITTLE TO FIX BUDGET
 
By David Maril
 
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was mocking Republi- cans after the news that Congress had finally come to an agreement to halt the government shutdown and avoid the country’s defaulting on its loans.

His reaction to the first semblance of a bipartisan deal was to compare Republicans to cartoon characters Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner in their dealings with the Senate Democrats and the White House.

If O’Malley succeeds in getting elected U.S. President or serves as Vice President to Hillary Clinton, this negative tone won’t improve the uncivilized and hostile environment that dominates Washington.

There’s already too much finger-pointing and a refusal to deal responsibly with the pertinent issues.

While all rational U.S. citizens are breathing a sigh of relief that we have taken a step back from the economic disaster of having a financial default, all our elected officials did was sweep the problem under the rug until after the holiday season and New Year.

In a few months we’ll be going through this same nonsense again.

If “Kicking the Can Down the Road” ever becomes an Olympic sport, you can be sure Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Barack Obama, and John Boehner will earn a gold medal for the U.S.

The moderate, mainstream politicians who used to have enough guts to take a stand and seek common ground, have become subservient to the well-financed extremists and one-issue zealots in both political parties.

Intolerance has replaced realism and getting things done. Diplomacy and class have disappeared.

Often you can even find yourself getting irritated by elected officials who are expressing a point of view you agree with because of their abrasive and confrontational over-the-top style.

Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr., father of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, was a no-nonsense 3-term Baltimore Mayor who emphasized consensus politics to get things done.

Sometimes when I listen to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, I wonder if she has forgot- ten much of what she must have learned from her father, the late Tommy D’Alesando Jr., the former Baltimore Mayor (1947-59) who was famous for accomplishing goals in a professional, consensus-building and constructive manner.

Today, in political debate, one side demonizes the other, with little focus on facts. The right wing derisively labels the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare,” for example, and has spokes- people, like Dr. Ben Carson, the famous Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon, calling it the worst thing since slavery.

To debate the merits of big government vs. small government is one thing but to make those kinds of exaggerations is irresponsible and absurd.

The term “entitlements” has become a not so subtle way of knocking programs like Social Security and Medicare. Conservative politicians and commentators pronounce the word with disdain in their voices, while wearing a sneer on their faces.

Right-wingers accuse their lefty counterparts of spending the country into debt, cultivating a nation of softies dependent on their entitlements.

The Left accuses the Right of being callous and intent on stripping entitlements away from the most vulnerable segments of the population who need them most.

I’m not going to argue over how much or how little, programs like Social Security need to be adjusted so the nation can avoid bankruptcy. But what irks me is the heavy handed use of this “entitlements” term.

Whenever I hear anyone talking about entitlements, I think of something people believe they have coming to them but probably don’t deserve.

When  someone says a person acts as if they are entitled, you suspect they are talking about a complacent individual who expects something he or she  didn’t earn.

Social Security deserves to be treated with a lot more respect: It should never be lumped into the freeloader category. People who receive Social Security payments are getting paid back what they have contributed over a lifetime of work from their paychecks.

People can no longer expect the government to take care of them with guaranteed checks from Social Security, some social program critics maintain.

For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t already know it, Social Security is ‘socialized medicine.’

However what these critics avoid mentioning is that this is a safe way the people themselves pay into the system to ensure they will have some  guaranteed income to supplement their retirement budgets.

I get a big laugh every time I hear a critic of entitle- ments say, “I don’t want socialized medicine. Leave Medicare the way it is. It serves me fine.”

What do they think Medicare is? What do they think “socialized medicine” is?

Entitlements is a word critics of government programs love to use… so they can be negative, talking in circles around a popular program, without ever mentioning it by name.

They know if they come out and declare we can’t afford Social Security without making cuts, millions of citizens who rely on their monthly paycheck from the government, or are counting on it when they retire, will be up in arms.

The “entitlement” word is a gutless way to avoid having a frank and responsible dialogue of what is fair and reasonable when it comes to fortifying the economic future of the country.

When someone talks about reducing entitlements, it doesn’t sound so bad: It  seems more along the line of trimming government fat if you simply reduce entitlements.

Steps do need to be taken however. And they will not be painless.

Our elected officeholders on both sides need to display at least a minimal amount of courage and integrity by discussing the hard and unpleasant facts. It’s time to put patriotism and national security above politics and personal gain.

TOUGH QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ASKED AND DISCUSSED:

A number of tough questions need to be asked and discussed. Here are a few:

Should millionaires and billionaires be allowed to collect Social Security?

Does the age of eligibility need to be raised?

Does more need to be taken out of paychecks to support the program?

What is needed to make government programs, including the military, run more efficiently?

We are never going to get anywhere tap-dancing around talking in general terms about the drain of entitlements or averting an economic crisis at the last minute by a temporary agreement that delays another stalemate for a few months.

And just as important, we don’t need politicians like Martin O’Malley going out of their way to mock the other side after a rare agreement is reached.

Politicians in both parties and on different sides of the issues don’t have to like each other. But they do need to work together and show respect for their elected offices and the American people.
 
davidmaril@hermanmaril.com
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.

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