Opinion - Honesty in Government

There's no better time than right now for Democrats and Republicans to buck up and become more honest with one another about what the total compass of their needs are for the next four years which ought to be filled not only with promise and potential but a brighter future for us all, for which Congress, acting in concert with the President, has delivered.

Right now, not only are the 'spending cuts' talks pressing, as ongoing budget negotiations over tax hikes for the wealthy will arguably be, but job creation, health care reform, education, mental health, gay rights, immigration, gun control, energy, agriculture, environmental monitoring, nuclear, manufacture and infrastructure, are among the many topics that need to be discussed. And they should be discussed in private and public meetings held by Congress reminiscent of the days Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Congressman Dan Rostentowski worked exhaustively, running between the House and Senate chambers, to pass the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, but now with even more honesty in government. The meetings might frequently be broadcast to the world and nation. Over the coming weeks and months, a marathon of meetings might hopefully support the President's strategies for addressing 21st century issues that loom large even after the financial crises that rocked our nation and the world.

If members of the House and Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, could just meet and speak directly to one another on the issues, building alliances between the two houses of government and two main parties, and come up with a shared list of priorities and how-tos for getting the job done in the next four years, the nation as a whole would be off and running.

Photovoltaics, wind turbines, high speed rail, bridges and roadways, creating a new grid that supports a 21st century infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, clean waterways, progressive reforms across health care, education and mental health fields, and the plan for better managing immigration, getting visas to students from China, India and worldwide, these are the kinds of forthright conversations that need to be front and center, in an effort to find cost and energy savings, simultaneously creating safer, more secure futures for the next generations.

Members of Congress simply need to avoid talking only of extreme measures, like tax hikes for those making over $250,000 a year, and entitlement cuts, and spend time delving into the details, covering the research into diverse scientific and sociopolitical solutions, not only here at home, but abroad too, at the State Department, and in coordination with the United Nations.

It's time too for Congress to work in tandem with think tanks and environmental groups like Apollo Alliance and Rocky Mountain Institute, who busy themselves with holistic solutions on a daily basis, and can serve as a reminder to the House and Senate where our priorities must lie with global warming looming in front of us.

It's time for Congress to work in tandem with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union to address gun crime in the United States, terrorism, and other hate crimes.

It's time for Congress to work alongside international working groups, like Amnesty International, hand-in-hand, to help manage cross-cultural affairs, with the groups delivering the message at home and abroad about what our next steps will be in foreign affairs, and after such long and protracted wars.

It's time for Congress to help initiate ventures between Darpa, NASA and the Department of Energy to lead the way in innovation for the 21st century.

It's time for Congress to get their hands dirty in the health care field, initiating new and cost-effective integrative, or preventative, healthcare systems that serve the general population, not a portion of it, but without creating waste in spending, and creating quality treatment times. They can do this working with the likes of economist Paul Krugman, and Dr. Francis Collins, of the National Institutes of Health.

It's time for Congress with the Department of Education to lead the way in education, bringing together parents, teachers and administrators alike, to try to make more room for special education students in mainstream classrooms and institute more global, holistic learning opportunities for students. Congress can work with teacher's unions oriented to creating this kind of positive change for students.

While the work of Congress is currently more extensive than 'spending cuts' talks, and debate over tax rates and entitlement cuts, at the same time, there's too little of direct negotiations on the myriad issues before us, as a nation, and talk about comprehensive solutions, like the ones proposed by the President to head off the current deadline for 'automatic spending cuts,' that is the President's Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction, which WhiteHouse.gov reports:

"pays for the American Jobs Act and produces net savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, on top of the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts that the President already signed into law in the Budget Control Act – for a total savings of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. This would bring the country to a place, by 2017, where current spending is no longer adding to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are at a sustainable level."

It's a tangled web we weave if Congress isn't able to work together forthrightly in the coming years on issues only waiting to be resolved so that progress can be made.