The crashing of symbols

Republicans opened the 112th Congress with symbolism as Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, began the reading of the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution. The remarkable document has much more depth than length, and the exercise did not take long, as members took turning reading the articles aloud until the entire document had been heard by all. **

I liked the idea of opening Congress in that manner, no matter what motivated it.

So now the 112th Congress is in place and sworn in, at least most of them. Two Representatives, incumbent Republican Pete Sessions and freshman Republican Mike Fitzpatrick actually were not sworn in before they started voting. It could happen to anyone, forgetting to attend your own swearing in ceremony. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/two-house-republicans-vot_n_805423.html?igoogle=1 Perhaps they should have paid a bit more attention to the Constitution that their party so ceremoniously insisted on reading. Taking an oath of office is a constitutional requirement after all. It was a serious enough error to prevent Sessions from calling a committee meeting into session. The meeting had to be adjourned before it started because he had no authority to act having not taken his oath of office. Apparently watching the ceremony on TV is not constitutionally sufficient.

I place this in the things that make me chuckle category. It doesn't make that much difference in the big scheme of things, sort of like whether or not Cam Newton wears his mouthpiece. I do worry about Cam though. I doubt that he will ever be hit hard enough while playing for it to matter, but when he jumps into the stands those rowdy Auburn fans might accidentally injure him in their excitement.

The difference is Cam Newton never claimed that he always followed the rules about mouthpieces. He never insisted that the rules about mouthpieces be read aloud in the stadium before each game. I imagine if the ref calls him on it, he will just flash that engaging grin, which is evidence that he hasn't needed a mouthpiece so far, put it in for a couple of plays, and go back to being the superhuman football player that he is, with very nice teeth.

Republicans, by reading the constitution aloud on the floor of the house at the opening of Congress, by creating a rule that each piece of legislation must contain an explanation as to its constitutional basis, by creating a rule that no legislation shall increase the deficit, and touting new rules of transparency and frugality, have set a standard for themselves.

If only they would honor it.

They violated the Constitution before they even got started when the two Congressmen voted without taking their constitutional oath. No, as I said, that embarrassing gaffe will not make much difference in anything except for the sweet taste of irony and a good chuckle.

But I am afraid it is the real symbol of the opening of the 112th.

The Republicans defiantly and triumphantly announced that no legislation shall be passed that will increase the deficit. Except legislation that they favor otherwise, apparently. The first substantive matter to be taken up by the House will be an attempt to repeal Healthcare Reform, an attempt which they know is futile.

The Congressional Budget Office, which is a non-partisan agency whose duty it is to inform and advise Congress as to the economic and budgetary consequences of legislation, wrote a letter to Senator Boehner stating that a repeal of Health Care Reform will increase the deficit by a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Boehner responded that he doesn't believe the non-partisan agency, and that he believes that Health Care Reform will increase the deficit. He gave no basis for his opinion, other than he felt like it would cause unemployment to rise as employers were forced to buy health insurance for employees, a position that is also unsupported.

So apparently the Republicans promise not to add to the deficit was not exactly a promise. It just depends on what they want to do. Surely we should trust them to make these policy decisions. After all, they didn't get us into this financial disaster, this monstrous deficit.

Oh, wait a minute. They did.

Hmmmm.

Nevertheless, I wish them well. Maybe all the posturing is necessary for the sake of politics. Maybe in the end good things will be accomplished.

The strange thing is that while they were talking about cutting the deficit today by introducing legislation that has no chance of becoming law, another solid symbolic gesture, the President left them standing at the starting line in the race to cut spending.

The Administration announced a 78 billion dollar cut in the defense budget today. Some of that will regrettably be in health insurance benefits for veterans, and not so regrettably in boondoggle pork barrel defense contracts for useless weapons systems. And there will be a cut in the number of military personnel.

Not symbolic.

The thing about symbolic is that it doesn't hurt.

Because a symbol is just a representation. A representation of something real. I pray that Congress will do that for us.

Real representation.

**(There are those who have suggested that the Alabama legislature should do the same, since it is now in Republican hands. Two positive things could emerge. It would take so long to read the Alabama constitution aloud that the Alabama legislative body would have little time left in the regular session to do any damage, or, they could finally realize how ridiculously long, or how ridiculous and long, the Alabama Constitution has become, and is becoming with every passing statewide election.)

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