Disturbing Trends

I find three recent events similar in nature and find them troubling.  They are

1) The decision by the Wisconsin democrats in legislature to take off to prevent a vote on a bill which has generated controversy.

2) The decision by the Obama administration to ignore its responsibility to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (and in a similar vein for the Governor and AG of California to decline to defend Proposition 8).

3) The decision by the Majority Leader of the US Senate to demand that current spending levels are the equivalent of a freeze.

The third could be described as politics - although in an earlier post today I described it as irresponsible politics.  There is a lot of discussion about what the appropriate mix of revenues and expenses should be at the federal level.  But I believe it is an abdication of responsibility for Mr. Reid to make no serious attempt to balance the budget.

The second issue is one where I am basically in opposition to the position that the elected officials are required to defend.  But in both cases, there is a legitimate argument on the other side.   The voters and the Congress have expressed a clear opinion as as the country's chief legal officer, it should be the AGs responsibility to either act in defense of the act or to appoint a special counsel who could pursue the position.  Simply ignoring the enactment because you disagree with it is wrong.  It also belies a poor understanding of the nature of separation of powers.  If the Administration does not like DOMA, as I do not - then it should seek to change it in the legislative process but simply ignoring it IMHO sets the administration up in a quasi judicial role.  That is a very bad precedent.

The most troubling demonstration of abdication of responsibility is the walkout of the Wisconsin democrats.  I happen to agree with the approach of Governor Walker.  The public pension time bomb across the country is huge.   Something must be done and very quickly.  I suspect that the democrats, were they willing to engage, would be able to modify the provisions of the governor's proposal.  But they cannot do that simply by sitting in the corner.

In each of these examples, elected public officials have refused to carry out their responsibilities - the ones they were elected (or in the US AGs position were appointed) to fulfill.  I wonder at what point some citizen will take the role of attempting to hold these officials to account.