UPDATE FROM THE FLOOR: Late this evening, the House recessed after passage of a partisan bill concerning the humanitarian crisis involving thousands of unaccompanied minors who have come to our country fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. The bill, drafted without Democratic input will surely go nowhere in the Senate -- indeed it is not intended to -- and is designed only a message bill. In fact, the bill does send a message, though not perhaps the one that the Speaker intended. And the message is this: We care nothing about governing or solving problems, only about satisfying a narrow political constituency, giving the appearance of governing and the next election. This is the message, and it is appalling. Bill Clinton once said that there is nothing wrong in America that cannot be fixed by what is right in America. I firmly believe that. I also believe that the greatest threat to the country is not external -- it is that our process of governance has broken down. The challenges we face can all be overcome, indeed they pale in comparison to what we faced during the 30s or 40s, or Vietnam, not to mention the convulsion of the civil war or the devastation of the Great War. But we must find a way out of the partisan morass, and return to productive civic engagement -- if not civility. I hope that when we return from a recess we should have never taken, to a set of problems we should have never left, that we can do better. I will do my very best to do my part.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 01:46:17 +0000
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