Congressional Immunity

I can assure you it happened by accident. There is no way on God's earth I'm interested in watching Republican Primary returns. I've found the whole Republican campaign process to be an unsightly boil on the ass of American Democracy. And-- just to be fair-- I have little confidence the bipartisan campaign to November will be any more civil.  That said, there I was watching the tube last night when, next thing I know Mitt Romney has his mug on the screen gloating over the his victories Tuesday night.

Seeing Romney reminded me of how prominent a role wealth plays in a democracy. Especially when it comes to the Presidency, you don't see a whole lot of regular wage earners make a run for that stage, let alone take it. And you don't see a whole lot of retired senators, congressman, presidents, and governors struggling to make ends meet on a fixed income and restrictive health insurance. What anti-big-government, financially successful, savvy business guy wouldn't want an elected seat in Washington, D.C.?

As we struggle with issues of healthcare and Social Security, I have to believe we are making a fatal mistake when we allow leadership to exclude themselves from the problem. It's not a conflict of interest so much as a lack of interest: Our elected leaders should be provided with health insurance. And they should have a choice: Medicare if they're over 65 and Medicaid if they're under. Or, they can do what the rest of us do-- buy their own.  Likewise, our elected leaders should be provided with the finest retirement program this country has been able to devise: Social Security. If they need resources beyond that then they can do what the rest of us do: Build retirement savings and investments.

As long as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are considered to be the poor man's resources they will be treated as such and the benefits offered will reflect that status.  A great many of the boomers grew up expecting more and thought they were paying for more.

I think the first step in creating meaningful and lasting entitlement programs is to remove the elected leader's immunity from those programs. Step one: The elected staff needs to start eating what they're serving.