December 2006

Craig Mongeau - December 2006

Well, the people, as they say, have spoken. And our grandchildren will learn in their history classes how our newly elected Congress responded to our voices in 2006.

Will the Congress remember why they got elected? Will they be a true deliberative body? Will they provide honest, nonpartisan oversight to the president? Will they help resolve Iraq or will they only name call and jockey for position for the presidency but solve nothing? Will they raise the minimum wage but continue to allow illegal aliens to flood our county and work for far less? Will free trade as it is right now continue to be allowed to send manufacturing jobs to China?

Will special interests groups representing corporations and social issues continue to have a louder political voice than ours simply because they have more money than we do? Will health care costs continue to rise? Will a four-year college tuition bill exceed $200,000? Will Social Security run dry when the Baby Boomers retire en masse by 2015? Will we privatize it? Will we cut it? Or will they figure out a way to fund it properly? Will they raise taxes to reduce the budget deficit or will they cut from the pork to do it?

Will they protect us from the terrorists? Will they allow religion to continue to divide people and cultures, which breeds resentment, fear and anger? Will they discuss abortion and simultaneously protect our children from the ever-increasing population of sexual predators? Will they improve our public schools or will they only find money to send their own children to private schools in Washington?

Our grandchildren will know the answers. They will have the benefit of hindsight to see how the newly elected Congress handled this pivotal period in our nation’s history. Will they know that Congress fought for us? Or will they know that Congress just fought? P