Politics as usual? I don't think so.

The recent budget crisis in the United States Congress was ugly.   It was partisan politics at its worst.   I saw a political cartoon recently that showed an elephant and a donkey in a little convertible driving straight toward a big transfer truck labeled "budget crisis."   The caption read "so, who's going to blink?"

So then the legislative branch (the House and Senate) and the executive branch (the President) finally got together and reached a compromise in which no one claimed victory.  Oh, they tried to spin it as a victory.  The Republicans feel that the reduced spending was a victory and the Democrats feel that raising the debt ceiling was a victory but hopefully, at the end of the day, the American people are the winners.

I mean, come on folks.   How can we keep spending more money than we take in?   Oh sure, it works for a while.  And then the bills come and sooner or later you've got to pay up.   So you can either spend less than you take in (reduce spending) and slowly pay off your debts or you can increase your income (in this case, raise taxes) and pay off your bills that way.   What the government seems to have done is to do both, which hopefully will work.

 After a fair amount of experience in politics, I can tell you that compromise is a necessary part of the legislative process.   When everybody goes away unhappy, it is likely good legislation.  Keep in mind that we often find completely opposite opinions on nearly every subject.   But instead of both being wrong, both are quite possibly right.  

There is not much "right" and "wrong" in political arguments (just different approaches or different perspectives) but way too much "I'm right, you're wrong."

I spend a lot of time in our state's capitol and I've grown to appreciate the political process at least as it related to a legislative agenda.  But getting legislation passed is like making sausage:  You don't want to watch it being made.   

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States includes the provision that every citizen has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  I would like to propose legislation that would add that we should have "the pursuit of healthiness." 

I think life, liberty, and happiness are dependent in no small measure to healthiness.  I see very few unhealthy people that are happy. 

I'd like to see legislation passed that requires everybody to eat better (and by better, I mean healthier), to exercise daily, and to lead healthier lifestyles.   At the risk of stepping on individual liberties, I would like to see smoking ended, roads where no one drives impaired, and guns necessary only for recreational purposes.  

I'd like to see a world where no one goes to bed hungry (did you know that 925 million people in the world are hungry today?  And that 16,000 children will die of starvation today?).   I don't believe that "Universal health care" or "socialized medicine" is the answer but I do want to live in a country where the medical needs are provided for those that cannot provide them for themselves.

I wish I had all the answers.  What I do know is that I've never met anybody that didn't want to pursue life, liberty, happiness, or healthiness.   It's just that too many people think that it is their inherent right for somebody else to provide those things.

We don't "deserve" it, we've only got the right to "pursue" it.