Country First - A Forgotten Campaign Message

In 2008, John McCain ran for President with the slogan "Country First". It seemed to be a call for politicians to put the interests of the nation ahead of partisan party politics. Barack Obama ran on the slogan of "Hope and Change" and "Change You Can Believe In". That slogan seemed vague enough to mean whatever type of "change" the voters thought was needed. I would "hope" that many who voted for either candidate wanted to avoid the type of partisan bickering that we are all witnessing now in the on-going debate about how to raise the federal debt ceiling that the Treasury Secretary has told us will be reached early next week.

It appears that there is no one putting the "country first" in trying to reach an agreement on the debt ceiling. I just received an e-mail from Jim Webb, one of my two Democratic US Senators from Virginia, in which he describes the calamity that the nation faces if no debt ceiling increase is enacted in time. Here is part of what Senator Webb says:

"Our nation, as we all know, faces a looming crisis.

The markets have already warned us. Businesses are already postponing investments. We know the consequences of inaction; they are predictable: Borrowing costs for businesses and individuals will escalate. Interest payments on the debt will grow, and already anemic job growth will decline. Our nation will run the risk of another financial catastrophe and possibly a return to recession.

As [Federal Reserve] Chairman Bernanke recently stated, the outcome would be 'calamitous.' Many Americans are struggling. Far too many remain out of work. They cannot be asked to absorb the shockwaves of yet another failure to act. It is time for both sides and both chambers to find common ground."

The statements made by Senator Webb echo similar statements made by President Obama and other members of Congress over the past several weeks. The key point here is that "we know the consequences of inaction". And this has been known for months. So why is Congress and the White House still trying to find "common ground" just days before the ceiling is reached? I suggest that it is due to the failure of most Washington politicians to put the "country first" and instead to engage in playing unproductive political games that put their party first.

The House of Representatives will be voting soon on a second bill to raise the debt ceiling. The first bill the House passed a couple of weeks ago was tabled in the Senate because the Senate's Democratic leaders objected to the ambitious scope of the bill, which included a requirement that Congress approve a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution before passing a debt ceiling increase. This ambitious legislative approach was the product of the conservative shift in the balance of power in the House after the Fall 2010 election that swept many Tea Party backed candidates into office.

This extreme conservative wing of the Republican Party in Congress (represented by the newly elected Tea Party backed members) is putting its political philosophy first, even to the detriment of the Republican leaders in Congress (who are working to resolve the oft-described crisis), since the new conservative members continue to insist on forcing the Senate to vote on the BBA bill. On the floor of Senate yesterday, Senator McCain tried to explain to these idealistic right-wing newcomers how impractical that objective is in the Democratic controlled Senate:

“What is really amazing about this is that some members are believing that we can pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in this body with its present representation — and that is foolish.”

McCain is still trying to put the "country first" by seeking a solution to the debt ceiling crisis that has a realistic chance of passing the two bodies of Congress, which has the House controlled by Republicans and the Senate controlled by Democrats. Due to this split in power in Congress, President Obama has been emphasizing the need for compromise in his frequent statements on the process to pass a debt ceiling increase. The difference is that Obama won the 2008 Presidential election and, as the current President, he has more influence on the process than McCain does and Obama needs to do more than just complain about the lack of compromise.

Obama needs to lead the members of Congress toward a "common ground" solution. Instead the White House has indicated that Obama would veto the bill scheduled to be voted on in the House soon, and the Democrats' Senate Leader, Harry Reid, has made it clear he will assure that the second House bill to resolve the crisis will be blocked again in the Senate because no Democrat in the Senate will vote for the House bill.

So after numerous press conferences and public speeches by the President warning the country of the severe consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling, the Democrats, including my state's Senator Webb, who just told me that "[o]ur nation ... faces a looming crisis", have offered nothing but roadblocks to the Republican House's legislative attempts to address the crisis. And the President has offered no proposal on a compromise to reach a solution to the crisis he has so eloquently described over and over again.

It seems that there are a lot of public servants in Washington who need to be reminded to put the COUNTRY FIRST.

UPDATE: On Friday, the US House passed its second bill to raise the debt ceiling. However, to get enough votes from the more conservative Republican members to pass the bill, Speaker John Boehner had to add another BBA provision. This revision reduces even more the likelihood of passage in the Senate, as Senator McCain warned. Even the White House quickly issued this statement: "This bill has been declared dead on arrival in the Senate."

In addition, President Obama stated this: "The time for putting party first is over. It’s time to step up and show the leadership the American people expect."

Unfortunately, the President wants Congress to provide the compromise solution and seems to be sitting on the sidelines complaining about the lack of bi-partisanship. He's the President. Obama should show "the leadership the American people expect".

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American Pride

This has been quite a week to celebrate our country's achievements and heritage. The week started with the 4th of July holiday and its commemoration of our Founding Fathers' Declaration of Independence from the the rule of the King of England in 1776. At the end of the week, the Space Shuttle Atlantis began its final journey to the International Space Station. Between the events that began in 1776 and the final leg of the Space Shuttle program (which will come to an end after Atlantis completes its mission), the US has accomplished much of which all Americans can be proud.

This unique feeling of pride in our country hit me a few weeks ago when I went to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum for my most recent visit to that Museum. Take a look at this photo of some of the historic displays in the Museum's atrium at its entrance.

Hanging from the ceiling on the left is the Spirit of St. Louis airplane that Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. That was the first solo flight by man across the ocean from one continent to another. Lindbergh's flight took place just 24 years after the Wright Brothers accomplished the first successful flight of a manned aircraft in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Those two events marked the beginning of air travel that people all around the world take for granted today. It started in the US.

Below Lindbergh's plane in the photo above is the Apollo 11 Command module used in the first landing of humans on the moon in 1969. This NASA mission took place just 42 years after Lindbergh's flight and was followed by five more successful manned moon landings carried out by the US space agency and its outstanding astronauts.

With the end of the Space Shuttle program coming soon, NASA is working on a new type of spacecraft to replace it, but, in the meantime, the US for the first time in history will have to rely on another country, Russia, to take its astronauts to the Space Station when needed. It is encouraging that the US and Russia have reached a point in their relations that such cooperative missions can be carried out to pursue mankind's exploration of the universe.

Private enterprise is also now positioned to play a larger role in future space travel. The space vehicle hanging to the right of the Spirit of St. Louis is SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spaceplane to complete a manned space flight. This historic spaceplane was flown by the first commercially licensed space pilot (Mike Melvill) in 2004.... just a few months after the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight. The SpaceShipOne flight started at the first facility in the US licensed for commercial space flights by the FAA: the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group has entered into a joint venture with the company (Scaled Composites founded by Burt Rutan and financed by Paul Allen) that developed SpaceShipOne to create a spaceliner for commercial flights. The new joint venture is called Virgin Galactic and is likely to fly from Mojave Air and Space Port.

While air and space travel is now very much an international endeavor (much as Gene Roddenberry envisioned in the Star Trek series decades ago), Americans have played a major role in the progress to this point in history. Americans have made these major contributions to air and space travel through both personal inspiration, skill, perseverance and financial support, such as the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen have done, and through US government and military contributions, most notably demonstrated in the NASA missions over the past fifty years.

Now look at this photo from space of London at night and think about the American ingenuity and genius that contributed to the lights that can be seen from Space Shuttles and the International Space Station.

Thomas Edison, a man who demonstrates the unique quality and character of those who pursue the American Dream, worked for years to develop a successful practical light bulb, and then developed the electric utility systems (generating stations, community wiring and lighting installations) that led to the creation of the Edison electric utility companies around the country that we all take for granted whenever we flip a light switch.

Many inventors around the world had been working to develop a durable light bulb for most of the 19th Century. And even though an Englishman (Sir Joseph Swan) actually invented a light bulb that became the first type installed throughout an entire public building (the Savoy Theater in London when it opened in 1881), Edison's genius went beyond the light bulb itself to creating the companies that built the infrastructure to allow whole cities to be lit up at night.

Although Swan formed his own company in England to sell his light bulbs, by 1883, Edison and Swan merged their companies to manufacture light bulbs for sale in the UK. After Edison founded General Electric in 1890, GE worked or competed with other electrical generation companies around the world through the early years of the 20th Century that resulted in the global daily use of electricity for, not only artificial light, but also a multitude of other electrically powered devices, including appliances, medical equipment, machinery and the modern versions of other Edison inventions (such as the phonograph, sound recording devices and motion picture equipment). The benefits to mankind are countless.

What other country in the world could be the home of so many transformative pioneers, such as the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison, who had the freedom, intellectual insight and entrepreneurial spirit to develop their ideas into working products that grew into major new industries that changed the way men, women and children around the globe live, work and play in their daily lives?

The system of government that resulted from the Revolution started on July 4, 1776 has certainly created a place that can inspire great dreams and accomplishments. It's something for which all Americans can be proud, including immigrants who move to America and become US citizens in order to pursue their own dreams, just as pioneer commercial astronaut Mike Melvill from South Africa did before he flew SpaceShipOne over the Mojave desert.

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