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Legislators, do your job on health care

by Stephen D. Bruno
| January 11, 2013 8:00 PM

With regard to Vito Barbieri's recent "My Turn" piece, listening to this state representative try to navigate his way through a tortured argument about why Idaho should abandon its involvement in the Affordable Care Act (and by inference its involvement as one of the 50 states), is like listening to a student try to explain that the reason he failed his assignment was because he didn't read the book. It is sometimes difficult to decide whether to deconstruct the faulty logic behind Mr. Barbieri's fractured notions about sovereignty or just dismiss him entirely as a crackpot.

The gist of Barbieri's argument is that we shouldn't have to follow the law because Idaho's representatives in Washington failed to read it. It appears our state legislators have failed to read it also. What will we hear from him next? My dog ate my homework? Failure to read proposed legislation is not a rationale for ignoring the law. Vito Barbieri's response to nearly every responsibility he has as a legislator is that he has no responsibility as a legislator. And so we get this long-winded rationalization about sovereignty. This is just laziness masquerading as conviction.

His argument is similar to the one advanced recently in a different Press article about funding the public school system. Listening to our state representatives wring their hands over how much they "wish they could do something about it" is like the guy with the paddle in his hands complaining that the canoe is moving in the wrong direction. Well? You're the guy holding the paddle. How can we take these people seriously?

One of the jobs we ask legislators to do is uphold existing law, including adherence to constitutional mandates. We also give them the power to write law, hopefully with the idea of solving problems. Too many of our representatives do neither. Mr. Barbieri prefers to offer philosophical arguments that lead to an "every man for himself" conclusion. By extension of Barbieri's logic, when the state imposes a law on its citizens, the state is violating the sovereignty of the individual. Where does this argument take us? If any regulation imposed on a state by the federal government is proof that we aren't in control of our sovereignty as a state, then any regulation imposed by the state on its individual citizens falls into a similar category. By this logic we should no longer have regulations, laws, law enforcement, courts, prisons, or even legislators. We'll just settle everything in the street. For some this is a romantic notion. It's a stupid idea.

We elect senators and congressmen to go to Washington and weigh in on behalf of the state. Their votes, their arguments, and their influence, is one of the ways state sovereignty operates at the federal level. The same is true on the state level. The fact that we as individuals don't always get what we want is not about some twisted legal point concerning sovereignty. It is life.

Whether the task is to fund public education in a way that fulfills the obligation set forth in the Idaho Constitution, or to deliver quality, affordable health care to the people who need it, there is work to be done. Those who see their "job" as figuring out how to avoid doing their job should just get another job.

When will the voters in this state see through this bankrupt approach to governing and change the nature of our representation? Only time will tell.

Stephen D. Bruno is a Hayden resident and vice chair of the Kootenai County Democratic Party.