Why No Healthcare Coverage on C-SPAN?

By Jill Chapin

January 12, 2009

One of my readers recently questioned an apparent flip flop in my support of President Obama. She’s not alone; my friends too are puzzled over my growing skepticism for my once beloved candidate. But I’m more bothered by a persistent “you’re either with us or against us” attitude that spawns the divisive rhetoric running rampant in our political discourse.

My all-time favorite movie, The American President, had one of the president’s top aides questioning him ferociously when he perceived him to be selling out. Other aides rushed to silence him but he refused to be deferential. Instead, he said it was not only his right to question his president; it was his responsibility.

Democracy 101 teaches us that the bedrock of a free society is to hold our leaders accountable. And as the fictional president said in the movie, democracy isn’t easy; you have to want it really bad to make it work.

Campaign volunteers understood that concept. Millions worked tirelessly to get our president elected. But working diligently for our democratic values doesn’t end when the polls close; that’s when the challenging part really begins. Although I never felt more pride in being an American than I did the moment CNN announced that Senator Obama became our president-elect, I knew that the giddy honeymoon would eventually fade and the serious business of working on the marriage to our new administration would begin.

When Candidate Obama spoke of a new ethic in Washington, I imagine his ardent supporters assumed that his major talking point – transparency – would be his first order of business because it was so crucial to regaining our trust.

We all surely recall one of his signature promises to put healthcare deliberations on C-SPAN. Its Chief Executive, Brian Lamb, wrote a letter requesting the opening up of “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage”. Yet 2009 has come and gone, it’s now mid-January and still no public viewing of the process.

To fully appreciate the importance of transparency, think of Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska. He was promised federal funding to cover Nebraska’s entire cost of a medicaid expansion included in the bill in exchange for his crucial 60th vote needed to pass the Senate’s healthcare version. Never mind that the other states without such a sweetheart deal will have to pick up the tab that Nebraska won’t be paying. Do you think this sleazy wrangling would have taken place in front of C-SPAN cameras?

I can’t envision anyone else whom I would prefer to be our president. I don’t want him replaced; I want him improved. To accomplish this we need to constantly exercise our judgment and our responsibility to speak out when we see smoke and mirrors. Believing that we elected the right president does not mean that he is always doing the right thing.

All candidates make promises they simply cannot keep. But what we enthusiastically hitched our star to was greater transparency. His back-pedaling on this major point propels my sense of outrage and unfurls my right and my responsibility to say so.

A friend of mine wisely said that, in the absence of judgment, there is no morality. If there is no wrong, then there is no right. Judging a leader that profoundly affects your life is enormously different than judging a person by the clothes one wears. We shouldn’t be afraid to exercise judgment when judging is necessary.

If you agree, you might want to contact your president and your representatives to voice your disappointment over C-SPAN’s exile from healthcare deliberations.

Jill Chapin

Jill Chapin has been a guest writer and columnist in several Los Angeles area papers for over fifteen years. She has written a bilingual parenting book titled, "If You Have Kids, Then Be a Parent!" and a children's book entitled, "My Magic Bubble."

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