Part 1:
Have you ever noticed that most communications from the federal government: IRS forms, Social Security applications, federal student loan forms, you name it, are virtually incomprehensible? Well, all that may change as the result of a new law, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, called the Plain Writing Act.
By July, each federal agency must appoint a senior official within that particular agency to oversee the effort, begin training employees in plain English, and update their agency websites accordingly. Then by October, the whole federal government is required to be communicating in plain, clear English, in their forms, documents, and other written communications with the public. (An interesting side note is that the various federal agencies are free to continue to communicate with each other in their usual incomprehensible gibberish.)
According to Cass Sunstein, White House Information Administrator, “… Agencies should communicate with the public in a way that is clear, simple, meaningful, and jargon-free.”
Will it work? I sure hope so, but I’m not holding my breath. After all, what is one man’s jargon may well be another man’s plain English.
Part 2:
President Obama invited Republican Members of Congress to the White House this morning in order to have “a serious conversation with the President.” Democrats have been invited to meet with him tomorrow, Thursday. It may seem odd to separate Representatives by party, but hey, this is Washington, and also there are 435 Members of the House and it would be hard to cram that many people into the White House for a meeting at the same time. Anyway, here’s how it went.
We met in the East Room of the White House, which is where Presidents host relatively large groups of people. (Teddy Roosevelt’s children used to roller skate in this room; President Nixon’s daughter was married in it; First Lady Dolly Madison once saved a portrait of George Washington from being torched by British troops who were on their way down Pennsylvania Avenue after burning the Capitol Building in the War of 1812.)
I didn’t use a stopwatch, but it seemed like the President spoke about 70% of the time, and the other 240 or so of us spoke about 30%. No big surprises, no great revelations, really no new ground covered. President Obama said that we need to work together to get a handle on the debt/spending and that entitlements must be a part of the solution. (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.) Of course when Republicans, by passing the Paul Ryan budget, actually took a step in that direction recently, Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress demagogued the issue more shamelessly than we’ve seen anything demagogued in years.
One very disappointing thing the President admitted, was that he has no intention of putting forth his own plan to deal with the out-of-control spending before the debt ceiling is reached in early August. He says it’s important we raise the debt ceiling so as not to roil the markets and risk economic collapse, but he refuses to show true leadership and put on the table his plan to control spending.
Unfortunately, I really don’t think much was accomplished by this meeting. In my view the President will just use this meeting to spin the press, and through it, try to spin the American people, that he’s doing his part to be bipartisan and deal seriously with the nation’s out-of-control spending problem.
I have felt for some time, and continue to feel more strongly than ever, that until America’s leaders deal seriously with Washington’s irresponsible spending habits, the economy will continue to trudge along anemically, and unemployment will remain unacceptably high.
Anyway, those are my thoughts as I leave this “historic” meeting. Let me know what you think.