When people ask me who I want to win the presidency on November 4th, I say, "I just want the government to function again."  On Capitol Hill, I worked for Republicans and Democrats.  I learned that government functioned best when Republican and Democrats worked together, traveled together, ate together, and compromised together.  The earned income tax credit I formulated and helped enact in 1975 was a Republican idea passed by Democrats.  Bill Clinton pushed welfare reform into existence, and George W. Bush expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs.  There's a pattern here.

You don't have to be a Washington policy wonk to notice that our government has ceased to function on many levels.  Ronald Reagan ran against the government, but it still worked under him, even after firing the air traffic controllers.  Newt Gingrich led the radical conservative charge that literally shut the government down in the fall of 1996. That's when the real damage started.  Worse was to come.  President Bush didn't leave campaign mode long enough to court the support he needed on Capitol Hill, even within his own party, to perform basic functions of government:

1. Are we better defended?
   
2. Is our economy stronger?
   
3. Has our energy security improved?
   
4. Are we leaving a better future for our children than we enjoyed?

Post 9/11, President Bush used his carte blanche to fight terrorism, to launch a war, and to cut taxes.  If measured by domestic terrorist attacks, we are still secure.  However, Osama bin Laden remains at large, Iraq and Afghanistan are limping along, and, by all accounts, our armed forces are exhausted.  My Republican friends who ventured to Bhagdad during the summer of 2003 to restore Iraq's government have returned disillusioned by the opportunities that were squandered because of misquided ideology refuted by facts on the ground.  A $5.6 trillion 10-year surplus has been turned into a $2.4 trillion deficit.  The real estate bubble has burst and high energy prices threaten the economy. The middle class is getting squeezed, and the poor are suffering. Our delay until last December in enacting a modicum of sensible energy policies has left us quite vulnerable to our dependence upon foreign oil for 58% of our oil consumption.  Worst of all, our kids are entering their working careers carrying record amounts of private debt, mostly to finance their education, and facing unprecedented future federal debt from the war, the extension of the Bush tax cuts, the retirement of their parents, and from out of control health care spending.

How many more natural disasters is it going to take before we revitalize FEMA?

How many more food poisonings and tainted drug imports is it going to take before the FDA can protect us again? 

When is the EPA going to start enforcing air and water quality standards again? 

How many more failures to move air traffic is it going to take before FAA technology enters this century? 

When will we ever be able to conduct the census electronically? 

When will we provide the mental health care to our returning veterans to reduce their record suicide rate?

These are not ideological questions.  These are questions of basic competence of governmental function.  It's time to demand answers during this year's campaign and on November 4th.  We need to elect members of both parties who will make our government function again.