There is a predictable rhythm to party politics. An issue comes up for debate, right and left stake out their positions and progress is determined by how many on each side are willing to move a little closer to the middle. When the rhythm is smooth, we call it bipartisanship. When it’s not, the rhythm sounds an awful lot like noise.
Republicans and Democrats have their differences when it comes to adding a work requirement for able-bodied adults to New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion program. House Democratic Leader Steve Shurtleff, for example, said that Medicaid expansion exists to make people healthy and that “any kind of a roadblock that would keep people from not wanting to apply to receive those benefits … could be dangerous.” Republicans see the work requirement as part of the overarching conservative philosophy of the social safety net in general: People who can work should work.
On this issue, the words of Senate Minority Leader Jeff Woodburn of Whitefield are music to our ears. “In this debate,” he said last week, “Democrats in the Senate understand that we have to bend, we have to work with the majority to get the program renewed. We have to compromise. Democrats want this program. We’re not playing politics.”
He continued: “We’re allowing (Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley) and his team to try and put a deal together, and we understand how difficult it is, and we’re respectful of that.”
Understanding. Compromise. Respect. Those are words that do not pass the lips of elected officials often enough. We applaud Woodburn for recognizing not only the importance of preserving the Medicaid expansion program but how best to accomplish that mission.
If enough people pick up the beat, maybe we’ll finally get a break from all this noise.