Tulsi in town: Congresswoman holds talk story in Kona

KAILUA-KONA — Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard spent Thursday morning in Kailua-Kona, capping off her visit with a talk story meeting at Daylight Mind Coffee Co.

During her hour and a half of handshaking and question answering, House Rep. Gabbard touched on several issues including veterans affairs, environmental protection, higher education and the impending Zika threat. However, the talking point that dominated the day centered around a persistent lack of legislative productivity in Congress.

In a political age when compromise has become a dirty word, and gerrymandering, geographic sorting and straight-ticket voting have rendered districts heavily concentrated in favor of one party or another, bipartisan efforts have dwindled and caused a legislative logjam leaving many Americans frustrated.

“You have people, whether they are in strong Democratic districts or strong Republican districts who say, ‘I would love to work with you on that, but if my folks at home know that I am (cooperating across the aisle), I am going to lose my race,’” Gabbard said.

Marshal Blumstock, a retired entrepreneur and substance abuse counselor who questioned Gabbard on the topic at the meeting, said in a perfect world, politicians would behave more idealistically.

“If you’re really in it for the country … then you show courage and you do what is right rather than what is going to keep you in power,” he said. “And if that means you don’t get re-elected, so be it. It should not be that important always to get re-elected when you’re not living up to what really you know should be done.”

The inability of Congress to pass a bill that would fund efforts to combat the Zika virus, which is now prevalent in Florida and poses a threat to public health in Hawaii, is the most current and prevalent example of congressional ineffectiveness.

Gabbard spoke directly to that issue Thursday, referencing the attachments and riders added to a Zika bill by House Republicans that included abortion restrictions and changes to environmental regulations.

“I have been pushing for (Zika funding), but ultimately voted against the bill because of those attachments and riders,” Gabbard said. “It was just a bad bill.”

The political tactic of adding so-called “poison pills” is typically intended to have one of two effects. Either the hope is amendments that on their own wouldn’t garner enough support to pass will become law because the primary legislation itself is so crucial — a characterization members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have applied to Zika funding.

The second intention of adding controversial amendments and riders can be to make sure the initial legislation introduced fails to pass into law because even those who initially supported it can’t stomach the ultimate effects the bill would have due to legislative additions.

“When you constantly tag on unrelated things to good bills, they’re never going to get passed,” said Susan Yandall, a retired nurse practitioner who attended the meeting. “We need to get back to passing clean and simple bills and forget the extraneous stuff.”

Gabbard — who represents Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, which is heavy with Democrats — boasts a legitimate track record of bipartisanship despite working for a group of constituents that leans strongly to one side of the political spectrum.

The Congresswoman cited several pieces of successful legislation including Talia’s Law, the Helping Heroes Fly Act and the re-authorization of the Native Hawaiian Education Act, all of which required her to reach across the aisle in the spirit of aloha she said was best exemplified by former Sen. Daniel Akaka.

She reassured attendees at the meeting that finding bipartisan solutions to help relieve the legislative logjam in Washington remains one of her top priorities, particularly because the last two Congresses have been the least legislatively productive in American history.

“Whether it’s securing Zika funding, or other critical legislation that affects the people of Hawaii and our country, there is no room for playing politics,” Gabbard wrote later in an email to the West Hawaii Today. “I look at each issue based on its merit — not blind partisanship.”

Gabbard continued.

“The most effective way to get things done in Washington, especially at a time when Republicans control both the House and the Senate, is to look for common ground and work from there,” she said. “This way, you are able to open lines of communication and develop trust, and that’s the bottom line. The key to me is that I don’t see or treat Republicans as the enemy. As they say, we can disagree without being disagreeable.”