The House of Representatives took the high road on the first day of 2013 by approving the fiscal package passed to them by the Senate earlier that day. 85 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with 172 Democrats for a progressive tax bill that would distribute the burden of paying for government more judiciously.  This was the first sign that the House would govern for of all the people, not just the most powerful, in their deliberations over the federal budget and the deficit in the next session.

Although the 167 who voted against the bill will claim they voted according to their fiscal principles, there is another principle, that of good faith negotiations, that they would have to ignore to vote “nay” on this bill.  Almost exactly a year ago the President extended the Bush tax cuts as a concession to keep government running, but declared that the taxes on the wealthy would have to be addressed when this bill came due again.  This principle was the cornerstone of the Obama Presidential campaign and resulted in a strong mandate in the President’s re-election.

When the election was over, Speaker John Boehner said the President would have to initiate tax legislation. When the President did so, the Speaker spurned the proposal. When the House failed to bring a tax bill to the floor, the Speaker declared it was in the Senate’s hands.  When the Senate sweated to produce a consensus bill, the House conservatives again spurned the bill.  Yet some Republicans seized the opportunity to show good faith, to compromise, notably Speaker Boehner and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan.  Clearly these men had to place governing above their budgetary scruples to vote this way.

Meanwhile the pattern of “my way or the highway” has been established in the past year by a stubborn minority in the House. We now know who these 157 representatives are, and some are Democrats.  Concessions made by their own colleagues in the Senate would not placate these “principled” representatives.  They have abandoned their responsibility to govern by standing on their principles.   Let them stand and prove their mettle, but let the majority move forward and govern for the people.

That agonized ripping sound is the shredding of alliances that have prevented Congress from acting productively for two years.  Whether these alliances are dead remains to be seen in the 113th Congress, but their dominion over the House of Representatives has momentarily weakened.  While ideology may continue to polarize the House, the spirit of collaboration, may yet transform this dysfunctional body.  Every bi-partisan consensus brings new hope that governing for all the people is still the highest principle in Washington.