Some mandate

The election is barely over and House Speaker John Boehner is already spinning the results. He says the re-election of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives is a mandate for not raising taxes on the so-called job creators.

What Boehner leaves out is that, unlike the Senate and presidency, state legislatures manipulate House district boundaries to protect incumbents,.

In the 41 states that don't use independent commissions, states just redistricted mostly along partisan lines. And many states with commissions allow the two major political parties to dominate membership and protect incumbents.

What would the makeup of the House be if districts were drawn in a non-partisan way? We would see more balance and less-extreme candidates. After all, Democratic House candidates received more total votes than Republican candidates.

We need bipartisan compromise to solve our country's problems. The day after an election in which your party didn't do so well is hardly the time to speak of nonexistent mandates and to dig in your heels, saying revenue increases cannot include increases in tax rates.

Both sides must give, and Democrats just won two-thirds of the power pie.

Roger Edwards

West Jordan