Politicians' questionable health – time for more scrutiny?

+ previous debt crises and the chaos they triggered US Edition - Today's top story: Feinstein just the latest example of an old problem: Politicians have long been able to evade questions about their ability to serve [View in browser]( US Edition | 18 May 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( After a nearly three-month absence from Congress to battle a health issue, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is back at the Capitol – and, like her colleagues, voting on issues that come before the body. But questions about her health and fitness to serve abound. Feinstein’s deteriorating physical health is obvious – we can see it with our own eyes. The extent of her mental acuity, though, is something we can only guess about. And people have been doing that for years. A widely reported encounter she had with reporters this week, during which she insisted she hadn’t been away from the Senate, suggests there is reason for concern. The thing is, though, Feinstein’s constituents can’t know for certain if she is mentally unfit to occupy her office. How could they? In this country, health information – even for politicians who serve the public – is private. Feinstein is evasive. And the press, for the most part, is not challenging her. As David E. Clementson, an assistant professor of journalism, explains, [it’s not the first time a politician has kept their health status secret](. “Sen. Strom Thurmond did not retire until he was 100 years old, and reporters largely kept his cognitive ailments hidden,” he writes. “Like Feinstein, Thurmond often showed evidence of cognitive decline when speaking.” Whether this is the second time or the 100th, maybe it should be the last time a politician is allowed to hide apparent impairments – and inability to fulfill the responsibilities of elected office – in plain sight. After all, Clementson writes, the public has the right to expect its representatives to be fit enough to serve. Lorna Grisby Senior Politics & Society Editor Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in a wheelchair as she returns to the Senate after a more than two-month absence, May 10, 2023. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite [Feinstein just the latest example of an old problem: Politicians have long been able to evade questions about their ability to serve]( David E. Clementson, University of Georgia Physical ailments and deteriorated health may be the one area in which politicians can escape scrutiny. With the House GOP and President Joe Biden locked in a struggle over the debt limit, it’s dark times in the U.S. Capitol. Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images [A brief history of debt ceiling crises and the political chaos they’ve unleashed]( Raymond Scheppach, University of Virginia There are political as well as economic risks to debt standoffs in Congress. 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