Posted by
fiddler on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 2:14:21 PM
I know, I know. I have got to write more often. It's that old use-it-or-lose-it thing: if I don't write more, I won't build my skills, nor develop any ideas worth sharing.
On the other hand someone who used his gift-of-gab to great effect, all the way to the White House, is continuing to develop his skills, although he may be finding that now that he's the head honcho, not everyone falls at his feet to drool over his shoes.
I am, of course, referring to President Obama.
He won by a respectable margin, with 52% of the popular vote to McCain's 48%. No long, drawn-out, and painful recount process this time, nor charges of voter fraud (at least not in the Presidential race; the Minnesota Senatorial race is at this late date still undecided). But where most newly inaugurated presidents enjoy a honeymoon period, however brief, of accomplishing a great deal of their legislative agenda, President Obama has yet to get his biggest legislative items through. And the biggest item, though he didn't campaign on it, has been bogged down in the Senate. Yes, it will probably pass tonight. But the fact of the matter is that an awful lot of people are upset that he allowed certain Democrats in Congress to hijack the proposed stimulus package and lard it up with obscene amounts of pork, all in the name of "stimulating the economy" and "job creation."
I have long heard that this is how business gets done in Washington. Propose legislation, seek to build a coalition of legislative allies who will vote for the bill if there's something in it for their congressional districts, and get it passed. But I for one am sick of business as usual. I want it to stop. I want our Congressman to pass legislation that's good for the whole country, without figuring out a way to soak taxpayers for any more money than is necessary.
Maybe it's a pipedream. Maybe expecting our Congress to act for purely altruistic reasons is unrealistic. But my $2000 tax bill this spring is infuriating me. I'm tired of this old, old, "pay to play" scam: give the government your money so that the government can dole out goodies as it sees fit. I want the government out of my pocket, and I want it out yesterday! But now our President has said that the Senate must authorize this outrageously huge spending bill, or we will have an economic catastrophe, a bill for which my great-grandchildren will still be paying in fifty or sixty years. And he says "only government can do this." Never once does he mention that this economic mess is largely the fault of (drum-roll please)... government! Government interfering in markets; government pressuring businesses to make bad business decisions; government failing to perform the watch-dog functions mandated by federal law; government more interested in political correctness than in common sense.
My Patriot ancestors must be rolling in their graves at the mockery made of the constitution by our government in the last 80 to 100 years. Maybe it's time for a new American Revolution.