Memo to president Bush, Congress, and all the economic “experts” who’ve decided how government can “save” our economy: take your $800 rebate and shove it!
Anyone with half a brain knows what’s wrong with our economy: government spending has expanded far beyond anything resembling fiscal sanity. Every other entity which operates on the basis of money coming in versus money going out is constrained by one immutable reality: if the latter exceeds the former, sooner or later you go bankrupt.
Our political class, however, adheres to completely different “principles:” 1. government NEVER shrinks, it only expands at differing rates; 2. if that rate is less than we think we’re entitled to, we call it a “cut;” 3. we will spend whatever we want, irrespective of the funds actually available; 4. we will make “promises,” aka Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security that will become impossible to keep; 5. we will never go bankrupt because we can print money–even if that money becomes next to worthless. 6. we will never plan for the long term because getting re-elected enshrines short-term thinking.
Don’t think for a minute these bums don’t know how to really fix the economy. It’s just that doing something for the good of the country doesn’t remotely compare with doing something good for themselves.
And Americans are furious with government for precisely that reason. What we see is a bunch of self-serving fat cats whose first commandment is “do as I say, not as I do.” Have to be responsible with money? We don’t. Have to prepare for your future? We don’t. We can run this country right into the ground and every single one of us will still be sitting pretty. Have to do without when times are tough? Not us. There’s no such thing as tough times when you’re spending other peoples’ money–and racking up nine trillion bucks of IOUs in the process.
The public’s anger, however, is largely worthless—and we have no one but ourselves to blame. See if this sounds familiar: all those other Congressmen stink, but I’m going to re-elect mine because he “brings home the bacon.” And you wonder why most of these folks get the sense they’re bullet-proof?
Congress won’t put the interests of the country before their own until the American public makes it clear they can’t be bought off with a “bridge to nowhere,” a “museum commemorating Woodstock,” or any other “goodies” whose principle aim is to buy your vote–one earmark after another.
Aren’t you tired of being a sucker? Or is eight hundred bucks enough to buy you off–again?
atahlert@comcast.net
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