Washington Follies

Watching the news is depressing. The Tea Party fools are demanding massive cuts – of course only if those cuts do not affect their voters. The left Left is still trying to construct the mythical ‘city on a hill’ a utopian paradise where everyone is civil and caring. It is easy to be a utopian if you never have contact with real people. Everyone else is trying the look solemn and hoping that that will impress the uninformed hoi polloi. This is a badly designed beauty pageant where the Congresspersons are the contestants; they don’t look too good but are obviously on the line. It is THEIR JOBS that they are defending. Listening to many of them boosts the image of the Miss America pageant. It also does nothing to remove the idea from my head that many of those in Congress wear loafers because they have to – they aren’t bright enough to tie shoes.

The whole debt crisis is a manufactured one. The debt ceiling has been raised many times before. How come it is now a national CRISIS? If Clinton and Gingrich could put a deal together why is it impossible now without this HIGH DRAMA? Is there a smack of racism in these dealings or are those heel-digging-in Congresspersons flirting with treason? A good look at the rating agencies that are threatening lowering of credit rating is called for. They are not without their own history of dirty dealing. They are the ones that gave great ratings to the banks who were bundling high-risk loans and sending them soaring in 2006. How much did their fictitious ratings contribute to the current ‘recession’? No one dares to use the D-word and call it a depression.

How would I fix this if I were ruling the world???
1. Electioneering can only go on for six weeks. All media are OBLIGED to provide free coverage to all qualified (a certain number of voter names depending on whether this is a local or national election) in return for the paltry sum they pay for licenses. This removes the need for massive amounts of campaign money, many lobbyists, 2-year long campaigns, and above all……special interests.
2. A Congressional pension is dependent on time served: just as a 401K is arranged.
3. Healthcare for Congress is the same as it is for the rest of the country..
4. FICA is a tax on ALL income – there is no upper-limit cutoff.
5. The medical system doesn’t work. It needs considerable fixing. The administrators of MEDICARE –MEDICAID are making the losers in FANNIE and FREDDY look competent. The whole agency needs careful scrutiny starting with a very basic question:
a. Does everyone deserve medical care or do we just let those who have no funds (insurance) die?

This brings up a whole other discussion and we can fix it but right now, it is not the right time. First get the financials in order, then do a longer-term fix. This is civic triage; first stop the catastrophe, then do repair work. Obviously the fools at both ends of the political spectrum have never tackled a multi-faceted problem before; they have no concept of priorities.