I’ve written before about the incredible damage being done to our country by entrenched politicians. With this column, I’m going to delve into a partial explanation of what I believe is happening. Hopefully, you’ll pass this along to those who may still believe that their Representative or Senator is doing well by them, because of his or her ’experience.’
First off, would someone please explain to me what is gained by ’experience’ in Washington D.C.? There are some jobs where experience is actually a detriment to the country. Isn’t that like John Dillinger being an ’experienced’ bank robber? Outside of pork barrel spending, which is economically indefensible for the nation as a whole, there is nothing to be gained by having an ’experienced’ politician. Pundits will say that being the leader of one of the many committees offers the power to manipulate the process of legislating, but is that a good thing? Name one piece of legislation passed in the last twenty years, that has done any good for this country!! I honestly can’t think of one. Every law that’s passed, just expands the government, and further erodes our freedoms. And yes, that is also the freedom to fail, and not force your fellow taxpayers to bail you out.
Some will say, “What about all the jobs created by those projects that Rep. Murtha, Senator Byrd, and others like them got passed for their district and state?” In order to counter this argument, you need to understand the concept of economic efficiency. The Business Dictionary defines economic efficiency, as “The situation where some people cannot be made better-off by re-allocating the resources or goods, without making others worse-off.” Does anyone actually believe that the money spent on an airport that is never used, or a ’bridge to no where,’ couldn’t be better used by the taxpayers to provide for their families?
And how about this excuse or justification: “Given the total budget, the amount of pork projects is very small.” This is another ridiculous assertion! Like tens of billions of dollars a year couldn’t be better used by people who actually earned them. What’s the old saying? ’A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.’ This absurd justification or excuse making, is evidence of how totally out of touch the members of Congress are with reality.
Secondly, to be an effective leader, don’t you have to have some idea of what is actually going on in your organization? I’m speaking of any organization, be it a business, charity, or even a family. It’s my contention that if you’ve been in Washington for more than six years, you’ve totally lost touch with what the “real people” of America are doing, and how your actions affect them. Does anyone actually believe that Strom Thurmond had a clue about what was happening in his state, much less his own office? How about the late Ted Kennedy? Before he died, Ted Kennedy never held a job outside of the public sector, and he was a Senator for 31 years! Come on…How can anyone lead without any knowledge of what they’re leading?
The real question isn’t whether the Congress is out of touch with the folks back home, but why, knowing the situation we face, they still cast unbelievably ludicrous votes. Take for example, the $12 trillion debt (not counting $90 trillion in un-funded liabilities). Why would anyone vote to spend an additional $1 trillion on a new health entitlement, when it’s obvious we are totally over our heads in debt already? It seems counter intuitive, but most citizens just don’t pay enough attention to understand how much trouble they’ve gotten America into over the past few decades. They believe it when told it will actually save money, or that it’s those evil insurance companies that are the problem, blah, blah, blah. Politicians know that when they promise handouts, “programs,” and play the class warfare card, they will be re-elected. I suppose the belief is that by the time it hits the fan, they will be retired, with full salary for the rest of their lives. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but there can be no other explanation! These are not stupid people. They know the debt has to be paid! Obama just presented a new budget for $3.8 trillion paper dollars.
Every year, the parasites, ( recipients of government largess), which have been created by ever-expanding government, grow in number, and now actually out-number the hosts ( us). It’s actually reached critical mass, and I’m not sure we can ever pull out of it. Pretty disgusting, actually.
There needs to be a massive re-balancing of the economy. We need to get back to financial realism. We need to pay off the national debt, but it simply won’t happen when voters have to be bought, in order to secure re-election. The dishonesty and hunger for power is so rampant in Washington, that only a total overhaul of the system has a chance of bringing us out of this death spiral. The only way to overhaul Washington, is to remove the source of the problems: the Congress. We must clean house, in order to send this message! Every single elected official must be replaced by someone with no experience. God forbid that we actually get our friends and neighbors to represent us. Their mission must be to get the government out of our lives, and return this country back to the great nation it once was.