Thursday, April 14, 2011

Doctor, Please Make the (Political) Voices Stop!

I really do wish that our politicians give us all a break from their verbal insanity and rantings and abide by that old saying: "Its better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt." Unfortunately, the politicians in this country rarely abide by this sound advice, resulting in the following bits of craziness:

- Senator Joseph Lieberman, as quoted in the November 9, 2009 issue of the San Francisco Examiner: " I may be at a point in my career that I am going to do what is right and what makes sense." Does this mean that for all of the decades he served in the Washington political class he was only doing stuff that did not make any sense or that was not right? Given the sorry record of the political class over the past forty years, his statement actually makes a lot of sense and probably applies to most in the political class.

- President Barack Obama, as quoted in the August 10, 2009 issue of the New York Times: "I've got a lot on my plate, and it's very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in a way they don't all just crash at the same time." Does that mean it is better for the big initiatives to crash sequentially? Given the multiple, major issues facing the country, solving these problems sequentially is not acceptable, we do not have the time to wait.

- U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson, as quoted in the The Hill on March 31, 2010, actually quoting from a Congressional hearing on Guam: "My fear is that the whole island (Guam) will become so overly populated it will tip over and capsize." Why is the Congressman only worried about tiny Guam, shouldn't Congress be worried about Manhattan island capsizing with its millions of people? The sad part of this travesty is I believe the Congressman actually got re-elected this past November.

- President Barack Obama, as quoted in the July 21, 2010 issue of the The New York Times regarding his signing of the legislation that supposedly reformed the financial  markets in the country: "If you've ever applied for a credit card, a student loan, or a mortgage, you know the feeling of signing your name to pages of barely understandable fine print." Does that he mean he also does not understand anything approved by Congress and just signs it anyway?

- Former President Bill Clinton, as quoted by the Associated Press on September 21, 2010: "Do you know how many political and economic decisions are made in this world by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about?" Given the failed Cash For Clunkers program, the failed home mortgage program, the failed economic stimulus program, the failed Cash For Caulkers program, the failed first time home buyers rebate program, and the failure to see the biggest economic downturn since the Depression until it happened, I would say all of the political and economic decisions are made by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about.

Senator Michael Bennet, as quoted in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." By "we" I certainly hope the Senator is talking about the failure of the five hundred or so people in Congress and the White House who spent these trillions of dollars and got nothing in return, not the millions of taxpayers who foolishly entrusted their hard earned tax dollars to his waste. Plus, the Senator is slightly off since in just the nine months since he offered these insightful words, the political class has manged to acquire well over $14 TRILLION of debt with nothing to show for it.

- Congressman Don Young, as quoted on KTVA Television on January 3, 2011: "You should actually sign a contract: I will serve at least 25 years." No, you should actually sign a contract, and pass a law, that says the country deserves term limits from every one of it's politicians and those term limits should not be anywhere close to 25 years.

- Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, as quoted in the January, 2011 issue of Reason magazine: "Everything was going great, and all of a sudden secret money form God knows where - because they won't disclose it - is pouring in." Now I know why the Democrats got a beat down last November. It was not because the national debt under their reign exploded to unheard of heights. It was not because we had stubbornly high unemployment for a long time. It was not because every economic program that was passed on her watch was a total failure. It was not because she allowed Americans with a differing opinion to be called every obscene name in the book. No, it was because mysterious money showed up. Delusional.

- Ms. Pelosi has been the source of many mind numbing quotes during her time as head of the House. She ranted that 500 million Americans were losing their jobs every week (there are just over 300 million Americans currently alive), she  explained that unemployment benefits was the best way to create jobs (leading to the perverted circular reasoning and conclusion that if every American was unemployed and collecting unemployment benefits there would not longer be any unemployment), and the best of all, we would not know what is in the Obama Care legislation until it was passed I guess the President might not have understood that effort either).

Her latest gem comes from a speech she gave at Tufts University last week: "But the fact is that elections shouldn't matter as much as they do." Maybe she is taking hints from Congressman Young but I would beg to disagree. Elections do matter since they are the mechanism of freedom in this country. For a leading political figure to state, and by deduction agree with, that elections do not matter, is unconscionable.

- Vice President Joe Biden, as quoted in a PBS interview on January 27, 2011: "I would not refer to him (President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt) as a dictator." Let's review: Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist for four decades, he has not allowed any legitimate elections during that time frame, he has allowed his cohorts in the armed forces to own broad swaths of the Egyptian economy for their own benefit, he maintained a vicious secret police force that were not adverse to using torture, and he maintained a continuous state of emergency for decades. Wow, glad the Vice President could clear that up, I would have sworn that Mubarak was a dictator. Biden must think that Qaddafi is the second coming of Gandhi.

- The beauty of the Vice President is that his actions can speak volumes even when he does not say anything. During President Obama's speech last night, where he unveiled his deficit reduction plan, the Vice President verbally said nothing of note. However, midway through the speech, cameras got the Vice President in full nap mode as the President addressed the biggest challenge facing the country.

Doctor, doctor, please make them stop talking. Every time they say something it hurts. It hurts because I realize that our financial, economic, health, and retirement future, along with our freedom and liberty, is in the hands of these people, who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about. Guam capsizing, unemployed people creating jobs, not doing the right thing or the thing that makes sense, changing the definition of what a dictator is, etc. The drone and pain never ends, doctor.

Please prescribe something that will 1) change our election processes do allow some smart Americans and true leaders to finally win an election, 2) impose term limits so that we are not forced to live with this insanity for 25 years or so as Congressman Young would like to see, and 3) prescribe some sedatives for every member of the political class since the less they say and more importantly, the less they do, makes for a better life for the rest of us. Stop the droning today!



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http://www.cato.org/
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http://www.repealamendment.com

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