Cursed Professional Politicians

President Obama held a White House press conference on July 11, 2011. A reporter told him that polls showed that 69% of Americans opposed raising the debt ceiling and asked his response. Obama said,"Let me distinguish between professional politicans and the public at large. You know the public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs...We're paid to worry about it." Let me translate, for the stupid people (you and me): "The common people, the lesser people, you know, are worried about the kinds of things they can understand, like grubbing for food and digging ditches. We, Professional Politicians, are the only ones that can really understand this. The American people are too stupid to comprehend this stuff and so I will dismiss that poll completely because it doesn't fit with my agenda." The unflagging arrogance, in spite of the debacle that is his presidency, is utterly breathtaking. Among Barack's mulitudes of foolish statements, this one ranks high on my list. We'll disregard, for just a moment, the fact that American public is paying attention like never before and move on to the next stupid statement. During the debt ceiling debate, the President came out regularly to make public statements about the terrrible, dire, calamitous events that would await us if the debt ceiling were not raised. He said: "For the first time in history, our country's AAA credit rating would be downgraded, leaving investors around the world to wonder whether the United states is still a good bet. Interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, on mortgages and on car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike on the American people." He then promised us over and over that the crisis would be averted if we would only raise the debt ceiling and avoid default. Well, we raised the debt ceiling and guess what? We still got downgraded. So everything he promised to avoid is going to happen anyway. Why? Because this deal is a farce. There are no real spending cuts. They are playing us for fools once again, hoping that by tinkering with numbers and words that they can avoid the inevitable for a few more years. And now is when we can really thank the Professional Politicians for the fine job they've been doing. Perhaps a little background would be helpful.

First let's nail down the elusive Professional Politician (heretofore to be known as PP). These are the people whose only ambition in life is to hold politicial office. They come from many backgrounds and regardless of party affiliation, they see government as the solution to the problem. As Reagan once said, "Government IS the problem". The PP's live to legislate and see legislation as the solution to "what ails ya." "This here legislative snake oil will cure all yer ills, aches and pains." These "public servants" are anything but as they spend most of their time lining their pockets, making backroom deals and planning a self-serving agenda that will guide their personal future at the public's expense. They don't have to live in the real world because they are spending somebody else's money--yours. It's fun to spend somebody else's money and it's so easy. No accountability, no guilt, no hesitation, just spend, spend, spend. Then they say things like "The buck stops here!" But it never really does, does it? Whatever our problems, they never take any personal responsibility for it--it's Bush's fault, it's the Dems fault, it's the Republicans fault, it's the S&P's fault, it's the S&P's calculator's fault, it's the tsunami in Japan's fault, it's the European's fault, it's global warming's fault, I had a toothache, I have a tummy ache, my mommy was mean to me once. It goes on and on and on. The finger is always pointing but never at themselves. The PP's are extremely adept at dodging, deflecting, denying, blaming, twisting, dancing and spinning outright lies. But they do not tell the truth and they do not ever take responsibility--unless something is perceived as good, of course, and then it was all about them.

The economy was headed south when Obama took office, I will grant him that. But after two and a half years, his administration, working hand-in-hand with the Democrat controlled congress has made things much, much worse. The Republicans don't get a pass on this however, because they would not control their spending during the Bush administration. They do get credit for cutting taxes, which prevented us from a complete tailspin during George W., but they would not cut spending and thus the growing deficit. The national debt when Clinton left office was $5.7 trillion, Bush II left a larger debt of $10.6 trillion after eight years in office. Obama has been president a little over two and half years and the debt is now over $14.5 trillion dollars. (As a point of reference our current Gross Domestic Product is roughly $14.8 trillion.) The PP's have an insatiable addiction to spending; they have proven time after time that they cannot control themselves. Much as they would like to blame it on decreased revenues to the treasury (a.k.a. taxes), that is not the problem. As many wise people have said during this precipitous period, we do not have a revenue problem, we have a PP spending problem. They spend too much. We have given them a credit card without any limits for so long, without being accountable for payment, that they are absolutely not going to give it up freely. They are like the roommate you had in college that could not stop spending and ran up so much credit card debt that Daddy and Mommy had to come and take the credit cards away. And were they ever ticked. PP's are the same and noone has really attempted to take Congress' credit card away until now.

In the last election, the Republicans won in a landslide. But these weren't just any Republicans, these were generally Tea Party Republicans. This was a direct reaction to and absolute repudiation of Obama's policies. You see, the American people aren't so stupid after all. They are watching what is happening to their country and their economy. They happen to know that all spending originates in the House of Representatives. They control the check book, if you will. These new Tea Party people were elected to get spending under control; their mandate was specific at the behest of the citizens who sent them there. And now that all hell is breaking loose in the economy, in spite of Barack's hollow promises, the favorite new scapegoat of the PP's is the Tea Party. Over the weekend of the S&P downgrade announcement, the pundits, the PP's and the willing accomplices in the media blamed the Tea Party for the situation in which we now find ourselves as a nation. That logic only works in Washington DC and Alice's Wonderland. They actually expect us to believe that an entity that has been around for a few short years and only a political force in the last election is solely responsible for decades of rampant spending, irresponsible policies and unattainable promises. In the real world, the House, under Ms. Pelosi, failed to provide a budget at all in 2010, while the Senate, under the sniveling Harry Reid, has also failed to write any sort of operating budget for this fiscal year. If you're a PP, this is a convenient way to have no accountability for your spending. Then they can easily say, "I didn't authorize that spending!" "That was in the budget? I had no idea!" But, obviously, those dirty buggers in the Tea Party, who came to Washington and passed a budget, which they are required to do by the Constitution, are at fault. Every problem we have right now, every last $14.5 trillion of them is their fault! Nice thinking Alice; foolproof logic, that!

Back to the the Tea Party. After these unreasonable so-and-so's passed a budget, they then passed a curious piece of legislation called "Cut, Cap and Balance". This illogical, crazy, extreme bill would require the Federal Government to cut spending, cap spending and send a balanced budget amendment to the states for ratification. NO, NOT THAT! How could they even think of such a thing?!! Horrors!! I can't look, it's too horrible! Some PP's have even called a balanced budget amendment irresponsible. The PP's in the Senate wouldn't even debate the legislation. Well, if that's irresponsible, call me reckless. Because we live within our means, every day of every week, month and year. Wanton disregrad for others, I tell ya. Never mind that every state but Vermont has some sort of requirement to have a balanced state budget. It would be completely irresponsible to require that of the Federal Government. Shocking indeed!

The other accusation being lobbed at the Tea Party is that their rank partisanship caused the S&P downgrade to our credit rating. Of course, everybody knows that the only people that can behave in a partisan way are conservatives. When the Tea Party stands on principle it's partisanship, according to the PP's and the media. Liberals and Professional Politicians are never partisan, they are merely deliberative, thoughtful and reasonable. The truth, however, is that the PP's have found a convenient new scapegoat that they hope will remove all blame from themselves--the Tea Party. This is the same Tea Party that has been ridiculed, mocked and dismissed for the last two years as a joke. Now suddenly, they are the most nefarious and dangerous force ever to walk the halls of power. Being the good PP's that they are, they know that if they say it enough and the media repeats it enough, it will not matter if the Tea Party is to blame or not. They only need to drum it long enough to equate the Tea Party with radicalism and they will have succeeded. Facts and reality need not enter here, we will merely deal in accusation and rhetoric.

While the favorite scapegoat is the Tea Party, the PP's have also been twisting themselves into a dizzy frenzy pointing the finger of blame anyplace but at themselves. They have also turned on the credit agency, Standard & Poor's. Their job is to rate our financial strength, our credit-worthiness. Blaming S&P for our downgrade is like blaming the doctor for one's smoking induced lung cancer. Responsible adults arrive at the point where they know they have to take responsibility for their decisions. It is painful, but that is what grown-ups are expected to do. It is embarrassing to watch these people who are supposed to represent us, run around crying: "It's not my fault, it's not my fault!"

Some have used the S&P's press release as justification for targeting the political gridlock that is part of our political system. Specifically, they have tried to isolate the Tea Party members for the sole repositories of guilt in that gridlock. Of course, they were the only ones in the debate who would not budge. (Keep repeating it and it will become true.) Obviously, Obama's veto threat in regards to a balanced budget amendment is not partisanship. Nor was the Senate's abject refusal to make any real spending cuts partisan either. However, I have a message for the S&P, your job is to rate our credit worthiness, not judge our political system. Our system is ugly and it almost always has been. The Founding Fathers intended it to be. It is one of the most important checks to power they established within our Democratic Republic. If you have read any of our history, that is painfully apparent. S&P claimed that the gridlock in Washington didn't bode well for our financial future while at the same time hammering us for the amount of our debt. Had it not been for the Tea Party, the debt ceiling would have been raised yet again, with no thought for what it's doing to our national debt. Even more importantly, if the PP's had any courage and integrity, they would have passed Cut, Cap and Balance in the Senate, which would have had real cuts in it and probably would have prevented that downgrade from happening in the first place. Frankly, at this point, gridlock is my best friend. This president is hell-bent on spending us into oblivion since raising the debt ceiling has become cursory. Unfortunately for him, the Tea Party forced the Washington establishment to at least pause and think about it. There was no grand victory for the Tea Party in this--if there were, we would have real, measurable spending cuts. That did not happen. The only good thing is that they turned it into a real debate.

Lest I be accused of over-simplifying, I realize that cutting spending is not the only solution to the problem. But refusing to do it on that basis is like refusing to stop someone's bleeding in the ER because they also have a broken leg. It would be a darn fine start. And yes, I agree with Obama, revenues need to be increased. But not in the way that he wants to. Raising income taxes on top of the out-of-control regulation and spending of this President and Congress will kill what is left of this economy. We increase revenues by unleashing this economy again, putting people back to work and generating income for everyone. The tax code needs a complete overhaul. If you don't believe that you have either never had to file taxes or you didn't hear that GE paid no taxes last year. I'm not saying GE is evil, I use them as only one example of many. They used their highly paid tax attornies and found legal ways to avoid paying taxes. I'm down with that. I can't afford a tax attorney and have no tax shelters. But just like you and I, GE should be paying some taxes. The problem is that our tax code is used as a political tool by the PP's to exercise control and wield power. Were the PP's to reform the tax code, they would lose a lot of power and therefore they won't do it. Furthermore, without a balanced budget amendment, raising taxes will not result in paying down the debt anyway. Every time we have increased taxes in the past, the temporarily increased revenues have resulted in increased spending. It's a lot more fun and way more sexy for a politician to promise lollipops and rainbows than it is to pay down the national debt.

So what's the solution? It is not to give up. It is not to throw up our hands and say, "We can't fix this." We can and we must. If you're mad as hell, as I am, then the answer is to work harder. The only way changes will be made in Washington DC is if we send better people. And it will take time. This economy and this country cannot be turned on a dime. But if we give up, nothing will ever get fixed. We have to demand change. Our first mandate must be manifest through a new president and anything but a Democrat controlled Senate. It would also be nice if the Professional Politicians in the Republican Party would get tossed. We may not survive another year and a half of this President, I know we cannot survive five and a half. There will be nothing left to rescue. We must remain firm, united and determined not to let the naysayers divide and dishearten us. We know what must be done; we do it every day in our homes and businesses. The government must be commanded, by the people who own it, to do the same.