Congress don’t raise the debt ceiling!

Congress don’t raise the debt ceiling!

Congress, don’t raise the debt ceiling, seriously let the United States default on our debts, watch the stock market crash, watch more people end up out of work, and watch interest rates rise.  The reason I want this to happen is that people don’t really pay attention to anything unless it hits them in the pocketbook or the wallet. 

Global warming won’t be real until it costs people money, the utter stupidity of a fossil fuel economy didn’t even cross most people’s minds until gasoline hit $4.00 a gallon, a level we’re unfortunately getting very comfortable with.  And so, the debt ceiling won’t mean anything until it goes boom and people are suddenly less able to retire, or their adjustable rate mortgage jumps up a couple of points.

Maybe, if congress lets us down on this issue to the point that our collective and individual bottom lines suffer then maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally understand that in America there is just one political party, the re-election party.  Jokers wearing elephant lapel pins can’t possibly vote for tax increases and jokers with jackass pins can’t possibly cut any entitlements because they are afraid their base will desert them and they won’t get re-elected, which of course is the sole reason they are in office.

I consistently hear politicians, especially conservatives, and idiot commentators like Sean Hannity talk about the debt in terms of personal finance.  They are always saying if you are out of money you can’t print up more, you have to cut back.  Well you damn fools, when people are truly broke they don’t just cut back on spending, they often also go out and get a second job.  You see ordinary everyday people are smart enough to understand that in order to solve a debt problem you have to decrease spending AND raise revenues. 

So the hell with the debt ceiling let it all crash and then maybe just maybe we can finally start getting rid of these bums and actually put somebody from something other than the re-election party into office.

 

Yup, Congress still sucks!

I’m not too thrilled with Obama either at the moment. So, our economy sucks, I think we all understand this as we look around and see friends, family and co-workers unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. The economy has killed possibility for a lot of people, without the opportunity to sell their homes, seniors are unable to downsize their expenses and many people can’t find work somewhere else when they own a home here they can’t sell. It is budget season in Washington DC and the same old, stupid budget wrangling is going on. The President softball pitches his budget where he totally ignores the big entitlement programs which everyone knows have to be impacted in order to reduce the deficit. The Republicans attack him for not proposing cuts to those programs but they ignored the budget commission report that said to do exactly that. Instead the house goes out and attacks projects funded by Nancy Pelosi, punishment I guess for her doing exactly the same things they do when they are in charge and that makes them both wrong. When this “new wave” of senators and representatives were voted in during the last election there was lots of talk about doing things differently in congress, just like when Obama was elected well, that hasn’t happened. There will be another chance to show that they are still at least sane. A vote is coming up on the debt ceiling, if we don’t extend the ceiling we’ll trash our credit rating. Why you ask? Well we will exceed our current debt ceiling because of budget mandates we’ve already created. So eventually we will have to up the debt ceiling, this does not prevent us from serious cost cutting in the future and bringing down the deficit. So in the end, shutting down the government and ruining America’s credit, which is what not extending the ceiling will do, is nothing but a political stunt, with negative consequences for all of us.

Congress said they heard us

Politicians on both side of the aisle stood up after the recent election and publicly said, “we hear you.”  They claim they heard the message the American people sent them, apparently according to their most recent actions what they heard was the following:

Do not help out the first responders who while helping to clean up the 9/11 site became ill:

http://www.app.com/article/CN/20101209/NATIONWORLD/101209042/UPDATE-Senate-Republicans-block-9-11-health-bill

To hell with those people who are on unemployment and can’t find a job, obviously they’re just lazy:

http://www.thestatecolumn.com/blog/2010/12/congressmen-unite-opposing-unemployment-extension-tax-cut-bill

 Either continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy or don’t give them to anyone:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/09/tax.plan/index.html?hpt=T1

 It is truly sad and amazing that our government really doesn’t give a flying shit about our country, but is instead more interested in playing the typical Washington political games.

Rep. Joe Barton apologizes to BP, nice job!

Representative Joe Barton (Republican) of Texas apologized yesterday to British Petroleum (BP) for the Whitehouse and President Obama’s  shakedown in order to get a twenty billion dollar fund established to help out gulf coast victims of the oil spill.  How idiotic was this statement? Well before the hearing was even over his own party had slapped him around to the point that he retracted the statement, letting everyone know the oil spill is a horrible disaster.

Check out the link to see the reaction he’s getting:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38674.html

So who the hell is Joe Barton?  He’s the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  He’s a representative from the state of Texas whose most notable moments seem to be that he’s denied global warming, made a failed run for a senate seat, opposed the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 and now is apparently the only person in America who feels sorry for Tony Hayward.  Oh and by the way, his number one financial supporter in his political career is the oil and gas industry and he used to consult for Atlantic Richfield Oil and Gas Company.   Was that a BP tie clasp he was wearing yesterday?

Could it possibly be that what Mr. Barton was actually doing yesterday was trying to limit the type of damages that might occur to an oil company after a large spill?  I mean if BP has to pay billions of dollars in damages, then what happens to the next oil company that has a major spill.  And yes Sarah Palin, when you drill baby drill, you spill baby spill!

Here we have another politician folks, so out of the main stream of America and locked into his politics of exclusion and hate that he actually thought he’d be supported on this.  I mean hey, he’s taking a shot at the democrats, the president whom we all know must be a socialist and better yet, one of the black men that damn voting act was trying to protect.  I bet he expected the right and the Republican Party to throw him a damn parade!  Oooops, not everyone in the Republican Party is a moron Joe, and so you got  slapped!  Although I’m sure some of the standard right-wing wackos my be supporting him today I have a feeling Joe Barton is feeling seriously unloved today.

But seriously Mr. Barton, how the hell can you oppose this with a rationale that the courts will take care of this?  Why should fishermen, hotel owners, restaurant and hotel owners and workers, good people who work hard for a living have to go out and hire lawyers to get money that is rightfully due them?  Why, please Mr. Barton tell us why, should lawyers end up with 30-50% of the payout from this fund as fees for the services they render?  Isn’t it better for these folks to get 100% of the funds?  Apparently you don’t think so, so either you are trying to protect BP and Tony Hayward, or you are trying to help out lawyers.  So apparently Mr. Barton you don’t realize that these are the two most despised groups in America, and now sir I happily add you to the mix you idiot!