LET’S PLAY FOLLOW THE LEADER!
Posted on: January 2, 2013
I would if I knew who it was. Damned if I know.
Barack Obama campaigned on drawing another “line in the sand” by saying those earning over 250 thousand annually would be included in that magical 2% that would ease some of the pain in the collection of much needed revenues as we headed toward the fiscal cliff.
Surprise, surprise he then did an about face and raised that number to 450 thousand, a number that placed those doing quite well within the ranks of the overburdened middle class! So much for “standing tall”.
Boehner “caved” in the end, right up to the last minute before we took the icy plunge that would have sent us back into recession but not before the allegedly telling Harry Reid to “go f*ck yourself” at one of the numberous meetings that were held over the past few weeks. Charming!
Our financial and economic fates are in the hands of the same people who granted George W. Bush everything he brought to the table. Tax cuts for the wealthy, unfunded wars that still survive after 12 years, non negotiable prescription drugs, and a bloated defense budget that brings smiles to Halliburton and its investors. And today they scream for “austerity” as if they had nothing whatsoever to do with our present state of collapse.
We have managed to “kick the can down the road” for a few months, allowing political oxygen to take a short breather as we prepare for another fake fight concerning the debt ceiling.
Obama has declared that he will no longer “negotiate” in this fracas but when was the last time we heard that one?
Of course he will and they know it. The final solution that we have been crawling towards is to eliminate every social safety net that has been the lynchpin of relief to the rest of us living below that 450 annual income level while turning it all over to Wall Street and the insurance lobby in the form of privatization. This was one area that Bush was unable to “sell” but rest assured it has not “died” out of a lack of interest.
We have come to appreciate that few of our elected officials can be counted on to represent us and our interests. Few of us can afford to hire our own lobbyist. Most of us are without the means to shove hefty donations into campaign warchests by “special interests” whose focus is much different than yours and mine. My guess is that there are not many of us who have “access” to the powers that be.
There is no leadership coming out of DC. That would require “guts” and few there have the desire to stand up on behalf of the majority – in this case that would be us – and work to solve the issues at hand.
Obama is shooting for a legacy. The GOP is thirsting to wrest back the power. And the rest of us can only sit back and helplessly watch this miserable display of governance in disgust.
We can only brace ourselves for the next round of stupidity that is bound to occur within the next 90 days when the debt ceiling takes center stage and the same group of lawmakers, along with the same “wishy washy” president, take us for another fateful ride.
More threats, more acquiescence, more “lines in the sand”, more gutting of programs to meet another artificial “deadline”.
Just don’t look for a “leader” in this next round of kabuki theater. You will be sorely disappointed.
17 Responses to "LET’S PLAY FOLLOW THE LEADER!"
January 2, 2013 at 1:53 pm
I’ll also add it was crappy of the House not to take up the Sandy aid bill. Trust me from one who knows, this probably won’t be the last of the aid that goes to the area. It will take a long time for recovery to be completed in the areas affected by the storm.
January 2, 2013 at 4:36 pm
It is impossible to bring sanity to a situation where the major actors can’t differentiate between policy and politics. There’s ongoing confusion over the wrongheaded belief that politics will bring policy change, but not until a meteor causes a selective ice age to freeze out one side or the other will there be an opportunity to declare a TKO. It is so maddening that neither side will climb out of their sandbox and talk about what is good for the country when it is so simple — there is no budget crisis, there is a jobs crisis — put people back to work and about 90% of the budget problem will evaporate.
Fredster, you are absolutely right about the failure to pass the Sandy aid bill. I saw Peter King this morning on teevee — a usual firebrand Conservative Repub, he said, “If anyone in NY, CT, or NJ gives another single dollar to the Republican Party, they should have their head examined.” This is nothing more than out and out regional prejudice and I’m waiting for Christie to bellow in — I would have said “chime,” but it seemed a couple of thousand decibels shy.
January 2, 2013 at 4:50 pm
Proiix@3: I saw something that Boehner is now going to schedule 2 bills for Sandy relief: one this week and another when Congress reconvenes. The bill for this week is for 9 billion and the 2nd bill is for the remainder of the 60 billion. I am troubled by one thing I read about the bill for this week, saying this bill will deal only with flood insurance. I’d have to see what it’s about but I think the problem was that like many of us in nola, we had flood insurance but were underinsured, never thinking we’d get five to twenty feet of flood water. 
January 2, 2013 at 4:56 pm
And did you see that Obama signed an executive order raising pay for federal workers (okay), Joe Biden (really?), and…. Congress!!!!!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/obama-pay-raise-congress_n_2377714.html
Yes, mutual sacrifice does not begin with Congress.
January 2, 2013 at 7:13 pm
DYB@5: Supposedly the Congress will decline the raise. Actually, they and other fed employees are all covered by the same act that raises their salaries. But, Congress, for the last few years or so, has always passed some thing that puts their raise on hold. Let’s hope they do the same thing this year cuz they hardly deserve it. The fed employees may get theirs but I can bet that what their health premiums go up will wipe out any raise they might see.
January 2, 2013 at 7:14 pm
Oh I forgot…Fuzzy’s Gators play in the Sugar Bowl tonight against Louisville. Geaux gators!!!
January 2, 2013 at 8:53 pm
@8 Because so many of the players seem to be truly, certifiably, insane.
January 2, 2013 at 9:35 pm
@9 now that is the truly most scary thing about the whole situation? Are there no more people who run for public office to help the people? Have they all become Brig Gen Jack Ripper and Gen Buck – both of whom were insane but who though they were fighting for a genuine cause of freedom – or have they all given up all pretense of caring about anything except lining their own pockets. I choose the latter.
BTW, hope you had a good new years eve and day. HOpe all in your world are healthy, happy and eating well (okay, I come from a family of seven – holidays meant we ate well for the few times per year we could afford to, so it’s a greeting that we all use.)
January 2, 2013 at 11:51 pm
I don’t believe they can decline a raise, more like putting on a kabuki show about it. I think at all levels of government raises are embedded in charters and law. Politicians ove to pretend they don’t know that. As in Aw shucks, I have to take the raise. I’ve seen that stunt pulled so many times at state and lower levels, I just roll my eyes when I hear it.
What this country needs Stat is a nationwide referendum to term limit all of these embedded cockroaches out of office. They are too chummy, to into the fae kabuki dance and too Owned by their Sponsors, none of which have our best interest at heart. Since we will NEVEr see them pass a term limits law on their own entrenched asses, the only other option is a major referendum brought to every state ballot by the people they are ignoring.
Incidentally, the USDA is paying a grant of $500,000 for the development of a GM pig. USDA is infested with Monsanto people now. So not only is our government ignoring our demands to label frankenfood, they are actually helping to deveop more of it.
I am sick of this shit with these cockroaches. Okay, I’m cranky, so I’ll stop here.
January 2, 2013 at 11:52 pm
Gawd look at all my typos. I’d be ashamed but for the Scotch.
January 3, 2013 at 1:31 am
Uppity forget about the typos – brava. You still remain one of the fighting tigers who will never give up and never surrender and I’m glad there are people like you who will never give up the fight – typhos be damned.
January 3, 2013 at 3:00 am
Upps at 11: Nope they can block their portion of a pay raise; they’ve done it before.
By casting their ballots in favor of a deal that would avert the so-called fiscal cliff early Tuesday morning, senators overwhelmingly blocked a pay increase for themselves and members of the House that President Obama recently approved via an executive order.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/senate_votes_to_kill_its_own_pay_raise-220443-1.html?pos=hln
January 3, 2013 at 3:09 am
Under a 1989 law, lawmakers are supposed to receive automatic cost-of-living pay hikes, but as Congress’ approval ratings have fallen, lawmakers have routinely voted to reject the raise.
Lawmakers make $174,000 a year. They had already voted in September to block the pay raise through March 27, but President Barack Obama recently issued an executive order to implement it, along with a pay increase for federal workers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-_n_2392533.html
January 3, 2013 at 1:48 pm
Fredster, I have seen legislative bodies do the same thing; vote to reject their raises, defying the law. Later they quietly get the raise anyways. Just saying!
Comments are closed.
January 2, 2013 at 1:42 pm
Expect the Republicans to want *something* in return for voting for this last deal that got passed in the middle of the night. Something being cuts in “entitlements” in one way or another.