Only a fool believes that anyone elected to any office is going to do what they promised. It was just something said to get votes. I am very frustrated with our political class in Congress. They help themselves but not the citizens. Yes there are a few treasures who do what they say but they are always outvoted by the scum.
Americans are looking in the eyes of our politicians and it is not a pretty sight. What we see is a sea of broken promises. We sent our representatives to Washington to make a federal budget but it has not happened for the last five years.
Why? Because everyone is playing a political game of “I win and you lose.” That means very little of constructive value is done because someone has to lose for someone else to win. Win-lose is the mantra of dictators who win at the expense of others.
Yes someone has to win the football contest and someone has to win the office in Washington, but the idea of win-win is how America was built. I succeed when you succeed. I am happy with the deal and you also are happy with the deal or we do not make a deal. That is not how the body politic is played in Congress.
Our representatives are representing themselves in an almost never ending quest to die in office at a very old age. Once elected it is almost impossible to get rid of the politicians. The other party really wants to help us remove a politician but then they want to stay in office forever. And, they do not intend to do the business we sent them to do, namely, make and pass a budget each year.
Now one year and it could be an anomaly in the budget process but five years, it is intentional. Congress raises money every waking hour but cannot produce a budget. I have to assume it is not politically profitable to stand for anything. All they do is rail against action.
The very notion that the government must shut down is unusual in the year 2013 because the news media has portrayed such action as unprecedented. Unfortunately our news media is not telling the truth. Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neil shut the government down fourteen times. That is not a misprint. And yet we are being told by news media carrying the water for one political party that it is so very unusual.
The real danger in a government shutdown is that the normal everyday citizens will find they can do without all of those people on the government payroll. It is the advantage of age to remember all of those other times the government shut down and thankfully or mercifully I, myself, did not have a government job.
So I got to go to work each day along with getting to pay my taxes so that the government could shutdown and those extra bright people in government could go on television and say that they did not save any money for a rainy day. How very stupid in the past and I am sure it is coming this week.
These government bureaucrats are paid to tell me and other citizens to save money for a rainy day and other great gems of advice. Then we find out that they did not follow their own advice. One day into the last government shutdown there were stories of government worker being thrown out of their housing that week because they could not make their house payment. Fear not, this is not possible.
We do not have to believe politicians, but even better we do not have to reelect them. We do have to quit just voting one party. One bumper sticker said, “Never reelect anyone.” Bingo!
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico on six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
