29 June 2011 No pay for Congress

            Congress is currently playing chicken with the national debt limit.  The Democrats are trying to preserve Medicare, Social Security and the social safety nets.  They hope to raise taxes for the wealthy and end subsidies for oil and gas companies.

            The GOP/teavangelists want to destroy Medicare, Social Security, and the social safety nets.  They want to lower taxes for the wealthy and destroy what is left of the middle class using taxation as a weapon.  They intend to continue subsidies to the large industries that fill the war chests of GOP legislators for re-election. 

            Congress, unlike most Americans, can receive a pay raise.  They don’t have to ask for it.  They don’t have to vote for it.  They simply have to ignore the matter and the salary fairy will fly by and fatten their paychecks.  The really ugly thing about their raise is that it is set up to happen automatically unless Congress votes to forego it.  Isn’t that a lovely little poke in the eye at a time when unemployment is far in excess of the official figure and most of us haven’t seen a raise in years!

            This year and last year, Congress chose to skip their cost of living raise.  I wonder what triggered such demonstrations of pseudo-solidarity with the average citizen.  Was it truly concern for their constituents, or was it fear that constituents might take sufficient umbrage as to defeat their re-election bid and return them to the ranks of people who actually have to show up at work and produce something other than press releases?

            This dept limit fight has the potential to destroy our economy and trigger a deepening to the worldwide depression that already stalks the globe. 

            The GOP’s latest tap-dance, a “balanced budget amendment”  that will take years to be approved if it ever makes it out of congress.  I don’t understand how anyone can support the teavangelists.  They, collectively, operate on fear, greed, bigotry, and lack of education.  They seem all too willing to vote against their own self-interest. 

            The Democrats need to realize that they will never field a candidate that suits everyone and begin to pull the moderate center into their tent.  It is time for massive campaign ad campaigns that focus on truth, not lies. 

            I hate the thought of another 2-year campaign.   However, if we don’t have it, the teavangelists will publish nothing but lies and smears, which unchecked may well do this nation in.