The wisdom of crowds is very suspect when we keep electing these idiots to power. This latest payroll tax cut extension debacle is just another fine example of screwing the American people to win ideological battles. This article sums the issue up.
Now in general I tend to favor the Republicans, but only just barely. If the two parties were represented as clocks, the Republicans are traditional 12-hour clock, and the Democrats are on 24-hour time. But quite frankly, both their clocks are broken, and so the Republicans are only right once more per day than the Democrats.
All things considered, I think America would be better off if Congress in general just stayed home and stopped trying to run the country. “Nothing at all” would be better than what we’re getting. You only have to look at the polls to see that if our national government were subject to a confidence vote they’d all be thrown out of office. Perhaps the Supreme Court would be all that’s left. I think they’re the only branch that is still remotely functional. Their batting average might at least get them a seat in the dugout on a major league team.
But frankly this latest round of stupidity is just astounding. We have the Dems championing a cut to funding for Social Security. We have the Reps opposing a tax cut, a postponement of the light bulb ban, and a quick decision on the Canada oil pipeline. On the face of it, you’d think this was all a big practical joke.
I agree with the Republicans on their frustration that the Dems want to only renew the tax cut for two months. Seriously, what good is that? All this really means is that the Dems have found an issue they can use to beat up the Reps, and they want to bring it back as often as they can.
Add to the fact that the Democratic Senate STILL has not passed a national budget since before Obama took office and we have to keep voting up some more funding every quarter to keep the government operating. How long can we keep kicking these cans down the road? Why is it not a single controversial bill can be passed for more than a few months at a time?
Obviously the Democrats are desperate to avoid making any difficult decisions and want to keep punting for the short term in case the economy somehow miraculously comes rocketing back and gives them a reprieve on having to figure out how to keep our country solvent. I guess all that mess in Europe just isn’t convincing enough. (?!?!)
And the Republicans can’t seem to frame a debate to save their lives. The media seems disinclined to help, of course, but just how did this get turned around on them so badly? They allowed themselves to be stuck opposing a bill that, as far as the public sees, is nearly everything they claim they want! Yes, we’d love to see a year-long solution, too, but in lieu of that, why stop the whole darn show over the duration?
If there were other problems with the bill they didn’t even seem to try to communicate that. Nor did they try to point out that they had already passed a bill that the Senate also refused to look at. Harry “I Hate Anything From the House” Reid did the same thing to the House as the House tried to do the the Senate, and no one called him on it. They got away with it because they did it first!
So instead of seeing that they were caught, the stupid Republicans tried to take a principled stand without bothering to point out the principles at stake. They missed a prime opportunity to be the Good Guys and make a broad public statement that in the interest of the country they would go ahead and pass the bill, even though they had serious concerns about the Senate’s insistance on punting yet again. PR opportunity missed, big time. And it still took them a week to figure out they’d failed.
But frankly, this whole thing mainly just proves that the Congress we’ve got is just too stupid to govern. They’re in a death match to be king of the dunghill. My young children are better at reaching compromises than these fools. They’re much better at reading the winds and knowing when to settle for what they’ve got.
Seriously. Let’s take a different elementary school each week and send them to Congress. We’d get better results.
Is it any wonder that 2.5 million Americans have lapsed their party registration, while the number of registered Independents is rising? Both parties are in a dead heat to become the “Party of Epic Fail.”
But then we evidently aren’t any smarter. We keep electing these clowns.