Children at Play

In reading about the process of the creation and passing of the stimulus bill I cannot help but come to a sense that we are poorly served by many people in our Congress. It seems that they ought to post a sign outside the House Chamber that reads:

Children at Play

I do not know of this bill is a good one. I have listened to enough experts disagree that I cannot determine if it is a good thing or a bad thing; even if it is too large or too small. There seem to be very few answers.

There is not a great deal to trust on the political front. From the Democratic perspective, this bill has to work because it is contrary to everything that the Republicans have been telling us. This kind of bill, this kind of spending, we have been told, is a bad way to attempt to stimulate the economy. For the Democrats, this bill HAS to work for them to not look foolish.

From the Republican perspective, of course, it’s quite the opposite. This bill is contrary to everything they have been telling us and everything that have to believe. If this bill does work it makes them look bad. For them, this stimulus HAS to fall for them not to look like fools.

What disturbs me more than anything else, however, was and is the conduct of the two major leaders in the House of Representatives, namely Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner. Pelosi is from San Francisco and Boehner represents the region right next to where I used to live in Ohio so he’s someone I am well familiar with.

From my perspective both Pelosi and Boehner have several things in common.

The first is that they are both totally partisan. I do not get a sense that either of them particularly worry about the rightness or wrongness of something or the virtues and the vices of any plan in particular other than how it plays out politically. They both seek first to have themselves and their party to look good, secondly, to make their opposition look bad, and then about the issues themselves. Keep in mind, these are leaders....

The second thing they both have in common is an incredible lack of maturity. Pelosi, from all reports, lost it with Harry Reid over Senate compromises on the stimulus package. When the compromises between the two branches of Congress were announced, noticeably missing from the scene was Nancy Pelosi.

And John Boehner showed was just breathtakingly petulant on the House floor when he took the bill, whined about it being over 1000 pages, and dropped it on the floor with an incredibly and obviously specious outrage. I am trying to determine what this kind of moronic display is supposed to prove.

There are many things that I do not know. The experts cannot tell us for sure if the stimulus bill is good or bad. Many people have written commentaries or appeared on television or the radio and informed the world of why it will work and/or why it won’t work. Some are probably right and some are probably wrong----the reality is that we do not know for sure. There are some things we do know, however.

The first is that the economy is in woeful shape and things are not looking up. The stock market has been down and seems to be heading down further. The unemployment rate is rising and every day we read about lay offs or businesses closing. The automobile companies in looking to restructure are using the words, cut, cut, and cut over and over again.

The second thing we know is that what we were doing before did not work. Cutting the interest rates and taxes has placed the interest rates close to 0 and our taxes have been cut to the point that tax breaks are not having much of an impact on people. From what I have read the stimulus package has a tax cut for me and that I will be receiving a little less than $50.00 more in my pay each month. This is not going to stimulate a whole lot for our family.

The third thing is this. It is going to be very difficult to trust much of what comes by way of Congress. The children are calling the shots in a day when adults are badly needed. It used to be that when people were elected to Congress, most especially the Senate, they wanted to stay there. Obama wanted out. McCain wanted out. Clinton wanted out. Biden wanted out...

The list goes on. It makes me think that Hallmark should design a card for us to send to those who represent us in the United States Congress with two words on it:

Grow up!