Politics is Perception

While on vacation last week I was able to catch a lot of child's play.  I'm not talking about have my daughters around me all the time, I am talking about that display put forth by our elected "leaders" in Washington.  If the problems in Washington did not make themselves very obvious during the sessions last week then you are a much better person than I am.  If last week's debacle was not the flier on term limits then this nations loves the misery of gridlock.  I am not even talking about the votes that were cast or the deals that passed the house because I knew some unpopular bill would be passed that did not solve or tackle the issue that this country is facing.  It was the way our leaders conducted themselves.  

I am mainly talking about the Hurricane Sandy Relief bill.  First let me say that the fact that this had not been done is somewhat appalling.  In 2005, President Bush took major flack by the lack of response by the government to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Why isn't President Obama getting the same treatment?  This time it's Congress' fault.  Talk about a media double standard.  Anyway, that's not what I am talking about.  

What I am about to say is my opinion of what happened based on what has been reported by several news outlets and I have been trying to piece together over the past few days.  The Senate overwhelmingly passes the bill that would provide the much needed relief to Northeast states affected by Sandy.  This then moves on to the House for a vote.  Ironically, the vote for this relief was to happen the same day that vote on the Tax Deal bill was to happen.  So, apparently Speaker Boehner cancels the vote because he was mad at the bad deal that was voted on and to get back at the Democrats he cancelled the vote.  So, in a nutshell, he took his ball and went home.  That is what the media wants you to believe.

Let's go back to the Senate portion of the show.  How could a bill pass so overpoweringly in the Senate and not get any play in the House?  Just doesn't make any sense.  So as I read more of what was in this bill almost one third of the money to be dispersed were to go to states on the Gulf Coast and those representatives were coincidentally Republican.  So did Senate Majority leader Harry Reid add all this pork to this bill to prevent it from being filibustered?  I understand that he wants to change the rules to prevent filibusters on the Senate floor, but this is not the way to do it.  This is the problem with Washington.  The billions of tax dollars spent to buy votes.

Back to Speaker Boehner.  He made a bad deal with a group of people that he believed were negotiating in good faith and never had any intention of making any real spending cuts.  Sorry Mr. Speaker, you had to see that coming.  The fair and balanced deficit reduction that they were talking about was that the only fair way to balance the budget will be to raise taxes.  Now if Speaker Boehner did not like the Senate's version of the Relief bill from the get go, and that was the reason he cancelled the vote then there is nothing wrong with that.  But there was no indication of that and he looked like a child by cancelling the vote, giving the illusion he was being spiteful.

So, now the country is in an outrage because of the vote that didn't happen.  But the fact that the elected leaders are once again spending foolishly the taxpayers’ money is not even mentioned.  The fact that only a handful of people negotiate these tax and deficit deals that effect everybody should be the true outrage.  This whole past week was so bad in Washington that Chairman of the Democratic Caucus Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) did not even support it and this is why “In the end, I could not support this short-term fix which may spawn additional long-term problems, putting off until later the tough decisions on taxes and our nation’s debt and deficits, while also ignoring the biggest deficit challenging America’s prosperity: a jobs deficit. Produce jobs, revenues increase. Produce jobs, deficits drain away. Produce jobs, and the engine of American success – the middle class – grows and strengthens...."  

The problem is clear, the perception, not so much.

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.