What amazes me about America right now is the apathy regarding this hole that Washington politicians have dug us into in their way of assuring reelection (promising everything to all, which we can’t afford and is really coming to bite us now). Why are we putting up with this? Do we all have the attitude of politicians, short term solutions only and letting our kids and grandkids pay for it later??
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I think what we have is a REMARKABLE deficit of COURAGE….and actual the ability to say yes to BIG deals.
A) I can’t believe that it seems the GOP Caucus blinked at getting a lower CPI index for SS in the negotiations. Now maybe McConnel et. al. think they can get this in the supercommittee but chained CPI would have been a HUGE deal – especially in the 10+ out years.
B) Why no effort to try to take parts of Ryan’s Medicare overhaul and get that into the negotiations? Sure, it isn’t great politics but if you don’t get health care addressed you might as well just pull up the tent cause the game is over.
C) NO ONE in Washington wanted to talk about stark reality. If you are spending a dollar but only bringing in 60 cents you have to deal with entitlements. No ifs, ands, or buts. To get 60 votes in the Senate you PROBABLY need to get revenues into that mix (See Krauthammer in today’s UT). Instead we had months of kubuki that, in the end, means nothing except to partisan score keepers or empirically challenge laureates like Krugmann who are going apes**** over cuts that will not happen for 18+ months. What does Grover N think, that somehow entitlements just go away because martians make it so? Opportunities to take on the big kahunas of social security, medicare, and medicaid don’t happen often and one wasn punted on last week.
Perhaps it’s apathy or perhaps it’s fatigue. We jump up and down, yelling and screaming, and nothing changes. At some point it almost doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Maybe when the approval rating for Congress drops to single digits from the current 18% then they’ll pay attention, but my guess is probably not.
Yes…apathy and laziness and let the other guy take care of it….
And innumeracy . . .
The electorate’s innumeracy is only a small part of the problem. A far bigger problem is the MEDIA’s innumeracy (which is why Brad is such an odd duck). And, most of all, the astonishing innumeracy of the politicians themselves.
May I suggest “Rare Bird” as a substitute for “odd duck”?
😉
Apathy is a direct result of Government ignoring the people who are not apathetic, who take the time to speak out and what they say falls on deaf ears!!!
Marie Waldron, Escondido City Council member running for State Assembly is one who can’t even make time in her schedule to meet with a homeowner on an issue that is huge to the homeowner. Huge being a CARWASH, OIL CHANGE and a Restaurant (that will never get a liquor license) in close proximity to residential homes, I this homeowners back yard and the back yard of 9 other homes located in a south Escondido PUD.
For 8 years Marie Waldron has known of this development and known of the neighbors objections, but under the guise of “Economic Development” and some campaign monies from the developer, she sides with the developer on a project that the developer himself says will not be economically viable without a city fee waiver for undergrounding of utilities.
When government officials ignore the people the result is Apathy: “If they didn’t listen to them, why would they listen to me.” ” There is no fighting city hall.” “Our local government is corrupt and only sides with special interest!!!”
It never fails to amaze me that elected officials have time for the proverbial rubber chicken lunch but don’t have time to go out and sit down in the living room of group of constituents to hear them out. Seriously – no one will remember that you missed one year of the CoC “Lunch with electeds” either when they vote or when the write their checks.
What they ABSOLUTELY will remember, and remember to their friend, neighbors and everyone else is that you engaged ordinary voters as folks “just like you” and listened. Even better. Voters are amazing and will often listen to you respectfully when you explain why you are not voting there way.
I always thought that a great Mayoral campaign plank would be to promise to go out every Friday afternoon to a different recreation center or library community room and just sit there with you, your COS, your COO, and maybe a couple of other folks and LISTEN to whatever folks wanted to bring up. No public testimony. Big table. Everyone sit around and TALK like grown up adults. Heck. Promise in 4 years you will visit every Starbucks in the City on Saturday morning to just talk with ordinary folks about ordinary things. If you don’t want to do THAT why DO you want to be a politician????