Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Days Since Mission Accomplished--1734; Days Before Mister Accomplished Leaves the White House--365

(I got that title from DailyKos; I'm not clever enough to think of it myself.)

Stacy called me last night around 9:30 and when I said hello, she said, "Are you listening to this bullshit??" I thought she was calling because something horrible had happened to her at work and she wanted to rant, so I told her to go ahead and tell me about it. Turns out she was listening to the State of the Union and was assuming I was too, which I normally would have been except I had my niece last night and I chose not to subject her to such drivel.

Stacy was calling me because she knew that whatever Bush was saying, he was either lying or there was another side to it, and she always relies on me to explain anything political to her. Unfortunately for her, this one time, I was not up on the most current goings-on, so I promised to learn about the SOTUS today and give her a call tonight so I can explain why her outrage was justified.

So far I've come up with:
  • The "economic stimulus" of giving every American a one-time check for approximately $500 is like putting a band aid on a stab wound to the stomach--sure, it might look like it's helping for about 2 seconds, but meanwhile, you're still bleeding to death. But at least you'll have $500 to buy a new Wii or iPhone this Summer.
  • The quote about why we need to go to war with Iran is virtually word for word what he said a few years back about why we needed to go to war with Iraq. Nuclear capabilities, supporting terrorists, blah blah blah, I don't have any more troops and I'm calling back 50-year-old fat guys who've been out of the Army for 20 years to serve again and I'm using the National Guard to fight in Iraq so they aren't available to help with national crises like Kansas's tornado devastation last year. Yeah, let's go to war with Iran too.
  • No Child Left Behind (aka No School Board Left Standing, about which W said, "No one can deny its results" and there was audible laughter from the audience in response to this line)
  • Health Savings Accounts as a solution to our national health care crisis (because the reason no one has health insurance is because no one ever told them to save money before, not because they don't have the money to save...and don't get me started on how we're the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have some form of universal health care)
  • But here's something I actually sort of agreed with him about: We do have to cut pork barrel spending. For those of you who don't live and breathe politics, this is when Congressmen (women) add line items to bills, the purpose of said line items being to bring back (usually) one-time cash grants to states or local governments, usually for capital improvement projects, such as paving roads or building schools. People get upset about this because federal money goes to something that is not of national benefit. In its worst form, things like the Bridge to Nowhere result. I don't think pork barrel spending in and of itself is bad, but it is too often abused.

Sigh...okay, enough about politics. I know I rarely venture into them here, but sometimes I just can't help it. I promise tomorrow to write something completely personal, as usual.

2 comments:

Robot Dancers said...

I'm wondering why that 500 dollars per person isn't going to people who truly need it because they are living on the street or starving or something...maybe that is too simple a concept for politicians.

No child left behind is such bull. Take Deleware for example where the school system is horrendous and if a child can squeak by on the state tests then they are advanced but there are kids in the sixth grade still reading at a third grade level.

Ugh. This is why i don't follow politics. It disgusts me too much.

David Amulet said...

It's about time we did something about earmarks. They are just out of control ... and almost entirely under the radar of not only the public but also the Congressmen themselves!

To me, the tax-and-spend instinct has proven too great for politicians of either party to resist, and it's high time we walked it back.

-- david