"It is no longer the gang who can't shoot straight - these guys cannot even shoot at all!"
In all my years, I have never seen anything like this. I am not even going to put all the blame on the White House. No, this is bipartisan and flows across two of our three branches of government. We argue, we fight, we bicker, we talk about trivial matters. Yet the extreme problems our nation faces go either un-noticed or un-solved. These people all get six figure salaries, retirement for life, extraordinary health care, and what do they do to earn it? Search me.
The summer vacation has begun. Both the House and Senate could not get out of here fast enough. You know the cycle - this is the meat of campaign season. They need to tell the folks back home they are doing a great job (the other guys however, are not), kiss some babies, eat some state fair hot dogs, and shake some hands. Then come November, the same sheeple who voted for them the last time will send them back for either 2 more years or 6 more years. Our national problems? No sweat - we will take care of them later, and more later, and more later.
What should be addressed when then come back from vacation?
- Infrastructure - This is the one that everyone loves to ignore the most. What we saw happen in LA last week was a good example. In drought stricken California, where every drop of water counts, a major water main erupted. All of our major cities have water mains who have outlasted their expected life. What are we doing about it? Nothing.
- Transportation - With our Highway Trust Fund running out of money, what is Congress doing to fix this important source of funding for our growing hi-way needs? Nothing. They passed another "stop-gap" measure which would allow the fund to limp along for another few months. Who loses? We all do.
- Agriculture - Our Ag Bill has become the Food Stamp bill. Rather than fix this bill last time, and put the SNAP Program under HHS, Congress just funded the SNAP Program for another $80B (and growing), and kicked the can down the street. Some estimate our SNAP and EBT Programs contain at least 20% fraud. Oh well, it is just money.
- Energy - Despite the President's best efforts to curtail it, the United States is becoming an energy powerhouse. However, we could be so much more with the cooperation of the White House. We have zero, zip, nada of a national energy policy. Should alternate energy sources such as renewables be a part of our energy future? Absolutely. However, so should coal, more Federal land drilling, better pipelines such as Keystone, and so on. BTW, don't forget the Yucca Mountain fiasco for our spent nuclear fuel and our aging electrical grid to boot.
- Debt - It seems like Candidate Obama was ready to have President Bush taken out of the White House in chains over his handling of our national debt. As bad as Bush was in running up an unsustainable debt, he was a rank amateur compared to now President Obama. What is being done? What about the Simpson-Bowles Debt Commission? What about anything? Our debt is approaching $18T and might be as high as $20T by the time Obama leaves office. Meanwhile, the two biggest culprits, Social Security and Medicare, continue to speed towards insolvency.
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