The best game in town

The National Football League is down to the final four teams. Excitement abounds, especially if you are in one of the remaining cities or are a fan of one of the finalists. The news/sports media are all agog over match-ups, history, speculations, and personal stories concerning these teams. Some of the newspapers I've seen start their sports sections on the front page and sports pages' first page scream headlines. There will be more about the players, coaches, fans, and pundits written this week and in the following two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl that fans will read than what they might normally read about politicians, government, and political races. While this is a great diversion from the seriousness/silliness of politics, government still impacts us all with decisions that are being made now. In Wisconsin, new governor, Scott Walker's first piece of legislation (AB1-assembly bill number one) is to place caps on how much money companies can be held liable for in lawsuits against them. This is being proposed as a job creation bill. While there are many provisions to this bill, basically, it would limit the amount of money someone could win against a company that did them wrong. A cap of $750,000 would apply to some lawsuits that claim "for loss of companionship, mental distress and pain and suffering". So, sorry we killed your spouse in a mistake that was ours, but if you sue, we are covered.

If a survey were done to ask people if they knew who Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethisberger or Joe Biden or John Boehner were, I'm guessing that Boehner finishes last, Biden next to last and you'd get a good conversation about the other two. This is not to say that the football games are not important. I will be hunkered down and watching both games on Sunday. But, I will also know about what our politicians are doing as well. Actually, they both are the best games in town.

Enjoy both.

This is too easy.

This is too easy.

Politicians are easy game anyway, but this is too easy. The Republicans on their first day of control of the US House of Representatives are tackling the major problems of the USA. One of their first orders of business is to read aloud the entire United States Constitution. That begs the question, "Haven't they ever read it before?" or "Don't they know what is in it?" Sure there are lots of new House members, but did they really get elected without knowing what is in the Constitution? Now at least one did not get elected once they expressed their lack of knowledge of the contents of the Constitution. The Tea Party/Republican candidate for senate in Delaware asked at a forum in front of law students about where in the Constitution that it indicated that there was separation of church and state. That question brought laughs from the audience. She fell far short of being elected.

So, the new leadership in the House of Representatives felt that this reading of the Constitution was the most important business item. This precedes their proposed agenda of creating jobs, reducing the size of the federal government, and reducing the deficit/national debt. Their second order of business is to vote on repealing the just passed health care law. This is going to be done, even though they know that passing this bill in the House of Representatives will go nowhere. The Senate would have to pass it as well and then the President would have to sign it. None of those things will happen. So, why is voting on a bill that has no chance of becoming law so important that it precedes their proposed agenda of creating jobs, reducing the size of the federal government, and reducing the deficit/national debt? Both of these more important agenda items are for one thing and one thing only--to symbolically score political points. They can then turn to their conservative base and say that they tried to undo the health care law and that they support the Constitution as written and read. It's a good thing that we have all the time in the world to fix the unemployment crisis, reduce the size of the federal government, and reduce spending to cut the deficit/national debt that we can engage in partisan grandstanding. But that is okay. These are the same folks that were in office when the national debt doubled under the Bush administration. Don't you remember new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, standing up to President Bush when the national debt increased during his administration? Boehner was in the House during those years when the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate. Boehner voted for the tax rebate that President Bush pushed for in his first year in office that reduced the amount of money coming into the US Treasury and led to a deficit and greater national debt in Bush's first year in office. You don't remember Boehner and the Republicans doing that do you? That's because deficit spending and increasing the national debt are only bad when the other guys are in office. Boehner and the Republican majority and Republican President didn't worry about fiscal responsibility when they were the ones minding the money.

Picking on the Republicans for their first two agenda items is too easy. Comedians will use this as it is too easy to ridicule their first two actions on the House floor. They will score points with those that blindly applaud the Constitution reading as being what America is all about. This is not what America is all about. America is/should be about doing what is right for the American people and today that is getting down to the business of solving the unemployment problem first. Reading the Constitution will create no jobs.

"Do as I say, not as I do" is a often used phrase. The new wave of new government representatives should get on with it. Do. Quit with the posturing. Do! Make a difference in the lives of Americans. Do! This is only a new wave of changers of Washington's business as usual attitude if they act. Do! Their is a lot of talk about what the electors' message was on November 4th, 2010, I don't think it was all about jobs, or all about repealing health care laws, or about wars, or about immigration, or about .........fill in the blank. It was about Washington working. Do!

Now, everything will be all right!

Now everything will be all right.

Finally, the country, the state, nearly all governmental bodies will make everything okay again. The Republicans and their Tea Party mates are in control of state legislatures, the US House of Representatives, an increasing minority in the US Senate and they will fix everything. Hallelujah!!! What idiot voters put the Democrats in charge in the first place? Didn't they know that the Democrats were secret socialists, communists, anti-Americans? Fortunately the idiot voters that put them in control came to their senses and voted in real Americans. You know real Americans don't you? Those are the ones that uphold the Constitution of the United States. They support the first amendment and allow for freedom of religion. Of course, we can't allow all religions. That would enable "bad", "terrorist loving", "evil" religions into our freedom loving USA and we can't have that! Once that happens, "those" religions might want to build a religious building to hide their anti-American intentions. We can't have "those" people spreading their hate in our freedom loving country.

The real Americans love the second amendment too. After all, had real Americans not bought up all the ammunition in stores across the country after President Obama was sworn in, we'd have what we have now, the government taking away our guns and prohibiting our ammo purchases. Okay it hasn't started yet, but every real American knows that is what the Democrats are really after...eliminating all guns for citizens. By the way one state starting January 1, 2011 has a new law that allows the open carry of guns into bars, so long as the wearer doesn't appear drunk. Another win for the second amendment freedoms.

We certainly don't want to get like Mexico where it is hard to buy a gun. In fact, most of the murders in Mexico along the Mexican border with the USA are done by guns made in the USA and bought here in the USA. Thank goodness we still have the right to buy as many guns as we want and can sell them to whomever we want.

While I don't have time to list all the freedoms in the Constitution one by one, know that the new political might of Republicans/Tea Partyers, will fix everything. If only we could get many years of Republican rule, along with a Republican president, this country would be flying high on prosperity, full employment, great housing market, high stock market and this would once again be the land of milk and honey.

Oh, except for the period between 2001 and 2007 when the US did have a Republican president and Republican majorities in the both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Didn't spending decline? Weren't deficits eliminated? Wasn't there a booming stock market? Housing market? Full employment? Peace? Wasn't everyone happy?

Reality check.

While Republicans and Tea Partyers call for smaller government and less spending, what happened when the country was in Republican control? Spending increased. Yes, the spending was approved by both parties. War was declared on the attackers of 9/11. Yes, both parties approved going into Afghanistan. War was declared on a country that had not attacked the US. Yes, both parties approved going into Iraq. The stock market fell. The housing bubble was built up to the breaking point. Unemployment increased. Terror alerts abounded. In fact, the country was tired enough of the direction of the country that the Democrats were voted

(by idiot voters?) into majorities in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate in 2006 (taking office in January, 2007). By 2008 the course of the US train had seriously derailed. The housing bubble burst. The economy was in a shambles. Unemployment skyrocketed--really skyrocketed with 600,000 to 700,000 Americans losing their job EVERY MONTH!!!

Sometimes when people look at the short term, they lose sight of the long term. So, we heard, "Why hasn't Obama done more?" Why isn't unemployment back at pre-recession levels? Obama is turning American into a socialist/communist state. The government wants to dictate to us everything about our lives.

Let's see what the next two years bring. Will Republicans/Tea Partyers bring fiscal responsibility to Washington? Let's see. Will they bring about smaller government? Let's see. Will they rein in the deficits and lower the national debt? Let's see. Already some of these new members are talking about not increasing the maximum the USA can borrow, known as the debt ceiling (the national debt). Will capping our debt ceiling stop deficit spending which causes it? Or, should they just cut the spending they criticize and not need to raise the debt ceiling? Not raising the debt ceiling and then creating a crisis in the US's credit worthiness to other nations, will cause untold harm and chaos. In their effort to show they mean business about how Washington operate, will these new members be so foolish as to go to that showdown? Let's see.