Big Red Car here. It’s been raining in the ATX but we need the rain. Hell, it’s cold also. The Boss is talking about making a fire tonight, huh? Boss, that right?
Well The Boss is really irritated by the Senate “compromise” crafted by Senators McConnell and Reid.
The deal accomplished nothing with the can being kicked down the road to February. Yawn, excuse me.
What also happened is just disgusting.
SENATOR MCCONNELL INCLUDED AN EARMARK OF OVER $2B — $2,000,000,000 — FOR HIS STATE TO BUILD A DAM.
Know this — Senator Reid simply bought the votes of Kentucky’s two Senators in broad daylight and with complete disdain for what the balance of the Senate, House and the American might think about it.
This is the proverbial thumb in the eye of complete offense to every citizen of the United States.
Do you have reason to respect or support the Republican Party?
The simple answer is NO. The complex answer is NO. The final answer is NO.
Read about it here and it will make you want to puke just like The Boss.
Pigs at the trough with complete disregard for the American people.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Puke!
A deal like that would never happen with our esteemed Massachusetts delegation…
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Not to be ugly but weren’t they bought a long time ago?
At least the Tx Senators voted against it all.
Hard to believe how badly Obama ran the field.
BRC
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I was kidding about the MA delegation…they are the masters of serving pork. How does the rest of the country like the Big Dig?
This reminds me so much of the crap that happened in the last shutdown where we built highways in Georgia. It is really sad that politics is done this way.
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It unmasks how the political class fends for itself and only itself. It is betrayal and disgusting.
A pox on all their houses.
BRC
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I couldn’t have said it better myself, ‘A pox on all their houses’
While we are on opposite sides of the political aisle and tend to disagree on some issues, that Washington is super sick is something we totally agree on. I just don’t understand why things aren’t run like a business. That 2 billion piece of pork could easily fund most of the research for advanced nuclear reactors that could stop us from sending a huge amount of money overseas to countries that don’t like us. Where is the leadership on those sorts of issues? Who is looking after GDP? I know for my business I make a spreadsheet model that determines the impact of any sales deal on my bottom line, before I even try and sell it. While I’m sure we disagree on the relative value of Obamacare/ACA, why the fsck aren’t we passing laws to fix medical malpractice (HUGE problem, really just needs leadership to solve), and working on the things in the ACA that are braindead and stupid? I have an autoimmune disease and the country’s insurance system was failing me and people like me, ACA went far to fix that so it is not all a steaming pile of crap. We just need to stop fighting and get to work, put on our big boy shoes and look at the economic impact of what we are doing. Austerity isn’t the solution to any of this, being responsible and investing effort in things that are broken like energy, healthcare, the complex maze that is the federal code, the crappy tax system, etc. That is what we need our Government to do, but all they do is put their hands out for their constituents and try and block real progress by stupid infighting to score poll points. Out with the lot of them I say, we need a new political party called the ‘common sense’ or ‘responsibility’ party. I’d register for that in a New York minute.
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Much of what masquerades as politics is simply poor decision-making writ large in front of a bunch of loud voices. It is the loud voices which make it political not the subject matter.
Take, as an example, the notion of energy and the complete absence of a well-reasoned national energy policy.
We are literally spilling blood to support energy and the impending crisis with Iran is driven almost totally by the strategic considerations of the Straits of Hormuz and its impact on oil transportation.
If we had a reasonable energy policy, we would be energy independent and the Iranian’s location adjacent to the Straits of Hormuz would be a geographical trivia fact.
We are literally turning down the opportunity to have a North American energy policy (US, Canada, Mexico) in order to maintain a crazy quilt work of dangerous relationships which unnecessarily complicate what is at its core a transportation problem.
One could take the same view of health care. Why would we want to prevent health insurance companies from competing across state lines? I cannot think of any similarly regulated industry in which the inability to make nationwide offerings is considered attractive.
Whether your intention is to redistribute wealth or to create and retain wealth as a basic objective, the wealth has to exist. You cannot punish success and wealth creation even if you want to redistribute it. No wealth, nothing to redistribute.
Then there is the issue of basic competence. Regardless of one’s views on anything, the administration of any program has to work. If you can’t get the troops to the fight, there will be no fight. If you can’t deliver ACA, there will be no working system.
The magnitude of corruption — whether the $634MM website that does not work and which is amateurishly designed or Sen McConnell being bought and sold by Sen Reid — is breathtaking.
There are no white hats in this posse. And, yet, we have elected these people. How is that possible? Are we really that collectively stupid? Apparently so.
BRC
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