Why Bother?

For starters, the whole premise of the "civility" theme that the President used in his State of the Union address last night gives me the willies.  Using the tragedy of Tucson as a backdrop for the address to the nation is cynical at best, downright evil at worst.  What happened in Tucson, as we have covered on these pages before, was the act of a madman.  The only reason we are still talking about it was that it was a Congressman who took a bullet.  I bear no ill will towards Rep. Giffords ...we are all thrilled to hear the rapid progress she is making and our prayers continue for her and her family.  But the continued use of this event to lever a call for "civility," i.e. "you mean old right wingers just shut up" is wearing thin.  If we paid one-tenth the attention that Giffords is receiving to the anguish that the families of our military are feeling day in and day out, we would have a better sense of the price of freedom.  One cannot help but wonder at the irony of the fact that in any other medical system in the world, Giffords would be dead.  The very system that Obamacare has begun to drill into like the sentinel robots drilling into the ship's hulls in "The Matrix."  I am SO damned mean spirited!

How can we take our politicians seriously when a mass-killing by a madman results in date night on Capital Hill?  The silliness of having D's sit with R's to show the world that we can all get along and to prevent any further mass killings...has the rarified air of Washington divorced these fools completely from reality?  I will say this in favor of the Kumbayah moment though - it did seem to spare us from the truly ridiculous histrionics and aerobics of the Pelosi regime last year. 

Then, wonder of wonders, this morning we learn officially, what any sentient American already knew:  the Federal Deficit is at unsustainable levels - $1.5 Trillion... the total debt burden is over $14 trillion and rising at a logarithmic rate. But let that not prevent us from "investing" even more...especially in EDUKASHUN!! We're projecting to spend over $900 Billion in education in 2011 alone - and our return is students that have great self esteem but don't have a clue how to locate Brazil on a map or solve for "x" in a basic algebraic equation...let alone compose a sentence in the English language.  More money is not the answer, a restoration of education as a priority in the family would be a good place to start, but that is something that the Federal Government CANNOT do.  Point of fact, there's not much they can do - and less that they can do well.  Outside of our military, name a Federal institution that you would entrust with anything from fixing your car to cleaning your teeth to inventing...anything!  Federal funding and the need to increase it further is the crack cocaine of the teacher's unions and their un-funded pension plans, little else.  

Just once, I would like to have a President of the United States tell us the truth.  Get up on the dais in the House of Representatives and begin the speech with "My fellow citizens, the state of the union is that we are broke.  Flat out busted, zip, zero, nada...we have hit bottom. So I am not going to stand up here and try to think up pet programs for each of the interest groups that elected me, I am going to present this list to Congress of what I see as the necessary cuts that need to be made immediately."  Now that would go far beyond teleprompters and showmanship and straight to statesmanship, a trait sorely lacking.

Paul Ryan's Republican response to the show was measured and a far cry better than last year's debacle with Bobby Jindal.  But he and the rest of the elephants up there seem to have been partially neutered by the "civility" rap, so he didn't push back.  Michelle Bachman's message to the Tea Party was quite good, though creepily delivered with her looking at something up in the upper right corner of my screen.  How about someone getting fighting mad?  How's this:  "Mr. President, you say you want to work with us and you acknowledge that we have to cut spending.  How about leaning on that dweezle buddy of yours, Harry Reid, to let the repeal of Obamacare come to a vote in the Senate and once it passes, how about you not vetoing it?  That would show a civil beginning to a new era of  bipartisanship.  There is no point, Mr. President, in creating an entitlement that we ALL know we can't afford.  Let's work together to fix what we can and keep the government out of areas it does not belong."

Well, we are all allowed our fantasies.  So we begin 2011 with some political drama - Obama on the upswing we are told by the clones at CNN, not so fast counters FOX and in the mean time, we all know the truth.  We're broke and in need of dramatic cuts. The longer this goes, the more cynical the voters are going to get and the more strained the rhetoric.  No, that will not lead to more Tucsons, but it will lead to tragedy.  The tragedy will be that a once great nation no longer to meet it's obligations, will have to abandon it's friends, and figure out how to pay off it's creditors.  Greece and Tunisia will look like cakewalks compared to that impending fight.  Until a true leader emerges to avert that inevitable day, why bother?