Election Post-Mortem

Okay, so we gave the republicans the wheel back. So where do we go from here?

I've got to tell you quite honestly, I don't really give that much of a crap about which party is in control. I think that they're both corrupt… with the dems maybe having proven themselves slightly less corrupted than the republicans.

I do have to tell you, though… anyone who think that putting the republicans in power is going to do anything about our budget mess is in for a somewhat rude awakening. We've been sinking between one and one and a quarter trillion dollars in the hole since 2003, and I'll bet my whole allowance that it'll continue for the next two years. Especially since it seems almost a given that the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans will continue unabated. You know why I say that the debt problem will continue? Because we haven't done anything to address the core issues. We blindly replaced one party with the other without bothering to think about WHY we're digging ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole, let alone trying to fix it. In this respect, Americans kind of remind me of Alaskans. Alaskans get this thing called a "Permanent Fund Dividend Check". Every Alaskan gets one based on the state's oil revenue. You know… Sarah Palin took credit for it, even though it's been going on since she and I were trying to figure out high school (her in Wasilla, me in Chugiak just up the street). After we had received these checks for several years, Alaska (which has no income tax) found itself in something of a budget crunch. So two proposals went before the Alaska legislature: kill the Permanent Fund Dividend, or institute an income tax. One of the local news agencies did a man-on-the-street type segment on this, and the answer of one woman really stuck with me. She said "I don't really want an income tax… but I don't really want to lose my Permanent Fund check either." No. She just wants things to get better all by themselves.

I'm not even saying that things are that bad nationally. We just have to be more involved in what our government is doing to help cut the fat. Giving the president a line-item veto or eliminating earmarks altogether would be good. Calling our troops home from Germany, Japan and Korea and closing the bases in those countries would help. Legalizing and taxing pot. Not only would that give us additional revenue, but how much would that save us in incarceration costs? Instituting all of John Boehner's Social Security reforms (except privatization) would help.

I do have a fear with the republicans back in power, though. I am afraid that we're going to return to the late nineties. You remember the late nineties? When the republicans spent 700 million of our money persecuting the president for no reason and to no end? I think that's going to happen again.

Why?

Because Darrell Issa, whom I usually like, said that he wants to see a hearing every day on the actions of the Obama administration. How much is THAT going to cost? And lets face it, you may not like what Obama's done, but, just like President Clinton, he hasn't committed an impeachable offense.

And Mitch McConnell, speaking to the Heritage Foundation, said that he wanted the republican's primary focus over the next two years to be to insure that the president doesn't have a second term.

Really, folks. Honest to God. Don't we have more important things to worry about right now?

Peace.

Rev. Randal