How can you not return the call of the President of the United States? Evidently, if you are the Speaker of the House, you are allowed to snub the President in this manner. Does John Boehner think he is above the President? The last I looked, the President holds the highest elective office in the country; the Speaker is, well, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. As a friend of mine would say, this is just rude. That last word should be heard in as scathing a tone as you can imagine. The President is owed respect by virtue of the office he holds, not by the party he belongs to or the color of his skin.
I believe that a lot of the problem has been created by the newest elected representatives, who feel they have been given a mandate to do whatever they want. Look where that has gotten us. We need people in Congress who can work with the President and with members of the other political party, or parties. We need people who know the meaning of the word compromise. We need people who know history and what has happened in the past. We need people who will make the best decisions for the country, the citizens, not the best decisions for bankers and big business.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Another Book Review
Too many people out of work; the people who do have jobs have to work overtime to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the insurance companies, oil companies, and financial institutions are making record profits and paying their executives huge bonuses on top of prodigious salaries. Does all this sound familiar? It should; it's what's happening in our country today.
I just finished reading Invisible Hands; The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein. As the name of the book implies, the author follows the big companies, the big power brokers and the top company executives as they made, and continue to make, the decisions on how this country should be run.
These relatively few people have somehow convinced the rest of us, including the people who represent us in our government, that they know what is best for the U.S., and should be allowed to do as they please. I think our government representatives have fallen for this line of thinking because they have been dazzled by being chosen to have lunch with, or play golf with, or fly on private jets with, these very wealthy narcissists. These so-called captains of industry are the ideological descendants of the long-ago bosses who opposed doing away with the child labor laws, who opposed limiting the work week to 40 hours, who thought they had a right to pollute the air and water and earth because they could make a few extra dollars doing it. Today, they oppose health care for everyone (only those who can afford it should have it), social security as an entitlement (which it is not; we have all paid for it through our payroll deductions), and any type of a safety net for a person who has had his or her job pulled out from under him or her, among other things.
It is very hard for me to believe that we have been boondoggled by these high-flying thugs for so long, when they are only interested in what makes them money. Why not hire more people at decent wages so each one doesn't have to work 60 hours a week? Families would have more time to spend together. Isn't this what we want? Or do we just want to lament the demise of the American family? Why not support the unions who are fighting for decent wages for all workers? These are just a few of the questions we should be asking.
Isn't it time we woke up? This is our country, and our world; shouldn't we take it back? And by this, I don't mean getting rid of President Obama; he's doing better under the circumstances than expected. I do mean getting rid of, or at least taking a hard look at the senators and congressmen (all right—I mean mostly Republicans) who spout business theories handed to them by big business, and actually believe those things work, or at least pretend to believe. Our country—and our world—is too populous for us to revert back to the good ol' days of the early twentieth century. We need to think about conserving our natural resources so that future generations will be able to live at least as well as we have. We need to consider legislation that would give support to all citizens, no matter their circumstances. We are, or at least were, a very wealthy country, and some of that wealth should be returned as services to the ordinary citizens, in the form of government services, well-kept infrastructure, health care, and especially education. We should not be dictated to by the vandals and villains who seem to own Congress.
I just finished reading Invisible Hands; The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein. As the name of the book implies, the author follows the big companies, the big power brokers and the top company executives as they made, and continue to make, the decisions on how this country should be run.
These relatively few people have somehow convinced the rest of us, including the people who represent us in our government, that they know what is best for the U.S., and should be allowed to do as they please. I think our government representatives have fallen for this line of thinking because they have been dazzled by being chosen to have lunch with, or play golf with, or fly on private jets with, these very wealthy narcissists. These so-called captains of industry are the ideological descendants of the long-ago bosses who opposed doing away with the child labor laws, who opposed limiting the work week to 40 hours, who thought they had a right to pollute the air and water and earth because they could make a few extra dollars doing it. Today, they oppose health care for everyone (only those who can afford it should have it), social security as an entitlement (which it is not; we have all paid for it through our payroll deductions), and any type of a safety net for a person who has had his or her job pulled out from under him or her, among other things.
It is very hard for me to believe that we have been boondoggled by these high-flying thugs for so long, when they are only interested in what makes them money. Why not hire more people at decent wages so each one doesn't have to work 60 hours a week? Families would have more time to spend together. Isn't this what we want? Or do we just want to lament the demise of the American family? Why not support the unions who are fighting for decent wages for all workers? These are just a few of the questions we should be asking.
Isn't it time we woke up? This is our country, and our world; shouldn't we take it back? And by this, I don't mean getting rid of President Obama; he's doing better under the circumstances than expected. I do mean getting rid of, or at least taking a hard look at the senators and congressmen (all right—I mean mostly Republicans) who spout business theories handed to them by big business, and actually believe those things work, or at least pretend to believe. Our country—and our world—is too populous for us to revert back to the good ol' days of the early twentieth century. We need to think about conserving our natural resources so that future generations will be able to live at least as well as we have. We need to consider legislation that would give support to all citizens, no matter their circumstances. We are, or at least were, a very wealthy country, and some of that wealth should be returned as services to the ordinary citizens, in the form of government services, well-kept infrastructure, health care, and especially education. We should not be dictated to by the vandals and villains who seem to own Congress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
