Several months ago, I received an email from one of my Senators. In this case, it was Bernie Sanders, most recently seen screeching over the caption to the official portrait of George W. Bush at the National Gallery. An avowed socialist, Bernie is nevertheless somewhat less a partisan hack than my other Senator, the august Patrick Leahy.
So, seizing the opportunity, as the tone he had assumed toward me was somewhat chummy, I wrote to him and asked whether perhaps he had any statements to make regarding Congress’s role in the financial meltdown, because I felt it was distasteful that they didn’t seem to feel it incumbent upon them to explore the issue of their own complicity in the matter. I’m still waiting for a response.
Look! Bunnies!
I write, call, and just generally annoy my congressional representatives. And, although I have actually recieved a response-once!- from the Honorable Peter King, overall all the feedback I recieve for my efforts are effin’ form letters du jour; some that don’t actually pertain to nor address tha subject I contacted them about…
Thank you Chucky Schumer, Hillary Clinton, and Peter King…
I hope Ms. Gillibrand will be more forthcoming; but I’m not gonna hold my breath!
But that won’t stop me from being the pesky gnat buzzing in their ears! I’m entitled!
I emailed Judd Gregg (Useless, NH) about the stimulus bill the other day and I expect a response in about 6-8 weeks, minimum (that’s his usual response time and, thus, an implication of how much the man cares for his constituents). At least Sununu, before he got the hook, sent a written response within 10 days.
How many folks in your household, Dan? Because each of them now owe approaching $200,000 in combined debt and obligations.
According to Congress, the solution will be to go spend everything you have.
Well, we’re 5 (not including the German exchange student and the hard-working teenage wastrel that lives in the camper van), so that makes a nice even number.
Hmmm…$900 billion, divided by about 300 million men, women and children, comes out to about $3k a head.
Where did $50k come from?
Debt (total) v Deficit (current budget), no?
Debt vs deficit Slart. Debt includes unpaid future govt stuff as well as private sector stuff. Two of your best backstops against all the rhetoric.
Thing is JH, how come we should divide the currently living into the debt (current and projected, or promised), when there is no reasonable expectation that those same currently living would, in the end, be the (only) ones paying that debt back?
I’d love to see if Sanders’ response is any more coherent than the one time I wrote Dick Durbin about earmark reform – the letter I got back looked like the result of a game of Mad Libs done by seriously drunken interns.
Ah. So it’s not just this budget that’s a concern, it’s the sum of all previous budgets, plus interest.
The answer says that classical liberalism is the only way out, assuming there is a way out: It’s fast becoming clear that DC in 2009 is simply not concerned about the near term, and has no thought at all to the far term — if it’s not immediate gratification (built on ever more fraud) it’s ostracized. The fifty-one percent has finally voted itself the forty nine percent, a fact Pelosi reminds us to our faces.
What we have now is an entire federal institution that, by its actions and promises, seems quite dedicated to denial on every level, the only variation being who can race into it deepest fastest.
Patrick Leahy is a pompous blowhard and an embarrassment to his alma mater (St. Mike’s).
Percy,
At least you got a response. I sent two consituent e-mails to then Sen Obama. Not even a form reply to either one of them.
If we’d elected Ted Kennedy way back in 1968, we would’ve gone through all this in the intervening 40 years and maybe recovered by now. We had a second chance with McGovern. Now I have to watch as everything turns into megamoniacal bureaucractic horseshit. Oh well, I am a geezer and they’ll send me off to a geezer-processing camp soon anyway. Save resources, ya know.
It does deal with those messy social security and health care costs, Geezer.