Many citizens are having a difficult time making financial ends meet these days. A rapidly growing number of economists are forecasting a very dark 2009, particularly in regions of the world like the USA, where politicians, bankers and individuals have grown so found of taking on huge debt loads.
Well, cheer up you members of the afflicted lower castes! You will be relieved to know there is one group of prominent citizens that continues to prosper from their exalted perches.
That group is Congress. Those folks have so perfected the art of deceit and cowardliness that they no longer even have to be involved (i.e., no voting required) in securing their enhanced compensation. Each of them will be receiving an automatic pay increase of $4,700, costing taxpayers about $2.5 million.
It seems that a crumbling economy, more than 2 million lost jobs this year, and congressional demands for CEOs to work for free has not motivated lawmakers to forgo this taxpayer gift.
Now, you might say that the average pay of a member of the U.S. House and Senate of $169,000 per year is deserved, given their sterling records of integrity, service and unselfish sacrifice. Just how much more "service" from them can we stand?
For example, as the debate has raged in Congress over the $700 billion bailout for bankers, the bankers' best friend has been shoveling out trillions of newly-minted dollars through the back-door to those same bankers. I speak of the Federal Reserve System, and its chief, "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke. Congress apparently does not care, or does not dare, or does not know, to exercise any control over this unbridled, explosive debasement of our currency.
Zimbabwe, here we come.
Robert Gilbert
Aiken, S.C.
Comments
Yes, Mr Gilbert. But, as long as there are plenty of government entitlement programs with promises of more to come (free health care and free housing and free education for all) then nothing will change. The voters have learned they can access the treasury with their vote. Maybe not Zimbabwe, but at least France.
I do not believe we learned anything new this morning or that hasn't been going on for decades.
To protect your own finances you can do three things; attend a Dave Ramsey course, market time your investments, and become a cheerful giver to God's work.
So we send Saxby and Lindsey back to the Senate. By God, that oughta show 'em. We've had it up to here and we're only going to take it for six more years! (the red state creed)
Congress and government workers do their jobs. It's the private sector that behaves irresponsibly. Deregulation was a good idea if we assume the private sector can be trusted to be responsible. But we all see how Wall Street and the banking industry handled responsibility. Outsourcing to the private sector is a good idea. Unfortunately, contractors starts off cheap and productive but always ends expensive and inefficient. That's why the government is reducing exposure to contractors. Don't get mad at Government workers -- we do our job. It's time the private sector does theirs.
As is customary, patriciathomas has come out of left (right?) field with a stupid, unrelated, non-fact-based comment. The letter writer was speaking of the debasement of the US currency, not unlike what has been happening in Zimbabwe. The currency of France, the euro, has been very strong against the debased dollar -- now worth about 60% more against the US dollar than when it was introduced years ago. But, certainly inconvenient facts have never stood in the way of patricathomas' inane ramblings in the past, and likely will never do so in the future. She very conveniently always ignores the horrendous damage that The Shrub and his cronies have done to the US economy in the last eight years. I have no love for either Demon-rats or Republi-cons. But, The Shrub has set records for most damage in the shortest time.
It would take thirty comment boxes to explain the Housing Industry failure and the resulting Stock Market crash. I wont waste my time as many of you would niether understand it or believe it. Just know that Congress and the RCA are mostly to blame. Bush had no control of congress and had no part in the failure. He just happened to be sitting in the oval office when it occurred. Bill Clinton himself said on National TV that the economy's failure WAS NOT BUSH'S FAULT. It's a Democratic scam and the RCA led the way.
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