Congress keeps asking us to be patient, to let the stimulus work. So, why aren't they? An additional TRILLION dollars is about to be printed and injected into the fed. It's never been done before under this economic scenario and it runs the risk of sinking us into a depression, but also causing hyper-inflation at the same time. This economic armageddon has happened in other countries... Zimbabwe, Germany... so the precedent of hyper-inflation AND depression is there, but they reached that sorry state under different circumstances.
So, what I'm saying is that if Congress wants us to be patient, THEY should be patient as well. They're like the guy who gets his first checkbook and says, "how can I be out of money? I still have checks left over." They need to stop the spending. When Obama took office our national debt was in the billions. Clinton was able to balance the budget for the first time in a long time. Bush did nothing to help that, I grant you, but now the projected deficit when the dust settles is close to 3.9 Trillion. We've gone from billions of dollars of debt to TRILLIONS in less than 100 days. So - what did I do? I called Representative Jim Jordan and Senators George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown.
I suggested to Jordan and Voinovich that they need to start talking to us more. I was informed by both offices that both have been doing a series of town hall meetings over the past few weeks and months, talking to their districts, answering questions and telling Ohioans what we're supposed to be doing about this catastrophe. A call to Sherrod Brown's office went a little different. His office asked me to be patient. The call went something like this:
KC: So, what is Brown's stance on all this spending?
Office Aide: What do you mean, specifically?
KC: Specifically? The spending. The stimulus, the trillion dollar injection into the fed, health care, the budget, bail-outs - I want to know what Senator Brown thinks about all this spending.
Office Aide: Well, you may be happy to know that there are billions coming to your state.
KC: Sure, in the short term. The media made a big deal out of Senator Brown leaving his mother's funeral to sign the bill. The fact is that he flew to Washington to sign a piece of legislation that he had never read. He flew to DC to sign a bill he hadn't read that's going to increase this country's debt into the trillions. So, okay, there's money coming to this state so we can start doing "shovel ready" projects here. And work may be created in the short term, but you can't call work "jobs". Jobs and careers are what's in short supply. Kids aren't going to college to find work, but that's what these shovel-ready projects are. Secondly, when that funding runs out and we're still in a recession or even a depression, where's all that spending going to get us? Bankrupt. So - again, I ask you, what is Senator Brown's stance on that?
Office Aide: Well, you're going to need to give the stimulus time to work.
END OF (not completely verbatim) TRANSCRIPT.
The American public got this forced down out throats. We were willing to give it time, but the Democrats aren't. How is printing a trillion dollars to feed the fed in any way analogous to waiting to see if it works? I'm sick of him not listening. Ohioans are sick of Brown putting party politics ahead of his constituents. It's a government of the people, not the people of the government. I'm his boss, and I'm tired of him not doing what I ask him to do.
I asked him to side with the constitution and the people on the Heller 'vs' Washington case. What did he do? Voted along party lines, against the US Constitution.
Now, to be fair - he's not completely worthless. His Motor Coach Enhanced Safety Act is probably a good idea, really. Glass that helps keep people from being ejected, roll cages in the roofs, tire monitoring systems, "black boxes"... all decent ideas, and really, it gets motor coaches on par with safety regulations required for automobiles and I don't hate that. I don't think it'll save people on a bus that goes off a bridge somewhere like those ball players from Bluffton, but I suppose this act may actually create, or save some Ohio jobs. I just don't want the government to pay for it. If XYZ Charters wants safer busses to coincide with legislation, they will plan their business model accordingly so they can afford to replace their fleet, perhaps over a 10-15 year period. New people getting into the venture would need to capitalize new standardized fleets now. They will then charge people to ride on their busses. The government passes legislation, they give the private sector appropriate time to react and all is well. The government doesn't need to pay for it. The bus companies will need to hire for added production of the new standardized vehicles, new engineers and designers will come in, and the free market will take care of itself.
Is it nanny legislation? Yeah, maybe a little. But I don't see much problem getting the mass-transit industry up to par with vehicle safety standards, especially since we're supposed to be finding ways to lessen our need for foreign oil.
That being said. I'm an American, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud of what our founding fathers set up, and I'm proud of the fact they did it to get away from the tyranny of the English. We're facing our own tyranny here now, and the only way to do anything about it is to contact our representatives and senators and tell them how we feel. They are public servants. We give them their jobs. We're the bosses. It's time we stand up and take our rightful role as their boss and not let up until we truly get the change many Americans hoped for.
... and that's the way I see it.
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