Okay I'll admit it this is a rant.I am an avid C-Span watcher.This is not a hobby it is almost a disease.I actually have my innocent grandson age 20 months watching the Washington Journal when he is at Grandma's house in the morning.I have watched the most disingenuous so called debates on the floor of congress with disbelief.Elected representatives standing in front of television cameras holding up a piece of proposed legislation bragging they do not know what is in the proposed legislation.
When are we going to call them out as the bad small business managers they truly are?
They claim to hate" big government" for it's waste ,fraud and ,abuse yet what is a bigger waste ,fraud and abuse then a congressional or senatorial representative who claims to not know what is contained in a piece of legislation when they have paid staffers, who are there at taxpayers expense ,to research and educate these people on pending legislation thay are supposed to be voting on? These are full time jobs aren't they?
I am so sick and tired of elected officials standing in front of cameras or on the house of representatives saying they do not know what is inside a bill .Senators do the same .This tells me they have a staff of 20 and the expertise of the committee staff and do not use them to gain the knowledge to know what is contained on those pieces of paper. What does their staff do if not research the content of the information presented. Every congressional representative is a manager of a small business enterprise designed to represent their constituents. If they can not perform this function with a tax payer funded staff that large they are incompetent at most. If they do have this knowledge and refuse to vote based on facts presented and not their own ideals or rhetoric du jour.Are they are unintelligent? If they do have this knowledge and state they do not they are dishonest. None of these are desirable.
The committees themselves have approximately 10 paid staff members who are hired in accordance with their personal expertise and trained extensively before they actively analyze committee business.Subcommittes have the same number of paid full time staff. Add to that availability of information lobbyists who contrary to recent assertions are not all bad players.
Lobbyists are sometimes the best experts on many topics. Food safety advocates have done research on bad additives that range from salt to carbon monoxide to our foods. This is just one topic I have seen lobbyists testify to in front of a congressional food safety subcommittee. All of these are available in the C-Span archives on their website. The mortgage abuses largely perpetrated on minorities was presented by lobbyists for equal housing.
It is high time we stopped this latest badge of honor with the partisan republicans and call them out on this fact.
Do they hire paid staff who do not perform their duties or lack the intellect to understand what is presented to them? The only other explanation is they do know the facts presented to them by their staff and are flat out lying about the lack of information they do know, Let them choose neither choice is good.
I also think it is time we stop the stunningly ignorant new banner of pride that diminishes a good education .A complete education at a top university is not elitism it is mandatory to the development of a nation .Major universities spend millions of dollars providing free educations for worthy students without the means to afford tuition .They perform research and development that benefit all of our citizens in everything we do. Most medical breakthroughs have been funded by a government/institution partnership and find their way to save lives and enhance lives around the world. It is a dream for many parents to see their children get a first class education and contribute to this country .Education is the great equalizer and to denigrate it in any way is inviting disaster for our nation.It is not the dreams of the elite it is the hope and prayers of generations of immigrants who came here with nothing including an education.
The next time we see an elected official stands in front of a camera and proudly state they do not know what is in a pending piece of legislation I say we crash their websites and flood their phones lines demanding they resign immediately on the basis of incompetency to carry out their job.Millions of Americans would gladly step into their jobs and really use the staff and all the other resources available to assess facts and then vote on the same facts in a way that benefits their fellow citizens.
I suggest we start a new "bumper sticker " slogan.
NOT ELITE -JUST INFORMED
VOTE DEMOCRATIC IN 2010