Sunday, February 1, 2009

I Was Right - But I Wish I Wasn't

In a previous blog entry, concluding my observations on President Obama's inauguration, I warned:

"The way politics in Washington works, the ruling party always becomes the irresponsible party. The gridlock that occurs when the president is of a different political party than the Congressional majority is always unfortunate, but at least it allows the checks and balances system to work the way it's supposed to. Besides, the problems associated with gridlock are nothing compared to the rampant irresponsibility that takes over the legislative branch when the president and the Congressional majority are of the same political party. I fear that the Democratic majority in Congress will now try to get away with as much as they can, as Congress has done in the past."

Well, I was right. I just didn't expect that it would happen so soon. Our elected representatives and senators in Congress have hijacked Obama's economic stimulus legislation and loaded it down with pork. Yes, folks, we're back to business as usual in Congress. And this time it's not the Republicans piling on the pork, but the majority party, the Democrats, just like I said it would be.

In fact, every single Republican in the House voted against the stimulus package, but the Democratic majority was enough to carry it. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Americans are outraged. (Google for "stimulus package pork" and read some of the editorials.) I'm outraged. You should be outraged. Write to your senators and representatives, and tell them just how you feel about it.

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