Only government has such a skewed perception of value that it would pay legislators for undermining the country. We give the government its money but it has a very low regard for those tax dollars, so the salaries handed to members of Congress probably make good sense in Washington. After all, public service is not about providing value.
Living off the public dime and not solving problems is welfare.
Even when Americans are receiving welfare benefits they still have a chance to reinvent themselves. Redemption is off the table for worthless members of Congress whose careers inevitably turn to sponging off the public dime for as many years as possible. Their pay and benefits are expensive and their job performance only gets worse with experience as they learn the cardinal rule of politics: there is no money in solving problems.
If taxpayers don’t hire worthless members of Congress, who will?
No company seeking success would hire an employee whose greatest feat was shutting down his or her employer, yet we reelect lawmakers who have done precisely that, are incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions, and collect big salaries that too often constitute welfare for the unemployable. Once this new fiscal crisis blows over and another media event takes its place we need only wait out the budget cycle for the whole thing to start over again. No wonder Congress has ruled term limits out of bounds. After members have amassed job histories that focus on destroying their country they would never be able to get jobs doing anything else.
This is how congressional resumes should read.
Those of you whose jobs succumbed to the failed policies of the man whose paycheck is the greatest affront of all know about promoting your accomplishments to employers. What would you do if you consistently brought no value, or worse, drove your company into the ground? If we forced lawmakers to hit the streets in search of work so they could find out how America regards their contributions, this is how their accomplishments would read in resume-speak:
» Forced my employer to shut down and suspend services to taxpayers who pay my keep.
» Harmed my country’s long-term outlook by damaging its credit rating.
» Focused on nonessential issues while allowing critical problems to worsen.
Spent time on gun control, immigration reform, and other time-wasters I knew would never go anywhere while real problems festered.
» Relied on misrepresentations, exaggerations, and outright lies to advance myself at the expense of taxpayers and constituents. Made promises and then did the opposite thing.
Told the middle class I would not raise their taxes and then slipped a tax hike into their payroll deductions.
» Recommended and implemented expensive new systems and procedures that didn’t work.
Developed a new health care system that failed from the very first day.
» Refused to accept or learn from my mistakes.
After damaging my country’s credit rating and causing the stock market to sink during debt ceiling negotiations in 2011, I waited two years and did the same thing all over again in 2013.
» Relied on a strategy of blaming others to avoid accepting responsibility for my actions.
» Made lots of assurances I knew I could never deliver on.
I’m a politician. I said whatever I had to so I could keep my job. Get used to it.
Taxpayers are used to it. If nothing else, we don’t have to worry that worthless members of Congress will take jobs damaging real companies in the real world. Who would employ them? Worthlessness is best confined to government, where we not only expect it, but it becomes a virtue.
Obama and Congress are destroying our beautiful country by their inability to work together for the benefit of their constituents. They are in office only to serve themselves. They pass laws expecting the people to follow and obey and then exclude themselves. This is selective governing. What puts the government on a pedestal when their salaries and benefits are paid for by the very people they are governing. The President and Congress are useless for all the reasons listed above by CC. The taxpayers have the right to expect more and get it from their elected officials and if not they should be voted out of office at the next election.
You would think angry Americans would be massing in Washington, but it seems we are worn down and content to label what is happening as business as usual. Too bad. It is business as usual and the voters are the only ones who can change it.