The United States of Shame

I am ashamed of our government!

Brinkmanship is no way to operate a government!

Our country should not have to be held hostage by the Tea Party!

Those are just a few of my many negative thoughts right now about our government.  The members of Congress are acting like a bunch of squabbling children who can only say "NO!"  We are the United States of Shame, though not necessarily for the 50 reasons stated in the cartoon above.

I have said before that we need a strong third party. Republicans are moving further to the right, while Democrats are moving further to the left.  It leaves out the moderates of this country.  If we had a stronger third party for moderates, then we could force the current two-party system to compromise.  However, compromise is not likely as long as the current members of Congress are in office.

The U.S. Constitution (Article I, section 9, clause 7) states that "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."  In other words, Congress is mandated by the Constitution to pass a federal budget.  It is one of the few expressed Powers given to the legislative branch.  However, they have failed to pass a federal budget since 2009.  Think about it, what would happen if you chose not to do whatever is the major part of your job for four years?  For most of us, that is unconscionable.  Yet Congress has done this, or in this case not done a damn thing but bicker.

I am disgusted with the way our government works.  I have been studying the provisions of Obamacare for the past few days trying to wrap my head around the issues that the Tea Party has with it.  I asked a friend, who I described as the most rational conservative I know, what is so wrong with Obamacare?  Her answer was that she doesn't like the government telling her what to do.  I agree.  I don't like the government telling me I have to buy a product or pay a fine (or tax as SCOTUS declared it).  However, is the world going to end because Obamacare went online yesterday.  NoIn fact, I think many of the provisions of Obamacare are necessary.  Is it a perfect law?  HELL NO!  So why shut down the government for something that you can't stop?  Because we are dealing with immature assholes (and yes, I know name calling is immature as well).

The more I study the issues and try to keep up with everything so that I can answer my students questions about what is happening, the madder I get.  Before the government shut down I was already pissed off at the local justice system.  As you know from my post Monday, I was supposed to return to court on the matter of my speeding ticket.  I had called last week to gain a continuance because my witness and I were finding it hard to get off work.  I was told by the clerk's office that under no circumstances would a continuance be allowed because the trial had already been continued once.  The assistant district attorney had originally set my trial for 1:00 pm on the day of the original hearing but had called and told me that the officer who gave me the ticket was out of town and could not be in court at one o'clock that day.  Therefore, the clerk's office informed me that since it had been continued once, it could not be continued again.  However, I received a call from the district attorney's office on Monday stating that the State Trooper who issued the ticket could not be in court on October 1 due to training and that the hearing had been continued again.  This is simply not equal justice.

I am growing very weary of the government, whatever part it may be, saying one thing and doing another.  Republicans claim they want government out of our lives, yet they fight to tell us who we can't marry, what we can do with our own bodies, etc., yet when the Democrats pass a law requiring us to buy insurance, they go apeshit.  Ignorance, hypocrisy, and arrogance are my greatest pet peeves. Politicians seem to embody all three.

Thanks for reading my rant today.  By the way, I do think there are many government employees who do wonderful and necessary jobs; however, I'm not so sure about politicians.  I hope that this can be resolved soon, as I feel sorry for the nearly one million federal employees who are going without pay.  Our politicians should be ashamed of themselves.

By the way, I scheduled this last night.  If by a miracle, the government shutdowns ends before this is posted, I will still be pissed off at our government.