This is just one of many stories that shows why there are so many problems with Congress!!! Really?!?
This is also one of the many reasons I totally believe we need term limits in every single office! You should not be able to make a career out of an elected position! I know there are people that will say “well they just keep getting elected by the taxpayers” BUT if they are not eligible to run after a certain term than we as taxpayers will have to vote or another! I have never voted for anyone who has been in office more than two terms, ever! They end up with too much influence and then we have stories like this!
If there were term limits we should also get rid of the whole lifetime benefits also. I know there are not any job I have seen where you can work for 4-6 years and then leave and they still pay you so why should Congress have this perk going for them? It sure would save alot of our (taxpayers) money! Again along these lines they should also not be allowed to vote in their own raises, would you go to your boss and say “oh yeah by the way I raised my salary because I believe I should get more money!”? You would probably be relieved of your position pretty quickly!
One of the reasons that things, like in the story above, happen is that Congress cannot pass even the simplest bill without a huge amount of ammendments for money going to someones home state for stupid projects! The whole, “I will vote for that if you add that I get this or this and this” crap they do all the time! This is why a normal bill that should be easy enough to follow can’t be and is about 6 times longer than it should, all the crap added to get a vote!
Now with that said I also take issue with the whole playground mentality of our supposedly elite in Congress! They act like little kids instead of adults that should know better, and why we are gridlocked all the time and nothing gets done! I know alot of people always blame the President but the real problem is Congress! This attitude has been there a long time but I don’t care which party you are with, there has to be a compromise not a bribe! I consider all these “pet” projects like this airport a bribe in getting a vote instead of compromising on the actual bill in front of them! I mean it seems crazy to put up a bill for something like the energy saving but someone adds in a new museum for some area in their state! These have nothing to do with each other!
I do not vote hard core party affiliation, I vote on what they are actually trying to do but I do know this lousy attitude got a lot worse in 1994 when Newt became speaker and put togther lists on what words you should always use when talking about Republicans (honest, hardworking, patriotic, et., etc. all great) and another when talking about Democrats (liars, unamerican, lazy, et., etc., everything bad) and it has gotten worse and never gone away! Why would anyone who holds office personally attack the other party? I doubt I would want to have anyone like that in office! Think about it, if they have that type of attitude towards the other politicians what chance do you have getting them to listen to any constituent from their state who is from the opposite party? Do you think they do not check how you vote? They can and do know especially if you are outspoken about your affiliation! Yeah I know they are supposed to work for us but they have their own agenda most of the time and these little pet projects (like this airport, or a museum, etc.) are just their way of saying look what I can do or have done for my home state! Maybe they should look at what they can actually do for us that matters instead of the things that do not. Yeah that was alot of money for the state but it didn’t really do much for most of us, I mean if the airport has only 3 flights a day it sure doesn’t do anything long term for alot of jobs and the museum is great but it is only one in one area and does not create alot of jobs ongoing! The actual construction may bump up a few jobs for awhile but that ends and there are very few ongoing positions!
If we end the excessive pay, limit the number of terms, quit paying them when they are no longer in office and they have to pay for their own insurance (like the rest of us) and they cannot vote their own pay raises we could probably pay off alot of the deficit just by doing that! Instead they want more but they want to take away from things like Social Security and Medicare! The Social Security should never have been touched by Congress but they kept borrowing from it but not paying it back and now all it really is anymore is a whole bunch IOU’s. This is what our “wonderful” government has done to our country and anyone that wants to change things up and make it work for us, the taxpayers, they are put into a position to not get anything done!
I will end my rant! It just irritates me when I see things like this! I want to see our government work for us, we deserve better than Congress has done and i hope that things change soon!!!!!
