December 31, 2012--No Way to Run Things
Senator Rand Paul is right about at least one thing--as quoted in the New York Times, about Congress, he said, "This is no way to run things."
He wasn't referring to the gridlock he and his Republican colleagues have perpetrated in order to undermine President Obama's agenda or to attempt to eliminate government altogether as his anarchist spiritual mentor Ayn Rand advocated. He was referring to the audacity of Majority Leader Harry Reid calling the Senate back into session, back to work, interrupting their Christmas-New Years vacation.
After all, six or seven congressional vacations a year are not enough for these civic servants of the people. Isn't working 170 days a year more than enough for members of Congress? It should be, considering they have important things to do back home.
In Rand Paul's case, again from the Times, frustrated, "He checked off the various backyard sports he longed to be playing with his children: football, soccer, and some golf." What a wonderful father.
In the meantime, those Americans who do not have a backyard large enough for football or soccer are worried about how they will pay their bills while Congress frolics and fulminates.
In fairness, this frustration with having to work this week rather than vacationing is fully bipartisan. Chuck Schumer, third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, who one would assume would be deeply involved in fiscal cliff negotiations, looking gloomy, complained after taking the red eye back from San Francisco where he was visiting his daughter, that "I didn't realize how much I didn't want to be here until I got here."
Well, we can fix that--resign. No one is making you work 170 days a year for $174,000, plus generous benefits and expenses. To a lot of folks that sounds like a pretty good deal.
He wasn't referring to the gridlock he and his Republican colleagues have perpetrated in order to undermine President Obama's agenda or to attempt to eliminate government altogether as his anarchist spiritual mentor Ayn Rand advocated. He was referring to the audacity of Majority Leader Harry Reid calling the Senate back into session, back to work, interrupting their Christmas-New Years vacation.
After all, six or seven congressional vacations a year are not enough for these civic servants of the people. Isn't working 170 days a year more than enough for members of Congress? It should be, considering they have important things to do back home.
In Rand Paul's case, again from the Times, frustrated, "He checked off the various backyard sports he longed to be playing with his children: football, soccer, and some golf." What a wonderful father.
In the meantime, those Americans who do not have a backyard large enough for football or soccer are worried about how they will pay their bills while Congress frolics and fulminates.
In fairness, this frustration with having to work this week rather than vacationing is fully bipartisan. Chuck Schumer, third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, who one would assume would be deeply involved in fiscal cliff negotiations, looking gloomy, complained after taking the red eye back from San Francisco where he was visiting his daughter, that "I didn't realize how much I didn't want to be here until I got here."
Well, we can fix that--resign. No one is making you work 170 days a year for $174,000, plus generous benefits and expenses. To a lot of folks that sounds like a pretty good deal.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:41 AM
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