Jlknapp505's Blog

I haven’t added the final chapter about ‘reinventing myself’. The journey is still underway.
Meantime, the US Government is ‘shut down’. Not all of it, of course. But about a third of it has stopped, and the people who had a job are furloughed.
Not Congress, of course. They’re ‘essential workers’. They’ve said so.
I’m marveling at the stupidity and chutzpah of a number of members of the Republican Party, not least Mr Boehner.
He hopes you don’t realize that he really IS playing a game. That you won’t recall that the ACA, Obamacare as they call it, is one issue while funding the government is an entirely different issue. There’s no reason, other than Republican stubbornness, to tie the two together.
Fund the government. While the Democrats pass that Continuing Resolution and send it to the President for signature, appoint a committee to work out such things as tax reform. Or whatever.
But don’t hold your breath. The Democrats have demonstrated some 40 times that they won’t accept House bills to cancel the ACA. The House keeps passing them, sending them to the Senate, and they keep being rejected.
Hence the blackmail. Extortion. Really, that’s what it is. Hold the citizens hostage (again!) to try to force the Democrats to accept what they’ve rejected those 40 times. They’re not holding DEMOCRATS hostage; their hostages are the American people, the citizens who are mostly from the underclass and the middle class.
Being solidly middle class, I don’t like being a hostage. I plan to demonstrate that a year from now at the ballot box.
Meantime, this essay is titled The Failures. There are more of those than just the members of the House of Representatives.
You see, those ‘Representatives’ (I’m forced to pay a part of their salary and expenses, even though they certainly make no effort to represent my views or interests) didn’t elect themselves.
Voters did it. You’ve got to wonder why, but then consider that the candidates will be launching the same sort of ads they’ve used before.
They’ll tell you that the other guy is terrible, that he’s a socialist. He’ll ruin the nation. And they’ll do it over and over again, via TV and radio and signs in front yards and bumper stickers.
They won’t tell you what they’ve accomplished, because they’ve accomplished virtually nothing at all.
Education reform? No. Immigration reform? No. How about closing tax loopholes, as Mr Romney suggested? No. Or raising taxes to pay for government rather than borrowing money? No, no; that’s not on the table, said Mr Boehner. Job creators he called them, although they’ve been getting ever more wealthy while the jobs keep vanishing. Mr Boehner, have you noticed this? Mr Boehner?
Guess not.
No new taxes as well as no tax reform to close loopholes. That’s Republican negotiation, Mr Boehner? What do you have to offer? Your party has larded that bill you sent the Senate with a wish list of everything your party has wanted for the last 6 years. Approval of the Keystone Pipeline. New drilling permits. Much, much more. Will you sacrifice those, Mr Boehner? They’re not part of funding the government either, are they? A clean Continuing Resolution is all that’s needed to put the government back to work.
Meantime, the Congress will pay back salaries to all the government employees on furlough. How very nice.
What about the employees of all the government contractors, Mr Boehner? What about their salaries and wages?
Children are being sent home from preschool, Mr Boehner. Will you give them back the weeks or months in their young lives when they CAN’T go to preschool or head start? Can you and your party stop time, Mr Boehner?
Didn’t think so.
So I’m left with my one response, Mr Boehner. I’ll make it simple. No matter how many ads your party pays for, no matter how many bumper stickers, it’s not going to matter.
No Republican. Never again. Early voting starts in just a year, Mr Boehner. I’ll see you at the ballot box.
Meantime, I have one final thing I can do. Democrats will be running against your fellow Republicans. I’ll be picking a few of those Democrats to support financially. Wendy Davis, for example, is running for Governor of Texas. I’m going to be sending her money. I’m not a Texan (not even a Democrat!), but then, her opponent is being bankrolled, as are all the rest of the Republicans, with out-of-state money via lobbyists (Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, et. al.), so I’m just doing the same thing.
If you have the opportunity, ask Mr Boehner the questions I’ve raised. I don’t expect he’ll answer you.
But I have an answer for him. I’ll see him at the ballot box.