Today I feel like ranting about politics. It should make for easy writing.

Judging by the lack of media headlines related to solutions and the abundance of headlines related to finger pointing, it is pretty obvious to me where our politicians’ priorities are (or aren’t, I should say). I suppose I could be wrong. Perhaps our politicians have somehow figured out how to turn finger pointing into a viable problem solving technique. My kids will be ecstatic.

Anyhow, here’s my take on the past week in Washington:

Public: “Mr. Random Politician, the nation is a financial mess. Our yearly budget deficit is unacceptable. What is your plan to fix it?”
Mr. Random Politician: [points finger at other politician]”He did it.”
Public to other politician: “Do you have a plan to fix the mess?”
Other politician: [points a different, less appropriate finger back]: “He did it.”
Public: “Yes, you are both correct. Do you have a plan to fix it?”
Politicians: “Well, not really…but, we did work feverishly day and night. We sacrificially bridged party lines to agree to hypothetically cut proposed future spending by perhaps as much as 5% over the next 10-ish years or so…figuratively saving trillions of dollars! After our historic compromise we even shared a cart on the back nine!” [high fives]
Public: “That doesn’t actually make any sense. We’re not hypothetically in a future financial mess. We’re literally in a financial mess…like right now. Also, you worked feverishly for like 4 days on a crisis that we’ve seen coming for a good long while. Your salary, when broken down into an hourly wage for actual work done, must be as spectacular as your golf game.”
Politicians: “He did it.”
Politicians: “Whelp, looks like that failed. Oh, I know! Stimulus! I haven’t a clue what that actually means; but, it sure rolls off the tongue nicely! Let’s do some stimulus!”
Public: “So, you’re going to borrow more money from other nations in order to give me a little of the money back that you took from me in the first place?”
Politicians: “Ummm…What?”
Public: “Exactly.”
Politicians: “Oh, it looks like it won’t really help things if you save that stimulus money or use it to pay down debt. Please spend it fast.”
Public: “Isn’t that sort of why we’re in this mess?”
Politicians: “He did it. You did it. Standard & Poor’s did it.”

The bright side: we’re America. We’ll own our problems and solve them despite our politicians. We always have. Also, have I mentioned that I love Dave Ramsey’s The Great Recovery? Check it out.

Disclaimer: No, I don’t believe that all politicians are inept…the many give a bad name to the few.