Sunday, September 29, 2013

Wake Me When It's Over

While tired Americans hide under the covers, Congress goes to work every day to haggle over going to work.

Why bother? Wouldn’t the country be better off if lawmakers stayed in bed too?

Capitol Hill’s Sleeping Beauty, Michele Bachmann, arises from a two-year stupor to proclaim, "This isn't load limits on turnip trucks that we're talking about. This is...a consequential bill that will impact every American, and that's why you have such passionate opinions. And we're not giving up and we're not caving in that easily."

Unwittingly as always, the former GOP Presidential frontrunner puts her finger on the Tea Party problem. Don’t like a law Congress passed? Filibuster its implementation two years later. Feel oppressed by the White House, Supreme Court, Senate and your own House? Defund everything.

If all else fails, what next? Just wait for the debt-limit debate and start all over again. As Mike Nichols and Elaine May used to say about pretentious poseurs in their act, “It’s really a moral problem, and they’re so much more interesting than real problems.”

Even Nancy Pelosi may be getting tired of the charade, missing one key vote to celebrate her fiftieth wedding anniversary. Why not? They will still be stalling when she gets back.

Meanwhile, real problems will have to wait. All this is a moral dilemma, and politicians can’t be bothered by trivia.

Wake me when it’s over. If they haven’t settled it by then, there will be the World Series to watch. Those games always start on time. 

1 comment: