A MORAL
DILEMMA
The situation in DC seems to grow ever more
discouraging, or should I say 'disgusting'. Many folks continue to believe that
less polarity and more compromise would bring about a big improvement in
results.When I was quite young, a junior in prep school, I faced a moral dilemma but was too dumb to realize it until a few years later. I was the head waiter in our dining room with five others under me. The headmaster gave me to understand that hereafter the waiters were to be paid by the hour and not by the meal as before. This meant approximately a fifty percent cut in pay, and I really needed the difference. As our meeting ended, he said, "But of course, you'll take care of yourself." I puzzled over that, only later realizing that it was 'Irish-speak' for "You can stay on the old system." I don't know what I would have done had I understood. If I paid myself fifty cents per meal, how would my relationships with my friends and my self-respect have been affected?
Our elected representatives have an answer: They have to take special interest money.
Consider the process. A representative in party A (congressman, senator, president) is coming up for reelection. If he/she doesn't take the money, the opposing candidate may win. All members of party A understand that party B is in league with the devil and not to be trusted with the future of our country. They think, 'Okay so it's bribery, corruption, but look what happens to our beloved country if I don't take it'. And down we go.
So far, this problem doesn't seem big enough to bring down our country, right? But what happens after the election? The bigger the bribe, the greater the guilt and the need to constantly reinforce one's sense of the 'sacrifice' made in order to save our country. To live with oneself, party B needs to be constantly criticized, their basic motivations seen as evil. After a while, animosity and hatred creep into relationships. The well has been poisoned, and there's no going back.
We all have friends and relatives with whom we fail to see eye to eye. We may think that some of them are a little bit nuts, have occasional heated discussions with them, but we get along, even view them with affection. This is hardly the case in DC, and, in my view, until the special interest money, that feeds the lust for power and distorts its application, is rooted out, we can hope for nothing more.
Something in my nature draws me to tragi-comedy, and I
am thus drawn, in spite of my efforts to ignore it, to the current budgetary
drama in my favorite city where only one thing seems certain--neither party
intends to actually balance the budget, much less pay down our debt. The
arguments center around those items that we cannot afford to cut for various
reasons.
There's a handy-man in town, let's call him Allen (his real name is Ted--joke). He's good, versatile, friendly, and not too expensive. But there's a problem; his truck is getting old and increasingly unreliable causing him to miss out on profitable work, and he sometimes misses doctors’ appointments and a free meal. He patches it as best he can, but it's clearly costing more than a reliable truck would. Unfortunately, he's already in debt; even his friends won't help. He's desperate, eats out a lot because there's nothing in the house and, to save his sanity, absolutely must get away to visit his brother in Florida several times a year. Suggestions as to how to reorder his spending priorities fall on deaf ears.
Meanwhile in my favorite city, our solons absolutely refuse to dump our tax code in favor of something simple thereby shredding 8000+ pages and saving the government, businesses, and individuals billions. Reason: Where would the money for their next campaign come from? Nobody, not even the media dares to utter the C word. (They might lose access). Please note: simple doesn't mean everyone pays the same rate.
And the farm program (payolla)?
And, have you noticed, that, as we're getting out of Afghanistan, China and North Korea are getting really scary?
And do we really need to protect the drug companies and trial lawyers from our health care programs?
Note: I've never known a government worker who could not add to the list.
There's a handy-man in town, let's call him Allen (his real name is Ted--joke). He's good, versatile, friendly, and not too expensive. But there's a problem; his truck is getting old and increasingly unreliable causing him to miss out on profitable work, and he sometimes misses doctors’ appointments and a free meal. He patches it as best he can, but it's clearly costing more than a reliable truck would. Unfortunately, he's already in debt; even his friends won't help. He's desperate, eats out a lot because there's nothing in the house and, to save his sanity, absolutely must get away to visit his brother in Florida several times a year. Suggestions as to how to reorder his spending priorities fall on deaf ears.
Meanwhile in my favorite city, our solons absolutely refuse to dump our tax code in favor of something simple thereby shredding 8000+ pages and saving the government, businesses, and individuals billions. Reason: Where would the money for their next campaign come from? Nobody, not even the media dares to utter the C word. (They might lose access). Please note: simple doesn't mean everyone pays the same rate.
And the farm program (payolla)?
And, have you noticed, that, as we're getting out of Afghanistan, China and North Korea are getting really scary?
And do we really need to protect the drug companies and trial lawyers from our health care programs?
Note: I've never known a government worker who could not add to the list.
Joe Bakewell
http://joebakewell.wordpress.com/
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